Resumen: Recent literature highlights the importance of touchpoints, yet fails to test empirically their long-term effects on essential customer perceptions. This study assesses the short- and long-term impacts of different provider-controlled touchpoints on firm expertise, service reliability and service excellence. A random panel dataset of more than 2, 000 customers over five years is used to test the proposed model. The results confirm that sales force and product are crucial for long-term customer perceptions, while the effect of consulting, tangibles and standardized contacts is weaker over time. The findings of this managerial-oriented study reveal how the effectiveness of touchpoints changes over time. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102520 Año: 2021 Publicado en: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 61 (2021), 102520 [10 pp] ISSN: 0969-6989 Factor impacto JCR: 10.972 (2021) Categ. JCR: BUSINESS rank: 16 / 154 = 0.104 (2021) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 11.4 - Business, Management and Accounting (Q1)