Effects of customer experience across service types, customer types and time

Abstract

Purpose -This study aims to investigate the relevance of customer experience quality (EXQ) across three different aspects. It compares the effect of EXQ on customer attitudes for hedonic vs utilitarian services; regular vs new customers; and new customers if they revisit or become regular customers. Design/methodology/approach -The study uses a survey design with structured questionnaires and established scales. Part of the data is collected using a longitudinal survey. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used as analytical techniques. Findings -Major findings indicate a stronger effect of EXQ on consumer attitudes for a hedonic service. The effect of EXQ is found to be different on attitude variables for new and existing customers. A temporal change is observed for the new customers when they become regular.Research limitations/implications -The findings emphasize on the differential effect of EXQ depending on the service type and customer type. The findings also support the temporal nature of customer experience. Practical implications -The findings emphasize on the role of customer experience in retaining customers. The findings further imply that a service provider should consider the effect of experience both during and post-consumption for better service delivery and growth. Originality/value -The novelty of the study lies in the comparison of the effects of experience across different service types. In addition, longitudinal exploration of changing effects of customer experience is tested for the first time as per the author's knowledge.

Making sense of customer service experiences: a text mining review

“…Although there is widespread contemporary agreement on the importance of the concept of CSE, there are still divergent views on what constitutes CSE. In the past few decades, various research disciplines have presented an increasing number of scholarly articles showing different perspectives on (re-) defining, analyzing and capturing CSE (De Keyser et al, 2015;Helkkula, 2011;Klaus and Maklan, 2012;Lemon and Verhoef, 2016;Lipkin, 2016;Roy, 2018). Reviewing these different perspectives on CSE research is helpful for understanding how scholars arrived at the five dimensions (physical, social, cognitive, affective and sensorial) of CSE.…”

“…With rapidly changing service landscapes, the need to understand, manage and design better customer service experiences (CSE) becomes inevitable for service managers and researchers alike (Roy, 2018). In total, 81 per cent of global marketers' report that they mainly compete on the basis of customer experience (Gartner, 2018).…”

The Power of Senses

“…In a rapidly changing service landscape, service providers face new challenges that require a more sophisticated focus on CSE, beyond the onetime boosting of sales . The realm of CSE is the next competitive battlefield for service providers, who consistently seek innovative ways to outperform their competitors (Roy 2018). Increasing interest from both practitioners and academics has led to a growing amount of literature on this topic (De Keyser et al 2015).…”

“…In the last decades, various research disciplines presented an increasing number of scholarly articles showing different perspectives on (re-) defining, analyzing, and capturing CSE (e.g. De Keyser et al, 2015;Helkkula, 2011;Klaus and Maklan, 2012;Lemon and Verhoef, 2016;Lipkin, 2016;Roy, 2018).…”

“…With rapidly changing service landscapes the need to understand, manage and design better customer service experiences (CSE) becomes inevitable for service managers and researchers alike (Roy, 2018). 81% of global marketers' report that they compete mostly on the basis of customer experience (Gartner, 2018).…”