Week 2 - Lecture 2 Voerman & 3 Selimi
1 - Stein, A. & B. Ramaseshan, 2016, "Towards the Identification of Customer
Experience Touch Point Elements
1. Introduction
- retailers generally acknowledge customer experience as an important component in sustaining a
competitive advantage
- customers now have more power than ever and a variety of means whereby it can be exercised
- customers now know more than sellers about products, services competitors and pricing
- experiences are inherently personal, existing only in the mind of an individual who has been
engaged on an emotional physical or even spiritual level
- experience is shaped by influences that firms may not be able to control
- customers experience every time they ‘touch’ any part of the products, service, brand or
organization → touchpoints
2. Customer experience touch points
- CE develops throughout all touch points and episodes encountered during the service delivery
process
- Indirect touchpoints also emerge during unplanned encounters with representatives of a
company’s products, service or brands
- TPs occur at all stages of the CJ including the search, evaluation, purchase and after-sale phases of
the experience
3. Research methods
- Qualitative research approach was used to build an in-depth and holistic understanding of a
situation
4. Results
- Atmospheric elements: these cover the physical characteristics and surrounding that customers
observe when interacting with any part of the retailer → layout, colors, lightning, music and scents
- Technological elements: in addition to online channels, in physical environments customers are
increasingly using technology, such as point of sale terminals, tablets and kiosks in the day-to-day
transactions
- Communicative elements: promotional comm. Plays a large role in the search and evaluation
stages of the customer journey. One-way communication from the retailer to the customer are
important at different touch points. These elements are also dominant in the purchase and post
purchase phase
- Process elements: aspects such as the checkout waiting time, the service process and the manner
in which customers move around the store, the digital environments, process elements encompass
the way customers navigate the site or technology platform.
- Employee-customer interaction elements: critical, especially during in-store purchases, but they
interact also via telephone, email and online forums.
- Customer-customer interaction elements: customers often rely on word-of-mouth feedback from
personal or familiar sources, or seek feedback from individuals who have prior experience with the
retailer
,- Product interaction elements: at cafés involve the food and beverages offered, while at internet
service providers include the tangible hardware and the intangible Internet service provided
5. Discussion
- Physical environment experienced by the customers influences consumer evaluations and response
- Implications: Mapping of key touch points and identifying the distinct elements at each touch point
relevant to various retail channels will provide managers with a deeper insight into the entire CJ
- Touch point identification and measurement should be assessed from the customer perspective
- Therefore, companies should manage CE by understanding the customers point of view.
2 - Inman, J.J. & H. Nokolova, 2017, "Shopper-Facing Technology: A Retailer
Adoption Decision Framework Incorporating Shopper Attitudes and Privacy
Concerns
Introduction
- Retail technology capabilities have never been greater; retailers are faced with an increasing array
of potential technologies → they are overwhelmed by the option and may adapt technologies
without a clear picture of both how they fit into their strategy and how shoppers will react
- When considering adopting a new technology, sophisticated retailers look at ROI, payback period,
NPV, IRR and impact on profits → if Roi is high, then it will be adopted
- This calculus needs to be expanded beyond what technology CAN potentially deliver and to assess
what it WILL deliver
- managers tend to overlook the customer perspective
- There are many instances of unexpected negative outcomes → shopper backflash fueled by lost
trust
A review of retail technology
- Many major technologies have revolutionized retailing over the past decades
- barcode scanning: enables fast data - video cart: it was a failure
gathering, identifying fast moving products, - in store coupon dispensers
this made possible much of the next - kiosks: many advantages and used widely
advances of technology - Walmart smart network
- Present day technologies
- Mobile apps - Gravity feed shelving system
- Self scanning - Personalized promotions/pricing
- Que Vision - Scan and go
- Smart shelves - In-store CRM
- Shopper facing retail technology adoption decision framework
- Retailers should consider whether the benefits of the technology will outweigh the costs of
purchase, installation and maintenance
- Extracting surplus: consumer surplus is a net gain that a buyer receives from a good or service. It is
the difference between what the buyer would have been willing to pay and the actual price
- Increasing quantity purchased by current buyers
- Attracting new or lapsed buyers: this is a huge potential but the most difficult as well
,- Increasing payments from suppliers
- Offload labor to shoppers: results in cost saving
- Automation
- An equity theory perspective of retail technology adoption
- If the benefits of a new technology results in higher prices, shoppers may perceive the situation as
unfair and react negatively by complaining or even switching to another retailer
- Reciprocal exchange is the most pertinent type of relationship
- incorporating the needs of customers into firm decisions is in the heart of customer relationship
management → and understanding individual customer needs has become a key source of
competitive advantage → benefits accrued from a new technology are largely dependent on how it
is perceived by the shoppers
- Shopper perceptions
- Justice/Fairness perceptions: eg. Price - Relationship trust
fairness - Relationship commitment and loyalty
- Value perceptions - Privacy concerns
- Satisfaction
- Shopper reactions
- Retailer patronage/Switching - WOM
, Discussion
- Shopper-facing technology plays an important role in increasing revenues and decreasing costs
- Retailers must evaluate not only what the new technology CAN deliver but also what it WILL
deliver, customers reactions thereto need to be considered
- The findings show that shopper perceptions of the retailer are affected by new shopper-facing
technologies and that these reactions mediate behavioral intentions
- the study reveals that technology adoption does have a significant impact on retailer patronage &
the willingness to generate positive WOM about the retailer
- QueVision generated the most positive attitudinal perceptions and did not generate privacy
concerns
- Advantage of this framework: by assessing shoppers’ protentional attitudinal shifts, privacy
concerns and behavioral reactions the retailer can be forewarned
- Results: all retail technologies (mobile app, proximity…) had relatively high usefulness, ease of use
and adoption likelihood
3 - P.C. Verhoef, P.K. Kannan & J.J. Inman, 2015, "From Multi-Channel Retailing to
Omni-Channel Retailing. Introduction to the Special Issue on Multi-Channel
Retailing
Introduction
- Retailing has changed dramatically in the last two decades due to the advent of the online channel
and ongoing digitalization
- the online channel has become very dominant and can be considered a disruptive development
- To counter these developments, many retailers have initiated multi-channel strategies
- This decision pertains to traditional brick-and-mortar players, as well as to new online players, who
face the question of whether they should be present offline as well
- the retail landscape continues to change. The popular press is suggesting that we are moving from
a multi-channel to an omni-channel retailing model
