ABSTRACT

This chapter explains customer experience and describes importance of the experience economy. It describes the difference between goods, services and experiences. The chapter focuses on three key concepts in customer experience management – touchpoint, moment of truth and engagement. It provides a number of methods for better understanding customer experience such as mystery shopping, experience mapping, customer ethnography, and participant and non-participant observation. The chapter also explains similarities and differences between customer experience management and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It explores how customer experience is changed by CRM strategy and technology, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The chapter also describes four features of CRM applications that have an impact on customer experience, namely usability, flexibility, high performance and scalability. Measures of customer experience, including involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence (the 4Is), help companies determine whether customer experience objectives are being achieved.