Articles Summary
,Lemon and Verhoef (2016)
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.
Core purpose of the article
Lemon and Verhoef aim to build a clearer and more unified understanding of customer
experience in a time where customers interact with firms across many channels, devices,
platforms, and social contexts. They review the roots of the concept, discuss why customer
experience is a distinct construct, explain how it unfolds throughout the entire customer
journey, and evaluate how customer experience can be measured and managed.
Roots of the customer experience concept
Customer experience may seem like a new topic, but the article shows it has deep
foundations in earlier marketing research.
Main historical streams
- Consumer decision process models (1960s and 1970s)
These early theories introduced the idea that customers follow a process from need
recognition to evaluation. This thinking laid the foundation for the modern idea of a
customer journey.
- Customer satisfaction and loyalty research (1970s)
This line of research introduced systematic ways to measure customers' evaluation
of experiences. Satisfaction, disconfirmation, and emotions became important
elements of how experiences are interpreted.
- Service quality (1980s)
Service quality research (including the SERVQUAL model) highlighted that
experiences occur in specific contexts and that customers evaluate multiple
dimensions of quality. It also introduced early versions of journey mapping such as
service blueprinting.
- Relationship marketing (1990s)
Focused on trust, commitment, loyalty, and relationship quality. This broadened the
emotional and attitudinal dimensions of customer experience.
- Customer relationship management and customer equity (2000s)
Brought a more data driven and financial perspective. It linked customer experience
outcomes to value creation through customer equity, purchase behavior, retention,
and cross selling.
- Customer centricity (2000s and 2010s)
Stressed the need for firms to reorganize around customer needs and to integrate
customer data across the organization.
- Customer engagement (2010s)
Expanded the idea of experience to include non purchase behaviors such as
referrals, social influence, co creation, and knowledge sharing.
Customer experience as a distinct construct
The authors define customer experience as a multidimensional response that includes
cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social reactions to the firm across the entire
customer journey.
,Customer experience is not the same as:
● Customer satisfaction (a cognitive evaluation and one part of experience)
● Service quality (an antecedent to experience)
● Relationship marketing constructs like trust and commitment (usually outcomes or
influence factors)
● Customer engagement (behaviors beyond purchase, which are part of experience
but not the whole)
This distinction is important for your exam because customer experience is a broader and
more holistic concept.
Customer experience and the customer journey
This part is central to the article. Figure 1 is especially important, because it shows how
experiences build up across stages.
Three journey stages
According to the authors, customer experience unfolds dynamically across:
1. Prepurchase stage
Includes need recognition, search, information
gathering, and evaluation. Touch points
include advertising, websites, review sites, and
social influence.
2. Purchase stage
Includes choice, ordering, payment, and in
store or online interactions. The environment,
interface design, atmospherics, and employee
behavior play important roles.
3. Post Purchase stage
Includes usage, consumption, postpurchase
service, complaints, reviews, loyalty actions,
and engagement behaviors such as word of
mouth.
Four types of touch points
The customer journey consists of interactions with different touch points:
1. Brand owned: Advertising, website, loyalty programs, product design.
2. Partner owned: Channels, agencies, delivery partners, cocreated apps.
3. Customer owned: The customers own decisions, habits, needs and learning which
the firm cannot control.
4. Social or external: Reviews, other customers, social media, cultural context, peer
influence.
Dynamic nature of experience
Past experiences shape current ones, and external factors such as crises, weather,
economy, and competitor actions can change how customers interpret touch points.
Customer journey analysis
The authors explain how firms can study customer journeys. They emphasize that journey
mapping must reflect the customer view, not only internal processes.
, Key insights:
● Service blueprinting is useful but often too internally driven.
● Multichannel research shows that customers switch channels across stages and that
this depends on benefits, costs, synergies, and inertia.
● Mobile channels introduce search driven behaviors and new location based touch
points.
Customer experience measurement
This section focuses on how firms can quantify and monitor the customer experience.
No universal scale yet
There is no fully validated way to measure the overall customer experience across industries
and channels. Some early scales exist, but they are still being tested.
Useful partial measures
Because full experience measures are still developing, managers often rely on:
● Service quality dimensions
● Customer satisfaction items
● Net Promoter Score
● Brand experience scales
● Postpurchase evaluations
● Touch point specific metrics
Table 2 and why it matters
Table 2 in the paper lists customer experience metrics, explains what they measure, and
describes their strengths and weaknesses. It is a helpful overview for exam preparation and
worth including in your study notes.
,Lemon and Verhoef (2016)
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.
Core purpose of the article
Lemon and Verhoef aim to build a clearer and more unified understanding of customer
experience in a time where customers interact with firms across many channels, devices,
platforms, and social contexts. They review the roots of the concept, discuss why customer
experience is a distinct construct, explain how it unfolds throughout the entire customer
journey, and evaluate how customer experience can be measured and managed.
Roots of the customer experience concept
Customer experience may seem like a new topic, but the article shows it has deep
foundations in earlier marketing research.
Main historical streams
- Consumer decision process models (1960s and 1970s)
These early theories introduced the idea that customers follow a process from need
recognition to evaluation. This thinking laid the foundation for the modern idea of a
customer journey.
- Customer satisfaction and loyalty research (1970s)
This line of research introduced systematic ways to measure customers' evaluation
of experiences. Satisfaction, disconfirmation, and emotions became important
elements of how experiences are interpreted.
- Service quality (1980s)
Service quality research (including the SERVQUAL model) highlighted that
experiences occur in specific contexts and that customers evaluate multiple
dimensions of quality. It also introduced early versions of journey mapping such as
service blueprinting.
- Relationship marketing (1990s)
Focused on trust, commitment, loyalty, and relationship quality. This broadened the
emotional and attitudinal dimensions of customer experience.
- Customer relationship management and customer equity (2000s)
Brought a more data driven and financial perspective. It linked customer experience
outcomes to value creation through customer equity, purchase behavior, retention,
and cross selling.
- Customer centricity (2000s and 2010s)
Stressed the need for firms to reorganize around customer needs and to integrate
customer data across the organization.
- Customer engagement (2010s)
Expanded the idea of experience to include non purchase behaviors such as
referrals, social influence, co creation, and knowledge sharing.
Customer experience as a distinct construct
The authors define customer experience as a multidimensional response that includes
cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social reactions to the firm across the entire
customer journey.
,Customer experience is not the same as:
● Customer satisfaction (a cognitive evaluation and one part of experience)
● Service quality (an antecedent to experience)
● Relationship marketing constructs like trust and commitment (usually outcomes or
influence factors)
● Customer engagement (behaviors beyond purchase, which are part of experience
but not the whole)
This distinction is important for your exam because customer experience is a broader and
more holistic concept.
Customer experience and the customer journey
This part is central to the article. Figure 1 is especially important, because it shows how
experiences build up across stages.
Three journey stages
According to the authors, customer experience unfolds dynamically across:
1. Prepurchase stage
Includes need recognition, search, information
gathering, and evaluation. Touch points
include advertising, websites, review sites, and
social influence.
2. Purchase stage
Includes choice, ordering, payment, and in
store or online interactions. The environment,
interface design, atmospherics, and employee
behavior play important roles.
3. Post Purchase stage
Includes usage, consumption, postpurchase
service, complaints, reviews, loyalty actions,
and engagement behaviors such as word of
mouth.
Four types of touch points
The customer journey consists of interactions with different touch points:
1. Brand owned: Advertising, website, loyalty programs, product design.
2. Partner owned: Channels, agencies, delivery partners, cocreated apps.
3. Customer owned: The customers own decisions, habits, needs and learning which
the firm cannot control.
4. Social or external: Reviews, other customers, social media, cultural context, peer
influence.
Dynamic nature of experience
Past experiences shape current ones, and external factors such as crises, weather,
economy, and competitor actions can change how customers interpret touch points.
Customer journey analysis
The authors explain how firms can study customer journeys. They emphasize that journey
mapping must reflect the customer view, not only internal processes.
, Key insights:
● Service blueprinting is useful but often too internally driven.
● Multichannel research shows that customers switch channels across stages and that
this depends on benefits, costs, synergies, and inertia.
● Mobile channels introduce search driven behaviors and new location based touch
points.
Customer experience measurement
This section focuses on how firms can quantify and monitor the customer experience.
No universal scale yet
There is no fully validated way to measure the overall customer experience across industries
and channels. Some early scales exist, but they are still being tested.
Useful partial measures
Because full experience measures are still developing, managers often rely on:
● Service quality dimensions
● Customer satisfaction items
● Net Promoter Score
● Brand experience scales
● Postpurchase evaluations
● Touch point specific metrics
Table 2 and why it matters
Table 2 in the paper lists customer experience metrics, explains what they measure, and
describes their strengths and weaknesses. It is a helpful overview for exam preparation and
worth including in your study notes.
