Customer experience orientation: Conceptual model, propositions, and research directions

Abstract

Many firms are adopting customer experience management as a route to differentiation, but experience management in practice has only begun to be explored. Using a strategic orientation lens and a theories-in-use approach, a multiple-case study reveals the presence of a “customer experience orientation” (CXO) exhibiting six values and related behavioral norms. Three of these values—journey motivation, continual experience optimization, and experience empowerment—shape experience-based organizational learning through the collection, dissemination, and actioning of experience insight. Substantially extending prior work, a further three values—journey organization, experience mandating, and experience-purpose alignment—institutionalize this learning. Contextual moderators of the impact of CXO on customer experience appraisal and hence firm performance are proposed. Ambivalent effects on performance via increased or decreased costs are also identified, which may counteract or amplify the positive effects of CXO via enhanced experience appraisal. CXO emerges as a distinct, learning-based philosophy for organizational effectiveness, albeit one that draws on ideas from service, human resource management, agile design, and marketing.