Keywords:
Brand touchpoint
customer touchpoint
customer experience,
cognitive appraisal
atmospheric touchpoint

  • Abstract

    The innovative design of customer touchpoints along the customer journey yields unexpected benefits. Contemporarily, customers tend to interact with firms through multiple touchpoints, which increases the complexity of providing a positive customer experience. Hence, measuring each customer touchpoint along the customer journey is essential to ensure a positive experience. The current study aims to investigate the critical customer touchpoints that significantly influence customer experience in retail stores in Klang Valley, Malaysia. This study was conducted in Klang Valley, Malaysia, which is a cosmopolitan city. The study sample, which was calculated through a formula, encompassed individuals who visited the Klang Valley malls. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed through the convenience sampling technique, which resulted in 269 valid responses for SPSS and PLS-SEM analyses. The findings revealed that employee-to-customer interaction touchpoints significantly impacted the retail customer experience. Simultaneously, the atmosphere, brand, customer-to-customer interaction, communication, and technology touchpoints significantly enriched the customer experience. Nevertheless, customer social responsibility and process touchpoints might not contribute to the customer experience. This study recommended mall retailers focus on critical customer touchpoints to develop credible brand images, personalised services, appealing promotions, effective loyalty programmes, and store environmental cues to provide a positive in-store sensory experience. This study applied cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to understand customer experience in the retail setting. The findings contributed to the existing knowledge corpus by highlighting the critical dimensions of customer touchpoints defining customer experiences

  • References

    1. Abdul Gafar, M.H., Mohd Ali.N.A., and Abdullah, F.N. (2017). Determinants of customer experience creation in retail industry. International Journal of Business, Economics and Law, 13 (2). ISSN 2289-1552.
    2. Bagdare, S. & Jain, R. (2013), “Measuring retail customer experience”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 41 No. 10, pp. 790-810.
    3. Bascur, C., & Rusu, C. (2020). Customer experience in retail: A systematic literature review. Applied Sciences, 10(21), 7644.
    4. Baxendale, S., Emma K., M, & Hugh, N. W. (2015). The impact of different touchpoints on brand consideration, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 91No.2, pp.235–253.
    5. Becker, L. & Jaakkola, E. (2020) “Customer Experience: Fundamental Premises and Implications for Research,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, forthcoming.
    6. Bell, D. R., Gallino, S., & Moreno, A. (2014). “How to win in an omnichannel world”. MIT. Sloan Management Review, Vol 56 No.1, pp. 45–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2007.04.002
    7. Berry, L. L., Carbone, L. P., and Haeckel, S. H., (2002), “Managing the total customer experience”, MIT Sloan Management, Vol. 43 No3, pp. 85-89.
    8. Berry, L.L. & Carbone, L.P. (2007), “Build loyalty through experience management”, Quality Progress, Vol. 40 No 9, pp. 26-32.
    9. Bitner, M. J. (1992). Servicescapes: The Impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No (4), pp.57-71
    10. Blom, A., Lange, F., & Hess Jr, R. L. (2017). Omnichannel-based promotions’ effects on purchase behavior and brand image. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 39, 286-295.
    11. Briedis, H., Kronschnabl, A, Rodriguez, A., & Ungerman, K. (2020). “Adapting to the next normal in retail: The customer experience imperative”. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/adapting-to-the-next-normal-in-retail-the-customer-experience-imperative
    12. Camilleri, M.A. (2017). “Corporate sustainability and responsibility: creating value for business”, society and the environment. AJSSR 2, 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41180-017-0016-5
    13. Carbone, L.P. & Haeckel, S.H. (1994), “Engineering customer experience”, Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 8-19.
    14. Chen, Y. Y. (2012). Why do customers go internet shopping again? Understanding the antecedents of repurchase intention, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol. 22, pp.38–63.
    15. Çiçek, M & Erdogmus, I. (2012), “The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Loyalty”, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Vol 58, pp. 1353-1360. 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1119.
    16. Clark, S. (2021). “4 Ways Sustainability Affects the Customer Experience”. Retrieved from https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/4-ways-sustainability-affects-the-customer-experience/
    17. Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., and Vetvik, O.J. (2009), “The Consumer Decision Journey,” McKinsey Quarterly, Vol 3, pp. 96–107.
    18. Dash, G., & Paul, J. (2021). CB-SEM vs PLS-SEM methods for research in social sciences and technology forecasting. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 173, 121092.
    19. De Keyser, A. K, T., Verleye, K., Lemon, K.N., Keiningham, T., and Klaus, P. (2020). Moving the customer experience field forward: introducing the touchpoints, context, qualities (TCQ) Nomenclature. Journal of service research. 23. 10.1177/1094670520928390.
    20. Demirkan, H., & Sopher, J. (2014)”, Developing a framework to improve virtual shopping in digital malls with intelligent self-service systems”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 21 No.5, pp.860–868. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.02.012
    21. Demirkan, H., & Spohrer, J. (2014). Developing a framework to improve virtual shopping in digital malls with intelligent self-service systems. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(5), 860-868.
    22. Ganesan, V. (2021), Outlook for retail industry goes from bad to worse, The Edge Malaysia. Retrieved from https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/outlook-retail-industry-goes-bad-worse
    23. Grewal, D., Noble, S. M., Roggeveen, A. L., & Nordfalt, J. (2020). The future of in-store technology. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 48, 96-113.
    24. Hair, J. & Howard, M. & Nitzl, C. (2020). Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis, Journal of Business Research. Vol. 109, pp. 101-110. 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.069.
    25. Hänninen, M., Smedlund, A., & Mitronen, L. (2018). Digitalization in retailing: multi-sided platforms as drivers of industry transformation. Baltic Journal of Management, 13(2), 152-168.
    26. Hassan, H & Rahman, M. (2012), “Transformation of Hypermarket Retailing Industry in Malaysia”, ICIMTR 2012 – 2012. International Conference on Innovation, Management and Technology Research. 10.1109/ICIMTR.2012.6236449.
    27. Henseler, J. & Hubona, G. & Ray, P. (2017), Partial Least Squares Path Modelling: Updated Guidelines. 10.1007/978-3-319-64069-3_2.
    28. Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. (2015). Emergent experience and the connected consumer in the smart home assemblage and the internet of things. Available at SSRN 2648786.
    29. Hogan, S., Almquist, E., & Glynn S. E. (2005), Brand-building: Finding the touchpoints that count, Journal of Business Strategy, 21(2), 11-18.
    30. Holbrook, M., B & Hirschman, E.C. (1982). The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings and fun. Journal of consumer research, 9 (2), 132-140. Oxford University Press.
    31. Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999), “Cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives”, Structural Equation Modeling, Vol. 6, pp. 1−55.
    32. Hughes, C., (2008), Serve your customers, LP/Gas, Vo. 68, No. 12, p 35.
    33. Ieva, M., & Ziliani, C. (2018). The role of customer experience touchpoints in driving loyalty intentions in services. The TQM Journal, 30(5), 444-457.
    34. Iglesias, O., S. Markovic, J. Singh, and M. Bagherzadeh Niri. 2020b. Co-creation: A key link between corporate social responsibility, customer trust, and customer loyalty. Journal of Business Ethics 163 (1): 151–166.
    35. Jager, J., Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2017). More than just convenient: The scientific merits of homogeneous convenience samples. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 82(2), 13-30. doi:10.1111/mono.12296.
    36. Jain, R., Aagja, J., & Bagdare, S. (2017). Customer experience – a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Theory and Practice. 27. 10.1108/JSTP-03-2015-0064.
    37. Johnson, A.R. and Stewart, D.W. (2005), “A reappraisal of the role of emotion in consumer behaviour: traditional and contemporary approaches”, in Malhotra, N.K. (Ed.), Review of Marketing Research, Vol. 1, ME Sharpe, Armonk, NJ, pp. 3-33
    38. Lazarus R. S., Folkman S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York: Springer.
    39. Lee, S.H.(2021) Effects of Retailers’ Corporate Social Responsibility on Retailer Equity and Consumer Usage Intention. Sustainability, 13, 3080. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13063080
    40. Lemke, F., Clark, M., & Wilson, J. (2011). Customer experience quality: An exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39, 846–869
    41. Lemon, K.N., & Verhoef, P.C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80 (6), 69-96.
    42. Maechler, N., Neher, K., & Park, R. (2016). From Touchpoints to Journeys: Seeing the World as Customers Do. Retrieved February 21, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/rzwsph3.
    43. Martenson, R. (2009). Consumer brand touchpoints: A case study of Hennes&Mauritz in Sweden and Germany. Master thesis in marketing. Accessed from https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/20776/1/gupea_2077_20776_1.pdf
    44. McKinsey & Company (2020). Future of retail operations: Winning in a digital era. Accessed from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Retail/Our%20Insights/Future%20of%20retail%20operations%20Winning%20in%20a%20digital%20era/McK_Retail-Ops-2020_FullIssue-RGB-hyperlinks-011620.pdf
    45. McLean, G. J. (2017). Investigating the online customer experience–a B2B perspective. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 35(5), 657-672.
    46. Minkiewicz, J., Bridson, K., & Evans, J. (2016). Co-production of service experiences: insights from the cultural sector. Journal of services marketing, 30(7), 749-761.
    47. Mohapatra, B. & Krishnan, V.R. (2018). Customer Experience for Retail Industry. Accessed from https://www.infosys.com/services/digital-interaction/documents/customer-experience-retail-industry.pdf
    48. Mohd-Ramly, S & Nor Asiah. (2017), “Exploring the Influence of Store Attributes on Customer Experience and Customer Engagement,” International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 45 (11), 1138-1158.
    49. Olamilekan, Ojo and Dastane, Omkar and Dastane, Omkar, Employee Emotional Competence – Customer Satisfaction – Loyalty Link: An Empirical Investigation of Spa and Beauty industry (April 23, 2014). International Journal of Accounting and Business Management, April 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2639670 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2639670
    50. Ordenes, Francisco Villarroel, Babis Theodoulidis, Jamie Burton, Thorsten Gruber, and Mohamed Zaki (2014), “Analyzing Customer Experience Feedback Using Text Mining A Linguistics-Based Approach,” Journal of Service Research, 17 (3), 278-295.
    51. Pantano, E. (2015). Pantano, E. (2016). Engaging consumers through the storefront: Evidence from integrating interactive technologies. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 28, 149–154
    52. Pantano, E., & Viassone, M. (2015). Engaging consumers on new integrated multichannel retail settings: Challenges for retailers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 25, 106-114.
    53. Pine, J. & Gilmore, J. (1999). The Experience Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press
    54. Piotrowicz, W., & Cuthbertson, R. (2014). Introduction to the special issue information technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(4),5–16.
    55. Ponsignon, F., Durrieu, F., & Bouzdine-Chameeva, T. (2017). Customer experience design: a case study in the cultural sector. Journal of Service Management, 28(4), 763-787.
    56. Rabbanee, Fazlul & Burford, Oksana & Ramaseshan, B.. (2015). Does employee performance affect customer loyalty in pharmacy services? Journal of Service Theory and Practice. 25. 725-743. 10.1108/JSTP-06-2014-0126.
    57. Rajnish, J., Jayesh, A., Shilpa B, (2017) "Customer experience – a review and research agenda", Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 27 Issue: 3, pp.642-662, https:// doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-03-2015-0064
    58. Reinartz, W., Wiegand, N & Imschloss, M. (2019). The impact of digital transformation on the retailing value chain, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36 (3), 350-366, ISSN 0167-8116, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2018.12.002.
    59. Reinartz, W., Wiegand, N., and Imschloss, M. (2019) ‘The impact of digital transformation on the retailing value chain’, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36(3), p350-366.
    60. Renko, S., & Druzijanic, M. (2014). Perceived usefulness of innovative technology in retailing: Consumers׳ and retailers׳ point of view. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(5), 836-843.
    61. Ringle, Christian & Sarstedt, Marko & Straub, Detmar. (2012). Editor's comments: A critical look at the use of PLS-SEM in MIS quarterly. MIS Quarterly. 36. iii-xiv. 10.2307/41410402.
    62. Roggeveen, A.L., Grewal, D., Schweiger, E.B. The DAST Framework for Retail Atmospherics: The Impact of In- and Out-of-Store Retail Journey Touchpoints on the Customer Experience (2020) Journal of Retailing, 96 (1), pp. 128-137. DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2019.11.002
    63. Rojas, L., Quiñones, D., Rusu, C. Identifying Customer Experience Touchpoints in Tourism on the Hotel Industry (2021) Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 12774 LNCS, pp. 484-499. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-77626-8_33
    64. Roy, S. K., Balaji, M.S., Sadeque, S., Nguyen, B. and Melewar, T. C. (2017), “Constituents and Consequences of Smart Customer Experience in Retailing”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 124, November, pp. 257-270
    65. Roy, S.K., Gruner, R. and Guo, J. (2022). Exploring Customer Experience, Commitment and Engagement Behaviours. Journal of Strategic Marketing, DOI: 10.1080/0965254X.2019.1642937
    66. Roy, S.K., Singh, G., Hope, M., Nguyen, B. and Harrigan, P. (2019). The rise of smart consumers: role of smart servicescape and smart consumer experience co-creation. Journal of Marketing Management, 35 (15-16), 1480-1513.
    67. Ruth JA, Brunel FF, Otnes CC (2002) Linking thoughts to feelings: investigating cognitive appraisals and consumption emotions in a mixed-emotions context. J Acad Mark Sci 30:44–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/03079459994317
    68. Shankar, V. (2018). How artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping retailing. Journal of Retailing, 94(4), vi-xi.
    69. Shim, Soo & Forsythe, Sandra & Kwon, Wi-Suk. (2015). Impact of online flow on brand experience and loyalty. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. 16. 56-71.
    70. Shrivastava, S. (2017). Digital disruption is redefining the customer experience: The digital transformation approach of the communications service providers. Telecom Business Review, 10(1), 41.
    71. Siqueira, J.R., ter Horst, E., Molina, G., Losada, M., Mateus, M.A. A Bayesian examination of the relationship of internal and external touchpoints in the customer experience process across various service environments (2020) Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, art. no. 102009, DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.102009
    72. Sithole, N., Sullivan Mort, G., D'Souza, C. Building blocks of financial inclusion through customer experience value at financial touchpoints in Southern Africa. (2021) International Journal of Bank Marketing, 39 (3), pp. 360-380. DOI: 10.1108/IJBM-07-2020-0409
    73. Star News. (2019). Retail industry forecasts RM108.3b sales in 2019. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/03/19/retail-industry-forecasts-rm108pt3b-sales-in-2019/
    74. Stein, A. and Ramaseshan, B. (2020), "The customer experience – loyalty link: moderating role of motivation orientation", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 51-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-04-2019-0113
    75. Stein, A., & Ramaseshan, B. (2016). Towards the identification of customer experience touch point elements. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30, 8-19.
    76. Stein, A., & Ramaseshan, B. (2020). The customer experience–loyalty link: moderating role of motivation orientation. Journal of Service Management, 31(1), 51-78.
    77. Stein, Alisha & Ramaseshan, B. (2016). Towards the identification of customer experience touch point elements. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 30. 8-19. 10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.12.001.
    78. Suryanarayana, A. (2013). Role of store atmospherics in attracting customers: An empirical study in retailing. Proceedings of Global Business Research Conference.
    79. Tyrväinen, O., Karjaluoto, H., & Saarijärvi, H. (2020). Personalization and hedonic motivation in creating customer experiences and loyalty in omnichannel retail. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 57, 102233.
    80. UNCTAD (2011). World Investment Report 2011. www.unctad.org.
    81. Van Nierop, Erjen & Leeflang, Peter & Teerling, Marije & Huizingh, Eelko. (2011). The Impact of the Introduction and Use of an Informational Website on Offline Customer Buying Behavior. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.1772785.
    82. Verhoef, Peter C., Lemon, Katherine N., Parasuraman, A., Roggeveen, Anne, Tsiros, Michael, and Schlesinger, Leonard A. (2009), “Customer Experience Creation: Determinants, Dynamics, and Management Strategies,” Journal of Retailing, 85 (1), 31–41.
    83. Vitell, Scott. (2014). A Case for Consumer Social Responsibility (CnSR): Including a Selected Review of Consumer Ethics/Social Responsibility Research. Journal of Business Ethics. 130. 10.1007/s10551-014-2110-2.
    84. Wang, R. J. H., Edward, C., Malthouse, & Lakshman, K. (2015). On the go: How mobile shopping affects customer purchase behaviour. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), 217–34.
    85. Wong, S. C. & Nair, P. B. (2018). Mall patronage: dimensions of attractiveness in urban context. International Journal of Business and Society, Vol. 19 No. 2, 281-294
    86. Wringht, O., & Blackburn, E. (2020). COVID-19: How consumer behaviour will be changed. Accessed from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/consumer-goods-services/coronavirus-consumer-behavior-research
    87. Zaki, M & Abbas, B & Basim,A & Basim, J & Kamal, K & Al-Hassany,. (2019). The Impact of Brand Equity on the Achievement of Customers’ Loyalty to the Brand: An Empirical Study of a Sample of Vodafone's Customers. Management and Economic Review. 3. 10.24818/mer/2018.12-03.
    88. Zomerdijk, L.G. and Voss, C.A. (2010), "Service Design for Experience-Centric Services", Journal of Service Research, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 67-82.
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2023 Multidisciplinary Science Journal

How to cite

Loon, C. H., Khan, N., & Mohamad, O. (2024). Optimising Customer Experience in Retail Stores: The Key Role of Customer Touch points. Multidisciplinary Science Journal, (| Accepted Articles). Retrieved from https://malque.pub/ojs/index.php/msj/article/view/2176
  • Article viewed - 110