Sharia-compliant hotels can boost loyalty by focusing on value and quality over aesthetics.

Why It Matters

This insight is crucial for businesses operating within niche markets, particularly those guided by specific ethical or religious principles. It highlights that while brand image is important, the core delivery of value and quality, aligned with the guiding principles, forms the bedrock of customer retention.

Key Finding

Customers of Sharia-compliant hotels are more satisfied and loyal when they feel good about their choice (self-satisfaction), perceive good value for money, experience enjoyable aspects of their stay, and receive high-quality service. The visual appearance or social status of the hotel was less important.

Key Findings

• Self-satisfaction, price, transactional value, hedonic value, and quality significantly enhance customer satisfaction.
• Customer satisfaction strongly predicts customer loyalty.
• Aesthetics and prestige did not show significant effects on customer satisfaction.

Research Evidence

Aim: What are the key drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty in Sharia-compliant hotels, and how do factors like self-satisfaction, aesthetics, price, prestige, transactional value, hedonic value, and quality influence these outcomes?

Method: Quantitative research using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

Procedure: A structured questionnaire was administered to customers of three Sharia-compliant hotels in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to collect data on their perceptions of various influencing factors and their satisfaction and loyalty. SEM was then used to analyze the relationships between these variables.

Sample Size: 113 participants

Context: Hospitality industry, specifically Sharia-compliant hotels in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Design Principle

Prioritize intrinsic value and principle-aligned quality over extrinsic appeal in niche markets.

How to Apply

When designing or marketing services in religiously or ethically-aligned sectors, conduct thorough research to understand which factors truly drive satisfaction and loyalty, ensuring resources are allocated effectively.

Limitations

The study was conducted in a specific geographical location (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) and focused on Sharia-compliant hotels, which may limit the generalizability of findings to other contexts or types of hospitality businesses.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: For hotels that follow religious rules (like Sharia), customers care more about feeling good about their choice, getting good value for their money, and receiving good service than how fancy the hotel looks or how prestigious it is.

Why This Matters: Understanding what truly drives customer satisfaction and loyalty is fundamental to creating successful products and services, especially when operating in specialized markets with specific ethical considerations.

Critical Thinking: To what extent do the findings regarding aesthetics and prestige hold true for other niche markets with strong ethical or value-based positioning? Are there specific cultural nuances that might amplify or diminish the importance of these factors?

IA-Ready Paragraph: Research indicates that in niche markets, such as Sharia-compliant hospitality, customer loyalty is significantly influenced by factors like perceived value, service quality, and self-satisfaction, rather than solely by aesthetic appeal or prestige. For instance, a study on Sharia-compliant hotels found that transactional value, hedonic value, and quality were strong predictors of customer satisfaction, which in turn drove loyalty (Suhud et al., 2023). This suggests that design projects targeting similar markets should prioritize delivering tangible benefits and aligning with core principles to foster strong customer relationships.

Project Tips

• When researching customer preferences, ensure your survey questions capture both tangible value (price, quality) and intangible aspects (self-satisfaction, hedonic experience).
• Consider how to measure 'self-satisfaction' in relation to the core principles of your design project.

How to Use in IA

• Use this research to justify focusing on specific features or value propositions in your design project, demonstrating an understanding of market drivers.
• Cite this study when discussing the importance of value and quality in your user research or market analysis section.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how different market segments prioritize factors, moving beyond generic assumptions.
• Show how your design choices directly address the identified key drivers of satisfaction and loyalty.

Independent Variable: ["Self-satisfaction","Aesthetics","Price","Prestige","Transactional value","Hedonic value","Quality"]

Dependent Variable: ["Customer satisfaction","Customer loyalty"]

Strengths

• Investigates a specific and growing niche market (Sharia-compliant hospitality).
• Utilizes a robust statistical method (SEM) to analyze complex relationships between variables.

Critical Questions

• How might the definition of 'transactional value' and 'hedonic value' differ across various cultural interpretations of Sharia principles?
• Could there be an indirect effect of aesthetics or prestige that was not captured by this study's model?

Extended Essay Application

• An Extended Essay could explore how these findings apply to the design of digital platforms for ethical investing, investigating if value, quality, and self-satisfaction are prioritized over flashy interfaces.
• Further research could compare customer loyalty drivers in Sharia-compliant hotels versus conventional hotels to identify universal versus niche-specific factors.

Source

Factors influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty in Sharia-compliant hotels in Yogyakarta, Indonesia · Journal of Islamic Economics Lariba · 2023 · 10.20885/jielariba.vol9.iss2.art12