A creative approach to analyzing the customer experience

Abstract of the study

This study aims to evaluate the usability of different design methods to capture the customer experience from a contextual and systemic perspective. To this end, three specific design methods - namely personas, observations and collaborative service mapping - were applied to analyze customer experiences in two different service environments in detail. The usability of these methods was then compared across both settings.

The results of the study show that personas in particular, which are based on in-depth phenomenological interviews, provide valuable insights into the extended lifeworld context of customers. These in-depth insights contribute significantly to establishing a connection to the customer experience and understanding it from a dyadic customer-company perspective. In addition, the active involvement of customers in service mapping activities proves to be extremely beneficial. It not only supports the validation of the collected data, but also opens up access to experience dimensions that go beyond the immediate service environment.

However, the present analysis is limited to the investigation of only three design methods and is based on small samples. For future research, it is therefore recommended to systematically and more comprehensively examine design methods in order to create a broader basis for their evaluation.

This has important practical implications for managers: In order to successfully capture the contextual and systemic nature of the customer experience, interpretative approaches should be applied and selected customers should be actively involved as "experts of their experiences". This study offers concrete guidelines on how design methods can be meaningfully combined and applied to enable a more holistic analysis of the customer experience.

The original value of this work lies in the demonstration that the combined use of design methods enables an analysis that provides both in-depth insights into the customer's lifeworld and an understanding of the complexity of value constellations.

Key findings of this study

• Personas provide deep insights into the broader lifeworld context of customers, including their social environment and future or imaginary dimensions. They help to understand the customer experience from a dyadic customer-company perspective.
• Observations provide detailed insights within the direct service environment. However, they alone are not sufficient to comprehensively capture the social context or value creation activities beyond the immediate provider.
• The active involvement of customers in service mapping activities is crucial to validate the research results. This enables access to dimensions of experience that go beyond the immediate service environment and map the complex value constellations.
• For a holistic analysis of the customer experience, a combined application of different design methods is required. This supports an analysis that captures both in-depth insights into the customer's lifeworld and the complexity of value constellations.
• The involvement of customers as "experts of their experiences" is particularly beneficial, as they provide unique insights into their own value creation process. Their direct contributions help to add important contextual and multi-actor aspects to service maps.