Measuring the Customer Experience: Developing a Textual and Graphical Scale
(A2019-8825)

AUTHORS

Markus Gahler, University of Augsburg; Michael Paul, University of Augsburg; Jan Klein, Tilburg University

KEYWORDS

customer experience; omnichannel; scale development

ABSTRACT

In today’s omnichannel environment, providing superior experiences along the customer journey is a strategic priority for firms and researchers. However, to manage marketing activities at all customer touchpoints, firms need to be able to measure the customer experience (CX) at these touchpoints. Surprisingly, research and practice know little about how to measure CX and how to implement CX measurements efficiently. To overcome these shortcomings, we first develop a textual scale consisting of six multi-item dimensions (i.e., affective, cognitive, sensorial, physical, relational, and symbolic). This scale is especially suitable to investigate CX under laboratory conditions. Subsequently, we develop a graphical scale that measures each CX dimension with a single graphical item. As graphical items can efficiently be implemented on mobile devices, this scale is suitable for firms and field studies. We employ eight studies to derive a reliable and valid textual and graphical CX scale.