Impact of customer experience on loyalty: a multichannel examination

ABSTRACT

This article examines the relation between the five dimensions of customer experience advocated by Schmitt [1999a. Experiential Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management, 15, 53–67] (cognitive, affective, sensory, behavioural and social) and service provider loyalty. The examination focuses on two different channels, namely branch/agency (physical) and online (Web-based). A total of 484 panellists of a large Canadian polling firm self-administered a Web-based questionnaire regarding banking experience. The exercise was subsequently replicated in the tourism sector. Findings demonstrate that the main dimension impacting loyalty is the affective dimension (negative), thereby contributing handsomely to experiential marketing literature since negative emotions are rarely investigated. Findings also reveal that choice of channel exerts a moderating effect on the different dimensions influencing loyalty and that results vary from one sector to another. The multidimensional, multichannel, multisector approach selected for this study substantiates customer experience as complex and context specific. The authors also suggest practical implications and set out avenues of future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Marketing
• loyalty
• service industry
• multichannel
• customer experience

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Financial Services Management Chair of the University of Quebec in Montreal for making this research possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Lova Rajaobelina http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3953-9428

Line Ricard http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0145-842X