Multichannel service: Performance and implications for customer retention

Many service providers increasingly engage in routine exchanges with their customers using different modes of contact in relation to the level of technology used across multiple service channels. The premise is simple: better interactions with customers across service channels result in improved customer experiences and fortified customer relationships with the firm. There is, however, little understanding of multichannel service from the customer's perspective and how it influences customer satisfaction and loyalty. This dissertation extends previous research that examines service encounters in one-channel settings (i.e., face-to-face and technology-based self-service) by adapting the initial ideas to the multiple channel context. The author develops new measures of Multichannel Coordination Perception (MCP) and studies the association of MCP with Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Intentions in an effort to assess the extent to which the performance in multichannel service influences customer retention.; Using datasets from airline travel and wireless phone customers, an empirical model is built and tested with a variety of methods for statistically deriving MCP attribute importance. The findings suggest that MCP has a direct and positive impact on Loyalty Intentions, and it is partially mediated by Customer Satisfaction. Results also indicate that some of the MCP attributes have a diminishing returns effect on Customer Loyalty. The author discusses the implications surrounding these effects and offers several directions for future research.