Online Customer Support: The determinants of Channel Choice, and the relation between Perceived Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Service Loyalty

This study attempts to give a better understanding to what extent situational characteristics and personal characteristics influence the decision to make use of a particular service channel in an environment where multiple service channels are available. Subsequently, this study attempts to identify the dimensions of perceived service quality in online customer support and provide their relation with customer satisfaction and service loyalty. The results provide that situational characteristics time pressure and involvement positively influence customers in their decision to make use of email instead of web-help. This counts likewise for the personal characteristic innovativeness. Moreover, customers who consider themselves able to make use of web-help or email have a higher intention to make use of these service channels again compared to make use of Facebook or Twitter. Apart from this, the perceived service quality dimensions responsiveness, reliability and personalisation show positive relations on customer satisfaction, which also mediates these effects on service loyalty. More specific, when support is offered by web-help higher extents of responsiveness and reliability leads to increased customer satisfaction and service loyalty, while in case support in offered by email personalisation leads to increased customer satisfaction and service loyalty.