Assessing Whether Customer Relationship Management Can Be Used as a Springboard to Trigger Customer Loyalty and Achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage : The Case of Pizza Hut Mauritius

Businesses are in constant race to boost up profits, keep current customers, and exert a pull on potential new customers; consequently competing for customers on a worldwide market like never before. CRM is a modern, popular weapon used by firms in this fierce competition, to enhance interaction between customer and supplier. CRM aims at building long term relationships which encourage customers to keep coming back repeatedly. It helps firms to build individual customer relationships in such a way that both the firm and the customer get the most out of the exchange, providing both parties with long term benefits. This research paper aims at providing a better understanding of the uses of CRM in the Fast Food Industry. Using the CRM literature, a frame of reference was chosen and used to collect information from the 12 outlets of the Pizza Hut Ltd. branch of Mauritius. The data collected was primarily attained through interviews of Pizza Hut managers. Further research data was collected through personal interview among 120 pizza Hut customers, using simple random sampling. The research findings indicate that on the whole Pizza Hut satisfies its customers' needs. Overall customers are satisfied with the level of service, quality of food, employees' attitude and behavior, amongst others. It has been discovered that the level of customer satisfaction and delight leads to high degrees of customer loyalty, discouraging brand switching possibilities. This gives Pizza Hut a competitive edge over competitors .The main strengths of Pizza Hut are the taste of the food and the firm's perceived corporate image