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1 – 10 of over 18000David W. Norton and B. Joseph Pine
The article describes how to strategically analyze and stage manage the customer journey – the sequence of events that customers go through to learn about, purchase and interact…
Abstract
Purpose
The article describes how to strategically analyze and stage manage the customer journey – the sequence of events that customers go through to learn about, purchase and interact with company offerings.
Design/methodology/approach
The article explains how to develop a customer journey that implements a coherent strategic plan. One that follows a scripted sequence of events companies produce to deliver value to the customer, profitability to the company and differentiation from the competition.
Findings
The customer journey, when approached as a strategic design process, can provide all the elements of a business with a unifying organizational map.
Research limitations/implications
The examples reported on in this article are drawn from the authors' consulting experience.
Practical implications
Too often companies map a customer journey without any real participation from customers themselves. It's best to start by identifying jobs customers need to get done so that companies clarify what aspects of the journey are most important to the customer.
Originality/value
Top executives should make their company's goal to align its business strategy and the experiences that create most value for customers.
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Jennifer F. Taylor, Sharon E. Beatty and Katherine J. Roberto
This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the prolonged consumption journey and how they are sustained by service providers’ use of habit-boosting strategies. Existing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the prolonged consumption journey and how they are sustained by service providers’ use of habit-boosting strategies. Existing research is critically evaluated, and a research agenda is provided to inspire and guide future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a conceptual framework that integrates habit and transformative consumer intervention theories with customer journey literature to explain the role of habit in sustaining prolonged consumption journeys. Habit-boosting strategies are introduced as mechanisms for service providers to facilitate their customers’ prolonged consumption journeys.
Findings
This paper argues that habit strength is a limited operant resource that often lacks resource integration efficiency and hinders customers’ abilities to sustain prolonged consumption journeys. Four distinct habit-boosting strategies are identified that provide the potential for service providers to facilitate their customers’ prolonged consumption journeys.
Originality/value
This study presents a typology of habit-boosting strategies and a research agenda that discusses a range of practically relevant and theoretically insightful contributions.
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Bikramjit Rishi and Sapna Popli
A customer's journey of searching for a product or service, evaluating it, purchasing it, using it, recommending it, rebuying it or rejecting it is unique in itself. Organisations…
Abstract
A customer's journey of searching for a product or service, evaluating it, purchasing it, using it, recommending it, rebuying it or rejecting it is unique in itself. Organisations always have dreamt of getting inside the customers' minds and trying to understand what's happening inside at each of these steps. This chapter explains the customer journey concept and the analysis of the various components of the customer journey. We highlight that the firms need to understand the customer journeys and the multiple touchpoints they interact with to create a worthwhile customer experience. The chapter lists out the various touchpoints, including social/external touchpoints, customer-owned touchpoints, partner-owned touchpoints and brand-owned touchpoints. We discuss three frameworks that can be used by a firm to understand design a customer journey. These frameworks include AIDA (awareness, interest, desire and action), MAI (measure, analyse and improve) and journey maps. The chapter recommends the various steps which a firm can use to create a journey map. In the end, we create a linkage between the customer journey and business transformation. The chapter builds a case for the application of customer journey management by pointing out that it is a complex phenomenon, and the firms should use a structured approach to design and manage the customer journey.
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Cara Connell, Ruth Marciniak and Lindsey Drylie Carey
By the end of this chapter you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:Customer engagement (CE) as a multi-dimensional construct comprising of cognitive, affective and…
Abstract
By the end of this chapter you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:
Customer engagement (CE) as a multi-dimensional construct comprising of cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions leading to customer loyalty.
The digital evolutions that have led to the current omni-channel business environment prompting the need to understand the customer journey.
The concept of the ‘CE journey’ and its relationship to the customer purchase decision process and brand communication channels.
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Balaji Abraham, Soumya Sarkar and Krishna DasGupta
The purpose of this study is to understand customer experience (CX) in business-to-business (B2B) markets through the perspectives of buyer–seller dyads. This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand customer experience (CX) in business-to-business (B2B) markets through the perspectives of buyer–seller dyads. This study aims to evaluate how customer journey, touchpoints and digital and social media (DSM) influence CX and offer avenues for sellers to align their efforts with buyers’ requirements to create and manage CX.
Design/methodology/approach
Integrating insights of practicing buyers and sellers in the pharmaceutical B2B industry, this study follows the phenomenological approach to understand their experience through their perspectives on the customer journey, touchpoints and DSM.
Findings
The findings of this study include convergence in the perspectives in journey stages, journey enablers, stakeholder involvement, touchpoint preference and DSM’s use. The study findings also include divergence in perspectives in the senior management engagement, journey enablers, selling center involvement, DSM purpose and usage of DSM platforms. These offer opportunities for sellers to align with buyer journey, touchpoints and DSM to create and manage CX.
Practical implications
Sellers in pharmaceutical B2B markets have been dependent on traditional knowledge to influence customer journey and touchpoints and the advent of DSM has enhanced the challenge. To avoid this confusion, sellers need to have clarity of customers’ expectations on the journey, touchpoints and DSM. This enables sellers to allocate their resources better to achieve the desired outcome in CX.
Originality/value
This first-of-its-kind study captured the convergence and divergence perspectives of pharmaceutical B2B buyer–seller dyads from the lens of the uncertainty reduction theory and social penetration theory. The study suggests opportunities for pharmaceutical sellers to create and manage CX.
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Jorge H.O. Silva, Glauco H.S. Mendes, Jorge G. Teixeira and Daniel Braatz
While academics and practitioners increasingly recognize the impacts of gamification on customer experience (CX), its role in the customer journey remains undeveloped. This…
Abstract
Purpose
While academics and practitioners increasingly recognize the impacts of gamification on customer experience (CX), its role in the customer journey remains undeveloped. This article aims to identify how gamification can leverage each customer journey stage, integrate the findings into a conceptual model and propose future research opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
Since CX and customer journey are interrelated concepts, the authors rely on CX research to identify research themes that provide insights to propose the conceptual model. A systematic review of 154 articles on the interplay between gamification and CX research published from 2013 to 2022 was performed and analyzed by thematic content analysis. The authors interpreted the results according to the service customer journey stages and the taxonomy of digital engagement practices.
Findings
This article identified five main thematic categories that shape the conceptual model (design, customer journey stages, customer, technology and context). Gamification design can support customer value creation at any customer journey stage. While gamification can leverage brand engagement at the pre-service stage by enhancing customer motivation and information search, it can leverage service and brand engagement at the core and post-service stages by enhancing customer participation and brand relationships. Moreover, customer-, technology- and context-related factors influence the gamified service experience in the customer journey.
Originality/value
This article contributes to a conceptual integration between gamification and customer journey. Additionally, it provides opportunities for future research from a customer journey perspective.
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Larissa Becker, Elina Jaakkola and Aino Halinen
Customer experience research predominantly anchors the customer journey on a specific offering, implying an inherently firm-centric perspective. Attending calls for a more customer…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer experience research predominantly anchors the customer journey on a specific offering, implying an inherently firm-centric perspective. Attending calls for a more customer-centric approach, this study aims to develop a goal-oriented view of customer journeys.
Design/methodology/approach
This study interprets the results of a phenomenological study of a transformative journey toward a sober life with the self-regulation model of behavior to advance understanding of customer journeys.
Findings
The consumer's journey toward a higher-order goal encompasses various customer journeys toward subordinate goals, through which consumers engage in iterative cognitive and behavioral processes to adjust or maintain their experienced situation vis-à-vis the goal. Experiences drive behavior toward the goal. It follows that negative experiences may contribute to goal attainment.
Research limitations/implications
This study highlights the importance of looking at the consumers' higher-order goals to obtain a more holistic understanding of the customer journey.
Practical implications
Companies and organizations should extend their view beyond the immediate goals of their customers to identify relevant touchpoints and other customer journeys that affect the customer experience.
Originality/value
This study proposes conceptualization of the customer journey, comprising goal-oriented processes at different hierarchical levels, and it demonstrates how positive and negative customer experiences spur behaviors toward the higher-order consumer goal. This conceptualization enables a more customer-centric perspective on journeys.
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Ragnhild Halvorsrud, Knut Kvale and Asbjørn Følstad
The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework based on customer journeys for a structured portrayal of service delivery from the customer’s point of view. The paper also…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework based on customer journeys for a structured portrayal of service delivery from the customer’s point of view. The paper also introduces customer journey analysis (CJA) for empirical investigation of individual service experiences in a multichannel environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents case studies for onboarding new customers on broadband services. CJA starts with modeling of the service process in terms of touchpoints. The individual customer journeys are reconstructed through methodological triangulation of interviews, diary studies, and process tracking.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights into individual customer journeys. Four types of deviations during service delivery are identified: occurrence of ad hoc touchpoints, irregularities in the sequence of logically connected touchpoints, occurrence of failures in touchpoints, and missing touchpoints. CJA seems effective in revealing problematic and incoherent service delivery that may result in unfavorable customer experiences.
Practical implications
For a service company, the proposed framework may serve as a unifying language to ease cross-departmental communication and approach service quality in a systematic way. CJA discloses the gap between the planned and actual service delivery and can be used as a tool for service improvement.
Originality/value
The framework provides concepts, definitions, and a visual notation to structure and manage services in terms of customer journeys. CJA is a novel method for empirical studies of the service delivery process and the associated customer experience.
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This paper aims to define and frame the understanding of customer journeys, associated areas of consumer decision-making process stages and touch point categories based on an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to define and frame the understanding of customer journeys, associated areas of consumer decision-making process stages and touch point categories based on an ownership perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a detailed literature review of customer journeys, in peer-reviewed marketing and retail journals, within the last decade. The Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) academic journal guide marketing discipline list was used because it only includes peer-reviewed journals, based on an internationally accepted quality ranked list.
Findings
The detailed analysis of the journals identified three groups of touch points (brand owned, partner owned/managed and outside the control of brand owner/partner) and three decision-making process stages (pre-purchase, purchase and post–purchase) that informed a clearer definition and understanding of the customer journey.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations concern the ABS database was used and a ten-year date period was selected, which may exclude some relevant journal articles, particularly those written in a language other than English.
Originality/value
The authors have provided a revised definition of customer journey, clarified the decision-making stages and subsequent categorisation of touch points from an ownership perspective.
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Elina Jaakkola and Harri Terho
The quality of the customer journey has become a critical determinant of successful service delivery in contemporary business. Extant journey research focuses on the customer path…
Abstract
Purpose
The quality of the customer journey has become a critical determinant of successful service delivery in contemporary business. Extant journey research focuses on the customer path to purchase, but pays less attention to the touchpoints related to service delivery and consumption that are key for understanding customer experiences in service-intensive contexts. The purpose of this study is to conceptualize service journey quality (SJQ), develop measures for the construct and study its key outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a discovery-oriented research approach to conceptualize SJQ by synthesizing theory and field-based insights from customer focus group discussions. Next, using consumer survey data (N = 278) from the financial services context, the authors develop measures for the SJQ. Finally, based on an additional survey dataset (N = 239), the authors test the nomological validity and predictive relevance of the SJQ.
Findings
SJQ comprises of three dimensions: (1) journey seamlessness, (2) journey personalization and (3) journey coherence. This study demonstrates that SJQ is a critical driver of service quality and customer loyalty in contemporary business. This study finds that the loyalty link is partially mediated through service quality, indicating that SJQ explains loyalty above and beyond service quality.
Research limitations/implications
Since service quality only partially mediates the link between service journey quality and customer loyalty, future studies should examine alternative mediators, such as customer experience, for a more comprehensive understanding of the performance effects.
Practical implications
The study offers concrete tools for service managers who wish to understand and develop the quality of service journeys.
Originality/value
This study advances the service journey concept, demonstrates that the quality of the service journey is a critical driver of customer performance and provides rigorous journey constructs for future service research.
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