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This paper aims to investigate customers’ motivations and the decision-making process when choosing a channel in a “social” multichannel environment that includes social media channels, and the complementary and competitive effects compared to traditional channels within the multichannel strategy of a major European telecoms provider. A conceptual framework of multichannel customer behaviour in a “social” multichannel environment is proposed.

The study adopts an exploratory approach through 74 semi-structured interviews with customers of a major European telecoms provider who have also used social media channels to contact the company (customer-initiated contact, CIC).

Users of distinct social media channels are driven by different motivations. For instance, the social motivation for using social media is evident for Facebook users, while Twitter users are mainly driven by utilitarian considerations. Although users of different social media channels represent distinct segments in terms of behaviours and motivations, complementary effects among channels (new and traditional) are generally detected in the sense that a better customer experience is driven by the presence of multiple channels.

Data collection was performed for only one company in one industry and should be extended to other industries, although our results were confirmed by discussions with social media managers of other companies.

The research offers suggestions to develop multichannel strategies in a “social” multichannel environment.

This study advances knowledge in the multichannel management field by investigating why and how customers utilize channels in a multichannel environment that includes social media channels. The authors develop a conceptual framework of multichannel customer behaviour for CIC in a “social” multichannel environment.

The purpose of this paper is to present a multichannel segmentation approach to identifying customer segments based on actual customer channel usage in the post-purchase phase in the health insurance industry.

A multinomial regression model and count regression models were estimated to describe the profiles of customer segments and the frequency of channel usage based on generations and sociodemographic variables.

This study identified generational differences in channel usage. Single female customers from the Pre-Boomer or Baby Boomer generation and customers living in states with lower incomes are more likely to use call centres. Website users tend to live in regions with higher per capita income. Multichannel users are, on average, more frequent users of both the website and call centres. In terms of sociodemographics, they display a more heterogeneous profile.

The proposed segmentation needs to be enriched with additional variables such as customers’ health status or channel usage motivations.

Customers, who are male, married and from Generations Y and X, are more likely to use the website. Their propensity to switch to a digital channel could be investigated further to develop targeted migration strategies. Multichannel users are, on average, more frequent users of all channels. To avoid increased channel costs, segments should be analysed in terms of their size and profit potential to help allocate marketing investment more efficiently.

As opposed to existing research, the proposed segmentation approach is based on transactional data of channel usage from a real company, combined with analyses using generations and sociodemographic variables.

This study aims to capture how the association between a multichannel relational communication strategy (MRCS) and customer performance is contingent upon such customer performance (low- versus high-performance customers) and to reconcile past contradictory results in this marketing-related topic. To this end, the authors propose and validate the method of quantile regression as an unconventional, yet effective, means to proceed to that reconciliation.

This study collected data from 4,934 customers of a private pension fund firm and accounted for both firm- and customer-initiated relational communication channels (RCCs) and for customer lifetime value (CLV). This study estimated a generalized linear model and then a quantile regression model was used to account for customer performance heterogeneity.

This study finds that specific RCCs present different levels of association with performance for low- versus high-performance customers, where outcome customer performance is the dependent variable. For example, the relation between firm-initiated communication (FIC) and performance is stronger for low-CLV customers, whereas the relation between customer-initiated communication (CIC) and performance is increasingly stronger for high-CLV customers but not for low-CLV ones. This study also finds that combining different forms of FIC can result in a negative association with customer performance, especially for low-CLV customers.

The authors tested the conceptual model in one single firm in the specific context of financial services and with cross-sectional data, so there should be caution when extrapolating this study’s findings.

This study offers nuanced and precise managerial insights on recommended resource allocation along with relational communication efforts, showing how managers can benefit from adopting a differentiated-customer performance approach when designing their MRCS.

This study provides an overview of the state of the art of MRCS, proposes a contingency analysis of the relationship between MRCS and performance based on customer performance heterogeneity and suggests the quantile method to perform such analysis and help reconcile past contradictory findings. This study shows how the association between RCCs and CLV varies across the conditional quantiles of the distribution of customer performance. This study also addresses a recent call for a more holistic perspective on the relationships between independent and dependent variables.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of enriched customer data for analytical customer relationship management (CRM) in the insurance sector. In this study, online quotes from an insurer’s website are evaluated in terms of serving as a trigger event to predict churn, retention, and cross-selling.

For this purpose, the records of online quotes from a Swiss insurer are linked to records of existing customers from 2012 to 2015. Based on the data from automobile and home insurance policyholders, random forest prediction models for classification are fitted.

Enhancing traditional customer data with such additional information substantially boosts the accuracy for predicting future purchases. The models identify customers who have a high probability of adjusting their insurance coverage.

The findings of the study imply that enriching traditional customer data with online quotes yields a valuable approach to predicting purchase behavior. Moreover, the quote data provide supplementary features that contribute to improving prediction performance.

This study highlights the importance of selecting the relevant data sources to target the right customers at the right time and to thus benefit from analytical CRM practices.

This paper is one of the first to investigate the potential value of data-rich environments for insurers and their customers. It provides insights on how to identify relevant customers for ensuing marketing activities efficiently and thus avoiding irrelevant offers. Hence, the study creates value for insurers as well as customers.

Complex decision-making is often supported not by single messages but by multichannel communication packages that need to be evaluated in their own right. The purpose of this paper is to present a new analytic approach to this package evaluation task combining textual analysis, functional analysis (FA) and media synchronicity theory.

The authors combine textual analysis, FA and media synchronicity and demonstrate this in a single case analysis of a multichannel communication package offering mortgage information.

When applied to a mortgage communication package for consumers, the evaluation reveals significant problems concerning the contents and timing of mortgage information and the channels chosen to convey it.

This paper outlines a new direction for evaluating multichannel consumer information, in that it does not focus on user channel preferences but on channel requirements stemming from the communicative task to be performed.

This paper enables designers to optimize the design of multichannel communication packages and its individual components to support customer’s decision-making processes with regards to complex products.

Improving information to guide complex decision-making processes leads to better informed consumers.

Research into effective multichannel communication within marketing is in its infancy. This paper offers a new perspective by focusing on channel requirements stemming from the communicative task rather than consumers’ channel preferences.

Digital technology is revolutionizing insurance distribution allowing the insurer companies to reach customers via multichannel. The aim of this study is to segment potential customers of life insurance based on their information search, purchasing channels and personal characteristics in the digital environment.

The study uses cross-sectional research survey. In total, 422 questionnaires were collected through a convenience sample of the Romanian population. The data was segmented based on consumer information touchpoints (online vs offline), purchase channel preference (offline by a professional vs online by a standardized platform) and personal characteristics (age, marital status and children).

The channel segmentation analysis revealed that information channel preferences are the most important clustering variables, followed by purchase channel preferences, marital status, having children and age. Four distinct segments were identified: young fully offliners (23.7%), mature fully offliners (31.5%), committed online searchers (23.2%) and cross-channel onliners (21.6%).

Insurance companies should adapt their communication and distribution strategy based on multichannel segmentation and should focus on digital touchpoints with costumers.

Firstly, the paper reveals multichannel and hybrid segmentation for life insurance. Secondly, it extends the already studied retail channels with search engines and companies' websites. Thirdly, it extends the behavioural variables for channel segmentation with technology acceptance behaviour, attitude towards life insurance, knowledge about life insurance, attitude towards personal selling and quality appraisal of online information sources.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine structural and psychological factors that may affect disaster evacuees’ usage of different media channels in a multichannel media environment.

The present study uses the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake in Japan as the case study. It adopts a quantitative approach using structural equation modelling with data collected from an original questionnaire survey (n=744).

The results show that the evacuees’ usage of almost all media channels is positively related to the number of different types of media terminals they had. That said, those who were evacuated mandatorily tend to utilise internet-enabled media channels more. It is also found that traditional broadcast and internet-enabled media channels complement each other instead of displacing. Thus, multichannel appears to be an effective means for disseminating disaster information. However, it is also found that having access to a particular media channel does not necessarily mean that people will utilise it.

To fully utilise the multichannel media environment for disaster information dissemination, governments and media organisations also need to focus on the quality of the information being disseminated over both traditional broadcast and internet-enabled media channels.

Few studies have empirically examined factors that affect disaster evacuees’ usage of different media channels in a multichannel media environment. This study fills this gap and the findings may help governments and media organisations in utilising multiple media channels to disseminate disaster information.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a nuanced understanding of premium customers’ intent to adopt an interactive electronic channel (IEC) and the moderating role of social capital on perceived relative advantage (RA) in adoption.

Study findings are based on a field survey that investigates the launching of an IEC by a leading international bank in Hong Kong.

Among social capital dimensions, cognitive capital significantly weakens the relationship between efficacy of information acquisition and IEC adoption, while relational capital enhances the relationship between trust and adoption.

This paper provides a theoretical lens based on social capital theory for evaluating the moderating effects of social capital on the relationship between RA and IEC adoption by premium customers in the banking industry.

Findings provide insights for the practice of banks when trying to deliver financial services via an IEC to the premium customer segment.

This research extends the channel choice theory to the context of banking channel adoption of premium customers; provides a better understanding of the IEC and its adoption in the more complex setting of financial consultation services; and offers insights for a better understanding of fragmented findings on the relationships between adoption intention and its antecedents in response to calls for studies on contingent factors.

This paper aims to examine communication channels for in‐home service provision. In particular, it aims to focus on the joint effect of two converging trends: the increase of in‐home services involving high degrees of customer participation;and the extension of the number of channels that service firms use to communicate with customers. It seeks to assess which benefits customers desire of communication channels across in‐home service production formats and how these benefit desires determine their communication channel consideration for in‐home services.

Based on a literature review a conceptual framework was constructed. Using the association pattern technique (APT), a survey of 383 customers of a Dutch energy company was carried out. The APT enabled the authors to quantify the relationship between participative in‐home service provision situations, desired communication channel benefits, and communication channel consideration.

Results show that customers focus more strongly on functionally‐ and economically‐oriented communication channel benefits in high customer participation service formats. In contrast, socially‐oriented communication channel benefits seem more appropriate when low customer participation in the provision of in‐home services is involved. The match between benefits desired by the customer and benefits provided by a communication channel is identified as a central mechanism behind communication channel consideration for in‐home services. Furthermore, evidence is found for customer heterogeneity in desired communication channel benefits and channel consideration, based on age, education, and past channel usage.

This paper contributes to the multichannel knowledge base by hypothesizing and demonstrating how specific benefit desires arise from allowing/requiring customers to participate in in‐home service provision. The study also provides valuable insight into the mechanism behind communication channel consideration by customers during in‐home service provision.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how multichannel customers evaluate overall satisfaction across distribution channels and what the antecedents are of such satisfaction.

A survey of bank customers in Taiwan was conducted. The total number of valid questionnaires was 479. Reliability and validity were tested. Maximum likelihood procedure of LISREL 8.8 was used to test the hypothesized structural equation model.

The findings indicate that the overall satisfaction in the multichannel environment is a critical determinant of customer retention and participation. The present study also develops the antecedents of multichannel satisfaction. In the multichannel environment, perceived multichannel service quality is positively related to satisfaction, while perceived channel switching difficulty is negatively related to satisfaction.

The present study employs the stimulus‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) paradigm and the channel loyalty framework to better model customers' response to marketing activities in the multichannel distribution system.