Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The tourism experience
The overall customer experience of a tourist can be described as a customer journey. Just like a
movie portrays the story of a main actor, a customer journey describes the customer experiences
of a customer in a similar manner. And just like a movie tells a story as a sequence of scenes, a
customer journey consists of a sequence of touchpoints. Thus, a touchpoint describes one single
customer experience that can be a direct interaction between a customer and a service provider,
such as the check-in process of a hotel, but a touchpoint can be also an indirect interaction, such
as when customers recommend a hotel to a friend. Such a customer journey consisting of a
sequence of touchpoints can be represented in various forms, e.g. as a story like the script of
a movie or as a storyboard with drawings illustrating what happens at each touchpoint somewhat
like a comic strip. The Customer Journey Canvas by Stickdorn and Schneider (2010) provides a
simple template to envision this concept (
Figure 24.1
).
Touchpoints within the pre-service period evoke certain expectations about a particular
tourism product regardless of whether these touchpoints are directly between customers and a
brand (such as advertisements, telephone or email contact, etc.) or indirectly (such as word-of-
mouth or electronic word-of-mouth). Also past experiences belong to the pre-service period,
e.g. when a loyal customer returns because of positive memories. The sum of all these touchpoints
builds up certain customer expectations towards a tourism product.
Touchpoints within the service period refer to the actual destination experience including
the in- and outbound journey. The example of a customer journey focusing on only one
stakeholder exemplifi es the complexity of the customer journey refl ecting a whole destination
experience with multiple stakeholders. The sequence of touchpoints regarding only the hotel
experience could be as follows: the arrival at a hotel, orientation in the lobby, queuing up for the
check-in, the check-in process, luggage handling, fi nding the room, etc. Taking into account
the complexity of tourism products and the various services provided by different companies, a
single customer journey can consist out of a vast number of touchpoints. Thus, in practice
customer journeys are made for different levels of details depending on the focus of interest. At
least subconsciously, customers permanently compare their experiences of touchpoints within
the service period with their a priori expectations. Theories such as Kano's theory of attractive
quality (Kano and Takahashi 1979) or the expectancy-disconfi rmation paradigm (Oliver 1977)
allow an analysis of why customers are dissatisfi ed (i.e. negative disconfi rmation), satisfi ed (i.e.
confi rmation) or even delighted (i.e. positive disconfi rmation) with certain touchpoints.
Touchpoints of the post-service period refl ect that satisfi ed guests are not only more likely to
return and eventually even become loyal customers, but are also more likely to recommend the
respective product through various channels (e.g. face-to-face or online). In consequence, such
positive reviews infl uence the purchase decisions of potential customers in their pre-service
period as visualized with the arrows in the Customer Journey Canvas. Likewise, customer
relationship efforts can support the establishment of meaningful customer relationships in the
post-service period, which increases the probability of repurchases if customers were at least
satisfi ed with the tourism product.
Service design
Service design describes a strategic design process with the aim to deliberately create good
customer experiences. Although the colloquial usage of the term design often refers to the look
and feel of a physical product, the purpose of design should be rather described as a process 'to
change existing situations into preferred ones' (Simon 1996). Therefore, design can be used
not only to create better products, but also better services. Service design has a strong
