Customer experience challenges: bringing together digital, physical and social realms

By Ruth N. Bolton, Janet R. Mccoll-Kennedy, Lilliemay Cheung, A. Gallan, Chiara Orsingher, Lars Witell, Mohamed H. Zaki. Journal of Service Management, 2018

630 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore innovations in customer experience at the intersection of the digital, physical and social realms. It explicitly considers experiences involving new technology-enabled services, such as digital twins and automated social presence (i.e. virtual assistants and service robots). Design/methodology/approach Future customer experiences are conceptualized within a three-dimensional space – low to high digital density, low to high physical complexity and low to high social presence – yielding eight octants. Findings The conceptual framework identifies eight “dualities,” or specific challenges connected with integrating digital, physical and social realms that challenge organizations to create superior customer experiences in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets. The eight dualities are opposing strategic options that organizations must reconcile when co-creating customer experiences under different conditions. Research limitations/implications A review of theory demonstrates that little research has been conducted at the intersection of the digital, physical and social realms. Most studies focus on one realm, with occasional reference to another. This paper suggests an agenda for future research and gives examples of fruitful ways to study connections among the three realms rather than in a single realm. Practical implications This paper provides guidance for managers in designing and managing customer experiences that the authors believe will need to be addressed by the year 2050. Social implications This paper discusses important societal issues, such as individual and societal needs for privacy, security and transparency. It sets out potential avenues for service innovation in these areas. Originality/value The conceptual framework integrates knowledge about customer experiences in digital, physical and social realms in a new way, with insights for future service research, managers and public policy makers.

Subfields: Marketing, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/08443222ba37d69c77d9e2634b6d9e97bf1c45e7

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Citations in the corpus

Frontline Service Technology infusion: conceptual archetypes and future research directions (2019, background): “…smart objects, such as wearables, voice-controlled digital assistants and humanoid robots, is fundamentally changing the ways in which service is delivered and experienced by its two key involved actors – customers and frontline employees (FLEs) (Bolton et al. , 2018; Larivière et al. , 2017).”
Digital Twin in the IoT Context: A Survey on Technical Features, Scenarios, and Architectural Models (2020, background): “The value of ICT platforms has been widely studied and analyzed [239]–[243]; the DT infrastructure could potentially become another case of large interoperable platforms that deliver value to multiple stakeholders and actors.”
Robots or frontline employees? Exploring customers’ attributions of responsibility and stability after service failure or success (2020, background): “Several scholars have provided highly citable frameworks and typologies of technology in the frontline and outlined future research priorities (Bolton et al., 2018; DeKeyser et al., 2019; Larivi ere et al., 2017; Marinova et al., 2017; Rafaeli et al., 2017).”
Introducing digital twins to agriculture (2021, neutral): “…et al., 2018; Patterson and Whelan, 2017; Fraga-Lamas and Fern ´ andez-Caram ´ es, 2019; Zheng et al., 2019; Tilbury, 2019; Dewitt et al., 2018; Bolton et al., 2018; Dong et al., 2019; Cohen et al., 2019; Tomiyama et al., 2019; Qi and Tao, 2018; Tao et al., 2019; Lu et al., 2020; Raman and…”