IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v164y2023ics0148296323003016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The growing importance of customer-centric support services for improving customer experience

Author

Listed:
  • Sheth, Jagdish N.
  • Jain, Varsha
  • Ambika, Anupama

Abstract

Customer support service is emerging as a vital component of superior customer experiences; nonetheless, it is often considered a post-purchase touchpoint. A dearth of research endeavors focuses on the multifaceted roles of customer support service across customer experience journeys (CEJs). Hence, adopting the tenets of customer journey and customer experience, this study harnesses the mental models of 46 leading industry practitioners through the theories-in-use (TIU) approach while exploring the customer perspectives through two focus group studies. The framework developed from the key insights suggests that customer support should be incorporated into the business strategy, focusing on support needs at every point of the CEJ. The study also identifies key roles of customer support service, such as information and insight, facilitating decision-making, relationship building, value-added upselling, reselling, and cross-selling throughout the journey. This research contributes to developing a support framework aligned to the customer journey to provide a superior support experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheth, Jagdish N. & Jain, Varsha & Ambika, Anupama, 2023. "The growing importance of customer-centric support services for improving customer experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:164:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323003016
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113943
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323003016
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113943?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Chin-Tsu, 2024. "Atmospherics fosters customer loyalty: Exploring the mediating effects of memorable customer experience and customer satisfaction in factory outlet malls in Taiwan," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. Massimo Pacella & Paride Vasco & Gabriele Papadia & Vincenzo Giliberti, 2024. "An Assessment of Digitalization Techniques in Contact Centers and Their Impact on Agent Performance and Well-Being," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Shamim, Amjad & Abid, Muhammad Farrukh & Ahmad, Farooq, 2024. "S–O–R based experiential framework for measuring in-store customer satisfaction in non-fuel retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:164:y:2023:i:c:s0148296323003016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.