Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept

Abstract

Although research continues to debate the future of the marketing concept, practitioners have taken the lead, appraising customer experience management (CEM) as one of the most promising marketing approaches in consumer industries. In research, however, the notion of CEM is not well understood, is fragmented across a variety of contexts, and is insufficiently demarcated from other marketing management concepts. By integrating field-based insights of 52 managers engaging in CEM with supplementary literature, this study provides an empirically and theoretically solid conceptualization. Specifically, it introduces CEM as a higher-order resource of cultural mindsets toward customer experiences (CEs), strategic directions for designing CEs, and firm capabilities for continually renewing CEs, with the goals of achieving and sustaining long-term customer loyalty. We disclose a typology of four distinct CEM patterns, with firm size and exchange continuity delineating the pertinent contingency factors of this generalized understanding. Finally, we discuss the findings in relation to recent theoretical research, proposing that CEM can comprehensively systemize and serve the implementation of an evolving marketing concept.

The New Paradigm of the Omnichannel Retailing: Key Drivers, New Challenges and Potential Outcomes Resulting from the Adoption of an Omnichannel Approach

“…Retailers have to respond to the emerging needs of their omnichannel customers by offering them easy and comfortable shopping experience. Therefore, to create a relevant and engaging customer experience (Homburg et al, 2017), retailers will need to empower the channel integration by connecting the firm with its consumers across all channels. Moreover, retailers have to invest in experience, creativity and technology by focusing on their customers.…”

Model of Customer Experience and Purchase Intention in Online Environment

“…Customer experience is based on a tangible and sensorial experience, staff aspect, aesthetic perception, and location Martin, Mortimer, and Andrews (2015) Antecedents for cognitive and affective experiential states and their influence on outcomes such as online shopping perceived risk, trust satisfaction, and repurchase intentions Homburg, Jozić, and Kuehnl (2015) Online retailers can focus on cognitive aspects (e.g., website Navigation, functionality, and connectedness) and affective aspects (e.g., website aesthetics, 3-D product presentation, and customization) of the online shopping website in providing holistic online experiences Harwood and Garry (2015) Customer experience management as one of the most promising marketing approaches in consumer industries Sekaran and Bougie (2016) Higher levels of customer role readiness, technologization, and connectivity positively affect different co-creation experience dimensions…”

Executing on a customer engagement strategy

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“…Several studies in this issue, namely, Pansari and Kumar (2017), Harmeling et al (2017), Homburg et al (2017), and Menguc et al (2017) focus on how firms can develop customer engagement through marketing and employee engagement. This is a first step in a critical direction toward value creation for different customer types.…”