SHB faculty identify seven dimensions of consumer experience

Bonnie Knutson

Jeff Beck

The School of Hospitality Business professors Bonnie Knutson and Jeff Beck, in conjunction with Publicom Inc., have identified the seven dimensions of a consumer experience - steps that can be used as an effective management tool for business.

"It's a universally recognized truth that you can't manage what you can't measure," says Knutson. "Now businesses will have the measurement tools to identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to manage their customers' buying experience and help increase sales."

There are seven dimensions of the consumer's buying experience identified in the study:

• Driving benefit: This entails the understanding of how to use a product or service and its consistency, benefit and value.
• Accessibility: A product or service must be readily available or easy to acquire.
• Convenience: The entire shopping process should be fast; products or services easy to locate.
• Incentives: Offering incentives increases the chance of buying the featured product or service.
• Utility: Practicality is important; there should be no surprises surrounding a product or service; safety is a major concern.
• Brand trust: Satisfaction with a store or product or service is critical.
• Sales environment: Surroundings should be entertaining, stimulating and educational.

Expanding on arguments from Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore's bestseller, "The Experience Economy," the collaborators were intrigued by the authors' indications of movement out of the service economy toward what they called the experience economy. In summer 2005, Knutson, Beck and managers at Publicom took the first step to identify and measure the components of an experience. The new business tool will be available in the near future.

"Our study is significant, because it's the first step in identifying and measuring the underlying dimensions that are important in a customer experience," says Beck.

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