Measuring customer experience in physical retail environments

Developing customer convenience and experience through increased competency and efficiency: A strategic approach to retail operations mastery

Retailers who are part of supply chains are crucial in attracting customers to physically visit their stores and thereby increase supply chain revenue. Retailers in supply chains are responsible for handling a high volume of transactions and high customer contact, thus better management of retail operations is necessary to provide greater convenience and experience for customers. In this regard, retail operations must be properly managed, particularly during times of crisis like COVID-19, to ensure that customers purchase their basic needs promptly and safely. Since customer contact is high, the retail operations can have a greater say in improving the customer convenience and experience but this perspective has not been specifically emphasized both in research and practice. Thus, the current study attempted to evaluate how well retail operations can improve customer convenience and experience so that retailers can do well even during times of uncertainty. The study, which is grounded in the resource-based view theory, thus looks at how well retailers' competency and efficiency in running the operations help in achieving better customer convenience and experience. In this regard, sample data from 416 practitioners belonging to the Indian retail industry has been selected to examine the mediating role of retailers' efficiency to retailers' competence in achieving better customer convenience and experience. This study importantly confirms that while more competence can help retailers operate more efficiently, it cannot, by itself, provide customers with greater convenience or a better shopping experience. This study found that retailers concentrate on streamlining their operations in order to overcome capacity limits because it is expensive and limited. The empirical evidence shows that retail operations have significance say in offering better convenience and experience customers.

Customer experience dimensions in last-mile delivery: an empirical study on unattended home delivery

Purpose

The success of last-mile delivery is dependent on consumer acceptance of such services, yet little is known about unattended delivery experience. This paper's purpose is to provide empirically based understanding of customer experience dimensions in unattended home delivery.

Design/methodology/approach

Using an engaged scholarship approach, this field study investigated nine households that actively used an unattended delivery service for a period of six to nine months. Empirical data were collected primarily from in-depth interviews.

Findings

The study demonstrates that unattended delivery experience is a multidimensional construct that comprises consumers' cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, physical and social responses to the service. The empirical evidence provides rich descriptions of each customer experience dimension, and the research offers a framework and propositions on unattended delivery experience.

Practical implications

The results guide and support managers in assessing and developing delivery services using a consumer-centric approach to enhance customer experience.

Originality/value

This research is one of the first to address unattended delivery experience by providing a comprehensive, empirically grounded framework. The results provide a foundation for future investigations of last-mile delivery experience dimensions.

There is no smoke without fire: How frequency information and the experience attribution make negative online restaurant reviews more harmful

The paper proposes and evidences that a more frequent mentioning of a service issue in an online restaurant review makes the readers blame the restaurant more for the issue. This inside attribution, in turn, may worsen the restaurant evaluation. Two experiments (Study 1 and 2) examine this mechanism using different stimuli. In both experiments, consumers exposed to high (vs. low) mentioning-frequency reviews attributed the issue more inside the restaurant and evaluated the restaurant lower. Additionally, the paper considers the role of consumer analytical processing (Study 1) and perceived review helpfulness (Study 2) in the relationships between mentioning frequency and issue attribution. The paper extends the existing literature by applying the attribution theory to the context of frequency information in online reviews. The results guide marketers dealing with negative online reviews by suggesting the way to deal with high-mentioning-frequency negative reviews.

The olfactory experience (in retail) scale: construction, validation and generalization

Purpose

Measurement scales for sensory experience in retailing exist for sight, touch and sound. In the present study, the authors aim to develop the olfactory experience (OEX) scale in the context of retailing.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on literature review and six studies that follow standard scale development protocols (combined n = 1,203), the authors develop and validate a three-dimensional OEX scale. The scale is further validated in the final study in a different market set-up than the first five.

Findings

The authors found the three dimensions of OEX as (scent) company, congeniality and congruity. The OEX scale is found to be generalizable and valid across different cultural and market set-ups. In addition, the OEX (i.e. the scale) was found to effect psychological and behavioral outcomes of the consumer in a significant manner.

Research limitations/implications

The present study contributes to the domain of sensory experience in retailing with the OEX scale and provides three new dimensions of OEX for the academicians to further explore.

Practical implications

The OEX scale provides a ready to use tool for the retailer to gauge the level of OEX in the store and to predict consumer attitudes and behavior.

Originality/value

The study is the first to develop a scale for OEX in retailing or for that matter in consumer behavior.

Offline aesthetic design of restaurants and consumers' online intention to post photographs: A moderated mediation model

Consumers' motivation for photograph posting as a taste expression practice on social media platforms from an offline aesthetic perspective has been neglected in the literature. We explored the influential mechanisms in this relationship using positive emotional arousal and self-expression as mediators and centrality of visual servicescape aesthetics as a moderator. Data were collected from 273 consumers who had recently dined in well-designed restaurants in China and used social media. The results support the direct and indirect role of offline aesthetic design in consumers' formation of the intention to post photographs of their dining ambience on social media, and the partially moderating role of their aesthetic trait. Theoretical and practical implications for hospitality management and social media research are discussed.

Linking servicescape and experiencescape: creating a collective focus for the service industry

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review what one knows – and does not know about servicescape and experiencescape. The paper provides a comprehensive conceptualization, discussion of the servicescape and experiencescape and calls for the need for a collective focus of servicescape and experiencescape for the service industry.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper analyzes multiple literature studies related to servicescape, experiencescape and other related concepts such as service quality and customer experience for building a comprehensive framework that draws knowledge from both servicescape and experiencescape in an effort to create a collective focus.

Findings

Prior research on the components of servicescape and experiencescape raises more questions than answers. The findings of this study highlight the importance of technology as one of the key components of experiencescape to motivate customers to engage in the consumption environment. Furthermore, the proposed conceptual framework provides a detailed discussion and highlights the importance of using servicescape and experiencescape concepts together as a collective framework to bring about greater benefits to the service industry. The proposed framework suggests that these concepts are not only collective but also interrelated.

Research limitations/implications

Technology is not a tool but an important partner for the firm to create the experience. It can bring together marketing, management and operations within the organization to collectively focus on the customer. Collectively designed servicescape and experiencescape will create lasting memories and emotional connections with customers.

Practical implications

Service organizations can develop smart experiencescapes that positively influence customer value cocreation and heighten customer experience by utilizing technology. Managers are advised to understand consumers' emphasis on technological personalization, aesthetics, functionality, interactivity and social presence while participating in cocreation. Technologies may improve the experience by incorporating real-time and less-restrained interactions between consumers and the service organization.

Originality/value

This paper synthesizes insights from the extant literature related to servicescape, service quality, customer experience and experiencescape. Further, it helps to extend the current understanding of experiencescape and calls for the need to incorporate technology as one of the key experience components in the experiencescape concept. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance and the need to bring these two concepts together with a collective focus to enhance value for the customer. Thus, it is argued here that the collective focus of servicescape and experiencescape in the service industry will create new opportunities for further research and practical applications.

Omni-Channel Customer Experience (In)Consistency and Service Success: A Study Based on Polynomial Regression Analysis

Drawing on expectation disconfirmation theory, this study explores the dyadic nature of omni-channel consistency on customer experience. Specifically, we propose a conceptual model that focuses on a brand’s offline channel customer experience relative to that of its online channel, and test the influences of customer experience (in)consistency on customer satisfaction, which then improves repurchase intention and word-of-mouth. The results of polynomial regressions on 265 survey respondents indicate that given omni-channel customer experience inconsistency, customers prefer consistent online and offline experiences. For omni-channel consistency at lower levels of customer experience quality, customers prefer consistency at higher levels of quality. For omni-channel inconsistency where offline customer experience quality is lower than that online, customers prefer omni-channel inconsistency, where offline customer experience quality is higher than that online. These findings produce not only theoretical contributions but also insightful suggestions for how customer experience can be taken into consideration in the promotion of a brand’s omni-channel service success.

Customers' perceptions of returning items purchased online: planned versus unplanned product returners

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to address two issues relevant to those managing product returns: (1) how customers perceive the returning process and assessing the extent that these perceptions have on satisfaction with the organization, loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) and (2) are these outcomes moderated by whether customer returns were planned or unplanned?

Design/methodology/approach

The data consisted of 21 semi-structured interviews (pilot study) and a quantitative survey (n = 384; main study) targeted at consumers who had bought fashion items online.

Findings

Qualitative insights revealed that perceptions of the returning experience are driven by monetary costs, convenience, stress and guilt. Quantitative findings showed that the returning experience explains return satisfaction for both planned and unplanned returners, and returning satisfaction explains overall satisfaction and WOM. The noteworthy difference concerns loyalty: although customers that planned to return items are more loyal to the organization, it is the unplanned returners whose loyalty can be significantly increased by better managing the returning process.

Practical implications

Returning products online is increasingly common and thus forms an important part of the customer's overall experience with an organization. Returns management can therefore drive key customer outcomes. Understanding the dynamics between the product return experience, return satisfaction and customer outcomes will help practitioners design and implement more informed returns management strategies. Measures are also presented that assess the cognitive and emotional aspects associated with returning products.

Social implications

Returning products is an increasingly important challenge for online retailers. Understanding what kinds of returning behaviors occur allows companies to design and execute better informed decisions to manage this phenomenon, not only for the sake of firm performance but also for societal and environmental benefits – the triple bottom line.

Originality/value

While scholars have investigated the relationship between return policies (e.g. free vs fee) and profitability, no prior literature has examined the returning experience: how consumers perceive the returning process; motivations for their returns (whether returns were planned or not) and subsequent customer outcomes.

Interpersonal conflict at work and knowledge hiding in service organizations: the mediator role of employee well-being

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the effects of interpersonal conflicts in the social workplace on various rationalized, knowledge-hiding behaviors in service organizations. This research also examines employee well-being as a mediator to explain the effects of interpersonal conflicts at work on knowledge-hiding behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

First, relevant literature provided the theoretical basis for the conceptual model that links the core constructs of this research. A quantitative study collected data from 395 employees of a global consulting firm with a branch located in a developing country. Finally, an analysis of the structural equation modeling with MPlus 7 software tested the measurement and the structural model.

Findings

The results of this study suggest that interpersonal conflict at work influences knowledge-hiding and that employee’s well-being mediates this relationship. In other words, employees strategically choose what knowledge-hiding behaviors to use – such as evasion or “playing dumb” – to cope with the lack of well-being caused by high interpersonal conflicts in the workplace.

Originality/value

Although contextual and individual factors may trigger knowledge-hiding behavior at work, the current literature has overlooked the combined effects of such factors, especially in service settings. Knowledge hiding in service organizations is a weakness that can lead to significant economic losses, especially in firms that are intensively knowledge-based. Thus, it is necessary to identify the antecedents of knowledge-hiding behavior to deter low performance in these organizations.

Unraveling customer experiences in a new servicescape: an ethnographic schema elicitation technique (ESET)

Purpose

This article investigates the role of schemas in shaping customer experiences in new servicescapes, across the customer journey. The authors take a customer perspective that reveals how schematic information processing takes place at four pyramidal levels—event, touchpoint, encounter and concrete activities—that in turn lead to customer responses.

Design/methodology/approach

The study introduces a novel ethnographic schema elicitation technique (ESET), which enables unraveling schemas at the touchpoint level across the customer journey of a European grocery store that recently launched a new SST innovation. This tailored approach provides fine-grained insights into customer experiences at the moment they occur.

Findings

The conceptual framework unravels schematic information processing, as illustrated with an empirical study. The activation of different schemas and their modification is highlighted in rich qualitative data.

Research limitations/implications

Innovative service offerings require customers to adapt their existing behaviors. Understanding this highly individual process, which requires schema modification, could be furthered by longitudinal in-depth research.

Practical implications

By understanding schematic information processing, managers and policymakers can develop better strategies for activating sustainability or health-conscious schemas that guide customer behavior in positive directions.

Originality/value

By applying ESET to new self-service technology, the authors provide valuable insights for service managers and retailers. They show the particular need for prudence in changing schemas in ways that avoid negative cognitive, emotional or behavioral responses.

Customer Experience in Retail: A Systematic Literature Review

The customer experience (CX) is a concept that has been closely studied by companies in recent years. This is because it is one of the most important factors in maintaining a competitive advantage. In addition, it is customers who seek to create an experience that goes beyond the acquisition of a product. In this article, we present a systematic literature review of the CX in retail. We reviewed articles published over the last ten years related to (1) the definition of the CX; (2) dimensions, attributes, and factors that influence the CX in retail; (3) methods used to evaluate the CX in retail; and (4) potential heuristics to evaluate the CX in general and, in particular, in retail. We analyzed 67 articles, and the obtained result shows that (1) multiple definitions exist in different contexts; (2) the dimensions, such as the conceptualization of the CX, vary depending on the context; (3) the evaluation methods found do not comprehensively evaluate the CX; (4) there is no evidence of heuristics used to evaluate the CX.

Development and validation of the pick-up service quality scale of the buy-online-pick-up-in-store service

Buy-Online-Pick-up-in-Store (BOPS) service is a popular omnichannel retail initiative, intended to enhance the convenience of online customers. Focusing on the pick-up (PU) stage of BOPS service, we develop a comprehensive scale (BOPS-PU-QUAL) for its quality perceived by customers. A multi-step scale development procedure involving one qualitative and two quantitative studies resulted in a scale consisting of 16 items under four dimensions. Service effectiveness is found to be the strongest influencer on quality perceptions of BOPS-PU, followed by problem-handling, ease of access, and item-quality. A structural equation analysis reveals that BOPS-PU-QUAL perceptions positively affect customers’ behavioral intentions towards the brand’s BOPS service, with the relationship fully mediated by satisfaction with BOPS. This study contributes to omnichannel service quality research by identifying the critical quality dimensions of BOPS pick-up service that reflect the uniqueness of BOPS customers. These findings help practitioners realize the importance of managing BOPS-PU service quality and provide practical guidance.

Mapping customer experience: a taxonomical study using bibliometric visualization

Purpose

This study aims to examine the trends and themes in the field of customer experience using a bibliometric analysis between 1957 and 2017.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses 1,767 papers selected from Web of Science (WoS) database using VOS Viewer software tool to create bibliometric networks. The results of the study were classified under the following bibliometric indicators: evaluation of the number of studies analyzed; most cited documents; most influential authors; and highly influential journals, institutions and countries with the highest productivity. Additionally, the paper also presents three co-citation studies analyzing most co-cited references, first authors and journals.

Findings

Authors and institutes from the American and European countries dominate the contribution to the development of the field. The presence of Asian countries signifies the rising importance being given to the research field. The findings establish the argument that most of the ideas that follow today in the development of the field are mostly sourced from the works published in highly reputed journals. Co-citation analysis indicates the presence of multi-disciplinarity in the research field with journals representing different research areas such as management, strategy and psychology.

Research limitations/implications

The papers analyzed in the study were retrieved only from the WoS. Furthermore, the precise number of clusters obtained during the analysis depends on the parameter set by the authors which is subjective. Researchers are encouraged to draw further insights by manipulating the parameter criteria.

Practical implications

The findings in the study can be used to enrich the understanding of customer experience and future research on the topic.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first comprehensive papers offering a general overview of the leading trends in the field over a period of 60 years.

The customer experience – loyalty link: moderating role of motivation orientation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to examine the effects of different touch points on customer experience, second, effects of customer experience on loyalty intentions, and actual spend, and third, the moderating role of motivation orientation on these effects.

Design/methodology/approach

By recognizing the importance of capturing customer experience assessments at the “time of the experience”, a smartphone technology mobile app was developed for the purpose of this study. Real time customer experience data were collected at individual touch points.

Findings

The results show that the real-time touch point evaluations significantly effect overall customer experience and that these effects significantly differ for utilitarian and hedonic motivation orientations. The effects of technology, atmospherics, employee–customer interaction and service/product interaction touch points on overall customer experience are significantly stronger for hedonic orientation than for utilitarian orientation. In contrast, the effect of process touch point on overall customer experience is significantly stronger for utilitarian than hedonic orientation. Also, favorable overall customer experience evaluations exert significant positive influence on loyalty intentions, and actual spend, and these influences are significantly stronger for consumers with hedonic than utilitarian motivation orientations.

Practical implications

The findings of this study will enable companies to manage customer experience programs effectively by providing an understanding of the distinct touch points that occur along the customer journey and the relative importance of each of these touch points in enhancing customer experience.

Originality/value

This is the first empirical study that offers important insights on the effects of different touch points on customer experience, and on the moderating role of consumer motivation orientations on the touch points – customer experience – loyalty link by using real-time data.

Defining the antecedents of experience co-creation as applied to alternative consumption models

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework of experience co-creation that captures the multi-dimensionality of this construct, as well as a research process for defining of the antecedents of experience co-creation.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework of experience co-creation was conceptualized by means of a literature review. Subsequently, this framework was used as the conceptual basis for a qualitative content analysis of 66 empirical papers investigating alternative consumption models (ACMs), such as renting, remanufacturing, and second-hand models.

Findings

The qualitative content analysis resulted in 12 categories related to the consumer and 9 related to the ACM offerings that represent the antecedents of experience co-creation. These categories provide evidence that, to a large extent, the developed conceptual framework allows one to capture the multi-dimensionality of the experience co-creation construct.

Research limitations/implications

This study underscores the understanding of experience co-creation as a function of the characteristics of the offering – which are, in turn, a function of the consumers’ motives as determined by their lifeworlds – as well as to service design as an iterative approach to finding, creating and refining service offerings.

Practical implications

The investigation of the antecedents of experience co-creation can enable service providers to determine significant consumer market conditions for forecasting the suitability and viability of their offerings and to adjust their service designs accordingly.

Originality/value

This paper provides a step toward the operationalization of the dimension-related experience co-creation construct and presents an approach to defining the antecedents of experience co-creation by considering different research perspectives that can enhance service design research.

The role of customer experience touchpoints in driving loyalty intentions in services

Purpose

The explosion in the number of touchpoints is putting pressure on companies to design omnichannel customer experiences aimed at achieving long-term customer loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of 24 touchpoints in contributing to customer loyalty intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected by means of a survey on almost 6,000 subjects belonging to the Nielsen consumer panel. Two ordinary least squares regression models with clustered standard errors estimate the relationship between touchpoint exposure – measured in terms of reach, frequency and positivity – and customer loyalty intentions in the mobile service sector.

Findings

Reach has a significant relationship with customer loyalty intentions as far as eight touchpoints are concerned. Positivity, when controlling for frequency of exposure, is related to customer loyalty intentions as far as nine touchpoints are concerned.

Practical implications

Results provide guidance for mobile service providers on customer experience management strategies and specifically on touchpoint prioritization, adaptation, monitoring and design.

Originality/value

This study addresses two relevant research gaps. First, most studies focus on single or a few touchpoints without considering the variety of touchpoints within the customer journey (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Second, no studies focus on the relative contribution of touchpoints to customer loyalty intentions (Homburg et al., 2017).