Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser

Towards the identification of customer experience touch point

elements
Alisha Stein a, B. Ramaseshan b,n
a
Adjunct Research Fellow School of Marketing Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
b
Foundation Professor of Marketing School of Marketing Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, the authors identify the elements that encompass customer experience touch points. This
Received 24 June 2015 research was based on a qualitative research approach, using a sequential incident technique to guide the
Received in revised form data collection. An inductive thematic analysis of the semi-structure interview transcripts, collected from
30 November 2015
customer narratives of experiences with retailers, was employed to identify distinct elements of custo-
Accepted 19 December 2015
mer experience touch points. The findings uncovered seven distinct elements of customer experience
Available online 1 January 2016
touch points, which include; atmospheric, technological, communicative, process, employee–customer
Keywords: interaction, customer–customer interaction and product interaction elements. The findings highlight that
Customer experience multichannel retail touch points are made up of varying combinations of the identified elements. The
Touch points
study offers a comprehensive understanding of customer experience; one that will help retailers to or-
Retail channels
chestrate the customer experience at individual touch points.
Sequential incident technique
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction spiritual level”. Several authors argue that customer experience is

shaped not only by the aspects which firms can control (e.g., ser-
In today's marketplace, retailers generally acknowledge custo- vice interface, store displays and advertising), but also by factors
mer experience as an important component in sustaining a com- that are outside of the firm's control (e.g., customer interactions
petitive advantage. Customers now have more power than ever and purpose of shopping) (Meyer and Schwager, 2007; Verhoef
and a variety of means whereby it can be exercised. The upsurge of et al., 2009). This is because experiences are constructed by cus-
online review websites, social networks and mobile web access tomers' interpretations of encounters (Hume et al., 2006), mean-
have enabled customers to know more than sellers about pro- ing that experiences cannot be completely controlled by the
ducts, services, competitors and pricing. Amid all of this, there is a company. Rather than creating experiences, companies can design
proliferation of products and services and increasing competition and orchestrate prerequisites and stimuli that enable customers to
in the market place. Customers desire more than just the pro- have the desired experiences (Gupta and Vajic, 2000).
Customers have experiences every time they ‘touch’ any part of
duction, delivery and consumption of products and services; in-
the product, service, brand or organization, across multiple chan-
stead, they seek unique and memorable experiences that accom-
nels and at various points in time (Pantano and Milena, 2015;
pany the delivery of products and services (Pine and Gilmore,
Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). Such moments of truth between the
1999).
customer and any part of the company are known as ‘touch
Customer experience is widely recognized as the internal and
points’. The journey that a customer takes to achieve a certain
subjective response customers have to any interaction with a
shopping task (e.g., search for information, purchase a product),
company (Lemke et al., 2011; Meyer and Schwager, 2007; Pine and
therefore, is formed by a series of touch points. To date, research
Gilmore, 1999; Verhoef et al., 2009; Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). relating to customer experience has considered customer experi-
The subjective nature of the experience is elucidated by Pine and ence predominantly as an overall evaluation based on an accu-
Gilmore (1998, p. 99) who indicate that “experiences are in- mulation of experiences (e.g., Rose et al. (2012)). Such considera-
herently personal, existing only in the mind of an individual who tion, however, restricts the understanding of the key moments of
has been engaged on an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even truth between the customer and the retailer. Therefore, this re-
search aims to contribute to the customer experience literature by
n
Corresponding author.
identifying, categorizing and defining the distinct elements that
E-mail addresses: alisha.stein@curtin.edu.au (A. Stein), occur during customer experiences at different touch points. A
b.ramaseshan@curtin.edu.au (B. Ramaseshan). comprehensive understanding of customer experience touch

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.12.001
0969-6989/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19 9

points will enable deeper insight into the distinct components that
shape customer experience at different touch points.

2. Customer experience touch points

Fig. 1. Application of the sequential incident technique to touch point research.
Customer experience develops throughout all touch points and
episodes encountered during the service delivery process (Jüttner (touch points) that customers typically follow during the customer
et al., 2013; Frow and Payne, 2007). These touch points may exist journey (see Fig. 1). Within each episode (touch point) the in-
pre- and post-purchase (e.g., Meyer and Schwager (2007), Zo- formants were asked to report any incidents they remember and
merdijk and Voss (2010) and Tynan and McKechnie (2009)) and describe them as precisely as possible (Jüttner et al., 2013). For the
occur in different retail channels (Martin et al., 2015; Verhoef et al., purpose of this study, the sequential incident technique was used
2009). Meyer and Schwager (2007) point out that touch points may to elicit the descriptions of the touch points encountered by cus-
not be linked necessarily or directly to a company, suggesting that tomers in the course of their customer journey. The sequential
indirect interactions also emerge during unplanned encounters incident technique was adopted to capture the dynamic, proce-
with representatives of a company's products, service or brands dural nature of the customer experience, which is subjective and
(e.g., recommendation or criticism conversations, news reports, perceptual to the individual customer.
reviews etc.). From this perspective, touch points occur at all stages
of the customer journey including the search, evaluation, purchase
3.2. Research process
and after-sale phases of the experience (Verhoef et al., 2009). Past
studies that have examined customer responses during particular
Prior to the commencement of the study, a review of extant
episodes or events have relied predominantly on using cues, stimuli
literature relating to ‘experiential marketing’ in general, and
and service encounters (Baker et al., 2002; Bitner, 1992; Brakus
‘customer experience’ in particular was conducted to understand
et al., 2009; Brocato et al., 2012; Jüttner et al., 2013; Rose et al.,
the phenomena of customer experience. Subsequently, a set of
2012). Whereas cues, stimuli and service encounters reflect some-
effective research questions was created for interviews by fol-
thing that a company orchestrates for the customer, touch points
lowing the recommendations of McNamara (2009). We ensured
represent what actually happens from the customer's perspective
that: (i) the questions were worded clearly, (ii) the wording was
(Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). Thus, an in-depth understanding of
open-ended (Gall et al., 2003) to enable respondents to choose
customer experience touch points can only be comprehended
their own terms when answering questions and thus allow them
through a subjective customer perspective (Lemke et al., 2011).
to contribute as much detailed information as they desire, and (iii)
the questions were as neutral as possible to avoid wording that
might influence answers. The questions allowed the interviewer to
3. Research methods
ask probing questions as a means of follow-up to dig deep into the
customer experiences and related knowledge of the participants in
Investigating customer experience touch points requires rich
order to gain maximum data from the interviews.
insights into the specific elements that form the distinct ‘moment
As suggested by Kvale (2007) we sought expert opinion from
of truth’ interactions. A qualitative research approach, using a se-
marketing academics to assess the wording and flow of the semi-
quential incident technique, was employed to build an in-depth
structured interview questions. The interview questions were pre-
and holistic understanding of a situation (i.e., touch point) through
an in-depth analysis of recalled accounts of customer experiences tested with a small number of informants to evaluate whether the
from informants. wording and flow of questions made sense to the informants. This
process helped us to determine if there are flaws, limitations, or
3.1. Sequential incident technique other weaknesses within the interview design and thus allowed us
to make necessary revisions prior to the implementation of the
The sequential incident technique is a qualitative interviewing study. The pre-tests were conducted with participants that have
technique that is process-oriented and facilitates the collection of similar interests as those that will participate in the implemented
incidents perceived by customers during the service delivery study. Based on the results of the pre-tests we refined the research
process (Stauss and Weinlich, 1997). The approach is based on the questions. To prevent possible contamination of the extracted data
critical incident technique (Gremler, 2004), which is a qualitative (Colgate et al., 2007), we avoided using any specific marketing
interview procedure that 'facilitates the investigation of significant literature terminology or jargon (e.g., touch points, customer
occurrences (events, incidents, processes, or issues) identified by journey etc.) during the interviews. The informants for the study
the respondent, the way they are managed, and the outcomes in were screened prior to the interview to ensure that they were
terms of perceived effects' (Chell and Pittaway, 1998, p. 56). The suitable for the research; e.g., that they had recent retailer/service
sequential incident technique adopts the ‘incident telling’ concept provider experiences.
of critical incident technique, while also considering the normal, Finally, as suggested by Creswell (2007) we had prolonged
uncritical incidents that may take place during an event (Jüttner engagement and persistent observations in the field to have as
et al., 2013). The benefit of using such a technique is that it enables many interviews and discussion with the participants as we could,
researchers to focus on a very specific phenomenon by defining and performed respondent validation of preliminary findings by
the specific aim of the study which, in turn, helps to identify im- seeking feedback from the research participants to ensure validity
portant thematic details and examples to support the findings of the research findings.
(Gremler, 2004). These techniques employ a story telling ap-
proach, which enables informants to use their own words when 3.3. Selection of sample informants
describing and evaluating all events they recall from the particular
retail encounter. To unearth the distinct elements that encompass customer
Using the sequential incident technique, informants were gui- experience touch points in a retail context, several retail industries
ded on the basis of a visualized customer path through all episodes were explored. This approach enabled data collection from varying
10 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19

industries that offer their products or services through several Table 1

retail channel formats (e.g., in-store, online, and mobile app) and Demographic characteristics of the sample informants.

provided a representation of a wide array of customer experiences

No. Gender Age Occupation Retailer Retail
(Konuş et al., 2008). A critical aspect of the current research is that channel
the informant (i.e., customer) can recall the distinct incidences
(touch points) across the customer journey and provide a de- 1 Female 26 Designer Hotel, In-store/
online
scriptive account of these incidences. To ensure that the in- Travel agency Online
formants represented varying age groups and gender, we em- 2 Male 48 Business Hardware store In-store
ployed purposive sampling method (Miles and Huberman, 1994). manager
3 Female 51 Homemaker Book store Online
4 Male 47 Teacher Electronics store Online
3.4. Data collection 5 Male 39 Social worker Fashion apparel retailer In-store
6 Female 49 Finance officer Café In-store
At the start of the interview, informants were asked to think 7 Female 22 Human Fashion apparel retailer, In-store/
resources Restaurant online in-
about a recent experience they had with a retailer of their choice. store
Next the informants were requested to name the retailer and 8 Female 30 Accountant Department store In-store
present a brief description of their experience. This was aimed at 9 Male 36 Information Electronics store In-store
providing the informants with comfort and freedom to describe technology
10 Female 49 Administrator Department store Online/mo-
their experience with ease (Arksey and Knight, 1999). In addition, bile app
the informants were asked what they were trying to achieve 11 Female 28 Human Fashion apparel retailer In-store/
during the experience (i.e., to make a purchase, search for in- resources online
formation, browse etc.) and how much familiarity they had with 12 Female 33 Human Café In-store
resources
the particular retailer/service industry to provide further context 13 Female 19 Apprentice Fashion apparel retailer Online
to the experience. Subsequently, in line with sequential incident 14 Male 42 School teacher Airline In-store/
technique research, the informants were asked to recall and de- online
scribe any incidents that they remembered. In accordance with the 15 Female 21 Retail shop Café, In-store
assistant Fashion apparel retailer Online
conceptualization of customer experience touch points, the in- 16 Male 38 Builder Health club In-store
cidents need not necessarily be related to critical incidents and 17 Male 54 Business Bank, Mobile app
could comprise any distinct interaction that the customer is able to manager Gift store In-store
recall. During the interview, the informants were probed for fur- 18 Female 52 Homemaker Supermarket In-store
19 Female 26 Financial Hairdresser, In-store
ther insights into the incidents they encountered at each stage of consultant Department store Online
the customer journey. 20 Male 41 Small business Telecommunications Online
A total of 34 customer experience narratives were revealed owner
from 28 semi-structured interviews. Some of the informants re- 21 Female 62 Retired Restaurant In-store
22 Male 23 Student Bar, In-store
ported multiple experiences with different retailers during the Supermarket In-store
interview. The research process was terminated after the 28th 23 Male 37 Medical Airline In-store/
semi-structured interview as the interviews conducted thus far practitioner online
generated information saturation (Guest et al., 2006). The the- 24 Male 42 Construction Bank In-store
worker
matic analysis of the 34 customer experience narratives revealed 25 Female 38 Dentist Café In-store
repetitive themes, which lent support for the information satura- 26 Male 48 Truck driver Fast food In-store
tion decision when themes converged (Eisenhardt, 1989). A cross- 27 Male 27 Public service Travel agency Online
case analysis of the repetitive themes revealed that no new officer
28 Female 32 Hairdresser Beauty retailer In-store
themes arrived after the 25th interview. Yet, it was decided to
conduct additional semi-structured interviews in order to ensure
that no further themes were revealed. The average duration of the
interviews was approximately 45 min. The demographic profile of 4. Results
the informants is presented in Table 1.
The results from the qualitative thematic analysis are presented
3.5. Data analysis below. The analysis reveals seven distinct themes relating to the
elements of customer experience touch points, including: atmo-
Given that this study was conducted to identify the distinct spheric, technological, communicative, process, employee–custo-
elements of customer experience touch points through qualitative mer interaction, customer–customer interaction and product in-
data, we used an inductive process to work from the words of each teraction elements.
participant's responses to identify and code themes related to the
specific elements of customer experience touch points. The data
4.1. Atmospheric elements
obtained from the qualitative interviews were analyzed themati-
cally using NVivo. The emerged themes were reviewed through a The thematic analysis highlights various atmospheric elements
cross-case analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994) to identify the at different touch points, which occur in different retail channels
frequency of repeated themes across informants. Following the and across all stages of the customer journey. For instance, when
refinement and scope of each of the themes, definitions and titles evaluating whether to book a hotel, an informant viewed the ho-
for each theme were generated. The titles of the identified themes tel's website, commenting on certain design elements:
were driven by the existing literature as well as derived from the
data. The themes, their respective codes and sample extracts are Their website looked quite good and from there they had like a
presented in Table 2, while the definition of each theme is pre- kind of 3D walk through of the hotel and it was just yeah, really
sented in Table 3. well presented, gave us the imaging of the room, what the
 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19 11

Table 2
Themes and codes from the thematic analysis.

Theme Code Example

Atmospheric elements Amenities “My gym has these quiet rest areas with lounges and sofa, which is a great place to go to and
chill after doing a long workout.”
Ambience “It's always quite busy, which is good. The bar has a pretty good feel from the dim lights and
pumping music.”
Store attractiveness “It's always a great place to shop at, I always safe as well and it's reasonably tidy at all times
during the year, especially the clothing area because a lot of people dump things all over the
place.”
Store layout and design “Zara [fashion apparel retailer] has this fantastic store design, the shop is really attractive so the
moment you enter Zara it gives you a feeling of high-end fashion but is yet affordable.”
Store display “The way they display the shoes is great. They show a wide range of products, styles and colors
on the shelves in a really stunning area, and there's always a lot to choose from.”

Technological elements Technology-ease of use “I bought it from the store because it's so easy to do. It's really user friendly, their payment
methods are really secure I don’t have to worry all the fraud and all of that.”
Technology -convenience “I usually buy my books online because it is way more convenient than going to the book store
and have to wait in lines and all of that.”
Self-service technology “I used the self-service kiosk at the Virgin [airline] terminal to check-in my family's flights. It
was easy to use and I could even select our seats on the touch screen.”

Communicative elements Promotional message “I got an email from hardtofind.com.au [gift store] that said that they’ve got 10% off storewide
until midnight.”
Informative message “It had lots of information on the [hotel] website that I guess made us feel more comfortable
about booking the hotel online.”
Advertisement “I always see ads on TV for Myer [department store]. Last night I was watching TV and saw a
Myer commercial that said that the midseason sale is on now.”

Process elements Waiting time “We had to wait at least about fifteen minutes for someone to come and take an order and
when they did they went away and then we had to wait for another half an hour to receive our
coffee.”
Navigation “It's quite easy to find things in the store, regardless of which location you go to, they all are set
out the same. So it's always user friendly in relation to finding things where they’re situated.”
Service process “The returns process was just too complicated. I also think that the slow delivery or poorly
estimated delivery time put me off as well, which made me think that it would take like an-
other month for me to receive the correct size.”

Employee–customer interaction Helpful employee “When I was coming back from New Zealand at Auckland airport, the airline employee who
elements gave me the boarding pass was so helpful.”
Personalized service “The chef actually coming out personally and asking how we enjoyed the meal and explained
how he made some of the creations because it was vegan food, which is something that we
weren’t really used to.”
Friendly greeting “I walked into Bunnings [hardware store] and they have quite a good meet and greet person
who basically welcomes you to the store.”
Argumentative employee “The staff member was arguing with me about returning a $7 item. I felt extremely frustrated
and it became quite insulting that I would lie over a few dollars where obviously the error was
made by the store.”

Customer–customer interaction Customer reviews “When I read so many positive comments about the store it definitely put me at ease, making
elements me much more confident to shop with them.”
Word-of-mouth “I heard some good things about it from my friends who said it is quite quirky, which I’m totally
in to, so I thought I’d give it a try.”
Direct customer interactions “I spoke to my friend about how the bikinis fit and what size she got so that made me more
comfortable knowing what size to choose when I bought my bikinis online.”
Indirect customer interactions “When I was waiting in the line to pay for my items at the checkout there were a lot of kids
running and screaming around me, and it was so annoying.”

Product interaction elements Product quality “The quality of the bikini was great it was what I expected. It came in a great pouch made of the
material of the bikini, which was cool.”
Product assortment “I always find Myer [department store] a great place to shop because they have a good variety
of products whether electrical, clothing, shoes, handbags, or cosmetics.”
Direct product interactions “The product itself in terms of food and coffee was really nice, I would definitely go back there
for the food.”
Indirect product interactions “I first saw the laptop that I wanted to buy in the JB Hifi [electronics store] catalog that was
delivered in the mail to my house. I knew that the laptop was perfect for me straight after I saw
it.”

room would look like, and just like the general ground map and application design and aesthetics during the narration of her ex-
stuff like that. perience with the department store:
[Informant No. 1, Female]
I love using the Target [department store] mobile app. Its very
Another informant described a department store's mobile user friendly and I can easily find what I am looking for using
12 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19

Table 3
Definitions of the touch point elements.

Touch point elements Definition

Atmospheric The physical characteristics and surrounding customers observe when interacting with any part of the retailer.
Technological A customer's direct interaction with any form of technology during an encounter with a retailer.
Communicative One-way communication from the retailer to the customer, including both promotional and informative messages.
Process The actions or steps customers need to take in order to achieve a particular outcome with a retailer.
Employee–customer interaction The direct and indirect interactions customers have with employees when interacting with any part of the retailer.
Customer–customer interaction The direct and indirect interactions customers have with other customers when interacting with any part of the retailer.
Product interaction The direct or indirect interactions customers have with the core tangible or intangible product offered by the retailer.

the search page. The colors and design on the app are bold, elements cover the physical characteristics and surrounding that
bright and large making it easy for me to see when I am looking customers observe when interacting with any part of the retailer.
for things. The interviews highlight that in physical channels, atmospheric
[Informant No. 10, Female] aspects such as the layout, colors, lighting, music and scents pro-
vide visual and sensory stimuli that customers use to interpret the
Both of the above extracts provide examples of atmospherics in
situation. While in digital settings, atmospheric aspects include
digital retail channels. The atmospherics in physical in-store en-
the colors, graphics, music, layout and design of the website or
vironments also play a significant role during the touch point
technological interface.
experience. For instance:

Going to my hairdresser always puts me in a good mood. You 4.2. Technological elements
know they light candles and have the latest music playing and
have all these large paintings on the walls, which really creates Technological elements appear to be playing an important role
a good vibe… The hairdressers all dress in the latest fashion during customers' encounters with a retailer, as is evident from an
and keep up to date with the latest hair trends… I tend go to informant who indicated that she now purchases books from an
my hairdresser mostly for, yeah, really the cool vibe rather than online website instead of going into a physical store:
for the hair service.
I used to like going into bookstores and browsing, but now I
[Informant No. 28, Female]
find it easier to go online. I like to shop online at the Book
In the above extract, the informant states that the atmospherics Depository [book store], it's an online site and they’ve made it
such as the sensory factors (candles and music) and visual aspects very user friendly to operate their website and it's an absolute
(paintings and hairdresser look) is a very important component in pleasure to order a book from them.
her experience. Sometimes atmospherics may also feature in an [Informant No. 3, Female]
experience, but may not be very important to a customer. For
example: She continues,

I don't really care too much about how pretty the displays look I’ve purchased numerous books from them and most of my
or how friendly the service is, as long as I can get in and out of books I purchase take just a few days to be delivered. If they
IGA [Supermarket] quickly and can find everything, then I’m don’t have the book I’m looking for they will either request
happy. another site or they will pre-order it for me and as soon as it
[Informant No. 22, Male] arrives they will send it … It's very easy to use and as they have
all my details there's not much else I have to do other than
In this case, the store atmospherics are evident during the press purchase … It's very easy and so convenient for me.
experience at the touch point; however, given the utilitarian [Informant No. 3, Female]
shopping motivation of the customer, the atmospheric aspects,
other than the store layout, does not appear to have a large affect Another informant described how technology (website) helped
on the customer's evaluation of the retailer. While the majority of him to pay for his mobile phone bill:
informants discussed atmospherics in the search, evaluation and
I just went to the Optus [telecommunications provider] web-
purchase stages of the customer journey, atmospherics were also
site, logged into my account and clicked on the ‘my bill’ tab.
considered during post-purchase touch points. For instance:
This directed me straight to my latest bill and had a breakdown
When I received my new dress [online purchase] in the mail I of all my charges. Usually there are never any issues with my
was so excited. I cut open the parcel and found a beautiful box bills; they are always the same price, which is good. From here,
with the store's logo on it. The box was really nice-it opened I clicked on ‘pay my bill’ and my credit card details are saved so
upwards with a magnetic clasp … I was not expecting this. all I have to do is click ‘pay’. It's as easy as that … I used to have
Inside the box my new dress was wrapped in pink tissue paper to wait for my bill in the mail and take it to the post office but
and there was a note handwritten from the store addressed to now I can pay for it in literally 2 min.
me that thanked me for shopping here and hoped that I enjoy [Informant No. 20, Male]
the dress … They also put a $50 off voucher in the box. I
The above extracts emphasize how technology (website) fa-
couldn’t believe how much detail they put into the design and
cilitated the transactions in an ‘easy’ and ‘convenient’ manner. In
packaging, it's amazing. Yeah like I’m definitely going to use the
both the online examples illustrated above, technology is a core
voucher soon.
component of the touch point. In addition to online channels, in
[Informant No. 7, Female]
physical environments customers are increasingly using technol-
From the above extracts, it is clear that customers encounter ogy, such as point-of-sale terminals, tablets and kiosks in their
various atmospheric elements during different stages of the cus- day-to-day transactions (Fowler and Bridges, 2010; Giebelhausen
tomer journey and in different retail channels. Atmospheric et al., 2014). The data from the semi-structured interviews
 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19 13

highlight that customers use technology in physical retail and one that I get quite often. So that's always good, and I tend to go
service settings: to the ASOS website more and buy more based on the fact that I
get emails from them constantly reminding me, so that's al-
I go to a 24 h gym and I usually go at odd hours so when I get
ways good.
there a lot of the time it's not manned. To get in all I have to do
[Informant No. 15, Female]
is swipe my access card and the door will open … They have
cameras there so they know if you bring anyone else in with She continues,
you, which could get you a fine … I’ve never had any issues
getting into the gym. I’ll usually shop on ASOS about once a month purely because
[Informant No. 16, Male] yeah it's so easily to access because they’re constantly emailing
me and browsing would be weekly I’m always on there having
Another informant described how she used self-service tech- a look.
nology to pay for her groceries at the supermarket: [Informant No. 15, Female]
I only had about six items in my basket and didn’t want to wait Another informant indicated that he went to the hardware
in the long line so I used the self-service checkout at Coles store because he saw the specials on some products that he
[supermarket]. I usually go to the staffed checkout, but because wanted to buy:
I only had a few things I thought I’d give it a try … At first it
wasn’t too bad, all I had to do was scan the items and place it in I usually browse the catalogs at home to see what the latest
the bagging area. But when I went to do the two lemons I had, I specials are … Last weekend there was a Bunnings [hardware
had to fumble around because there was no barcode. When I store] catalogon my coffee table at home and it said that Bun-
finally worked out that I had to search for the lemons on the nings had a sale on some of the tools I need. Yeah and that's
touch screen the weigher didn’t work. I think it's because the why I went to the store.
lemons are very light, I don’t quite know but this was really [Informant No. 2, Male]
starting to agitate me. I then had to leave my stuff and try to
Informative messages are also observable at the channel where
find someone to help me. The girl who worked there sorted out
the experience is taking place. For instance, an informant indicated
the problem by scanning her card and pressing a few buttons
how the synopsis (information provided by the retailer) of the
on the system. But by the time I had finished checking out the
books helped her to choose a book to purchase online:
few groceries that I needed, I thought to myself that I might as
well have waited in the line to get actual service! … I was quite When I was browsing the Book Depository [online book store]
frustrated by the whole process. they had a little synopsis about each book … If there's a specific
[Informant No. 18, Female] type of book that I like they usually put a few more of the same
author or something that's similar at the bottom of the page.
From the above extracts it is evident that technological ele-
Take for example if it is an art book that I’m looking at, they’ll
ments relate to a customer's direct interaction with any form of
find art either from the same author or something that's very
technology during an encounter with a retailer and can have a
similar that I might like; this is very helpful. If it's abstract art or
beneficial (e.g., easy and convenient) or detrimental (e.g., frus-
surreal art or something and then I’ll have a look at the sy-
trating and agitating) impact on the customer experience. Custo-
nopsis and I’ll usually order that book too.
mers may interact with retailer facilitated technology (e.g., self-
[Informant No. 3, Female]
service technology, company mobile applications, company web-
sites, ATMs, kiosks, point-of-sale technology, etc.) or with un- She then discussed how an informative email notified her that
affiliated technology (e.g., other websites and social media), which the book was dispatched from the store, which assured her of the
may influence the customers' experience. Such technological ele- delivery process:
ments may feature at various touch points across the different
stages in the customer journey and in different retail contexts. I got an email today around midday to say that my books that I
ordered had been dispatched. I purchased the books on Sunday
4.3. Communicative elements and then I got an email today saying that they’re coming, so I’m
pretty sure it’ll come by the end of this week or early next week
The results from the thematic qualitative analysis indicate that but I’m pretty sure end of this week.
consumers regularly observe the content and messages provided [Informant No. 3, Female]
by the retailer. Such content or messages are one-way commu- Another informant stated that he received an informative
nication, sent from the retailer to the customer. Retailers may send email, notifying him of the booking confirmation, which gave him
promotional or informative one-way communication to customers confidence in the purchase process and provided him with peace
throughout the customer journey using a number of retail chan- of mind:
nels. For example, promotional or informative messages from the
retailer may be sent via email, SMS, direct mail, television adver- I received the email confirmation shortly after making the
tisements, telephone calls and other communication channels. The booking and of course it made me feel that everything is in
data from the semi-structured interviews highlight that promo- order, everything is in line and I didn’t make a mistake. I think
tional communication plays a large role in the search and eva- it reinforced my purchase decision plus it reinforced that the
luation stages of the customer journey. For instance, an informant process that I went through was right. It's kind of mental sa-
stated that the promotional emails from an online fashion apparel tisfaction of course. Confidence as well, confidence not only in
retailer influenced her to visit the online retailer's website and the company but also in my expertize. It gave me some peace of
browse/purchase: mind that I didn’t make a mistake.
[Informant No. 14, Male]
I get constant email updates from ASOS [fashion apparel re-
tailer]. So yeah direct emails from ASOS I get at least every two From the above narratives it is evident that communicative
to three days, I get an email from them saying what they’ve got elements, which involve one-way communication from the re-
going on or if they have a sale of 20% off or free shipping is a big tailer to the customer (including both promotional and
14 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19

informative messages), are viewed as an important aspect of the straight to PayPal but it just takes such a long time to load that
experience at different touch points. While communication plays a it doesn’t work properly. I ended up giving up and will just
large role during the search and evaluation stages of the customer have to go the store next time I go to Garden City [shopping
journey, the extracts highlight that communicative elements are center].
also dominant throughout the purchase and post-purchase stages [Informant No. 4, Male]
of the customer journey.
Another informant described how the process of using the
bank mobile application facilitates easy and timely banking
4.4. Process elements
transactions:
The process that customers take in order to achieve a particular I usually use my ANZ app [bank mobile application] to pay my
outcome was found to play an important role in shaping their bills and transfer money between my accounts. It's really easy
perceptions and evaluations of retail encounters. In physical re- to use and is handy. My phone's in my pocket wherever I go so
tailer settings, the process involves aspects such as the checkout if I remember at the very last minute that I have to pay a bill I
waiting time, the service process and the manner in which cus- don’t need to worry, it takes literally 30 s to make a transaction.
tomers move around the store; while in digital environments, [Informant No. 17, Male]
process elements encompass the way customers navigate the site
or technology platform. For instance, an informant indicated that From the above interview transcripts it is evident that ‘process’
the manner in which she moved around the store was frustrating is a critical element of customer experience touch points that oc-
during her experience at a department store: curs at different stages across the customer journey. The above
discussion also highlights that various process aspects (e.g., wait-
I was at Myer [department store] and I find that it is really ing time, service delivery process and navigation) feature across
spaced around the place, so the checkouts are harder to find several physical and digitals retail channels.
and the one that's normally there I think was taken over by a
Santa thing so I had to then try to find another one. When I 4.5. Employee–customer interaction elements
finally did, there was no staff available so I actually had to take
my toys to the make-up area to pay for them, which was quite The findings from the semi-structured interviews demonstrate
frustrating. that customer interactions with employees of the retailer are an
[Informant No. 8, Female] important aspect of customers' encounters at different touch
points. The direct interaction between employees and customers
Another informant indicated that the long waiting time, caused
was found to be critical, especially during in-store purchases. The
by the service delivery method, made her annoyed and left her not
informants described that they felt comfortable relying on advice
enjoying her meal at the café:
from experienced and knowledgeable employees to help them
The way they do the food is that they have a set menu and they choose particular products. Some informants even explained that
come out with different things and they ask you ‘do you want it their positive experiences at the particular touch point were
or you don’t want it’ and if you do they give it to you and if you contributed by the quality of their interaction with the employee.
don’t they just carry on. I got really annoyed with the waiting As one interviewee stated:
time between each dish and because of that I didn’t enjoy it at
When I was in Hong Kong shopping for my kids clothing a
all so I didn’t like waiting for my food. I would have preferred to
beautiful red dress came to my attention … I liked it and I also
have ordered one meal when I could enjoy it slowly than just
liked a pair of jeans for my daughter, but I wasn’t sure which
eat a little bit of something and you don’t want to eat too much
one to buy, so I had a chat with one of the in-store assistants,
because then you get full so you wait for the next but then
asking her opinion on what she would think would suit a nine
you’re starving and that really annoyed me, could have been
year old girl.
quicker.
[Informant No. 5, Male]
[Informant No. 25, Female]
He continues,
Similarly, another informant described the way in which she
ordered her food and beverages at a café (service process). While And she had this amazing insight because I was really confused
this was not her preferred method for placing an order at a café, about a red and a blue dress and jeans and a pair of shoes but of
she indicated that the service process was quick and easy: course I couldn’t afford it all at the same time so I asked her a
simple question, that if you were me, step in to my shoes,
At Mrs S [café] you basically have to go up and order, which is
which one would you buy for your little girl who's about nine
fine but I usually prefer for waiters to come and take my order.
years old? She said I’d certainly buy the red dress and sub-
It was really quick and easy; we ordered cakes and coffee,
consciously I was aiming for the red dress and I really liked it
which is just listed on the board so you pick whatever coffee
and so I really went for the red dress and I also really wanted
you prefer. The cakes also came quite quickly to our table after
her opinion on the pair of shoes that matches with the red
ordering.
dress. And surprisingly again there were a bunch of shoes you
[Informant No. 15, Female]
know like seven, eight pairs with different designs and differ-
In digital settings, customers predominantly base their eva- ent colors but she pointed out to the pair that I liked the most
luations of the digital processes on ease of use (Kim and Stoel, and I did you know tell her explicitly that I wanted those pair of
2004), and the responsiveness and timeliness of the technology shoes. So I guess that's a positive experience in a way.
(Yang and Jun, 2002). For instance, an informant described how he [Informant No. 5, Male]
had difficulty in paying for the products purchased from an online
Based on the above response, the interviewer asked the in-
electronics retailer due to the long wait for the page to load and
formant whether the sales assistant helped in reducing his con-
the responsiveness of the website:
fusion relating to the purchase. The informant's response con-
I’ve had a couple difficulties with them [online electronics re- firmed that the employee interaction played a significant role in
tailer] in terms of once you purchase products it goes to his purchase:
 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19 15

With the point of purchase information I had almost made up 4.6. Customer–customer interaction elements
my mind like 80% and there was a little gap there and kind of
filled in that. With her inputs I was more motivated and it The analysis of the interview transcripts has shown that in
closed the deal. retail and service exchanges, customers interact directly or in-
[Informant No. 5, Male] directly with other customers. Such social interactions and/or
presence of other customers were found to impact customer ex-
Employee–customer interactions are not limited to direct face- perience. This was seen to be especially common in the pre-pur-
to-face encounters in-store; rather, employees interact with cus- chase stage. This could be due to the fact that when customers are
tomers through many retail channels such as telephone, email and searching for and/or evaluating a particular retailer, they often rely
online forums. For instance, when describing the search and eva- on word-of-mouth feedback from personal and familiar sources or
luation stages of the experience, an informant described how seek feedback from individuals who have prior experience with
employees assisted her via email or telephone: the retailer. For instance, when searching for a hotel for stay, an
informant indicated that she perused online blogs and reviews:
If let's say an item doesn’t actually have my size, there's an
email page where I can email them and ask them if this size is I looked at a couple of blogs, TripAdvisor was another one I
available and they’ll usually respond within a couple of days … looked at, and then just some general reviews like on Google.
one day's about 24 h. After which if they tell me they don’t Like if I Googled the hotel, reviews and people were putting up
have my size, what I usually would do is I’ll call up the different photos and comments. Being a special occasion for my mum I
retail boutiques in eastern states because in Perth there's only a wanted to make sure that we were getting the right price and
couple of them and in the eastern states they stock most of the the right experience that we were looking for.
styles that I like. And if I call up they’re usually very friendly [Informant No. 1, Female]
with me and they will check the stock for me even if it's a sale
The interviewer followed up on this response by asking the
item because most places if it's a sales item they usually do not
informant how important the reviews were in her forming the
check the stock for me. Once if they do not have the stock, they
decision to book a hotel. The informant confirmed that the cus-
tell me ‘you might want to call this other boutique, this other
tomer reviews played a significant role in her decision whether or
Leona Edmiston [fashion apparel retailer] outlet might have it.’
not she would book a hotel:
So they are pretty good with responding with my request and
also they will tell me what's the charge. I definitely think that it makes a huge difference in whether I will
[Informant No. 11, Female] go ahead and make a hotel booking. It influences me more mainly
I think if you get negative feedback.
Employee–customer interactions also can have a detrimental [Informant No. 1, Female]
influence on the experience, causing customers to negatively
evaluate their encounter. For instance, an informant explained that She further continued to explain how negative reviews have a
she had a negative experience at a café when having to wait a stronger impact on her decision to not book a hotel,
significant amount of time for someone to acknowledge her and Even if there's a variation in the good reviews like some people
take her order: saying 'it was amazing and out of this world' and then others
saying “it was just good”. But I think when you get a negative
We went in there to order a coffee and we had to wait at least
review or a couple of negative reviews, which I’ve had experi-
about fifteen minutes for someone to come and take an order.
ences with other hotels where I was thinking of booking it and
[Informant No. 6, Female]
then I read back to back bad reviews and then that straight away
just puts you off. Especially if it's saying something about “this
She continues,
hotel looks like this on their website but it doesn’t look like that
I mean for someone to be passing numerously, I mean it was in real life”.
not just one staff member it was one waiters, it's like a couple [Informant No. 1, Female]
of them, taking turns and going around and checking every-
During the purchase stage of the customer journey, especially
body has their food. But none of them has come up and said
in physical store environments, customers come into contact with
you know ‘have you all got your order?’ To me that is very poor
other customers directly through specific interpersonal encounters
customer service.
or indirectly as part of the retail environment (Bitner, 1992). In-
[Informant No. 6, Female]
teraction with other customers, whether direct or indirect, can
have a significant affect on the customer experience (Söderlund,
She further continued to explain how she felt about the staff
2011). For instance, an informant indicated that the indirect in-
members at the café,
teraction with other customers at a restaurant spoiled her dining
The staff was not being trained properly and they were ignor- experience:
ant, they have no sense of customer service, they don’t know
We went to a restaurant for dinner to celebrate our wedding
what customer service means. It's very poor, very appalling.
anniversary. The restaurant was quite pricy so I was expecting
[Informant No. 6, Female] high quality food and service … The dinner was great except for
the people at the table next to us. They were so loud, shouting,
Thus, it can be seen that the employee–customer interaction
singing and getting quite drunk, which was very inappropriate
can have positive or negative influence on a customer's evalua-
in this formal dining area. I was struggling to hear my partner
tions of his/her experience. This interface is not limited to in-store
who was sitting next to me, that really frustrated me … This
interactions alone, as employees interact with customers through
ruined what would have been a wonderful evening.
other channels such as telephone, email and online chat. Fur-
[Informant No. 21, Female]
thermore, our anlysis based on the sequential incident technique,
highlights that the employee–customer interaction occurs at dif- Customer–customer interactions were also found to occur
ferent touch points across different stages of the customer journey. post-purchase. An informant described a conversation he had with
16 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19

another customer at the Apple store (electronics store) when he She continues,
went to the store to return a faulty product:
We were so disgusted like not only was the service shocking
I went to the Apple store [electronics store] to take back my but the food; a simple piece of toast was inedible. How hard is
Apple TV because it had stopped working … I made a Genius it to make a piece of toast? Their actual core product, what
appointment so I didn’t have to wait too long for service. When they’re named after was horrible. I could have done a better job
I was waiting another customer came up to me and asked what with my toaster at home.
the problem with my Apple TV was. I told them that the remote [Informant No. 12, Female]
was not responding when I clicked certain buttons. They told
me that the same issue happened to them a few months ago In this instance, the direct product encounter not only caused
and they brought the Apple TV back and Apple replaced it with negative emotions during the experience at the touch point, but
a new one free of charge. By the time the Apple employee came also caused unfavorable customer intentions that may carry over
to discuss my issue, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect to the next stage of the customer journey, with the customer in-
based on the conversation I had just had with the other tending to spread negative feedback by word-of-mouth.
customer. During experiences with retailers, customers also encounter
[Informant No. 9, Male] product elements that contribute to the evaluation of their ex-
perience at the touch point. For instance, during the airline con-
An analysis of the above narratives clearly shows that custo- sumption stage (i.e., the in-flight experience), customers en-
mer–customer interactions occur during different stages across counter numerous tangible features such as the seats and en-
the customer journey. The analysis also shows that customer– tertainment systems. An informant described his direct encounter
customer interactions feature across different physical and digitals during his in-flight experience with two airlines, Virgin Australia
retail channels. and Air New Zealand during his codeshare flights, by stating:

4.7. Product interaction elements I traveled from Auckland to Melbourne on Air New Zealand and
Melbourne to Perth on Virgin Airlines … The quality of the
Product interactions involve the direct or indirect interactions seats on Virgin was great; even economy class had leather
customers have with the core tangible or intangible product of- seats. Air New Zealand had standard material type seats.
fered by the retailer. Our analysis shows that customers interact [Informant No. 14, Male]
with the core tangible or intangible product offered by retailers at
He further described his experience with the entertainment
various touch points. For example, as pointed out by an informant
system on both airlines, as below:
(Informant No. 12), product interactions at cafes involve the food
and beverages offered, while product interactions at Internet ser- The entertainment system on the Air New Zealand flight was
vice providers include the tangible hardware and the intangible really horrible because it was taking time to start the movie or
Internet service provided (e.g., internet speed and reliability of the when you press enter it's like at least 20 or 30 seconds to
internet connection). As illustrated by the following extracts, perform the action. It's really very slow. I kind of gave up a
product interactions can take place in both physical and digital number of times. Literally I could not enjoy the entertainment
channels. For instance, an informant (Informant No. 13) indicated system at all on the Air New Zealand flight. Virgin Australia, the
that the indirect product interaction in a digital channel (social partner, was perfect, excellent. It had a touch screen and you
media – Instagram) influenced her to buy the product from the have a remote still, but the touch screen is much more con-
online store: venient and prompt. You touch anything and straight away it
goes to the action so it was a very good experience flying with
When I ordered the top and shorts, the reason why I got it was
Virgin Australia.
because they have really amazing pictures on their Instagram
[Informant No. 14, Male]
and I think that's what really sells their products. The pictures
pretty much shows the fabrics and the designs and then I saw a From the above extracts, it is evident that interactions with
couple of things come up in my Instagram that I really liked the products, including both direct and indirect encounters, play a
top then I was looking for summer denim shorts so from there I significant role in the retail experience at different touch points
just went on my Instagram and then went straight to their across the customer journey.
website and then selected in the order of tops and bottoms Overall, the data analysis provides sufficient support for re-
what I wanted, put it in the cart that they have on their website cognizing distinct elements of customer experience touch points.
and ordered it. The use of the sequential incident technique enabled us to identify
[Informant No. 13, Female] touch points (episodes) at different stages along the customer
journey. The frequency of accounts for each touch point element
The above example clearly shows how an indirect experience
by stage in the customer journey presented in Table 4 illustrates
with a product in an online channel can influence future pur-
that all touch point elements arise during the customer journey,
chases. Another informant described her direct experience with
including the search, evaluation, purchase and post-purchase
the product in a physical channel (café) during the consumption
stages.
stage of the customer journey:

Once our food came out we were horrified. It was gross. I or-
dered a freshly squeezed juice but it looked so poorly juiced the 5. Discussion
water started to separate, it looked like old or something …
Then my sister's toast, in which they’re meant to specialize in, Through an inductive qualitative research approach, we built
was as hard as a rock, smeared with a bit of butter. I was so an in-depth and holistic understanding of customer experience
angry like basically furious, I want to complain so badly but I touch points. Based on the thematic analysis of the semi-struc-
was too hungry to complain. I’ll never go back and I’ll tell tured interviews, we identified seven distinct elements of custo-
anyone I know not to go there! mer experience touch points, including; atmospheric, technologi-
[Informant No. 12, Female] cal, communicative, process, employee–customer interaction,
 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19 17

Table 4 journey where the touch point occurs. This could be due to the fact
Touch point element accounts across the customer journey. that in physical retailer and service provider channels, atmo-
spheric aspects such as the layout, colors, lighting, music and
Touch point elements Customer Journey Total
scents provide visual and sensory stimuli that may influence
Search Evaluation Purchase Post- customer appraisals of the retail environment (Eroglu et al., 2003).
purchase On the other hand, in digital environments the colors, graphics,
music, layout and design provide atmospheric features (Eroglu
Atmospheric 13 8 27 7 55
Technological 15 6 17 9 47
et al., 2003; Rose et al., 2012) that facilitate the formation of ex-
Communicative 14 5 15 10 44 perience impressions (Gentile et al., 2007).
Process 7 4 18 3 32 Our findings also illustrate that not all elements arise at each
Employee–customer 9 7 23 6 45 touch point; rather touch points are made up of varying combi-
interaction
nations of the identified elements. In addition, touch points may
Customer–customer 8 4 14 3 29
interaction comprise as little as one or as many as all of the touch point ele-
Product interaction 11 13 26 8 58 ments. For example, in the context of a café customer journey, a
Total 77 47 140 44 310 customer who is searching for a café online may interact with
atmospheric (website design), product interaction (images), tech-
nological (online), customer–customer interaction (customer re-
customer–customer interaction and product interaction elements. views of the café) and communicative elements (online café pro-
Our finding that atmospherics is a distinct element of customer motions). Once a customer finds a café that he/she would like to
experience touch points is consistent with past research, which visit, he/she may call the café to make a reservation, which in-
suggests that the physical environment experienced by customers cludes process and employee–customer interaction elements.
influences consumer evaluations and responses (Turley and Mil- When a customer dines at a café, atmospheric, product interaction,
liman, 2000). The atmospheric element essentially covers the process, employee–customer interaction, customer–customer in-
physical characteristics that customers observe in their sur- teraction and communicative elements form the touch point. After
roundings when interacting with any part of the retailer/service purchase, the customer may have a conversation about the café
provider. Our research also shows technological aspects to be with a friend and recommend that they visit the café (customer–
important elements in customers’ encounters at different touch customer interaction element). Thus, drawing from the findings of
points. This could be explained by the recent technological in- the study it can be seen that the elements which are relevant to
novations, in particular the internet and mobile apps, which have the customer at a particular touch point, together, constitute each
revolutionized the retailing and service landscape, enabling re- touch point experience.
tailers and service providers to engage customers in service co-
production electronically in lieu of interaction with frontline em- 5.1. Implications
ployees (Lin and Hsieh, 2011).
The emergence of communication as a distinct touch point Research to date has predominantly considered customer ex-
element can be supported by the fact that customers make better perience as an overall evaluation based on an accumulation of
decisions leading to positive evaluations of their encounter when experiences (e.g., Rose et al. (2012)). Such considerations however
the quality of information is relevant to the customer (Shankar restrict the understanding of the key moments of truth between
et al., 2003). Similarly, our study shows that process elements play the customer and the retailer. In this study, we explored individual
a considerable role in customer assessments of their experience at touch points by identifying and defining the distinct elements that
various touch points. This finding is in highlighted in past research comprise customer experience touch points in multichannel retail
that suggests that the process customers take in order to achieve a contexts. Through our intricate study, we extend the current body
particular outcome plays an important role in shaping their per- of knowledge on customer experience by uncovering several dis-
ceptions and evaluations of retail and service provider encounters tinct touch point elements that form the basis for subjective and
(van Riel et al., 2012). contextual customer experience evaluations at different touch
Our study also finds that customer interactions with employees points.
of the retailer are an important aspect of the customers' encounter Furthermore, it has been widely recognized that customer ex-
at different touch points. This is in line with past research that perience is contextual, subjective and perceptual, and is thus dif-
points out that the interaction between customers and front-line ficult to measure and assess. In this study, we were able to capture
employees plays a significant role in the customer experience in the dynamic, procedural nature of the customer experience, which
retail and service environments (Brady and Joseph Cronin, 2001). is subjective and perceptual to the individual customer, by em-
Similarly, we found that customer–customer interactions play an ploying a sequential incident technique. This enabled us to elicit
important role in the customer experience. This could be because detailed descriptions of the touch points a customer encounters in
in retail settings other customers within the exchange venue are the course of the customer journey, thus providing a significant
observable (Brocato et al., 2012). Such social interactions and/or contribution to the customer experience literature.
presence of other customers can have a profound impact on cus- The results of the study offer managers an understanding of the
tomer experience during the encounter at the touch point. Fur- distinct touch point elements that occur along the customer
thermore, the product interaction elements which emerged as a journey that enhance customer experience. To gain a complete
customer experience touch point element in our study is in line end-to-end understanding of the customer journey, managers will
with Hoch (2002) who pointed out that customers experience the be able to draw from these insights and conduct ‘touch point
product when they search for, examine, consume and evaluate mapping’. Customer journey maps incorporate the view of (i) the
products and services. These include the direct (e.g., product customer journey process, (ii) retail channels, and (iii) relevant
usage) to indirect (e.g., seeing product displays) encounters, de- elements at each touch point. Mapping of key touch points and
pending on a customer's level of interaction with a product. identifying the distinct elements at each touch point relevant to
It is evident from the findings of this study that different touch various retail channels will provide managers with a deeper in-
points comprise distinct elements, which may vary based on the sight into the entire customer journey. The findings from this re-
retail channel of the touch point and the stage in the customer search emphasize that touch point identification and
18 A. Stein, B. Ramaseshan / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 30 (2016) 8–19

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