Mapping Customer Experiences: The Role of Touchpoints in Determining Consumer Evaluations

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of the customer experience (CEx) concept within the context of a food and wine event. Drawing on literature associated with service design (ecosystem, customer journey, touchpoint), appraisals/emotions, and tourism/service marketing (satisfaction, loyalty), this research seeks to investigate the more micro, momentary levels of experience and how these accumulate to an overall assessment. This is particularly important, as customer experience has become a key factor for businesses to build customer evaluations such satisfaction, recommendation and repeat visitation, yet relatively limited research has sought to measure the in situ momentary experiences of customers. Businesses within this service sector can manage customer experience through touchpoints (those times the customer comes into contact with the service offering). Previous research has demonstrated that touchpoints influence customers’ thoughts, feelings and behaviours and therefore form the focus of this research. In particular, this research is concerned with gaining an in depth knowledge about the role of touchpoints, how to manage touchpoints to improve overall customer experience and assess the flow-on effects on outcome variables.