TY - JOUR
T1 - Eliminating customer experience pain points in complex customer journeys through smart service solutions
AU - Holz, Heiko F.
AU - Becker, Marc
AU - Blut, Markus
AU - Paluch, Stefanie
N1 - Funding Information:
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Psychology & Marketing published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2024/3
Y1 - 2024/3
N2 - Scholarly understanding of customer journeys has evolved from a linear, single service provider perspective to encompass complex service delivery networks that involve multiple touchpoints governed by various service providers. This intricate setting often gives rise to experiential pain points for customers. To investigate this phenomenon within the context of airport services, our research employs critical incident and problem-centered interviews as well as an analysis of 7192 online airport reviews. In Studies 1a and 2a, we explore the crucial pain points that travelers encounter throughout their airport journey. Complementing these insights, Studies 1b and 2b assess the impact of the identified pain points on travelers' emotions. Building upon a classification of pain points into information, performance, and hospitality themes, Study 3 further examines how smart service solutions, as new technologies, can address and resolve these pain points, ultimately enhancing the customer experience (CX). By accomplishing these objectives, our work contributes a comprehensive classification scheme for experiential pain points in complex customer journeys to the academic discourse on customer journeys. Furthermore, it establishes a connection to the emerging field of research on the impact of smart service solutions on the CX.
AB - Scholarly understanding of customer journeys has evolved from a linear, single service provider perspective to encompass complex service delivery networks that involve multiple touchpoints governed by various service providers. This intricate setting often gives rise to experiential pain points for customers. To investigate this phenomenon within the context of airport services, our research employs critical incident and problem-centered interviews as well as an analysis of 7192 online airport reviews. In Studies 1a and 2a, we explore the crucial pain points that travelers encounter throughout their airport journey. Complementing these insights, Studies 1b and 2b assess the impact of the identified pain points on travelers' emotions. Building upon a classification of pain points into information, performance, and hospitality themes, Study 3 further examines how smart service solutions, as new technologies, can address and resolve these pain points, ultimately enhancing the customer experience (CX). By accomplishing these objectives, our work contributes a comprehensive classification scheme for experiential pain points in complex customer journeys to the academic discourse on customer journeys. Furthermore, it establishes a connection to the emerging field of research on the impact of smart service solutions on the CX.
KW - 512 Business and Management
KW - artificial intelligence
KW - customer experience
KW - customer journey
KW - experiential pain points
KW - service experience
KW - smart service solutions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176151352&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/mar.21938
DO - 10.1002/mar.21938
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85176151352
SN - 0742-6046
VL - 41
SP - 592
EP - 609
JO - Psychology and Marketing
JF - Psychology and Marketing
IS - 3
ER -