Influence of Customer Experience Dimensions on Purchase behaviour in Kenyan Hotels

Abstract

Customer experience has been found to be a competitive edge for many hospitality industries. The growth and survival of many hotel industries depend on its ability to manage and create memorable experience. Research on customer experience tends to focus more on managerial outcomes than on the theories underlying the antecedents and consequences of experiences. Whilst realizing the gap between traditional quality management practices and what customers desire from their experiences, firms are challenged to define experience, identify its determinants, make it operational and manage its implementation effectively. This study aimed at assessing customer experience and its relative effects on customer emotions and purchase behavior in the Kenyan hotel industry. The study adopted Berry and Carbone’s conceptualization of customer experience and Shen and Zhao (2005) indicators to measure purchase behavior. A mixed exploratory research design was adopted to conduct the research where selfadministered questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data. The study assessed luxury hotels within Nairobi (20), Kisumu (1) and Mombasa (10) since they had a clear and consistent organizational structure and can give more insight into experiences because of their experienced and demanding clientele. The study population was 5,800 guests staying in the hotels. A total of 361 guests were selected as the sample size using multi stage sampling procedure. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics which involved use of means, percentages and tests for normality and inferential statistics which included the use of correlation, principal axis factor analysis and regression. The research findings indicate that the respondents agree with all the 35 dimensions as describing their perceptions about customer experience in the hotel given that all the means of the 35 customer dimensions was > 4. The results proved that customer experience is composed of three set of clues (humanic, functional and mechanic) which impact on customers perception of overall customer experience. Regression results also showed that of the three customer experience factors, only humanic clue factor had significant influence on purchase behavior (β = .17, t = 1.94, p = .05), with the rest of the two factors having no significant influence. The implication of this finding was that any efforts towards enhancing customer experiences in a hotel should focus primarily on aspects of a hotel operation that are equally important to the customer. While acknowledging the importance of all aspects of the hotel operation, managers should recognize the significance of each aspect in influencing purchase behavior.