Social perspectives of e-contact center for loyalty building

Abstract

Recently, e-contact centers have gained popularity among online companies as a preferred channel to communicate with their customers. E-contact centers are respected among e-retailers and online customers because they provide customers value within a social construct. This research suggests that an e-contact center serves as an effective marketing vehicle, which can be used for establishing and maintaining desired relationships with customers. E-contact centers enhance the relationship between e-retailers and online customers by providing social values and quality interpersonal service to customers. Despite the strategic importance of e-contact centers in relation to customer loyalty, little attention has been given to the topic. To remedy this, the primary objective of this study is to assess the impacts of social elements (i.e. perceived social value and interpersonal service quality) delivered by e-contact centers on customers' loyalty formation processes. Loyalty formation process is parsimoniously explained by an integrative model, which incorporates interpersonal service quality, social value, retailer satisfaction, and e-contact center satisfaction constructs.