Customer Experience: Are We Measuring the Right Things?

Abstract

Marketing theory and practice evolved dramatically through a series of transformations from products to services and, recently, customer experiences. Each stage has its own perspective on marketing's purpose, the nature of customer value, and measurements that calibrate performance and guide managerial decisions. The latter is of particular interest to market researchers. Measurement (research) typically lags behind changes in marketing theory due to institutional factors and the time it takes for new practices to diffuse. The authors posit that firms still measure customer experience against criteria more suited to evaluating product and service marketing. Research practice seems rooted in 1990s notions of service quality, itself an outgrowth of total quality management (TQM) originating in manufacturing during the 1980s. The authors argue that market researchers will serve their organisations and customers better if they take an active role in updating the customer experience measurement commensurate with advances in the conceptualisation of that which firms offer customers.

Model of Customer Experience and Purchase Intention in Online Environment

“…In a prior era of marketing journalism, organization's main focus was on fast moving consumer goods in terms of providing best products with different attributes (Klaus, Gorgoglione, Buonamassa, Panniello, & Nguyen, 2013) but this focus has less significance as compared to customer experience in recent times (Maklan & Klaus, 2011). Additionally, the center of attention in customer perspective is the experience that they acquire when they utilize products and services (Biswas, 2009).…”

Exploring the Relationship between Experiential Marketing and Experiential Value in the Smartphone Industry

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AbstractThe rapid evolution of marketing that focuses from product to service to experience has challenged the marketing researchers to engage experiential marketing approach in designing the marketing strategies by involving customers (Maklan & Klaus, 2011). Most of the smart phone producers have started to embed the concepts of experiential marketing and experiential value in positioning and promoting their products via a series of advertising campaigns.

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Customer Experience Management in the Hotel Industry: Principles, Theory and Practice

“…According to [16], the transformation of the marketing concept begins with creating a brand, then the formation of marketing-based services, and, at this time, creating a customer experience is one focus of marketing for several companies in attracting and retaining customers.…”

“…The paradigm shift from a product-based marketing into a service-based marketing has been recognized in the 1990s [16]. The marketing concept emphasizes the relationship between the organization and customers in addition to the intrinsic utility of the goods and services offered [17]; [18]; [19]; [20].…”

“…[26]. While each evolutionary marketing perspective has its own conceptualization and terminology, they offer, for the most part, parallel perspective and commensurate on the changing focus of the marketing practices and the value of enterprise bargaining [16]. Post service marketing in the reality of marketing is essentially to create value for its customers, a popular phrase on previous research is the customer experience [27]; [28]; [29].…”