Understanding Customer Engagement and Loyalty: A Case of Mobile Devices for Shopping

This study aims at developing and validating a measurement model for customer engagement with specific focus on mobile devices for shopping. Further, role of customer engagement in building customer loyalty is explored. The research in this investigation used three studies for developing customer engagement scale and validating the proposed model. The study involved data collection from experts and users through varied methods including in-depth interviews, and surveys. Further structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings of this study include development and validation of customer engagement as second order construct arising out of six different customer experiences - social-facilitation, self-connect, intrinsic enjoyment, time-filler, utilitarian and monetary evaluation experiences. Further, the study established significant role of customer engagement in predicting customer loyalty in addition to existing constructs of satisfaction and convenience. This study contributes to evolving scholarly research on customer engagement. This study further provides a framework to retailers for devising matrices to track experiences and engagement of customers on mobile devices for shopping. Further, retailers may be able to use customer engagement to differentiate themselves from competition in attracting merchants and advertisers.     

Enhancing Customer Engagement Through Consciousness

Firms and academics recognize the importance of creating an engaged customer base, though an in-depth understanding of how to achieve it is limited. This article proposes that firms that use consciousness as a foundational philosophy can create a more engaging and meaningful customer experience. A retailer or service provider with foundations in consciousness has a higher purpose and values that get espoused and fulfilled throughout the organization, working in a way to optimize benefits to its multiple stakeholders (investors, employees, customers, suppliers, the environment, the community). Building on these foundations, retailers can achieve deeper engagement with customers, deliver outstanding customer experiences, create emotional connections with customers, and establish a shared identity based on a clear purpose and values.     

Who stays,who walks,and why in high-intensity service contexts

The current investigation explores relationships among customer service-quality evaluations, propensity-to-switch, and player retention in a highly-intense service delivery environment (casinos). The study also examines the proposal that player loyalty intervenes between casino service-quality perceptions and player retention. Overall customer service-quality perception is operationalized as a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of service environment, empathy, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, game service, and food service. Path analyses show that casino service environment is the only factor that impacts player propensity-to-switch, whereas food service and empathy affect player retention. After separating the sample into three groups based on respondents' average betting, namely low-end, medium and high-end players, the influence of casino service factors on player propensity-to-switch and retention varies substantially among the groups. Results for testing the mediation model demonstrate that customer loyalty affects player retention and that casino service evaluations influence customer loyalty directly. A few measured factors such as age, education, occupation, and income influence player propensity-to-switch and retention. These findings have strategic implications for casino marketers.     

Exploring the link between customer experience–loyalty–consumer spend

Customer experience has drawn significant interest in recent times from both academicians as well as practitioners. There is growing understanding in literature that attitudes are formed by past and present experiences and are expected to change as a function of consumer experience. Attitudes are described as one of the most important determinant of the behaviour. Dick and Basu (1994) were precise in suggesting that a favourable attitude and repeat purchase were required to define loyalty as they viewed loyalty in an attitude-behaviour framework, loyalty is an important concept related with repetitive purchasing behaviour and high Consumer spend. Literature suggests that building loyalty is found in successful management of Customer experience yet little research exist that incorporated this variable into explaining customer loyalty therefore signifying a gap in existing substantive knowledge. The current paper studies the impact of customer experience on attitudinal and behaviour loyalty. The study extends the findings by adding an observed behaviour- share of spend in the frame work. The present study will provide valuable insights to theorist in the retail context as well as practitioners ability to develop more effective strategies.     

Customers’ service-related engagement,experience, and behavioral intent: Moderating role of age

Though customer engagement (CE) and experience are important research priorities, empirically derived insight into these concepts and their associations remains scarce. We therefore investigate the impact of CE on experience and behavioral intent, which we explore in the tourism context. We also envisage customer age to moderate the proposed associations, thereby further contributing to the CE literature. To investigate these issues, we collected data from key tourism-sites in Jammu/Kashmir, Northern India. Using structural equational modeling, we find that CE dimensions exert differential effects on customer experience. The findings also reveal a stronger, significant effect of younger customers' (up to 39) cognitive engagement on experience, whereas a negligible effect is attained for older customers. While the paths from affective/behavioral engagement to experience are significant across all age groups, the association's strength rises with customer age. Moreover, the effect of customer experience on behavioral intention intensifies as customers get older. We conclude by outlining key implications that arise from our analyses, followed by avenues for further research.     

Customer experience and commitment in retailing: Does customer age matter?

While the customer experience (CX) concept has rapidly gained traction in recent years, its effect on customer brand commitment and loyalty remains tenuous. Moreover, while customer age has been identified as an influential driver of consumer behavior, little is known about its effect on the customer's brand experience. Addressing these gaps, we develop a model that examines the relationships between CX, commitment, and loyalty, while using customer age as a moderator in the proposed associations. A total of 423 valid responses was collected from branded retail customers. Structural equation modeling results reveal a positive effect of (a) CX on customers' affective/calculative commitment, and (b) customer commitment on brand loyalty. Moreover, multi-group analysis results reveal that while customer ages moderates the association between CX/affective commitment, it does not significantly moderate the relationship between CX/calculative commitment. We conclude with key implications that arise from this research.