CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 489Customer Service Quality and LoyaltyService and Product InnovationAI in Service Interactions

Service encounters, experiences and the customer journey: Defining the field and a call to expand our lens

Open access
Voorhees, Clay M., Fombelle, Paul W., Gregoire, Yany, Bone, Sterling, Gustafsson, Anders, Sousa, Rui, Walkowiak, Travis·2017·Journal of Business Research
DOI 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.04.014
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Service researchers have emphasized the importance of studying the service experience, which encompasses multiple service encounters. Although the reflection on a series of service encounters has increased, the scope of research in this space remains narrow. Service research has traditionally concentrated on understanding, measuring and optimizing the core service delivery. While this focused lens has generated extraordinary knowledge and moved service research and practice forward, it has also resulted in a narrowly focused research field. The authors present a framework to guide comprehensive service experience research. Broadly, they define (1) pre-core service encounter, (2) core service encounter, and (3) post-core service encounter as distinct periods within a service experience. Further, they review the literature and put forward important research questions to be addressed within and across these periods. Finally, they argue that researchers need to consider simultaneously all periods of the service experience to make valuable contributions to the literature.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.04.014

Cites

10 of 10 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Post-purchase experiences are shaped by pre-decision touchpoint quality, accumulated and interconnected across all stages.

    “Incidentally, these conclusions further contribute to customer journey research by empirically demonstrating how post-purchase experiences are shaped by pre-decision touchpoint quality, accumulated and interconnected across all stages (see also Voorhees et al. 2017).”

    From Influencers and the choice of a travel destination: A customer journey and information processing perspective (2025) · cites this paper as Voorhees et al. 2017

  • TSMIs have cascading effects across all journey stages, with predecision awareness and attitudes simultaneously influencing purchase intentions and post-purchase behaviours not necessarily in a linear fashion.

    “Specifically, TSMIs have cascading effects across all journey stages, with predecision awareness and attitudes simultaneously influences purchase intentions and post-purchase behaviours not necessarily in a linear fashion (see also Voorhees et al. 2017).”

    From Influencers and the choice of a travel destination: A customer journey and information processing perspective (2025) · cites this paper as Voorhees et al. 2017

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Voorhees, C. M., Fombelle, P. W., Gregoire, Y., Bone, S., Gustafsson, A., Sousa, R., & Walkowiak, T.
Affiliations
  • Michigan State University (US)
  • Northeastern University (US)
  • Utah State University (US)
  • Karlstad University (SE)
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa (PT)
Corresponding author
Gustafsson, Anders
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Business Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-10
Volume
79
Pages
269-280
ISSN
0148-2963 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.04.014
OpenAlex
W2609687897
Cited by
489
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 41 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 55 · 2022: 67 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 74 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 5
FWCI
75.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Business Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Digitala vetenskapliga arkivet (Diva) (Karlstad University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Service and Product Innovation
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › AI in Service Interactions
Keywords
service encounters, service experience, customer journey, service delivery, research agenda

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review