Purpose

Effective customer journey design (ECJD) is considered a key variable in customer experience management and an essential source of brand meaning and pro-brand behavior. Although previous research has confirmed its importance for driving brand attitudes and loyalty, the role of consumer-brand identification as a social identity-based influence in this relationship has not yet been discussed. Drawing on construal level and social identity theories, this paper aims to investigate whether effective journeys and the resulting overall journey experience are equally powerful in driving brand loyalty among customers with different levels of consumer-brand identification.

Design/methodology/approach

The present article develops and tests a research model using data from the European and US service sectors (N = 1,454) to investigate how and when ECJD affects service brand loyalty.

Findings

Across two cultural contexts, four service industries and 33 service brands, the results reveal that ECJD is a crucial driver of service brand loyalty for customers with low consumer-brand identification. Moreover, the findings show that different aspects of journey effectiveness positively impact the valence of customers’ experience related to those journeys – a process that is ultimately decisive for their brand loyalty.

Originality/value

This study is unique because it generates theoretical and practical knowledge by combining the literature streams of customer journey design, customer experience and branding. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that consumer-brand identification is a critical boundary condition to be considered in the relationship between ECJD and brand loyalty in services.

中文翻译：

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有效的客户旅程如何以及何时提升品牌忠诚度：消费者品牌识别的作用

目的

有效的客户旅程设计（ECJD）被认为是客户体验管理的关键变量，也是品牌意义和亲品牌行为的重要来源。尽管之前的研究已经证实了其对于推动品牌态度和忠诚度的重要性，但消费者品牌识别作为这种关系中基于社会身份的影响力的作用尚未得到讨论。本文利用解释水平和社会认同理论，旨在研究有效的旅程和由此产生的整体旅程体验是否同样有效地提高具有不同消费者品牌认同水平的客户的品牌忠诚度。

设计/方法论/途径

本文使用来自欧洲和美国服务业的数据 ( N  = 1,454) 开发并测试了一个研究模型，以调查 ECJD 如何以及何时影响服务品牌忠诚度。

发现

在两种文化背景、四个服务行业和 33 个服务品牌中，结果表明 ECJD 是消费者品牌认同度较低的客户服务品牌忠诚度的关键驱动力。此外，研究结果表明，旅程有效性的不同方面会对与这些旅程相关的客户体验的价值产生积极影响——这一过程最终对他们的品牌忠诚度起决定性作用。

原创性/价值

这项研究的独特之处在于它通过结合客户旅程设计、客户体验和品牌的文献流产生了理论和实践知识。此外，这项工作表明，消费者品牌识别是 ECJD 与服务品牌忠诚度之间关系中需要考虑的关键边界条件。