Customer Experience: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Application in Omnichannel Environments

Abstract

Managing customer experiences has become a key strategic priority for service research and management. Yet researchers and managers lack a customer experience (CX) measure that applies to the different experience partners, touchpoints, and journey stages in the omnichannel environments of today’s service industries. Without such a common measure, empirical research on CX remains fragmented, and service companies continue to struggle to improve customer interactions in customer journeys. To address this shortcoming, this article proposes an omnichannel-capable measurement of CX that applies to different customer interactions in the omnichannel environment. With seven studies, the authors develop and validate a six-dimensional, 18-item CX scale. The proposed CX scale overcomes the fragmentation of existing scales in service research and provides a valid measure that can be used consistently for various customer interactions in omnichannel environments. This article details how the proposed CX scale can monitor and compare CX for different interactions in customer journeys (i.e., pain-point analysis), as well as improve CX features and their marketing outcomes (i.e., CX profiling). By overcoming the existing fragmentation in available scales and providing a common omnichannel CX measure, this CX scale establishes an empirical foundation for developing CX knowledge and advancing related service research.

Authentic omnichannel: Providing consumers with a seamless brand experience through authenticity

“…Unlike the multichannel strategy, which represents a unique, unidirectional, and linear approach to value creation, omnichannel combines the perspective of both the retailer and the user. The omnichannel strategy enables companies to design and deliver superior customer experiences, leading to a competitive advantage (Gahler et al, 2022).…”

Guest Editorial: Investigating the effect of the physical context on customer experience

“…Drawing on the works of Lemke et al (2010), Lemon and Verhoef (2016) and Gahler et al (2022), we define customer experience as a customer’s accumulated, multidimensional responses to their interactions with a firm or its offering . While the customer experience construct is defined as multidimensional (see e.g.…”

“…Services marketing scholars and practitioners within the contemporary services landscape acknowledge that facilitating superior customer experiences is fundamental to organizational success (Gahler et al , 2022; Becker and Jaakkola, 2020; De Keyser et al , 2020; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). How to effectively manage customer experiences across multiple channels and via diverse interactions and touchpoints within the customer journey presents a key research priority (Stead et al , 2022; Ostrom et al , 2021) as firms seek a sustainable competitive advantage (Gahler et al , 2022).…”

“…The customer experience research field offers a depth and breadth of insight. High-quality conceptual papers synthesize extant knowledge, define the customer experience construct, relate it to other marketing constructs and models and offer informed future research trajectories (Becker and Jaakkola, 2020; Keiningham et al , 2020; Keiningham et al , 2017; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016) while empirical works have explored and measured customer experiences and customer experience quality in diverse contexts (Gahler et al , 2022; Klaus and Maklan, 2013; Lemke et al , 2010). However, despite the rich stream of research exploring service customer experiences, the effect of the physical context – that is, the offline environment in which customers interact with a service firm or its offering – is rarely the focus.…”

The Mediating Role of Brand Trust on the Effect of Customer Experience and Engagement on Brand Loyalty: A Lesson From Bukalapak

“…(Klaus & Maklan, 2013) defined customer's cognitive and affective response on every touchpoint that include direct and indirect interaction with the company. Customer experience is the subjective, directed, and multifaceted mental response of the customer to an interaction with an experience partner at any point along the customer journey (Gahler, Klein, & Paul, 2022). Customer experience can also be in the form of cognitive and affective responses to customer exposure or interactions with company (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020).…”