The role of customer experience touchpoints in driving loyalty intentions in services

Purpose – The explosion in the number of touchpoints is putting pressure on companies to design omnichannel customer experiences aimed at achieving long-term customer loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of 24 touchpoints in contributing to customer loyalty intentions. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by means of a survey on almost 6,000 subjects belonging to the Nielsen consumer panel. Two ordinary least squares regression models with clustered standard errors estimate the relationship between touchpoint exposure – measured in terms of reach, frequency and positivity – and customer loyalty intentions in the mobile service sector. Findings – Reach has a significant relationship with customer loyalty intentions as far as eight touchpoints are concerned. Positivity, when controlling for frequency of exposure, is related to customer loyalty intentions as far as nine touchpoints are concerned. Practical implications – Results provide guidance for mobile service providers on customer experience management strategies and specifically on touchpoint prioritization, adaptation, monitoring and design. Originality/value – This study addresses two relevant research gaps. First, most studies focus on single or a few touchpoints without considering the variety of touchpoints within the customer journey (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Second, no studies focus on the relative contribution of touchpoints to customer loyalty intentions (Homburg et al., 2017).