Working With a Taxonomy of Customer Experiences
Suppose your company makes washing machines. Certainly, a large part of a customer's experience of the washing machine will be functional: how well does it clean the clothes? But as home décor changes and laundry moves out of the garage or basement into an indoor laundry room or even a kitchen or living area, aesthetics may play a larger role in the customer's experience of the product. And if your company were to tap into consumers' growing desire for environmentally friendly products with a washing machine that makes them feel good about their positive contribution to a cleaner environment, emotion also becomes part of the equation.
Taxonomy of Customer Experiences
| Functional experience |
How did the customer find the product or service performing in the job he/she hired it to do? |
Aesthetic experience |
Did the customer find beauty, harmony and elegance in form & function? |
Content experience |
How did the customer experience being informed, educated, enlightened or entertained? |
Social experience |
What did the customer experience "person to person?" |
Emotional experience |
How did it make the customer feel? |
Financial experience |
How did the customer experience the exchange of $s, ¥s, €s, £s, etc. ? |
You might examine your goals in designing a new washing machine in light of the importance of various elements of the customer experience (see the figure above). Then, as you validate your findings through quantitative research, you can obtain data on the relative importance of these elements.
Elements of the customer experience for purchasers of washing machines.
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