Investigation of the Effect of Customer Journey Experience on Customer Engagement Considering the Mediating Role of Customer Trust

Customer experience of products and services is a key determinant of sales performance. Customer experience management is the act of planning and strategizing to nurture customer loyalty and create a stable emotional relationship between customers and products with the ultimate goal of improving customer engagement. In this research, the goal was to investigate the effect of customer journey experience on customer engagement considering the mediation of customer trust in this effect. The research was an applied study in terms of purpose, a field study in terms of data collection method, and a descriptive survey in terms of implementation methodology. The statistical population comprised the customers with an experience of shopping from chain stores in Tehran. The sample size was estimated to 384 using Cochran’s formula. The data needed to test the hypotheses were collected by an 18-item questionnaire, following the confirmation of its convergent and construct validity and also the confirmation of its reliability using Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability measures. Hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling. The results showed statistical significance in the relationships between customer journey experience and customer trust and also how these two constructs affect customer engagement. The results suggest that to enhance customer experience, chain store businesses need to have a well-taught business strategy developed with the explicit purpose of proper management of interaction experiences at all touch points with customers