Lasting customer loyalty: a total customer experience approach

Abstract

PurposeUnderstanding and delivering total customer experience (TCE) in order to sustain lasting customer loyalty (LCL) is increasingly important given the pressures of commoditization, globalization and market saturation in developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to review the concepts of TCE and LCL.Design/methodology/approachThe concepts of TCE and LCL are discussed and defined and their combined importance for marketers is outlined and few key cases of their best practices are analyzed in order to derive a set of managerial frameworks for strategizing TCE to achieve LCL. Customer loyalty as a hierarchical ladder starting from random casual awareness in the bottom rung to high bonding loyalty of brand communities in the topmost rung is derivedFindingsTCE is captured in its three essential interactive elements: physical moments, emotional involvement moments, and its value chain moments. Accordingly, a typology of customer loyalties is proposed as a function of high vs low levels of the three constitutive elements of TCE.Practical implicationsThe loyalty ladder is a useful classification tool to monitor customer loyalty and dollar‐effectiveness of customer loyalty programs. Each rung offers a managerial challenge to ascend to the next rung of loyalty.Originality/valueLinking TCE with LCL is unique and challenging. Adding the third dimension of value chain moments makes TCE more focused and loyalty‐driven. The typology of TCE‐based customer loyalty is new and offers a broad strategic canvas for marketers. The loyalty ladder with each rung buttressed by differentiated value, interactive relationship and TCE makes it credible, viable and a strategic destiny. TCE and LCL are also distinguished from related concepts in marketing to derive managerial implications.

The Relationship between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: An Investigation in Vietnamese Retail Banking Sector

“…Customer loyalty has usually been referred to as a consequence of all the experiences that a customer has with a service/product provider (Mascarenhas, Kesavan, & Bernacchi, 2006). The experiences might include physical interactions, emotional involvements, and value chain moments, according to Mascarenhas et al (2006). In term of loyalty's consequences, a shift to a loyalty strategy from an only-satisfaction strategy can substantially increase customer retention and reduce marketing costs (Stan, Caemmerer, & Cattan-Jallet, 2013).…”

“…Customer loyalty has usually been referred to as a consequence of all the experiences that a customer has with a service/product provider (Mascarenhas, Kesavan, & Bernacchi, 2006). The experiences might include physical interactions, emotional involvements, and value chain moments, according to Mascarenhas et al (2006).…”

Customer experience management and business performance

“…In this way, creating and delivering customer experience is essential for enhancement of relationships with customers and building customer loyalty, and thus provides economic value for companies (Brakus et al, 2009;Frow and Payne, 2007;Lywood et al, 2009;Mascarenhas et al, 2006). Differentiating solely on the traditional elements such as product quality, service quality, and price is no longer a sufficient business strategy, and "companies must find new ways to achieve a competitive advantage particularly by focusing and management of customers' experience" (Pullman and Gross, 2004, p. 551).…”

“…Business scholars and practitioners have been increasingly aware of the need to create value for customers in the form of the 'emotionally' customer experience (Lynch and de Chernatony, 2004;Shaw, 2004Shaw, , 2007Shaw and Ivens, 2005;Tumbat, 2011), the 'total' customer experience (Mascarenhas et al, 2006), the 'perfect' customer experience (Frow and Payne, 2007), and the 'outstanding' customer experience (Frow and Payne, 2007).…”

Identifying and Evaluating the Criteria's Affecting of Customer ExperienceUsing Fuzzy Dematel Approach (Case Study: Branches of Bank Melli in Tehran)

“…Janfarsa (2008) first examined the rational decision by the customers and then examined the factors focusing on aspects of customer behaviour (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Customer always have a real experience of the organization in mind (Mascarnehas et al, 2006); as well as an attitude and a feeling and symbolic mode that creates by marketer and customer in meaningful, worth mentioning and pleasant modes that this experience can be created as touchable or untouchable one (voss et al, 2007). The definition of customer experience as a fascinating action that has been jointly created between the creator and the customer and where the customer understands the value and keeps it in the memory.…”