Research Journal of Economics & Business Studies - RJEBS - The ...

quality measures the outcome of service processes perceived by customers within a given context. The
focus of research about customer experience has been customer’s cognitive based perception of
predetermined attribute dimensions that measures the outcome of service processes.
Customer experiences encompasses every aspect of a company’s offering – the quality of customer
care, of course, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and
reliability. Customer satisfaction is essentially the culmination of series of customer experiences or
even one could say the net result of the good ones minus the bad ones. Customer experience is the
internal and subjective response customers have to have any direct or indirect contact with a company.
A successful brand shapes customer’s experiences by embedding the fundamental value proposition
offering’s every feature. More recently, marketing managers have shifted their emphasis to creating
value for their customers (Clutterbuck and Goldsmith, 1998; Fudenberg, 2000 and McAlexander et al.,
2002). The current trend in marketing is to create engaging and lasting experiences for the customers
(Macmillan and McGrath, 1997; Carbone, 1998; Pine and Gilmore, 1998; Rowley, 1999; Wyner,
2000; Calhoun, 2001; Arussy, 2002; Berry et al., 2002; Gilmore and Pine, 2002 and Lamperes, 2002).
Delivering Total Customer Experience (TCE) goes beyond mere customer satisfaction and is a
relatively new concept since satisfied customers could still defect (Jones and Sasser, 1995). The
provision of superior service quality has been accepted as an important source of customer retention
and loyalty, which may ultimately lead to superior competitive performance (see Parasurman et al.,
1985, 1988, 1991a; Zeithaml et al., 1996; Dawkins and Reichheld, 1990; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990;
Berry and Parasurman, 1994). According to Parasurman et al. (1991b) customer loyalty can be
achieved by organisations that display consistency, reliability and fairness in the provision of their
service. They further argue organisations making realistic promises about delivery are more likely to
capitalize on superior service delivery. The literature of services marketing and the service experience
has been concerned to identify the way in which customers experience different service environments,
a key concept is the service encounter. Shostack (1985) defines the service encounter to be: ``a period
of time during which a customer directly interacts with a service'' (Shostock, 1985).
Experiences are private intangible events that occur in response to some stimulation. ‘Customer
experience’ is not an incidental value but an essential and intrinsic value where the products and
services are understood from the customer’s point of view and to interpret their consumption by
appealing to their senses and feelings in the process. Customer experience management hits on the
customer’s psychology and emotional satisfaction and appeals. Thus creates totally a new customer
value that influence customer’s life styles.
Customer Experiences are private events that occur in response to some stimulation. Experiences
involve the entire living being. They often result from direct observation and /or participation in events
– whether they are real, dreamlike or virtual (Holbrook and Hirschmann (1982), Berry, Schmitt (1999),
Carbone and Haeckel (2002), Spiller and Noci (2007), Meyer and Schwager (2007), Naylor et al.,
(2008), Ailawadi et al (2009). Sara Sandstorm et al (2008) describes value in use through service
experience in technology based services and suggests that service experience is the total functional and
emotional value of consumed service. Peter C. Verhoef et al (2009) provide a holistic portrayal of the
customer experience construct; propose a conceptual model delineating its determinants. Also argue
that prior customer experiences will influence future customer experience. There were numerous
studies supporting the aspects of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.( Beatty et al (1996),
Cronin et al (2000), Parasuraman et al (1988), de Ruyter, K and Bloemer, J (1999), Day (1969), Dick
and Basu (1994), Jarvis and Wilcox (1977), Pritchandand (CR) & Howard (1997), Kotler (1984),
Kotler and Singh (1981).
Though companies started recognizing the need to create economic value for their valuable customers
in the form of wonderful experiences, there is lack of research designed to identify and measure the
dimensions that completely depicts the customer experience, which the study made by Verhoef et al
(2009) clearly points out that researchers and practitioners need to understand the dimensions of a
consumer experience as a separate construct. Customer experience has not been treated as a separate
construct nor has been explored in depth from a theoretical perspective. It is necessary that an
empirical research needs to be done to test the various dimensions of the customer experience.
www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJEBS: Volume: 02, Number: 09, July-2013 Page 54