Purpose-This paper proposes a conceptual framework of customer expectation management and a reference model of service experience design which are regarded as the basic foundation to model the processes of experience design for service operation strategies simulating and testing by employing a system dynamics approach. Design/methodology/approach-System dynamics is the key approach which includes causal loop diagram (CLD) and stock and flow diagram (SFD) used to build the reference model of experience design. Simulations of the processes of the proposed service experience design have also been implemented by Vensim ®. Findings-The proposed reference model of service experience involving customer expectations management can successfully capture the key elements of the service experience design within service operation strategies and the system dynamics approach can effectively enable a macro viewpoint of the experience design process for service operation strategies and policies. Practical implications-With the proposed reference model of service experience design and the system dynamics modeling approach, service providers and designers can not only comprehensively examine the processes of experience design in detail but also accomplish the strategies testing and simulating. Hence, service providers can make correct decisions to achieve the business goals via the simulation results beforehand. Originality/value-This paper contributes to analyze and combine the idea of customer expectation management with experience design and give rise to a unique reference model of service experience design that is shown to be valuable to service operation strategies testing and simulating based on the system dynamics perspective.
When building successful service experience, service providers have to consider multiple factors from a multi-element standpoint. This study aims to establish a new conceptual model for key factors affecting service experience and determine the influential key factors using a multi-perspective and multi-criteria methods. This study uses an analytic network process (ANP) to calculate the degree of influence exerted by the criteria and factors of the service experience and conducts in-depth interviews to validate the results of the ANP, improving the reliability of the results of the study and increasing its practical reference value. Results from tourism factories and international tourist hotels find five main criteria that affected service experience: employee, customer, service environment, information technology, and knowledge creation. The results reveal that employee and service environment are the most important criteria. Therefore, tourism factories and international tourist hotels must invest resources in training and managing employees to equip them with specialized knowledge needed to deliver high-quality service experience. Tourism factories and international tourist hotels also need to pay attention to service environments, and by building an environmental ambience, they allow customers to receive an aesthetically pleasing and comfortable service experience. Future researchers can extend this study’s architecture and results, incorporate other important criteria and factors, and consider the interdependent relations between multiple key factors to further improve the key factors affecting service experience.
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