Graduation Semester and Year
2022
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing
Department
Marketing
First Advisor
D Elten Briggs
Abstract
The service literature has long recognized that storytelling can be applied in the design of service offerings and their associated customer journeys. The literature also suggests that applying storytelling in service design can enhance the customer experience. However, the customer and firm outcomes that result from applying storytelling in service and customer journey design have not been addressed by the literature. The underlying mechanisms through which storytelling enhances the customer experience and other customer outcomes when applied in service design have also not been addressed by the literature. In addition, there is a shortage of research that addresses the application of storytelling in service design from a customer journey perspective, and even less research that addresses service or customer journey design for experiential services. Using experiential services as a research context, the two essays in this dissertation address the above-identified knowledge gaps in the literature by conceptually and empirically exploring the customer and service offering-related outcomes associated with the application of storytelling in service and customer journey design and the mechanisms leading to these outcomes. Potential moderators of the effectiveness of storytelling as an approach to service and customer journey design are also conceptually and empirically examined. This dissertation also provides guidelines for managers of experiential services on how to apply storytelling in service and customer journey design to enhance the customer experience, customer affective responses, and customer behavioral intentions towards a firm’s service offerings. Overall, the findings of this dissertation contribute to the literature by providing a richer understanding of the effects of applying storytelling in service and customer journey design, the mechanisms leading to these effects, and potential moderators of the observed effects. It also empowers service firms generally, and experiential service firms specifically, to leverage the power of storytelling to design and deliver better experiences for customers that translate into favorable firm outcomes.
Keywords
Customer experience, Service design, Customer journey design, Storytelling, Experiential services, Recreational services
Disciplines
Business | Marketing
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Olajuwon Ige, Olamide Temitope, "Designing Better Experiences Through Storytelling: Two Essays Examining the Application of Storytelling in Service Design and its Impact on Customer and Service Offering-Related Outcomes" (2022). Marketing Dissertations. 30.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/marketing_dissertations/30
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington