Customer Experience Management – Session 1

Course Logistics

  • Instructor: Dr. Anshu Suri (UCD Garfield Weston Assistant Professor in Marketing)
  • Contact: anshu.suri@ucd.ie (add “CXM + topic” in subject)
  • Office: D009 (GSB) – by appointment
  • Evaluation:
    • Case studies (in-class) = 30%30\%
    • Reflection essay = 20%20\%
    • Final exam = 50%50\% (MCQs + short answers)
  • Required prep: read case study + assigned articles for each session

Products vs Services

  • Service: “Application of specialized competences (skills, knowledge) through deeds, actions, processes & performances for the benefit of another entity.” (Vargo & Lusch 2004)
  • Key service characteristics:
    • Intangibility
    • Inseparability (simultaneous production & consumption)
    • Variability / Heterogeneity
    • Perishability (no inventory) & Non-ownership
  • Product hierarchy: Core → Actual → Augmented
  • Value proposition layers: Core benefit → Basic product → Augmented elements (e.g., warranty, financing)

Defining Customer Experience (CX)

  • Multidimensional response encompassing cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial & social reactions across the entire journey (Lemon & Verhoef 2016)
  • CX ≠ Customer service alone; service is one touchpoint within CX
  • Experiences are designed, not accidental

Foundations of CX

  • Builds on:
    Marketing & Service Marketing • Multichannel Marketing • Design Thinking • Change Management
  • Related constructs:
    Customer satisfaction (Expectancy–Disconfirmation, SERVQUAL) • Service blueprinting • Relationship marketing & CRM (trust, commitment, CLV) • Customer centricity tools (personas, jobs-to-be-done, journey maps)

Evolution of Marketplace Focus

  • Production Era → Product Era → Sales Era → Marketing Era → Relationship Era → Customer Experience Era (now)

Properties of Experiences

  • Subjective: filtered by culture, age, values, past events
  • Context-dependent: judged relative to competitors’ offers
  • Episodic memory based → fragile; require combination with semantic memory for durability
  • Always possess valence (positive/negative); mediocre episodes fade
  • Direct experiences: physical interaction with offering
    Indirect experiences: second-hand (reviews, word-of-mouth, social media)
  • Involvement Matrix (Tavşan & Erdem 2018): combines cognitive vs physical involvement to classify episodes (euphoric, captive, mellowing, conductive)

Why CX Matters

  • Informed customers: low information barriers, high choice
  • Low switching costs & higher expectations
  • Omnichannel behaviors:
    • Showrooming (store → online) • Webrooming (online → store)
  • Competitors, mobility, social media amplify poor/great episodes

Designing for Impact

  • Focus on “moments of truth” / high-emotion pain points, not every touchpoint equally
  • Experience Disruptor playbook (Halligan 2020):
    1. Provide experiences customers didn’t know they wanted (experience-market fit)
    2. Remove friction via automation
    3. Personalize
    4. Leverage customer advocates
    5. Empower employees to “make things right”

Readings Snapshot

  • Dukes & Zhu 2019: Poor service can be deliberately profitable; common in oligopolies
  • Halligan 2020: “Experience Disruptors” framework
  • Recent research examples:
    • Algorithmic bargaining changes consumer counter-offers
    • Disclosing referrer rewards increases referral rates

Key Takeaways

  • Service traits and product layers inform CX design
  • CX is holistic, intentional, and rooted in customer memory formation
  • Competitive advantage today lies in orchestrating valued, low-friction, memorable episodes at critical journey points