Orientation: Higher education institutions (HEIs) are facing many challenges such as intense competition and a decrease in government subsidies. Creating more satisfied undergraduate students with a high level of loyalty can increase retention of students.Research purpose: The main aim of the study was to measure students’ level of loyalty, advocacy intentions and perceptions of customer experience during service encounters with administrative staff of the North-West University.Motivation for the study: Positive experiences by students on-campus can increase their satisfaction levels which will lead to an increased propensity for further studies, develop a sense of loyalty and increase advocacy intentions to promote the university to others.Research approach, design and method: This quantitative research followed a descriptive research design. Self-administered questionnaires were handed out to 1295 students on the 3 campuses of the university.Main findings: Students on the Potchefstroom campus show much higher loyalty and advocacy intentions than their counterparts on the Vaal and Mafikeng campuses. Overall the findings indicate that the students have very positive perceptions of the professional appearance of staff members, and also think that their personal information is handled in a secure manner. Male and female students did not differ in their levels of customer experience. European language-speaking students reported a higher level of customer experience compared to their African language-speaking counterparts. The customer experience levels of students in the Potchefstroom Faculty of Health Sciences are higher than students in the Vaal Faculty of Humanities.Practical/managerial implications: It could be beneficial for the management of tertiary institutions to gain insight into the sources or factors that constitute positive experiences for students, for example convenient opening hours and ease of contacting staff by telephone. The training of newly appointed and existing staff could also be enhanced when they are sensitised regarding students’ perceptions of positive customer experiences.Contribution/value-add: The adoption of strategies by HEIs to attract and retain students and render excellent services will result in loyal ambassadors who will demonstrate high advocacy intentions.
Businesses in city centres are faced with the problem of attracting customers due to competition from suburban shopping centres, decayed environments, crime and grime. The Business Improvement District (BID) model is implemented for ceasing and reversing decline in the economic health and environmental quality of city centres, redirecting investment to those areas, and improving perceptions. Despite the efforts implemented by BIDs in South Africa, declining footfall and negative perceptions continue. The objective of this research was to investigate the place marketing objectives and activities of BIDs in South Africa and to make recommendations in order to improve the effectiveness of their place marketing strategies. Non-probability, judgement sampling was used to select research participants. Data was collected by conducting in-depth interviews with managers who were involved with the BIDs' place marketing strategies. A sample size of nine research participants was realised. The results indicated that the primary place marketing objectives of BIDs included in the study are to attract desirable stakeholders, communicate the value of services offered and to improve negative perceptions. Furthermore, only 5% of their annual budget is allocated towards place marketing activities that primarily comprise of social media marketing. R GOLDBERG R JANSEN VAN RENSBURG L VAN STADEN Investigating the place marketing objectives and activities of Business Improvement Districts in South Africa
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