Yasemin Sari

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,0, RWTH Aachen University, language: English, abstract: Terms like service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are often associated with competitive advantage, sustainability and long term profitability. Most people would agree that satisfied customers are the best candidates to evolve into loyal customers. However, even if customers are satisfied with the service there is still the possibility that they will switch to competitors if they expect a better service, a better quality or a higher value there. Nevertheless it is certainly that satisfaction is considered as a key factor to build up customer loyalty, because you can have satisfaction without loyalty, but it is difficult to have loyalty without satisfaction. Loyal customers mean a continuous and stable base of customers. Trying to obtain loyalty becomes inevitable for firms. There are many good reasons for this. The acquisition of new customers is expensive and therefore keeping customers loyal allows firms to amortize those costs. Furthermore loyal customers are often willingly to pay premium prices. They know the business and the services and therefore require less information themselves and moreover, as the most effective marketing channel, they serve as an information source for other customers on behalf of the firm. It is surely a fact that people tend to tell their experiences to other persons, run so-called word of mouth (WOM). Several researchers found that consumers engage in about twice as much WOM when they are dissatisfied in contrast to when they are satisfied, so that positive experiences are spread to nearly five persons, whereas negative experience will be passed to over 9 persons. There are various research articles and studies which determine the relations and interactions between satisfaction, quality, loyalty and WOM. In a given service context these are the cornerstones of service marketing. In the following, I will present some of these concepts and predominantly link them to three articles of Ferguson et al.

Service Marketing Innovations - some general concepts

Peter Gratton

Hannah Arendt's (1906-1975) writings, both in public magazines and in her important books, are still widely studied today. She made original contributions in political thinking that still astound readers and critics alike. The subject of several films and numerous books, colloquia, and newspaper articles, Arendt remains a touchstone in innumerable debates about the use of violence in politics, the responsibility one has under dictatorships and totalitarianism, and how to combat the repetition of the horrors of the past. The Bloomsbury Companion to Arendt offers the definitive guide to her writings and ideas, her influences and commentators, as well as the reasons for her lasting significance, with 66 original essays taking up in accessible terms the myriad ways in which one can take up her work and her continuing importance. These essays, written by an international set of her best readers and commentators, provides a comprehensive coverage of her life and the contexts in which her works were written. Special sections take up chapters on each of her key writings, the reception of her work, and key ways she interpreted those who influenced her. If one has come to Arendt from one of her essays on freedom, or from yet another bombastic account of her writings on Adolph Eichmann, or as as student or professor working in the field of Arendt studies, this book provides the ideal tool for thinking with and rediscovering one of the most important intellectuals of the past century. But just as importantly, contributors advance the study of Arendt into neglected areas, such as on science and ecology, to demonstrate her importance not just to debates in which she was well known, but those touched off only after her death. Arendt's approaches as well as her concrete claims about the political have much to offer given the current ecological and refugee crises, among others. In sum, then, the Companion provides a tool for thinking with Arendt, but also for showing just where those thinking with her can take her work today.

Yasemin Sari

Books

Your next favorite book is out there