Improving customer engagement through behavior-driven artificial intelligence recommendations and interactive platforms

Customer engagement has become a priority of firms but defining it, identifying, and measuring its drivers, and testing financial consequences, is still a work in progress. Engagement relates to the behavioral dimension of the service relationship, beyond satisfaction, and depends on customer motivation, based on affective and cognitive commitment to an activity. However, little has been done to provide deeper insights into the determinants of the customer motivation to engage in service interactions. Social media has boosted digitalization, transforming traditional unidirectional communication into a bidirectional dynamic between suppliers and consumers creating new opportunities for organizations to partner with customers. Recognizing and understanding the values customers pursue when engaging is an important challenge for suppliers. A deeper understanding of these customer values is believed to facilitate the supply of adequate tools and communication means, allowing organizations to influence customer engagement behaviors, and increase the value of the service relationship for both parties.