Forrester Research defines customer experience as: “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.”
Forrester did a fine job reducing the complex and multi-faceted integration of physical, emotional, and often, psychological processes that make up the customer encounter. Perception and interaction are the two essential elements of any customer experience definition. Perception is guided by emotional and psychological responses to stimuli presented during the interaction between the customer, the company, or brand, and the immediate environment whether it be in-store or online. Please note that in this context the “company or brand” is considered the salesperson, representative, call center rep, or …show more content…
The benefit for the consumer in the formation of guilds was that regulation led to applied best practices of the day, uniform codes for quality, and price points that were more uniform and consistent.
Eventually, general stores, markets, and specialized shops refined customer service to include environment and atmosphere, cleanliness, and defining ways to please the shopper. Through these measures customer service would eventually evolve into the customer experience.
Evolutionary timeline of the customer experience:
1894 Switchboard invented which opened the door for communication between buyers and sellers.
1896 Sears and Roebuck’s first large-scale general catalog. The establishment of the railways allowed for the first U.S. mail-order catalogs. Pioneer shoppers could find the goods they needed in the Sears and Roebuck general catalog, and within months the order would arrive by train. This customer experience provided access to goods that were not available locally, protected the consumer from exorbitant prices, and introduced the process of home …show more content…
Editors for Wired Magazine, Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, first coined the term "crowdsourcing" in 2005. Howe first published the definition of the term in a blog post in June of 2006. The Merriam Webster definition of crowdsourcing reads: “The practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.”
2007 Social media support. Individuals easily share and access information through online communities and social networking sites (SNSs). Consumers make relevant social connections and participate in consumers experiences, which facilitate product and brand recommendations, influences trust, and creates shared values. The opportunity that social media support offers suppliers and retailers is through positive brand exposure, enhancing the image of the brand, reaping the benefits of word-of-mouth brand recommendations, generating a network of support for the brand and products, marketing support, and increased