Customer loyalty: A refined conceptualization, measurement, and model

The study advances Oliver's (1999) theoretical conceptualization of the loyalty phases construct. Based on this conceptualization, a reliable and valid scale of customer loyalty is developed and tested. The results demonstrate that consumer loyalty can be operationalized as a series of four, discriminate phases and that firms can experience significant gains in outcome behaviors as consumers' level of loyalty reaches each of the four phases. The research model is tested across two service industries: (1) hair salon/barber shops (N = 206) and (2) retail stores (N = 202). Because the primary goal of this research is to assess the incremental impact of each higher order loyalty phase on the two outcome variables, a series of regression analyses were conducted for each outcome variable (Advocacy and Share-of-wallet) in each industry sample. The results confirm the operationalization of consumer loyalty as a series of four discriminate phases and provides insight into the process by which consumers' loyalty transforms through these four phases into specific outcome behaviors (advocacy and share-of-wallet).