Personalized touchpoints and customer experience: A conceptual synthesis

Customers desire personalized touchpoints, and practitioners largely agree that such touchpoints constitute an essential success factor for firm and customer performance. To date, however, research has investigated the concepts of personalization and customer experience (CX) separately. Adopting a CX lens on personalization, this research draws on the findings of a conceptual synthesis of 293 articles to gain a better understanding of the effect of personalized touchpoints on CX. We find that personalization affects all CX responses, influenced by the characteristics of personalized touchpoints (touchpoint nature, customer journey stage, and personalization design). We discuss key customer contingency factors (i.e., privacy concerns and trust, proficiency, and personality traits) for the effect of personalized touchpoints on CX. This research highlights, among others, the benefits of the CX structure for personalization research to systemize its findings and the need for managers to holistically understand CX responses to personalized touchpoints.