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Recommendations for Action
Franchised small business leaders focus on attracting new customers while
retaining loyal customers, which increases profit. The targeted audience, which should
pay attention to the study, includes franchised small business leaders, community
leaders, and stakeholders, who may gain knowledge from these findings that may add
substance and sustainability to the long-term success of franchised small businesses. To
disseminate the findings of this study to a larger audience, I would publish a summary in
a local magazine. Additionally, I would share the information with other small business
leaders in North Carolina. As an alumnus of the local college, I would contact the
marketing department to share my research with other marketing students who are
pursuing their graduate degrees. Five recommended steps for action identified from the
study are as follows: (a) develop effective marketing and advertising strategies, (b)
provide excellent customer service, (c) understand the value of customers, (d) network
within the business sector, and (e) build relationships within the community.
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The first recommendation is for franchise small business leaders to combine
effective marketing and advertising strategies such as signage and the Internet to make
the customer familiar with the brand. The most important elements of any value chain
are marketing channels (Watson, Worm, Palmatier, & Ganesan, 2015). The participants
provided scenarios of different marketing strategies they have implemented to retain
customers. One participant in this study indicated the use of advertising strategies such
as signage to make the customer familiar with the brand. Customers buy the products
they see in advertisements; therefore, marketing leaders employ media planning
strategies to find the suitable timeframe and run the advertisement campaign to increase
the sales of our products (Krajcovic, 2015).
A major objective of franchised small businesses is offering outstanding
customer service, which is the second recommendation. The results of this study showed
that all the franchise small business leaders focused on providing excellent customer
service to retain customers. Al-Tit (2015) examined the relationship between service and
customer satisfaction, as well as the relationship between service quality and customer
retention. Al-Tit found that customer satisfaction has a positive influence on customer
retention. Rashid, Rani, Yusuf, and Shaari (2015) found that service quality and
customer satisfaction had a significant relationship to customer’s loyalty.
The third recommendation is that business leaders should remember to retain
customers they must understand the value of customer loyalty. Rashid, Rani, Yusuf, and
Shaari (2015) described customer loyalty as an important element for gaining
competitive advantage. Two of the franchise small business leaders provided brochures
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regarding the organizations’ customer loyalty program and one participant provided
promotional coupons and a promotional card. According to two participants, members of
the customer loyalty programs tend to refer new customers to the business. Sandada and
Matibiri (2015) focused on the mediating effect of passenger satisfaction on the
relationship between loyalty programs and passenger loyalty. Sandada and Matibiri
revealed that customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty. Additionally, loyalty
programs have a positive effect on customer satisfaction (Sandada & Matibiri, 2015).
Mafini and Dhurup (2015) examined the structural relationship between store image
factors, store satisfaction, and customer loyalty. According to Mafini and Dhurup,
salesperson assistance emerged as the most important factor to consumers and store
satisfaction emerged as a predictor of customer loyalty.
The fourth recommendation from this study is that franchise small business
leaders should network with other franchised small business leaders to share knowledge
of the benefits of investing into marketing strategies that provide brand identity to the
public. Establishing a network and having a relationship with influential people provides
entry into social networks that are normally inaccessible through formal communications
(Khedher, 2015). Two participants stated networking with other businesses in the
community provides new avenues for brand identity and reaching the target market.
Skokic and Morrison (2015) suggested that entrepreneurs do not establish strong
personal and firm-to-firm ties, but focus on the development of entrepreneurial networks.
The last recommendation is for franchise small business leaders to build
relationships within the community. According to Siddiquei, Awan, Asghar, Ghafoor,
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and Abrar (2015), relationship marketing and investment has a positive impact on the
perception of customer-retailer relationship and their outcomes. Participants indicated
that businesses have to sometimes spend money and participate in community events to
gain the trust of customers. Building a sustainable relationship with customers has
become paramount because consumers have unlimited choices of service providers
(Bolton & Mattila, 2015).
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