Experience Management
Professor Chris Voss is leading a team of researchers studying the emergent field of Experience Design and Management, where companies are focusing on providing their customers with memorable experiences rather than just products and services. Offering or managing experiences is seen as a powerful way to differentiate from competitors, increase revenue and boost customer loyalty. The research involves a number of projects:
Trends in the Experience and Service Economy: The Experience Profit Cycle (2004)
This study set out to examine trends in the service economy involving the creation of experiences and to identify factors associated with business success in this area. The research involved 50 organisations in the areas of retail, entertainment and sport, theme parks, destinations and hotels, largely from the UK, Europe and US. The research identified a repeated cycle of investment and management, vibrant experiences, customer growth, profitability and reinvestment that drives profit which can be seen as the experience profit cycle. The research also examined how organisations are turning services into destinations, compelling places where people visit for an extended period of time, engage in multiple activities and want to return to. Click here to download the report.
Experience and the Brand (2005)
This study focused on the relationship between experience and brands. It included a field study of over 20 organisations, all of which were applying experience management to support existing businesses, build new ones and create innovative ways of connecting with customers. The final report describes why and how companies are using experiences to build and support their brands, issues involved in organising for experience and building the business case. Click here to download the report.
New Strategies in Experience and Leisure (2005)
This study focused on innovators and innovations in the experience and leisure industry. Field research was conducted in a wide range of organisations, primarily in the UK and US. Five strategies emerged: business model innovation, reinventing the business, using experience to revive and build the brand, building the experience portfolio and building and exploiting capabilities.
Wanted: Chief Experience Officer (2006)
This study involved a survey of FTSE 100 companies in the UK to examine companies' attitudes towards and organisation for customer experience. The results include that while many companies saw managing the customer experience as important, relatively few had allocated the responsibility for this task. Click here to download the report.
Designing for Experience (2006)
This study has been in two parts. The first, conducted jointly with Prof Aleda Roth of Clemson University and Prof Dick Chase of the University of Southern California, has examined the design of experiential services and destinations from an operations strategy perspective. The second part of the study, conducted with Dr Leonieke Zomerdijk, addressed the question how focusing on the customer experience changes the way services and service delivery processes are designed. It looked at the process and content of experience design. The study involved eight case studies of design agencies and consultancies that specialise in experience design and nine case studies of experiential service providers. The research showed that companies often use the customer journey and touchpoints approach to design experiences. Innovation took place in five design areas: physical environment, service employees, service delivery process, fellow customers and back office support. An important part of the design process is collecting customer insights. Click here to download the report on innovation in experiential services.
Academic papers
A series of academic papers are being written based on the research described above. The first paper is:
Voss C.A., Roth A.V. and Chase R.B. (2007) "Experience, Service Operations Strategy, and Services as Destinations: Foundations and Exploratory Investigation", Production and Operations Management, forthcoming
Click here to download the abstract.
For more information, contact Prof Chris Voss at cvoss@london.edu.
