The Relationships of Design Thinking, Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty and Word of Mouth

Both consumers and businesses have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer behavior is negatively impacted by this disruptive environment, particularly for online users of digital goods and services from many industries. Due to the shift in consumer behavior, businesses have had to develop or enhance their existing products to become online digital products. In order to foster customer experience, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty—behaviors that are anticipated to be an enabler for an effective word-of-mouth marketing communication strategy—this study aims to examine the role of design thinking, a system thinking that is believed to provide an effective design process of a product or service that suits customer needs. 256 respondents who have utilized digital products via the internet. The finding confirms that the optimal path towards positive word-of-mouth can be achieved through design thinking and customer experience. Therefore, by paying attention to the factors that shape word-of-mouth promotion, the company can control it so that it is possible to manage it for the long-term interest.