“Wow-Factors” for Boosting Business

Towards Explainable and Sustainable Wow Experiences with Technology

“…In considering the concept of wow as a business-boosting factor, Reunanen, Penttinen and Borgmeier [9] differentiate between two terms related to the wow experience: The wow effect, described as the result of interacting with a company, product, or service with "some kind of unique factor" (p. 590), and the wow factor, described as a certain unique attribute of a company, product, or service [9]. Their wow gap model, which is based on the SERVQUAL framework [10], assumes that wow experiences can be evoked when customer expectations are exceeded by the perceived experience of a company, product, or service.…”

“…One item was added to address visual aesthetics, which were suggested as a requirement for wow experiences [7]. One item addressed the exceeding of expectations, which is considered a central cause of wow experiences [1,7,9]. One item addressed the perception of feelings of accomplishment, as mentioned as a cause for wow experiences by [7].…”

“…Wow experiences are assumed to be unexpected or surpass the users' expectations [1,2,4,[7][8][9]. The item statement was strengthened with the addition of "by far" to obtain a more nuanced result.…”

“…The model shows the essential components before and during product use that result in a wow experience. Before use, a user is assumed to have certain expectations, which are based on their current needs, past experiences, word of mouth, and the marketing of the product [9]. Positive expectations may be accompanied by the emotion of anticipation.…”

“…Especially the differentiation between stimulation-oriented and competence-oriented, respectively sudden-and sustainable wow experiences should be considered a starting point for design and research to reflect on the methods and goals of the quest for wow experiences in product or service design. The components of the model may also help in the development of a method to find the wow-factor, i.e., unique positive attributes in a company, its products or services, as Reunanen et al [9] demanded for future wow research on an organizational level. We also encourage further testing and validation of the integrated model.…”