Moments of angst: A critical incident approach to designing customer-experience value systems

Purpose - Competitive dynamics are placing greater emphasis on customer experience, making the management of the last 100 meters of the supply chain critical to differential performance. Traditionally, supply chain design has emphasized two processes: new product development and order fulfillment. Today, a third process must be designed and managed for competitive advantage. That is, the authors need to learn to design service value systems to enhance the customer experience and promote loyalty and lifetime streams of profit. This research informs the enduring challenge that underlies the delivery of high levels of customer satisfaction by enriching theory related to the design and provision of distinctive customer experience. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - The critical incident technique (CIT), an inductive method, is employed to explore two core dimensions of expectancy theory and to identify the phenomenological and underlying systems design factors that bring about both positive and negative customer experiences. Findings - The analysis shows that few companies use customer experience as a competitive lever. Customer service failures persist from a lack of managerial commitment and poor service-delivery process design. A holistic view of customer service that emphasizes policy, people, performance measurement, and processes emerges. Originality/value - Identifying and describing the customer-experience system as a third fundamental supply chain process is an important contribution. By linking a CIT approach with cause-and-effect analysis, the authors go beyond the frequently analyzed cognitive phenomenology to identify vital systems design issues. By enhancing the customer experience at the end of the supply chain, greater advantage for all participants in the chain emerges.