Building customer trust, loyalty, and satisfaction: The power of social media in e-commerce environments

Abstract

Businesses heavily depend on social media to engage with customers, utilizing various platforms for interaction, feedback, and promoting products. The influence of social media on customer trust, loyalty, and satisfaction is a prominent subject. This study seeks to comprehend how businesses leverage social media to attain these objectives, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The initial exploratory phase collected qualitative data from 24 business enterprises, employing grounded theory techniques such as open, axial, and selective coding to pinpoint the primary factors affecting customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. Building on the insights from the exploratory study, the research proposes a model and hypotheses. The subsequent confirmatory study employs a quantitative approach, collecting data from 300 respondents in Jordan and utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for analysis. Results underscore the pivotal roles of personalization, user-generated content, communications, word-of-mouth, emotions, promotions, and customer support as social media directions in shaping customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. This research provides valuable insights into the dynamics of how social media shapes customer relations, offering guidance to businesses navigating this ever-evolving landscape.