Measuring service
quality in retail loyalty
programmes (LPSQual)
Implications for retailers’ retention strategies
Nor Asiah Omar
School of Management,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia),
Bangi, Malaysia, and
Rosidah Musa
Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara,
Shah Alam, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose – This research aims to empirically develop a reliable and valid scale for measuring the
service quality of retail loyalty programmes (loyalty programme service quality (LPSQual)) in
the context of department stores and superstores in Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach – By adapting the process proposed by Churchill for developing
measures of marketing constructs, an instrument to assess LPSQual in Malaysia is formulated.
The methodology consists of developing the scale based on a literature review and qualitative method.
The proposed scale is then purified and validated through exploratory factor analysis and
confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings – The proposed instrument (LPSQual) contains 26 attributes in seven dimensions:
reward, tangibility, policy, information usefulness, courteousness/helpfulness, personalization and
communication.
Research limitations/implications – Further testing of the scales across multiple contexts is
necessary for validity enhancement.
Practical implications – Retail managers must give serious thought to the non-material or
“soft-benefits” component in a loyalty programme which emphasizes courteous/helpful and
personalized services. Thus, managers need to focus on service personnel by providing training
to upgrade employees’ skills in creating and delivering pleasant experience/service encounters to
cardholders.
Originality/value – The main contribution of this paper is the development and validation of a
new scale called LPSQual, which focuses on service quality in a loyalty programme. On the one hand,
it is a pioneer in the study of service quality in loyalty programmes and, on the other hand, it confirms
results from other researches on non-material strategies that can be used in loyalty programmes.
Keywords Loyalty programmes, Service quality, Scale development, Superstore, Department stores,
Malaysia
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-0552.htm
The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers of the International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management (IJRDM) for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.
Retail loyalty
programmes
759
Received 14 April 2010
Revised 13 January 2011
Accepted 5 April 2011
International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management
Vol. 39 No. 10, 2011
pp. 759-784
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-0552
DOI 10.1108/09590551111162257