Is online-to-offline customer care support essential for consumer service?

Customer satisfaction is the main pillar for convenient and profitable retailing. The retail sector continuously tried to develop new strategies to improve consumer satisfaction. It is impossible to provide each service directly to the consumer by the retailer. In this direction, the retailer establishes customer care to provide the best service to consumers. Consumer care can provide promotional or prevention services, increasing the consumer's satisfaction level. This study is developed to show the impact of retailers' customer care service for an offline-to-online retailing strategy. The demand is consumer support, advertisement, and selling price dependent. For maintaining consumer service, some free home delivery policies are offered, when consumers ordered more than a certain percentage of the amount. Finally, the total profit of this O2O retailing system is calculated by the classical optimization technique. Some special cases are discussed in the numerical section to prove the impact of customer care services. Numerical results prove that customer care support enhances the profit by 48.20%, whereas investment in the advertisement and home delivery strategy helps the retail industry to earn 44.80% and 16.74% more profit, respectively. Finally, from this study, it is clear that customer care activities are essential to increase the profit of the retailing sector.     

Feel the VIBE: Examining value-in-the-brand-page-experience and its impact on satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours in mobile social media

A critical issue for marketing managers is how best to orchestrate branded social media consumption experiences via mobile applications. This is important because in a mobile first world, these experiences are perceived to be valuable to consumers which in turn facilitate positive consumer behaviour toward the brand. So far, marketing literature offering managerial guidance on this issue remains limited. To this end, this study investigates for the first-time consumer perceptions of ‘Value-In-The-Brand-Page-Experience’ (VIBE), a multidimensional construct, in an emerging market setting of China. China represents an appropriate contextual condition to study given its high mobile penetration and its integration within consumer's lifestyle. This study further examines the impact of VIBE on customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours toward the brand via a survey of 714 Chinese consumers. The results substantiate the VIBE framework which contributes to the sparse conceptual development of value perceptions in mobile social media. Furthermore, it confirms the existence of a value–satisfaction–customer engagement behaviour chain. The findings are managerially relevant and focus on leveraging the components of VIBE. These components act as key mechanisms for unlocking customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours for brands in the domain of mobile social media.     

The right to be heard and to be understood: a conceptual framework for consumer protection in emerging economies

In many emerging economies and developing countries, comprising consumers from different cultures and with varying degrees of sophistication (knowledge and skill) concerning consumer protection, the promotion of consumers' rights to develop a consumer‐oriented culture remains a very big challenge. One way of protecting the consumer, especially the consumer that has not been fully socialized to execute informed decisions when purchasing expensive durables, is by establishing a redress environment that would ensure fair redress as well as an understanding and appreciation of the consumer. Manufacturers and retailers are often not aware of the performance failures that consumers experience concerning their products because many people do not communicate their dissatisfactions to them. However, unless and until manufacturers and retailers fully comprehend their customers' complaint behaviour, their reasons for engaging in specific complaint behaviour and the reasoning (cognitive processes) and emotional processes behind their behaviour, they will not recognize the link between complaint handling and customer loyalty and profits. The purpose of this paper was to develop a theoretical conceptual framework that would enable consumer scientists, consumer consultants, consumer behaviour researchers and those with the responsibility of handling consumer complaints to explore and understand consumer complaint behaviour in its entirety. We argue that, to be able to establish and manage a redress environment that is characterized by an understanding of the specific consumer as well as by effective complaint behaviour handling, it is of the utmost importance that the manufacturer, retailer, consumer consultant and all those that work with consumers' complaints understand the entire complaint process, including the underlying cognitive and emotional processes as well as the consumer's post‐complaint perception of justice and his/her satisfaction with the complaint handling. It is also important to understand the role that consumer‐, product‐ and redress environment‐related variables play in consumer complaint behaviour. The consumer who blames the retailer for the problem and who probably feels angry about the situation and decides to complain will expect redress. From a consumer's viewpoint, complaint‐related justice is, however, not only a matter of economic calculus but also a matter of procedure and interaction. We therefore argue for a holistic approach where consumer complaint behaviour is addressed in its entirety. Practical suggestions that could enhance customer satisfaction are given for manufacturers, retailers and those who deal with consumers' complaints.     

Who's got my back? Comparing consumers' reactions to peer-provided and firm-provided customer support

This study demonstrates that when an individual encounters a product-related problem, fellow consumers (i.e., one's peers) have a unique advantage in providing social support to the affected consumer. Specifically, we find that social support can be a dominant driver of consumer satisfaction when the risk of customer defection is at its highest (i.e., following an unsuccessful attempt to solve the consumer's problem). Using real-world data from an online support community, a pilot study finds that if the problem that a consumer faces goes unsolved, satisfaction is greater when consumers receive peer-provided versus firm-provided support. Study 1 replicates this finding in a controlled experiment that realistically simulates an actual customer support incident in real-time. Study 2 identifies social support as the mechanism that underlies this effect and investigates whether firm employees can take steps to appear more customer-like and thereby replicate the advantage of peer-provided support. Finally, Study 3 reveals an alternative strategy (i.e., utilizing multiple employees) that firms can use to enhance social support and provides evidence that peer-provided support not only enhances satisfaction but also positively influences consumers' behavioral intentions.     

Relationship marketing in A B2C context: The moderating role of personality traits

More and more, retailers are investing in relationship building as a strategy for enhancing customer retention in the business-to-customer (B2C) context. However, some marketing scholars have expressed concern over the usefulness of relationship marketing under certain conditions. As such, this study investigates the moderating role of personality traits on the relationship between satisfaction-driven relationship quality and behavioral loyalty. Based on a sample of 158 retail shoppers, we find that customers’ overall satisfaction with the retailer leads to quality customer–firm relationships and ultimately, behavioral loyalty to the retailer. We also found that the impact of relationship quality on behavioral loyalty depends on the consumer's personality traits, i.e., consumer innovativeness, variety seeking, and relationship proneness. These findings extend the extant relationship literature by showing that the value of relationship marketing is not universal, thereby refining our understanding of the relationship between customer behavior and relationship marketing. Implications for academics and managers are discussed.     

What you touch,touches you: The influence of haptic attributes on consumer product impressions

The present research builds upon the touch literature to show that the salience of haptic product attributes related to product surface texture (smooth, rough) and weight (light weight, heavy weight) influence consumer product impressions. We propose that haptic cue congruity across texture and weight drive consumer product impressions depending on a consumer's need for touch (NFT). We show that high autotelic‐NFT consumers who touch for sensory pleasure enjoyed the incongruity between smooth texture and heavy weight haptic cues, and consequently showed favorable evaluations towards exciting brands. In contrast, low autotelic‐NFT consumers prefer the anticipated match between smooth texture and light weight haptic cues, which conformed to their expectation about the nature of a sophisticated brand personality. Further, we show how the interactive effect of haptic attributes and a consumer's autotelic‐NFT on willingness to purchase is mediated by product personality. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The effect of knowledge types on consumer‐perceived risk and adoption of genetically modified foods

Scientists have asserted that genetically modified (GM) food offers financial, environmental, health, and quality benefits to society, but the realization of such benefits depends on consumer acceptance of this new technology. Consumer concerns about GM food raise questions about what consumers know about GM food and to what extent this knowledge translates into their evaluations of GM products. The present research empirically examines the effect of both objective and subjective knowledge on perceived risk and, in turn, key consumer behaviors associated with GM food. The results reveal that objective knowledge about GM food significantly reduces performance and psychological risks, whereas subjective knowledge influences only physical risk, and the valence of that impact depends on the level of the consumer's objective knowledge. Furthermore, different risk types enhance consumers' information search and reduce their propensity to buy GM food. The overall findings thus suggest the need for cooperation among government, scientific institutions, and the food industry to foster effective communication strategies that increase consumers' objective knowledge, reduce their risk perceptions, and encourage consumer adoptions of GM technology. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Multiple reference effects in service evaluations: Roles of alternative attractiveness and self-image congruity

Customer satisfaction and service evaluation research has examined the reference effect but largely adopted an expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm that focuses on referents centered on the product or service in question. This study examines two additional reference effects, alternative attractiveness and self-image congruity, and their interaction. The framework of multiple reference effects in service evaluations integrates insights from regret theory, the investment model of interpersonal relationships, and self-image congruity theory. An empirical study of a hairstyling service confirms that comparisons involving other-object and self-based reference points contribute significantly to consumer service evaluations. Self-image congruity has the most significant impact on both customer satisfaction and commitment judgments. In general, the negative effect of alternative attractiveness on both customer satisfaction and commitment becomes weaker as the level of self-image congruity increases; as long as consumers find a good fit between their self-image and the service image, they are less likely to consider alternative services. However, for consumers with high self-image congruity with the focal service, the presence of an attractive alternative may induce them to exhibit an enhancement bias or “play up” effect (i.e., report higher satisfaction with the focal service).     

Employee encouragement of self-disclosure in the service encounter and its impact on customer satisfaction

In the service encounter, the employee must often encourage customer self-disclosure (i.e., revealing of personal information) to be able to match the customer's needs with what the firm has to offer. This study uses an experimental approach to manipulate employee encouragement of self-disclosure (low vs. high) to explore its impact on the customer. It was found that encouraging self-disclosure enhanced customer perceptions of customization, employee effort, own effort, privacy concerns, and employee humanness, and that these responses influenced customer satisfaction. In addition, because many firms are beginning to replace human employees with various forms of virtual agents (and it has been argued that we humans may find it less threatening to self-disclose to such agents), the identity of the employee (virtual agent vs. human employee) was manipulated, too. The identity factor, however, did not influence customers' responses.     

Employee display of burnout in the service encounter and its impact on customer satisfaction

This study examines if employee display of burnout symptoms in service encounters has an impact on customer satisfaction. An experimental approach was used in which the employee's display of burnout (absent vs. present) and the service performance level (low vs. high) were the manipulated factors. The results show that employee display of burnout had a negative impact on customer satisfaction, that this effect was mediated by customers’ appraisals of the employee's emotional state, and that the effect was stronger under the condition of low service performance.     

Research needs for assessing online value creation in complex consumer purchase process behavior

Consumers face considerable frustration when purchasing structurally and/or semantically complex high-involvement products online. Reliance on computer-mediated communications for their information needs may result in functional and emotional frustration from information overload and lack of personal trust. This paper proposes a responsive real-time information system as a proxy for a perceptive sales representative who assesses customer needs based on information exchanges and then offers appropriate responses. By tracking and analyzing a consumer's online activity, vendors can offer information relevant to the consumer's real-time needs, facilitating their purchase process. In essence, this is a real-time value co-creation process based on the consumer offering cues to vendors through their key strokes and mouse click activity. This allows for differentiated information offerings for inexperienced and more experienced consumers, creating value by dynamic information serving. Where appropriate value is created, consumers will experience less frustration and continue online, rather than possibly moving offline or to alternative vendors. In examining the bases of consumer information needs in complex purchases, this paper identifies the data required to enable a responsive dialog between vendors and consumers.     

Customer satisfaction and consumer expenditure in selected European countries

The relationship between customer satisfaction and company performance has been extensively researched at both the consumer and firm levels. However, little is known about the impact of customer satisfaction at the economy-wide level, especially in Europe. This study aims to link customer satisfaction to personal consumption expenditure using panel data collected from 1999 to 2011 and covering nine European countries. Our findings suggest a significant relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer expenditure in these countries. In addition, economic structure, culture, political economy and socio-economic factors have been examined to understand the impact of cross-country differences on this relationship. The results reflect the importance of satisfied consumers on the economy as a whole; thus, efforts at boosting customer satisfaction should become a national agenda.     

The relationship between trusting beliefs and Web site loyalty: The moderating role of consumer motives and flow

This research (1) examines how specific consumer motives (i.e., goal‐directed: searching for information, experiential: browsing for recreation) influence the trusting belief–loyalty relationship at a Web site in a distinct manner and (2) investigates how the online flow experience in each of the motive states strengthens or weakens the trusting belief–loyalty relationship. The results suggest that for consumers with an experiential motive, benevolence‐ and integrity‐related beliefs are the key drivers of loyalty, while ability‐related beliefs do not drive loyalty. On the other hand, for consumers with a goal‐directed motive, the ability‐ and integrity‐related beliefs are the key drivers of loyalty, while benevolence‐related beliefs are not influential. Further, this research illustrates that when consumers with an experiential motive experience a high level of flow, the impact of trusting beliefs on loyalty weakens. However, for consumers with a goal‐directed motive, trusting beliefs continue to exert the same impact on loyalty across both high and low levels of flow. ©2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An integrative model of consumer satisfaction in the context of e‐services

This research examines how customer satisfaction affects its antecedent and outcome variables such as expectation, performance, disconfirmation, word‐of‐mouth, brand loyalty, attribution and repurchase. This research also takes the important integrative step of understanding the consumer behavioural constructs of consumer satisfaction. Although researchers have focused on the antecedents of consumer satisfaction, our integrative model has extended the outcomes of consumer behaviour on consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, this model strongly suggests a positive view of the inter‐relationships between the antecedent variables and outcome variables of satisfaction. In particular, our model is not consistent with Oliver's attribution models in which satisfaction is a consequence of attribution processing. All hypothesized variables were supported by our empirical study. The findings present a variety of guides to formulating marketing strategies for both practitioners and academics.     

The happy versus unhappy service worker in the service encounter:Assessing the impact on customer satisfaction

This paper assesses the impact of the service worker's display of emotions (i.e., one aspect of functional service quality) on customer satisfaction under the conditions of different levels of technical service quality by means of an experimental approach (N=600), in which display of emotions (unhappiness vs. happiness) and technical service quality (poor vs. good) were manipulated. The results indicate that the impact of the service worker's emotional display behavior on customer satisfaction is contingent on the level of technical service quality, in the sense that customer satisfaction is affected only when technical service quality is good rather than poor. Encouraging a positive display (e.g., by a smile policy), which many service firms do, is thus not a panacea for improved customer satisfaction. The moderating effect is explained in terms of service encounter congruency, which influences the mediated process by which emotional displays by service workers come to affect customer satisfaction.     

The rhythm of shopping: How background music placement in live streaming commerce affects consumer purchase intention

There is growing evidence indicating that background music has a significant impact on consumer purchasing behavior. However, there is limited research on the placement of background music in live streaming commerce. This study conducted a single-factor experiment with three conditions (playing during purchase phase, continuous playing, and control group) to investigate the effects on arousal, consumer memory, and purchase intention. Results show that live streaming with background music increase consumer's purchase intention and arousal. Specifically, background music playing during purchase phase leads to higher purchase intention and consumer memory than continuous playing. Continuous playing induces higher arousal than background music playing during purchase phase. Process measures reveal that playing during purchase phase (vs. continuous playing) reduces arousal, thus enhancing consumer memory and leads to higher purchase intention. Continuous playing, however, induces arousal but impairs consumer memory, subsequently leading to lower purchase intention.     

The impact of perceived similarity to other customers on shopping mall satisfaction

This study highlights the role of social presence with other consumers in influencing consumers' satisfaction evaluations by exploring a question: can non-interactive social presence of other people affect satisfaction with shopping mall experience? Based on Latané's (1981) social impact theory and Byrne's (1971) similarity-attraction paradigm, this study posits that a mere presence of other shoppers can be influential when there is perceived similarity between a customer and others. Further, the similarity perception is hypothesized to influence customer's mall satisfaction through affective and cognitive processes. The findings from a large-scale online survey with consumer panel subjects in the U.S. support all study hypotheses.     

What factors determine e-satisfaction and consumer spending in e-commerce retailing?

Evidently, the Internet has resulted in a fundamental shift in retailing practice, creating a shift in both consumer and business behavior, which has been compared to that of the Industrial Revolution. The purpose of this paper is to analyze customer satisfaction in e-commerce market. In particular, we determine the factors that affect customer e-satisfaction and the relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer spending in e-commerce retailing. We focus on how American based e-commerce firms are impacted by these developments and how marketing practices have reflected the developing e-commerce situation. The results show that customer satisfaction does have an impact on consumer spending in American based e-commerce retailers. Further, the relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer spending is positive, where higher e-satisfaction results in more spending in e-commerce. The results also show that there is a direct relationship among e-service quality, e- satisfaction and e-loyalty in terms of online spending by consumers. However, the analysis shows that e-commerce still faces challenges compared with traditional offline retailers since customers cannot feel and try the products, and may end up choosing the products that they do not want.     

Brand alliance and customer‐based brand‐equity effects

This research examines brand alliances, a specific marketing strategy designed to transfer the positive brand equity of two or more partner brands to the newly created joint brand. The study explores how customer‐based brand equity (that is, brand equity as seen from the customer's perspective) of partner brands affects consumer evaluations of an alliance brand; how the brand equity of one partner brand affects the other; how customer‐based brand equity of the partner brands affects consumers' evaluations of the search, experience, and credence attribute performance of the alliance brand; and how product trial influences such evaluations. Results suggest that merely the act of pairing with another brand elevates consumers' evaluations of the partner brands' customer‐based brand equity, and high‐equity partners enhance pretrial evaluation of experience and credence attributes that are relevant to the high‐equity partner. As hypothesized, product trial moderates the equity value of the alliance partner for experience attributes, and brand equity of the partner brands influences consumer perceptions of the alliance brand's equity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Cooperation versus competition: do buyers and suppliers really see eye-to-eye?

Purchasers have used a variety of tools to help improve the performance of their suppliers’ processes and products. Results of two large-scale surveys that compare buyer and supplier perceptions of a common customer firm's supplier development and its supply base's adoption of total quality management are reported here. One customer, known for its cooperative (partnership-like) approach to supplier relations, is contrasted with another firm that uses supplier switching to meet its procurement needs. Analysis of the survey data indicates that buyers and suppliers have a better “shared understanding” (smaller satisfaction gap) within the “competitive” relationship than within the “cooperative” relationship.