| 1. |
- Bolton, Ruth N., et al.
(författare)
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Designing satisfying service encounters : website versus store touchpoints
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. - : Springer. - 0092-0703 .- 1552-7824. ; 50, s. 85-107
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigated how touchpoints moderate the antecedents of customer satisfaction with service encounters by comparing online and in-store encounters. Construal level theory was used within the Touchpoint, Context, Qualities (TCQ) Framework (De Keyser et al., 2020) to integrate a comprehensive model of how touchpoints-websites or stores-influence the magnitude of customer responses to qualities of service encounters. A hierarchical linear model (HLM) was estimated using survey data describing the service encounters of 2.4 million customers with a global retailer. Online customers weighed cognitive and behavioral qualities more heavily than in-store customers, whereas they weighed emotional and sensorial qualities less heavily. Moreover, random effects in the HLM model indicated that each country and store would have unique clientele effects for specific qualities. Since each firm has limited resources, this research offers guidance on key qualities in designing satisfying service encounters for each touchpoint and how qualities should be standardized and customized in global omnichannel environments.
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| 2. |
- Bolton, Ruth N., et al.
(författare)
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How customer experience management reconciles strategy differences between East and West
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of global scholars of marketing science. - : Routledge. - 2163-9159 .- 2163-9167. ; 31:3, s. 273-295
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper studies how customers of a global firm evaluate their experiences within and across 44 countries. It focuses on customers' emotional, cognitive, sensory and behavioral responses to the catalog experience. It develops a theory-based model of satisfaction with the catalog experience as a function of experiential attributes and control variables. A second model captures how each experiential attribute's contribution to the customer experience is influenced by market and customer characteristics. The models were operationalized using survey data from 366,185 customers who used the firm's catalog across different trade areas in 44 countries, yielding 571 equations that describe satisfaction with the customer experience. Consistent with theoretical work on context-dependent judgments, nine contingency factors explain significant and substantial amounts of variation (30% on average) in the elasticities of the 12 experiential attributes. East and West can appear similar when market characteristics are similar - or when they are different. Emotional, cognitive, sensory, and behavioral responses to the customer experience systematically differ due to economic, demographic, technological, cultural and consumer characteristics. East and West especially differ in terms of responses to emotional and sensory experiences. Customer experience management can help to shape a strategy that resolves strategy differences between East and West.
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| 3. |
- Bolton, Ruth N., et al.
(författare)
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Managing a Global Retail Brand in Different Markets : Meta-Analyses of Customer Responses to Service Encounters
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Retailing. - : Elsevier. - 0022-4359 .- 1873-3271. ; 98:2, s. 294-314
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates how retailers can leverage their brand to shape customers' satisfaction with service encounters. It develops and tests hypotheses about how brand, store, and consumer factors moderate customer responses to experience clues during retail service encounters. Six meta-regression analyses synthesize and compare results from 842 satisfaction equations describing customers' encounters with a global retailer operating 400 stores in 32 countries. The results show how customers weigh their perceptions of service encounters differently depending on brand, store, and consumer factors. In markets where customers believe the retailer has high holistic brand quality, they place less weight on experience clues within the store. In markets where customers believe the retailer's service brand promise, they place more weight on in-store experience clues. In markets where the retailer promises utilitarian value, customers weigh functional experience clues more heavily. In markets with an online purchasing channel, the effect of experience clues common to offline and online store environments is magnified, and unique clues are diminished. In addition, customers heavily weigh experience clues that fit their goals. In general, retail success factors include high brand quality (which makes customers more forgiving), a service brand promise that is mirrored in the store image (which makes customers attend to the experience clues aligned with them), and the careful monitoring and managing of retail touchpoints (to customize experience clues to each market). In this way, retailers can use customer-based strategies to effectively design and manage their global retail brand in different markets. (C) 2021 New York University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 4. |
- Bolton, Ruth N., et al.
(författare)
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Small details that make big differences : A radical approach to consumption experience as a firm's differentiating strategy
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Service Management. - 1757-5818 .- 1757-5826. ; 25:2, s. 253-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - Service organizations and marketers have focussed too much of their energy on their core service's performance and too little emphasis on designing a customer journey that enhances the entire customer experience. There is nothing wrong with firms seeking continuous improvement in service quality and customer satisfaction. These efforts are needed for firms to be competitive in the marketplace. The problem occurs when performance levels and service offerings become too similar within an industry, so that price is the only competitive weapon that remains. The purpose of this paper is to argue that in order to break this deadlock, companies need to focus on the small details that make big differences to customers. Design/methodology/approach - The paper builds on interviews with executives in successful service organizations. It provides an analysis of differentiation strategies in diverse service organizations across consumption contexts, nations and cultures around the world. Findings - The paper develops three research propositions and argues for radical approaches to help service organizations truly understand customers and provide service experiences that engage and delight them. The paper argues that the new challenge for marketing is to help companies find and implement these small details to make a large impact on the overall customer experience. Originality/value - In order to truly understand the customer experience, the paper need a holistic view of all interactions customers have with a company. The paper need to understand the customer-firm interactions at all touch points, that is, during search, purchase, consumption and post-consumption. Customer experience involves the customers' cognitive, affective, emotional, social and sensory responses to the firm. The originality of this research lies in the focus on the small details that make a difference to customers during the service process rather than in the final outcome of the service performance.
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| 7. |
- Tarasi, Crina O, et al.
(författare)
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Relationship Characteristics and Cash Flow Variability : Implications for Satisfaction, Loyalty and Customer Portfolio Management
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Service Research. - : Sage Publications. - 1094-6705 .- 1552-7379. ; 16:2, s. 121-137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Service firms seek customers with high revenues, profits, or lifetime value. However, they frequently ignore variations in consumption that lead to cash flow variability and adversely influence service operations and financial performance. This study shows that variation in individual customers' consumption or spending on services can be decreased in ways that are actionable by most managers, without decreasing revenues or profits. First, customer satisfaction has a ``double-whammy'' effect: lower cash flow variability and higher cash flow levels. This finding is important because firms can increase satisfaction in many ways. Second, customers who participate in loyalty programs have more variable cash flows, but not higher average cash flows. Hence, firms should design loyalty programs to improve customer satisfaction or intangible benefits (e.g., membership recognition), rather than offering economic incentives. Third, customers who purchase many different offerings, or allocate a large share of their purchases to the firm, have higher cash flow variability and higher average cash flows. Firms can optimize the customer portfolio by combining customers with high variability with customers who have different, offsetting cash flow patterns. Fourth, personal characteristics, such as age and income, also influence cash flow variability. Empirical findings are robust across two settings: telecommunications and financial services. The study describes sensitivity analyses of how different service and relationship marketing strategies influence a firm's business outcomes. The article concludes with insights into how to integrate service management principles, which emphasize consistency or low variability in processes, with customer relationship management principles that emphasize growing relationships and cash flows.
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