More than a feeling? Toward a theory of customer delight

Parasuraman A.; Ball Joan; Aksoy Lerzan; Keiningham Timothy Lee; Zaki Mohamed

摘要

Purpose Responding to an increasing call for a more comprehensive conceptualization of customer delight, the purpose of this paper is to expand the theory of customer delight and to examine the implications of such an expanded view for service theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents the results of three qualitative studies. The first study explores customer delight through self-reported consumption experiences in customer-selected contexts, followed by one-on-one in-depth interviews. The second involves focus groups and the third examines self-reported incidents of delightful customer experiences. Findings This research finds that customer delight goes beyond extreme satisfaction and joy and surprise to include six properties that-individually or in combination-characterize customer delight. An expanded conceptualization of how customer delight can be defined is proposed in which customer delight is associated with various combinations of six properties - the customer experiencing positive emotions, interacting with others, successful problem-solving, engaging customer's senses, timing of the events and sense of control that characterizes the customer's encounter. Research limitations/implications It is clear from the findings of this research that there is no single property that is associated with delight. Through the facilitation of multiple properties, managers have the potential to create a multitude of routes to delight. It is recommended that future research (1) identify and explicate these alternative routes for engendering delight using the six properties identified, and (2) develop a general typology based on service context and characteristics, customer segment, etc. that further stimulates scholarship on delight, and offers more industry-specific insights for managers. Practical implications Insights from this investigation will encourage managers and service designers to think more broadly and creatively about delight. Doing so will open up new opportunities for achieving customer delight, beyond merely focusing on extreme satisfaction or surprise and joy strategies currently dominating discussions of customer delight. Originality/value This paper makes several contributions to the service literature. First, it extends current conceptualizations of customer delight and offers an expanded definition. Next, it demonstrates how this new understanding extends the existing literature on delight. Finally, it proposes an agenda for future delight research and discusses managerial implications, opening up new opportunities for firms to design delightful customer experiences.

机译：目的应对日益呼吁客户满意的一个更全面的概念，本文的目的是扩大客户满意度的理论和研究服务理论和实践这样的扩展视图的影响。设计/方法/办法本文提出了三种定性研究的结果。第一项研究探讨了客户满意度通过客户选择的背景下自我报告的消费体验，其次是一个一对一的深度访谈。第二个涉及焦点小组和愉快的客户体验的第三检自我报告的事件。发现该研究发现，客户满意度超越了极端的满意和喜悦和惊喜，包括六个性质，单独或组合，特征分析客户满意。客户如何喜悦的扩展概念可以定义提出了在客户满意度与六个属性的各种组合相关的 - 客户体验的积极情绪，在与他人交往，成功解决问题，配合顾客的感官，事件感和时机的表征客户的邂逅控制。研究限制/问题正是从这个研究的结果清楚地看到的是，伴随着欣喜地相关联的一个属性。通过多个属性的便利，管理者必须制定路线取悦了众多的潜力。建议在未来的研究（1）鉴定，并使用确定的六个性质阐明用于观点纳入喜悦这些替代路线，和（2）开发基于服务上下文和特点，客户群等的一般类型学其进一步刺激上喜悦学术，并提供更多的行业专用的见解为经理。从本次调查的实际影响分析会鼓励经理和服务设计人员能够更广泛地和创造性地喜悦认为。这样做将开辟新的机会，实现客户满意，超越仅仅专注于极端满意或惊喜，目前主导客户满意度的讨论喜悦策略。独创性/价值本文通过对服务文献一些贡献。首先，它扩展了客户满意度，并提供了扩展定义的当前概念化。其次，它演示了如何这种新的理解上延伸的喜悦现有的文献。最后，提出了今后的喜悦研究和讨论管理问题的议程，为企业设计出令人愉快的客户体验开辟了新的机遇。

More than a feeling? Toward a theory of customer delight

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