Customer Experience: A Conceptual Analysis

Experience cues or clues are referring to anything in the service experience the customer perceived by its presence, for instance, it could be sensory perceptions from a customer by seeing, hearing, touching, tasting or smelling (basic five senses of a person), interactions with service staff or presence of the other customers (Brocato et al., 2012; Leonard L. Berry et al., 2002). These cues are accumulated by customers consciously or unconsciously and categorized into a set of impressions, which would affect the final assessment of one’s experiences-the total customer experience (Leonard L. Berry et al., 2002 & 2006). Taking restaurants’ case for example, a pleasant scent or a tidy floor, a good welcome from service staff or a good outlook

(2007: p.397), concluded that “the customer experience originates from a set of interactions between a customer and a product, a company, or part of its organization, which provoke a reaction. This experience is strictly personal and implies the customer’s involvement at different levels (rational, emotional, sensorial, physical, and spiritual)”. This definition has touched upon the concept of customer experience in a broad context. First, the definition conceptualizes that customer experience has multi-dimensional layers including sensory, cognitive, affective, tangible, intangible, and relational components (Gentile et al., 2007). Subordinately, it recognizes the significance of both emotional and rational cues, which is in line with the conclusions in previous sections. Finally, this definition has emphasized the importance of interactions or involvement (engagement), which is another vital component of customer

For example, to investigate effect of physical environment on customer experience, Bitner (1992: p.58) used the term “servicescape” to capture “the built environment” or, more specifically, “the man-made, physical surroundings as opposed to the nature or social environment” and, in the end, concluded that physical environment can be managed by service providers to enhance customer’s internal (e.g. cognition, emotional, and satisfaction) and external responses (e.g. staying, repatronage, and approach). In the same vein, Ryu and Jang (2007) proposed a DINESCAPE model to categorize physical environment into six main functions (i.e. facility aesthetics, ambience, lighting, layout, table settings and service staff) and each of these six functions played significant roles in affecting customers’ perception of experiences; notably, facility aesthetics, lighting, and service staff are important predictors of customers’ perceived disconfirmation (Kisang Tyu and Heesup Han, 2011). Other research examined the effects of specific ambient factors such as music, lighting or scents, for instance, Milliman (1986 & 1982) found that volume and tempo in the restaurant influence the amount of time each customer spends as well as the amount of money