Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mehdi Alirahimi ¹
• Karim Hamdi ²
• Hormoz Mehrani ³
• Esmaeil Kavousi ⁴

¹ Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management and Economics,Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

³ Department of Management, Ghazali Institute of Higher Education, Qazvin, Iran

⁴ Department of Cultural Management, Faculty of Management, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

In a world where market conditions always change, relying only on advertising is not enough to gain consumers' attention. Building brand awareness, attention, and even choice is clearly more difficult than it was a century ago. Customer experience management is one of the methods that is increasingly used to solve this problem. Business leaders and marketing researchers believe that customer experience is important in the company's competitiveness and call it the basic pillar of marketing management. On the other hand, consumers who are exposed to a multitude of options from different sources with multiple offers, containing a set of features and benefits, are confused about a specific choice. This can be especially confusing when it comes to choosing a service, especially one like insurance. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to provide a model of the background and consequences of customers' experience of confusion in choosing an insurance company. In this research, the researchers have used a mixed (qualitative-quantitative) approach. For this purpose, the first study, was to know the components of customers' experience of confusion in choosing an insurance company from the foundation data approach, and in the second study, the model was tested using the quantitative method of structural equation modelling. The required data in the first study was collected through semi-structured interviews with managers and experts in the insurance industry and in the quantitative part by a questionnaire taken from the results of the qualitative part, which the customers of the insurance companies completed. The researchers reached theoretical saturation by conducting fifteen interviews and finally extracted and coded 191 open codes and presented their results in the form of six main dimensions including customer confusion (consequence), customer experience (core), brand equity (strategy) damage stage (causal conditions), brand reputation (contextual conditions) and online sales (intervening conditions). Then, it is related to the test of the obtained model. The data analysis in this section showed that the variable of brand reputation on brand equity is (3.047), customer experience on brand equity is (3.286), customer experience is on confusion (4.889). Damage stage has an effect on customer experience by (5.712) and brand equity has an effect on confusion by (4.718). The evaluation of the research model in the quantitative part showed that the damage stage had the greatest impact on customer experience, and the impact of customer experience on confusion and brand value on confusion was in the next ranks. Regarding choosing the services of insurance companies, what will create a positive experience for customers is the provision of fast and complete services (timely and complete payment of damages), which in turn reduces confusion. To achieve success in the ever-increasing competition, an insurance company must pay attention to the changing needs of its customers and, at the same time, pay special attention to customer experience management and reduce confusion to be more successful and dynamic than its competitors. In the end, suggestions are provided to create a pleasant experience and reduce customer confusion.

Keywords

• brand equity
• customer confusion
• Customer experience
• insurance industry
• mix method approach