Characterising the concept of service experience

The purpose of this paper is to review the characterisation of the concept of service experience in service marketing research.

Using content analysis, 30 articles and two books published in the period from 2005 to 2007 are analysed.

Three characterisations of the concept of service experience are identified in the literature review: phenomenological service experience (which relates to the value discussion in service‐dominant logic and interpretative consumer research); process‐based service experience (which relates to understanding service as a sequential process); and outcome‐based service experience (which relates to understanding service experience as one element in models of service linking a number of variables or attributes to various outcomes).

To facilitate meaningful research in this area, it is important that researchers critically consider the nature of the concept of service experience in terms of who experiences it, the scope, content, and context of the service experience, and how service experience relates to other concepts, such as value.

No systematic literature review of the characterisation of the concept of service experience has previously been undertaken.