ABSTRACT
When customers buy a product, such as a new car, they are allowed to testdrive the vehicle to experience its performance and handling. However, when customers wish to purchase a service – such as a tourist service, a home solution, a business solution, a medical service, or education – it can be difficult to provide customers with a ‘test drive’. When test-driving a car, potential purchasers take the real car, in real time, down real streets, facing real situations. However, if a potential buyer were to test out a tourist service at a real resort, with real food, and real service, he or she would be experiencing the actual service. Nevertheless, in some service situations, service organisations can (and do) provide ‘test drives’. Such experiences might involve a simulated activity in a simulated setting, thus enabling customers to assess value-in-use. This simulated reality, referred to as ‘hyperreality’, can take place in a so-called ‘experience room’.
