Edinburgh Napier University

  Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to extant research which emphasises the need for service suppliers to be able to leverage firm‐customer relationships through an understanding of the correlation between service touch‐points and engagement parameters.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors utilised multivariate methods (CATPCA and Pro‐fit) to analyse the data. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 238 respondents, sampled through the social networking site, “Facebook”.

Findings
It was found from the analysis of data that within the context of customer engagement, four critical parameters (“satisfaction”, “loyalty/advocacy”, “recruitment/retention” and “customer losses”) impact on customer touch‐points.

Research limitations/implications
The study is characterised by two limitations. The first is that the respondents' simultaneous utilisation of multiple touch‐points was not accounted for in the study. Second, the authors acknowledge that the narrow demographic spread of the respondents is a possible limitation of the study.

Originality/value
The study findings are grounded in empirical findings which is a departure from traditional scholarship on customer touch‐points which has been based on case observations and anecdotal evidence.