Abstract:
Over the years, the improvement of customer experience has become one of the highest
priorities for businesses, as it is essential for establishing happy and loyal customers which,
in the long run, signifies higher revenues. Customer experience (CX) represents the holistic
interactions of a customer with a particular organisation. It reflects a customer’s entire
perception, responses and behaviours based on their interaction with a product or service
of the business through particular points of contact or ‘touch points’. These touch points
could exist in the form of physical or digital platforms. By understanding how to achieve
positive customer experience through organisational touch points, businesses can
additionally attain customer satisfaction and loyalty, competitive advantage and other
favourable business outcomes. Therefore, this study focuses on investigating how customer
experience can be improved by evaluating the digital touch points of a well-known banking
institution in South Africa. A qualitative research approach was chosen in order to conduct this study where eight individual semi-structured interviews and one focus group of four participants were carried
out. The data collected from both the individual interviews and focus group were analysed
by following thematic analysis. The findings from the study enabled the development and
review of eighteen critical success factors for achieving positive customer experience within
digital touch points. These critical success factors include functionality, navigation, help
functions, security, digitalisation, information content, user-friendly, competitive advantage,
aesthetics, ease of access, error handling, loyalty programmes, innovation, communication,
geographic expansion, customisation, customer memory retention and visibility. Dewey’s
theory of experience, which focuses on the various concepts that are significant in shaping
experience across several disciplines, was adopted as a theoretical framework for this study.
Dewey’s theory comprises of four components, namely past experiences, internal
conditions, external conditions and future experiences distinctive from a principle of
continuity and a principle of interaction. The eighteen critical success factors along with
Dewey’s theory of experience were used in order to develop a theoretical framework for
achieving positive customer experience within digital touch points.
This theoretical framework was further evaluated by two focus groups comprising of six and
four research participants respectively, in order to determine its correctness and validity. Despite its focus on one particular case study, this framework may be adapted and
potentially serve as a foundation for future research for achieving positive customer
experience through digital touch points across other businesses.
