The interplay of customer experience and commitment

Abstract

The interplay of customer experience and commitment STRUCTURED ABSTRACT Purpose -This research examines the customer experience through the lens of customer commitment and provides a framework for future research into the intersection of these emerging streams of research. Design/methodology/approach -This research contributes to theoretical and practical perspectives on the customer experience (CE) and its measurement by integrating extant literature with customer commitment and customer satisfaction literature. Findings -The breadth of the domains that encompass the customer experiencecognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social-makes simplistic metrics impossible for gauging the entirety of customers' experiences. These findings provide strong support of the need for new research into CE and customer commitment. Practical implications -Given the complexity of the CE concept, managers are unlikely to track and manage all relevant elements of CE. This research provides a framework identifying empirically the most salient attributes of the CE with particular emphasis on those elements that enhance commitment to the firm or brand. This should offer insight into service design to correspond with specific commitment and experience dimensions. Originality/value -This research is the first to examine the customer experience through the lens of customer commitment-a key factor in customer loyalty, positive word of mouth and other desired outcomes for managers and marketers. We provide a framework for future research into this emerging topic. The interplay of customer experience and commitmentCustomer Experience Management (CEM) is being hailed as the next competitive battleground for firms to grow market share. In fact, research by Gartner finds that by 2017, 89%of companies plan to compete primarily on the basis of the customer experience (CE) (Gartner, 2016). Moreover, a new industry of CEM professionals has recently emerged to address the rapidly growing demand by businesses for expertise in the field.Despite this emphasis, however, there is no general consensus among managers or academics regarding what comprises the CE. As a result, it is difficult to ascertain its boundaries (e.g., how it differs from customer engagement, customer value, etc.). Consequently, there exists no consensus regarding the aspects of the CE that require assessment and metrics.This article addresses these issues by investigating the experience construct. We do this by building on the definition of CE of De Keyser et al. (2015): "Customer experience is comprised of the cognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social elements that mark the customer's direct or indirect interaction with a [set of] market actor[s]" (p. 1). Specifically, we focus on customer assessment in the cognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social domains as they relate to CE and, where possible, describe metrics designed to measure these assessments.Since the overriding goal of companies' efforts to enhance the CE is to engender commitment ...

Customer experiences in the age of artificial intelligence

“…Cognitive elements refer to “higher mental processes, such as perception, memory, language, problem solving, and abstract thinking” ( American Psychological Association, 2016 ). According to Keiningham et al (2017) , cognitive elements of a customer experience refer to the functionality, speed, and availability of a service. In addition, previous studies highlighted the emotional elements of the customer service which tend to be complex in nature.…”

Marketing concepts of customer experience in digital economy

“…89% of companies plan to compete by providing the best customer experience to their customers. More and more scientists in the field of entrepreneurship and marketing argue that improving customer experience is the next field in which the competitive advantages of companies will be built [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Fostering collaborative research for customer experience – Connecting academic and practitioner worlds

“…The workshop led to four papers and an editorial commentary in the Journal of Services Marketing (Burton et al, 2017). These papers considered: the interplay of commitment and customer experience (CE) (Keiningham et al, 2017), customer engagement and big data (Kunz et al, 2017), the importance of outcomes-based measures in for B2B customer experience management (Zolkiewski et al, 2017) and the role of emotional intelligence in moderating employee behaviour impact on organizational performance (Kearney et al, 2017). Collectively the four papers have already been cited over 150 times (Google scholar as of 09/ 04/2020), highlighting the impact and relevance of bringing together leading academics to work with business partners on the challenges that they face.…”