Interaction fluency: a customer performance measure of multichannel service
International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
ISSN: 1741-0401
Article publication date: 1 October 2006
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to show an empirical test of customer‐based measures of Interaction Fluency developed by the authors to contribute to the assessment of customer service performance across multiple contact points upon the implementation of relationship management practices and technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
In the paper the measures are developed using the critical incident technique and adapting existing scales in the service literature. A model is tested empirically with survey data from airline customers (n=284) using an Ordered Logit approach.
Findings
The paper finds that empirical results suggest that the ability of front‐line employees to smooth interactions with customers, as well as the efficacious performance of self‐service channels, are strong drivers of customers' loyalty intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The findings in this paper are restricted to the airline context in an environment of familiarity with automated service tools such as found in the USA. Future research needs to be conducted using actual loyalty behavior as the dependent variable.
Originality/value
This paper considers the customer's perspective of the multichannel service interaction to propose a new construct of “interaction fluency” and builds a model to capture the functional form of the relationship between operational measures of the new construct and customer loyalty intentions.
Keywords
Citation
Cassab, H. and MacLachlan, D.L. (2006), "Interaction fluency: a customer performance measure of multichannel service", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 55 No. 7, pp. 555-568. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400610702151
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited