Fresh perspectives on customer experience

Janet R. McColl-Kennedy
UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Anders Gustafsson
Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
Elina Jaakkola
School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Phil Klaus
Business School, Brunel University, London, UK
Zoe Jane Radnor
School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Helen Perks
Business School, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK, and
Margareta Friman
Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide directions for future research on: broadening the role of customers in customer experience; taking
a practice-based approach to customer experience; and recognizing the holistic, dynamic nature of customer experience across all touch points and
over time.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach is conceptual identifying current gaps in research on customer experience.
Findings – The findings include a set of research questions and research agenda for future research on customer experience.
Originality/value – This research suggests fresh perspectives for understanding the customer experience which can inspire future research and
advance theory and managerial practice.
Keywords Dynamic, Customer experience, Practice-based approach, Customer role, Holistic
Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction There are different ways to view the “customer” in the

customer experience. For example, they may be considered as
Customer experience has become a key focus of both
a “consumer”, “user”, “participant”, “co-creator” (Bolton
contemporary service research and management practice. et al., 2014), “guest” or “actor” (Lusch, 2011). A central
Indeed, creating a meaningful customer experience is notion in contemporary thinking is that customer experiences
considered pivotal for achieving competitive advantage and are not solely delivered by organizations for customers.
satisfied customers (Bolton et al., 2014; Verhoef et al., 2009). Rather, the experience itself is inexorably linked with the value
While much of the research on customer experience has obtained as perceived by the individuals involved (Helkkula
focused on hedonic consumption emphasizing the individuals’ et al., 2012). Customer experiences are uniquely and
“extraordinary”, “critical” or “peak” experiences (Friman contextually interpreted, and they emerge whether an
et al., 2001; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Schouten et al., organization chooses to recognize and influence the
2007), customer experience is increasingly recognized in more experience or not (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). The question is
mundane situations and across a range of contexts, such as in are organizations ready to face this challenge?
business-to-business settings (Klaus, 2014), and with users of
public services (Hardyman et al., 2015; Radnor and Johnston, Customer experience conceptualization
2013; Olsson et al., 2013).
Customer experience research remains fragmented with still
relatively little known about the phenomenon. Most customer
experience knowledge is derived from practitioner-oriented
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
journals or management books (Holbrook, 2007; Verhoef et al.,
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0887-6045.htm
2009), for example, Rawson et al. (2013). Consequently, the
focus is largely on managerial actions and outcomes rather than

Journal of Services Marketing

29/6/7 (2015) 430 –435 Received 31 January 2015
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0887-6045] Revised 26 February 2015
[DOI 10.1108/JSM-01-2015-0054] Accepted 26 February 2015

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on theories underlying the antecedents and consequences of customers differ in their role preferences, abilities and
customer experience. Customer experience is commonly defined resources. For example, customer roles can vary from
as holistic in nature, involving the customer’s cognitive, affective, synthesizing a wide range of resources, engaging with many
emotional, social and physical responses to any direct or indirect individual stakeholders in the network, to complying with a
contact with the service provider, brand or product, across service provider’s requests (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2012).
multiple touch points during the entire customer journey (Bolton Therefore, customer experience depends on what a customer
et al., 2014; Meyer and Schwager, 2007). In other words, can and is willing to do and how much an organization allows
customer experience is created not only by elements that the the customers to actually do themselves. The latter is a matter
service provider can control (e.g. service interface, atmosphere, of governance and who has control in different situations. This
assortment, price), but also by elements outside of their control, has significant implications for both research and practice, and
such as the influence of other customers or devices like hence, we propose the following to advance our understanding
smartphones that customers chose to use in various situations. of the customers’ new broadened role in customer
Service marketing and management scholars have experiences.
traditionally studied customer experience in terms of two main One under-researched area of the broadened role relates to
domains: what resources customers can and do bring to co-produce the
1 moments of truth (Normann, 2001); and service. Such knowledge can assist organizations in
2 service blueprinting (Bitner et al., 2008; Flieb and determining the necessary resources that may be required to
Kleinaltenkamp, 2004; Shostack, 1984). achieve a successful customer experience. Future research
could, therefore, examine the ability and willingness of
These approaches are based on a dyadic, unidirectional view
customers to expand their role in co-creating experiences.
that the organization provides experiences for the customer,
Service providers have traditionally provided the expertise to
with the customer being essentially passive. Despite
design service experiences (Ulrich and Eppinger, 2008), as
acknowledgement that the customer experience emerges
their investment in skills acquisition, banks of technical,
throughout the process of the customer journey, research has
intellectual and procedural knowledge (Amabile, 1998) and
tended to take a static view or snapshot view with one survey
learning over time equips them to do so. Although customers
at one point in time. This is problematic, as it builds on the
may struggle to move beyond everyday practices and routines
respondents’ memory of a process or a transaction which may
to envisage and realize novel or broadened approaches to
not always be a correct representation of the actual occurrence
co-produce, given the right tools they may be encouraged to
(Kristensson et al., 2014). Moreover, the focus has been
do so (Kristensson et al., 2004).
largely from the organization’s perspective and not from that
We still know very little about the levels and types of
of the customer.
customer knowledge and skills associated with broadened and
We take a different perspective. We argue that to advance
enhanced customer practices in service experiences. Also,
customer experience research and practice, a static, dyadic,
even if a customer can contribute to the production process,
organization-centric perspective is no longer adequate.
they may not be willing to do so, thinking that it is not their
Accordingly, our article raises sets of research questions to
job. This triggers interesting questions, such as which
advance customer experience knowledge by highlighting the
consumer characteristics are more commensurate with
opportunities afforded by taking a dynamic, multi-actor-
experience-broadening behaviors than others?. Do some
centric perspective. Specifically, we highlight three key
consumers exhibit a greater propensity to acquire prerequisite
domains of our perspective:
skills than others? Which extrinsic and intrinsic motives drive
1 broadening the role of customers in customer experience;
engagement and behavior designed to improve customers’
2 taking a practice-based approach to customer experience;
experiences? While such understanding is emergent in
and
co-creation research (Füller, 2010), studies which investigate
3 recognizing the holistic, dynamic nature of customer
customers’ willingness to broaden their role in service
experience across all touch points and over time.
experiences would be insightful. Moreover, we suggest
researchers should explore the boundaries of customers’ role
Broadening customer role and influence in contexts in which they did not choose to be
part of the experience, such as is the case of a prisoner, in
In today’s interconnected world, the boundaries between
many cases a patient or during travel.
customers, organizations and other suppliers are becoming
blurred (Achrol and Kotler, 2012). Customers can no longer
be regarded as merely passive recipients of what an Taking a practice-based approach
organization does for or to them, but as co-creators and We argue that as customers are changing their roles and
ultimate determiners of value (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2012; behaviors, they exercise greater influence on the experience
Vargo and Lusch, 2008). Today’s customers increasingly formation of not only themselves but also other customers,
provide ideas for service innovations; design, co-produce and stakeholders and service providers, which in turn warrants
deliver customer experiences (Witell et al., 2014); significantly further research (van Doorn et al., 2010). We posit service
influence other customers’ decisions (McColl-Kennedy et al., experiences as co-created by customers with other actors at the
2015); and even shape organizations’ internal processes service encounter and in their own service ecosystems
(Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014). (Jaakkola et al., 2015; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2015). The
One of the main challenges that organizations face is how to recognition that customers can collectively shape each other’s
manage customers commencing a service journey, given that experiences has been paralleled in other fields, such as

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Janet R. McColl-Kennedy et al. Volume 29 · Number 6/7 · 2015 · 430 –435

consumer culture theory (CCT) (Schau et al., 2009) and that needs to be managed like any other asset in a systematic way.
Service Dominant (S-D) Logic (McColl-Kennedy et al., This means that service providers should set up systematic
2012). Consequently, we need to move away from a dyadic, multi-methods to capture data across multiple channels and
firm-to-customer perspective to a broader view that touch points, including emotions throughout the customer
potentially includes multiple actors (Frow et al., 2014). experience. This constitutes a major challenge for companies
Accordingly, we propose a practice-based approach to study today; customer data are generally not organized this way.
customer experience from a broader, more dynamic, We propose two avenues for future research here. First,
multi-party perspective. This approach focuses on what detailed micro-level investigations of the entire customer
customers do and say, highlighting that individuals influence journey, across all channels are called for. Second, research
other individuals, who in turn are influenced by others in an should examine how customer experience develops over time.
evolving ecosystem (McColl-Kennedy et al., 2015). By To advance understanding of the dynamics of the
focusing on customers’ activities and interactions with others, phenomenon, researchers could study how experiences along
shared practices evolve over time. A practice-based approach the service life cycle change as the service matures or as the
emphasizes the importance of activities and the different ways customer gains experience with the service. Extant research is
individuals engage with others. This indicates that customers relatively silent on what influences variability of the customer
perceive value based on their personal viewpoint (possibly experience over time. To address such questions, we argue
shaped by practices), driving their engagement and interaction that longitudinal research designs are needed. Longitudinal
choices. But to what extent does the shared practice-approach research can be conducted in three ways:
apply in terms of how customers perceive their experiences? If 1 retrospectively, like a detective story, reconstructing the
shared practices evolve over time, in what ways can practices journey and events, unravelling the motives, means and
be influenced by a service provider? Do practices vary opportunities;
depending on the customer’s role, personality, goals or current 2 in real time (present) through long-term ethnographic
emotions, as indicated in our proposition about the observations of flows of events and interactions; and
customers’ broadening role in creating experiences? An 3 through extrapolations of the future (such as simulation,
interesting future research question, therefore, is “How can we modelling techniques).
combine this new broadened role and the practice-based
Such methods are not without major constraints, particularly
approach to answer the challenges of holistic customer
high costs, research time, difficulties in evaluation and weak
experience management?”
demonstration of validity. However, alternative valuable
longitudinal techniques, which examine processes holistically
Holistic and dynamic: across all touch points
and over time, exist and are emergent in the services domain
over time (Perks et al., 2012). We recommend that researchers seek out
Recent research indicates that customer experience is a such techniques, such as sequence analysis, which offer
dynamic phenomenon, emerging during various phases of the rigorous approaches to the systematic tracking and analysis of
customer journey, including, for example, search, purchase, detailed activities and interactions over time (Perks and
consumption and after-sale encounters, typically involving Roberts, 2013). Sequence analysis, for example, breaks down
multiple channels and multiple touch points. Customers have broad patterns of overall processes into sequences of activities
contacts with service providers with different purposes and or events that lead to specific outcomes. New technology, such
goals to fulfill, and we know very little about how this forms a as eye-tracking or built-in trackers, enables researchers to
process. To gain a more comprehensive view of the customer correctly capture and interpret these sequences (Wästlund
experience, we need to deeply understand all direct and et al., 2015). Such techniques could be of great value to
indirect interactions customers have with the service provider, researchers unravelling the depth and complexity of customer
service or the brand at various touch points over time (Bolton experiences, the multiplicity, breadth and timing of
et al., 2014). But as we go further, we argue for the need to interactions with multiple parties in the customer journey and
explore the level of emotional attachment or investment the in tracking detailed touch points over time.
customer has in the customer experience process (e.g. a
customer is likely to have a lower level of emotional
Summary of promising directions for future
attachment purchasing fast food compared to having medical
treatment). research
To gain such a holistic understanding, service providers need The research agenda related to these domains is summarized
to understand that customers’ perceptions and evaluations of below in following list which provides research questions
their experiences change over time. Organizations need to take a around the three key promising directions for future research,
long-term approach gathering longitudinal information during namely:
the customer experience. This highlights the need to undertake 1 Broadening customer role
research to understand what actions resonate well with their ● What resources do customers bring to the service
customers at the various touch points throughout all interactions. experience? Identify categories of resources, skills and
To obtain a more complete view of the customer’s experience, capabilities that customers bring to the experience.
organizations should capture and analyze data on the customer’s ● What motivates customers to take a broadened role?
practices and interactions across channels. By doing this, ● Are there certain demographic and personality traits
organizations can gain insights to facilitate meaningful and associated with willingness to take a broadened
personalized consumer experiences. Customer data are an asset customer role?

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● What are the key barriers and costs that prevent three areas which hold great potential to shape the next
customers from taking on different roles in the evolutionary stage in consumer experience research and
customer experience? practice.
● Under what circumstances are customers willing/not
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About the authors
cocreation practice styles”, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 15
No. 4, pp. 370-389. Janet R. McColl-Kennedy is a Professor of Marketing in the
Meyer, C. and Schwager, A. (2007), “Understanding UQ Business School, The University of Queensland,
customer experience”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 85 Brisbane, Australia. She is recognized internationally as a
No. 2, pp. 116-126. leading researcher in Service Science. Her research interests
Normann, R. (2001), Reframing Business: When the Map include service recovery, customer complaining behavior,
Changes the Landscape, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. customer rage, customer experience and customer value
Olsson, L.E., Gärling, T., Ettema, D., Friman, M. and co-creation. She has published articles in Journal of Retailing,
Fujii, S. (2013), “Happiness and satisfaction with work Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Leadership
commute”, Social Indicators Research, Vol. 111 No. 1, Quarterly, Journal of Service Research, California Management
pp. 255-263. Review, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research,
Marketing Theory, Journal of Service Management, Journal of
Perks, H., Gruber, T. and Edvardsson, B. (2012),
Marketing Management and Industrial Marketing Management.
“Co-creation in radical service innovation: a systematic
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy is the corresponding author and
analysis of micro-level processes”, Journal of Product
can be contacted at: j.mccoll-kennedy@business.uq.edu.au
Innovation Management, Vol. 29 No. 6, pp. 935-951.
Perks, H. and Roberts, D. (2013), “A review of longitudinal Anders Gustafsson is a Professor of Business Administration
research in the product innovation field, with discussion of at the Service Research Center (www.ctf.kau.se) at Karlstad
utility and conduct of sequence analysis”, Journal of Product University, Sweden. Dr Gustafsson also holds a part-time
Innovation Management, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 1099-1111. position as a Professor at BI Norwegian Business School,
Radnor, Z.J. and Johnston, R. (2013), “Lean in UK Norway. He is conducting research on customer satisfaction
government: internal efficiency or customer service?”, and loyalty, service innovation, service infusion in
Production Planning and Control, Vol. 2 Nos 10/11, manufacturing and management of customer relationships.
pp. 903-915. Dr Gustafsson has published more than 150 academic articles,
Rawson, A., E. Duncan and C. Jones (2013), “The truth book chapters and industry reports. He has published articles
about customer experience”, Harvard Business Review, in journals, such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service
Research, Journal of Economic Psychology, Psychology &
September, pp. 1-10.
Marketing, Journal of Business Research and Industrial Marketing
Schau, H.J., Muñiz, A.M., Jr and Arnould, E.J. (2009), “How
Management.
brand community practices create value”, Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 73 No. 5, pp. 30-51. Elina Jaakkola is a Senior Research Fellow at Turku School of
Schouten, J.W., McAlexander, J.H. and Koenig, H.F. (2007), Economics, University of Turku. Her areas of expertise include
“Transcendent customer experience and brand community”, knowledge intensive services and solutions, value creation,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 35 No. 3, service innovation, customer engagement, service experience and
pp. 357-368. the role of networks in service business. Her research has been
Shostack, L. (1984), “Designing services that deliver”, published in a wide range of journals and book chapters, for
Harvard Business Review, Vol. 62 No. 1, pp. 133-139. example Journal of Service Research, Industrial Marketing
Ulrich, K.T. and Eppinger, S.D. (2008), Product Design and Management, Journal of Service Management, Marketing Theory,
Development, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Journal of Marketing Management and Scandinavian Journal of
Van Doorn, J., Lemon, K.N., Mittal, V., Nass, S., Pick, D., Management.
Pirner, P. and Verhoef, P.C. (2010), “Customer Phil Klaus is a Researcher at Brunel University London
engagement behavior: theoretical foundations and research Business School. His award-winning research has appeared in
directions”, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 13 No. 3, numerous books, top-tier academic and managerial journals.
pp. 253-266. Klaus is the best-selling author of “Measuring Customer

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Experience - How to Develop and Execute the Most Profitable of Marketing and Product Innovation at University of
Customer Experience Strategies” and a frequent keynote speaker Manchester, UK. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of
at public, in-company seminars and conferences around the Product Innovation Management, Academic Chair of PDMA
world. He is an experienced senior marketing manager and (Product Development Management Association) UK and
management consultant with an active, international portfolio of Ireland and Board Member of the EIASM International
Blue-Chip clients for whom he advises on customer experience Product Development Management Conference, hosting and
strategy, profit enhancement and “next practice”. chairing the latter in 2012. She has specific research interests
Zoe Jane Radnor holds a Chair of Service Operations in service innovation, innovation networks/collaboration,
Management Loughborough University School of Business design in innovation and qualitative methodologies. Her work
and Economics. She also is the Associate Dean (Teaching) for is published in a range of journals, including Journal of Product
Loughborough University in London and co-directs the Innovation Management, Industrial Marketing Management,
Research Centre for Service Management. Her area of interest R&D Management, Services Industries Journal, Journal of
is in performance and process improvement and service Services Marketing, International Small Business Journal and
management in public sector organizations. Radnor has International Marketing Review.
recently been a Management Practice Advanced Institute of Margareta Friman is a Professor of Psychology and Director
Management (AIM) Fellow considering sustainability of Lean of the Service and Market Oriented Transport Research
in public services. She has led research projects across Central Group (SAMOT) at the Service Research Center, Karlstad
and Local Government, Health care and Higher Education University (Sweden). SAMOT is a nationally funded
organizations which have evaluated how “lean” techniques are excellence center for research in public transport services. Her
and could be used in the public sector. She has published over
main research areas consumer and transport psychology. She
80 articles, book chapters and reports as well as presented
has conducted research on critical incidents, satisfaction and
widely on the topic to both academic and practitioner
consumer-related emotions since mid 1990s. Her close to 50
audiences.
peer-reviewed papers have been published in Journal of
Helen Perks is a Professor of Marketing at Nottingham Economic Psychology, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal
University Business School and Honorary Visiting Professor of Transport Geography and Transportation Research.

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