Do emotional and functional customer experiences influence customer satisfaction, recommendation and loyalty?

This paper investigates whether both the functional and the emotional component of customer experiences contribute to customer satisfaction, recommendation and loyalty. The research is conducted in two different contexts: hedonic experiences and services. The research results show that both components explain satisfaction, recommendation and loyalty of the customers, however the impact differs according to the context of the experience. A negative functional experience is significantly more sanctioned for services whereas a positive emotional experience is significantly more rewarded for hedonic experiences. We also find that for services destructive emotions are significantly more present in case of a negative functional experience. In the context of hedonic experiences, a positive emotional experience evokes significantly more promotional emotions.