In recent years, there has been a notable shift in the conventional strategies employed by luxury automotive brands towards a more digitalized customer journey. This shift reflects the changing landscape of consumer behavior and the growing influence of technology in shaping customer experiences. Customers are increasingly seeking convenience, personalization, and seamless interactions throughout their purchase process, and expect businesses to provide them with engaging and immersive experiences, both online and offline. As a result, luxury automotive brands have recognized the need to establish a strong digital presence and leverage various touchpoints to meet these evolving customer expectations. Consequently, the purpose of this thesis has been to examine and understand how luxury automotive brands create luxury hedonic experiences online, as well as identify the key touchpoints through which hedonic value is created in a digital context. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative multiple-case study was conducted involving seven businesses operating in the luxury automotive sector. The research methodology employed a combination of semi-structured interviews and a structured questionnaire, and the empirical findings were thoroughly analyzed in conjunction with existing literature to discern similarities and disparities among the cases studied. The conclusion of this thesis reveals that luxury brands employ a multi-faceted approach, utilizing high-quality digital content, exclusivity, collaborations, innovation, personalization, customer-centricity, and top-quality customer service to create hedonic experiences. Key digital touchpoints include aesthetically pleasing websites, interactive features, social media platforms for community building, and corporate touchpoints that align digital experiences with offline luxury experiences. Moreover, this thesis can serve as a guide for future endeavors in this field, and researchers can utilize its findings as a foundation to further explore the implications for luxury automotive brands.

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gain traction and is increasingly reshaping the media and marketing communications field. While significant research has been conducted on the impact of AI in other fields, there is little empirical evidence on how AI is affecting the customer journey. The present study explored both organizations’ current use of AI tools and how customer perceptions about AI affect AI usage and adoption through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory. The research was conducted using mixed-method qualitative research. In-depth interviews and a case study content analysis were conducted to collect and analyze the data. The results suggest that consumer perceptions about AI impact levels of adoption when AI is recognized, but there appears to be cognitive dissonance regarding what constitutes AI and complicit acceptance of some of its benefits. Companies in different geographical locations have different levels of AI adoption along the diffusion of innovation stages.

Metoden Kundresekartläggning har använts i årtionden för att kartlägga målgruppers upplevelser, exempelvis kunders upplevelse av en organisations tjänster. I vetenskaplig litteratur saknas beskrivning av hur datainsamling och analys går till i kundresekartläggnings-projekt. För att öka förståelsen för hur metoden går till har kunskap samlats in, främst genom intervjuer med praktiker (user experience designers och tjänstedesigners) erfarna av metoden. Resultatet blev en guide fylld av tips som kan vara bra för praktiker att tänka på inför och under den här typen av projekt, samt hur man kan engagera organisationen (beställaren av kundresekartan) i projektet så att insikterna används vidare även efter leveransen av kundresekartan. I slutet av guiden finns dessutom fem exempel på kundresekartor som praktiker delat med sig av och berättar om.

The theoretical part is devoted to an explanation of the issue. Specifics of services are outlined as well as trends that will shape future services. A service design is presented as a main topic. Its aim is to find all customer-service "touchpoints", to discover a customer's journey through the service and, on the basis of these inputs, to innovate the service for the highest customer satisfaction and efficiency for a provider on the other hand. There are also presented arguments for the service design as well as methods how services can be improved -- "customer journey map", "personas", own experience with the service, "ethnographic research" and "webdesign". These methods are also used in a practical part. The practical use of the service design is shown on a business "Glasses home". Its focus is a sale of glasses through an e-shop bryle-domu.cz as well as through a patented self-service optician "Optiscont". Using the previously introduced methods, a survey for "Glasses home" is realised. The survey have two phases. The first phase is devoted to the testing of a service prototype, the second phase is devoted to the complex assessment of the service that has been innovated based on the first phase. The final part is devoted to interpretation of results. Based on the practical part, a "customer journey map" is compiled, including "personas" -- archetypes of service customers. The "reservoir of good will" is used to present the strengths and weaknesses of the service. Finally, recommendations for innovations are formulated. The main message is to simplify the website, to explain the "Optiscont" concept to customers at the point of sale and to focus on interconnecting all touchpoints.

The current case study served to investigate roles, uses, attitudes, and future implications of a collaborative artificial intelligence system [CAIS] at a user experience and service design firm. Due to the shortage in the body of literature for human machine co-creative collaboration, this study obliged in expanding on it from a qualitative and conceptual level. Findings from a thematic analysis on design practitioners, indicated three main themes: Attitudes, Attributes, and Awareness. Main findings indicate that negative attitudes affect how much autonomy is ascribed to CAIS; There is a lack of actuating design with this type of technology, partly due to lack of knowledge but also a central authority in the community; CAIS is perceived to foster creativity, but not truly collaboratively; Finally, ethical considerations towards designing with such intelligent systems are discussed both regarding the designer and the design process, but also towards the end-user.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate key success factors of a business model for digitally enhanced and demand driven manufacturing of personalised apparel products. Through the investigation of a questionnaire and two focus group discussions the research outlines the co-creation of customers and the company when personalising an apparel productafter individual requests. Furthermore, it examines the relationship and impacts of service experiences towards the customer journey of value-adding personalisation. Methodology: This study is based on a mixed-method design. The empirical data weregathered through an online questionnaire, which reached out to 183 participants. Furthermore, the data were collected from two focus group discussions with seven students in total. The  discussions were transcribed, coded and analysed using a comparative analysis approach. The main limitations of the research are the limited amount of questionnaire participants and focus groups as well as the focus on personalisation services regarding apparel products. Findings: The findings of the analysis point out that in order to establish a beneficial demand driven business model for the personalisation of apparel products, a company has to adopt factors such as raising awareness, ensure value-adding integration, ideal information sharing, straightforward operation, incorporate customer’s knowledge, customer satisfaction, enablevaluable personalisation as well as consider customer’s emotion. Additionally, the results illustrate that service experiences have an impact on the customer journey of a personalisation. Contribution: This paper contributes to the academia by investigating a framework for ther elationship between a customer journey and the service experiences while co-designing a product with a company. Practical contributions are made by investigating key success factors for digitally enhanced, demand driven manufacturing of personalised apparel products and by giving new insights in the integration of customers when using the service of personalisation. The generated framework and the key success factors can be principle guidelines for entrepreneurs and established businesses as well as for future investigations.

Företag tenderar att leverera meningsfulla kundupplevelser genom användning av kundresor. En kundresa föreställer ett händelseförlopp som innefattar kundens hela livscykel, från förköpsfas till efterköpsfas. Inom kundresor utgör företagsägda kontaktpunkter en central del, eftersom det är via dessa som företag och kunder utbyter information sinsemellan genom hela kundresan. Rätt information är A och O för att företag ska kunna kommunicera med de rätta kunderna, vid rätt tidpunkt och med relevant budskap, oavsett vilken kontaktpunkt som kunden än väljer. Rätt information förutsätter tillgång till relevanta och kvalitetsrika data samt kräver adekvata åtgärder för att möjliggöra ett entydigt och komplett informationsflöde. Detta är lättare sagt än gjort. Faktum är att det i dagsläget saknas tydliga riktlinjer för hur företag bör integrera kontaktpunkter för att säkerställa ett avbrottfritt informationsutbyte. Inom tidigare forskning saknas studier av faktiska fall. Därför har denna studie genomförts som en fallstudie med syfte att undersöka hur en enskild verksamhet inom biltillverkningsindustrin, integrerar egna kontaktpunkter. Studiens resultat tyder på att det finns negativa faktorer som försvårar informationsutbyte och samtidigt utgör ett hot mot positiva faktorer som innefattar verksamhetens kärnprocesser för att effektivisera informationsutbyte. För att upprätthålla ett effektivt informationsutbyte och för att skydda verksamheten mot negativa faktorer, bör positiva faktorer vara synkroniserade. Lösningen förutsätter en gemensam IT-arkitektur, som innefattar system och verktyg som är lämpade för kundinteraktion samt som kan sammankopplas med verksamhetens kärnprocesser. / Companies tend to deliver meaningful customer experiences by using customer journeys. A customer journey represents a sequence of events that include the customer's entire purchase cycle, from pre-purchase phase to post-purchase phase. In these journeys, company owned touchpoints constitute a key part, as it is through these touchpoints that companies and customers share information with one another throughout the entire customer journey. Accurate information is imperative for the companies to communicate with the right customer, at the right time and with a relevant message, regardless of which touchpoint the customer chooses. Accurate information requires access to relevant and high quality data, as well as adequate measures to enable unambiguous and complete flow of information. In fact, this is easier said than done. There are currently no clear guidelines on how companies should integrate touchpoints to ensure an uninterrupted information sharing. In previous research, there is a lack of studies conducted on factual cases. Therefore, this study has been conducted as a case study, which aim is to study an automobile company’s approach to integrate its touchpoints. The result of this study indicates that there are negative factors that hamper the information sharing, and at the same time pose a threat to positive factors that include core business processes to streamline information sharing. To maintain an effective information sharing, and to protect the business against negative factors, positive factors should be synchronized. This solution requires a corporate IT architecture, which includes suitable systems and tools for customer interaction, and which can be linked to the core processes of the business.

Fastighetsmäklarbranschen befinner sig i en utveckling mot ökadekrav och förväntningar från potentiella köpare, säljare ochsamhället i stort. Detta har skapat ett behov av kunskap kringframgångsfaktorer och visualisering med målet att förbättraframtidens förmedlingsprocess. Syftet med föreliggande studie harvarit att fylla en kunskapslucka för studiens begrepp win-win-windär fokus har varit på hur man balanserar så alla parter det vil lsäga säljare, köpare och mäklare går vinnande på bostadsaffären.Den metodologiska design byggdes på kvalitativ empiritriangulerad från de tre perspektiven med intervjusvar från 3säljare, 3 köpare och 7 fastighetsmäklare med tillägg från densvenska myndigheten för registrering, tillsyn och disciplinnämndför fastighetsmäklare, Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen (FMI). Varjepart fick ge sitt utlåtande för vad som skapar värde i processen. Ettvetenskapligt tänkande antogs utifrån fokus på kvalitetsteknik ochverksamhetsutveckling. Systematiska analyser av intervjuernapresenterades i en processkarta över fastighetsmäklarensverksamhet. Resultatet visade att den röda tråden genomförmedlingsprocessen är att sätta värdeskapande i centrum och attge det lilla extra. Slutsatsen blev att framgångsfaktorerna utgörsav; emotionell intelligens, flexibilitet, kundförståelse, långsiktigakundrelationer, trygghet och överträffa förväntningarna. Slutligenfinns ett behov av vidare forskning kring långsiktighet, attöverträffa även framtidens förväntningar på fastighetsmäklare, i enbransch som genomgår ständiga förändringar. / Real estate agency as a business field is under development formeeting increasing demands from potential buyers, sellers andsociety overall, creating a need for knowledge of success factorsand process visualisation to improve future agency opportunities.The purpose of the study has been to cover a knowledge gap of awin-win-win situation for long lasting customer relationships,where the agent can find winning aspects illuminating co-creationof value in use together with potential clients. The methodologicaldesign was built on qualitative data triangulation from threeperspectives with interview answers from 3 buyers, 3 sellers and 7real estate agents with additional answers from the addition of theSwedish estate agents inspectorate. A scientific approach wasadopted focusing on the quality management and businessdevelopment field. Systematic analyses of the interviews have beenpresented in a process map from the real estate agents’ business view. The main themes were summarized from new insights intosuccess factors. Results showed the importance of illuminatingvalue creation and to give a little extra. The conclusions turned outin value creation success themes consisting of emotionalintelligence, flexibility, customer knowledge. longterm customerrelationships, trust and exceeding expectations. Left for futureresearch from a quality management perspective is to keeppursuing this avenue to meet upcoming expectations on the realestate agent, in this business field undergoing constant change. / <p>2021-06-06</p>

Le management de l’expérience client est un terrain d’étude trop peu exploré en marketing (Lars Grønholdt et al., 2015; Lemon et Verhoef, 2017) et de nombreux professionnels décrivent les enjeux stratégiques, plus spécifiquement, de la conception de parcours client ainsi que la complexité managériale à les concevoir en situation de cross-canal.Notre but, dans une visée prescriptive et normative de la recherche, est d’améliorer, à travers la création d’un outil de gestion, les capacités marketing des managers de parcours client. Nous limitions notre travail doctoral au secteur de la distribution française en cross-canal. La thèse suit la méthodologie de Design Science (Romme, 2003) visant à concevoir un artefact, c’est-à-dire un outil de gestion dont les professionnels peuvent s’emparer pour réduire la complexité du management de l’expérience client. Trois études empiriques qualitatives sont conduites : deux séries d’entretiens individuels et une étude de cas pour tester l’outil conçu.L’artefact développé dans cette thèse comprend un ensemble de concepts, une méthode de travail ainsi que sa réalisation effective appelée instanciation, fondée sur les résultats des deux premiers terrains. Nous montrons que le choix théorique de considérer le parcours client comme une coproduction de ressources et de fonder la conception de parcours sur une structure modulaire permet d’améliorer les capacités marketing et d’en développer de nouvelles, contribuant ainsi au savoir managérial mais aussi académique car notre recherche explore, d’un point de vue théorique, les ressources engagées par le client et l’entreprise, ainsi que les capacités marketing nécessaires pour le manager et leurs dynamiques. / Customer experience management is less explored in marketing (Lars Grønholdt et al., 2015; Lemon and Verhoef, 2017) and many practitioners describe strategic issues, and specifically, the managerial complexity to design of customer journey in cross-channel location.Our goal in our prescriptive and normative research, is aiming to improve, through the creation of a management tool, managers’ marketing capabilities. We restrict our doctoral work to French cross-channel retail. The thesis follows the Design Science Methodology (Romme, 2003) aimed at designing an artifact, which is a management tool that professionals can take to reduce the complexity of customer experience management. Three qualitative empirical studies are conducted: two series of interviews and a case study to test the artifact.The artifact developed in this thesis includes a set of concepts, a method and its effective realization called instantiation, based on the results of the first two interviews. We show that the theoretical choice to consider the customer journey as a co-production of resources and the design of customer journey as a modular structure allows to improve actual marketing capabilities and develop new ones, thus contributing to managerial knowledge but also academic because our research explores, from a theoretical point of view, the resources committed by the customer and the company, as well as marketing capabilities for the manager and their dynamics.

Staging experiences and providing optimal customer experience has become the new battlefield within the marketing segment, since the introduction of experience economy. The modern customer has multiple devices, channels and touchpoints to interact with the organization and with rapidly changing digital technology, where the product or service information are available online 24/7, he/ she is in-charge of his/ her own experiences. This multitude of options pose great challenges for the organization to understand customer needs, expectations, and behavior, and predict and manage customer experience. Despite numerous studies and streams of literature, several authors, scholars, and practitioners have developed fragmented frameworks and models that partially addresses this multidimensional construct of customer experience. Furthermore, things get complicated when these fragmented constructs are used by the luxury travel industry to design, develop, and manage customer experience. Therefore, in order to address this broad concept and provide the organization with a holistic framework that can be leveraged for providing customer experience, we conducted a qualitative multi-case study, that included 14 semi-structured interviews from various actors within the supply- chain of the luxury travel industry. Using thematic analysis, the rich empirical data from the interviews were analyzed and transformed into sub-themes and themes. Keeping these themes as the foundation, we propose an integrated conceptual model that captures a firm integrating customer and co-creation perspectives to provide customer experience. This integrated model consists of five building blocks, Organizational Factors, Design, Delivery and Management of customer experience, Co-Creation, Customer Experience Insights / Metrics and Moderating Factors, that coupled together should influence customer experience. Using this conceptual model, we analyzed how different actors within the supply-chain provide customer experience. Subsequently, we also develop a customer journey map (from a customer perspective) consisting of customer needs, channels, and touchpoints to understand the critical touchpoint that act as the primary contributors for providing customer experience. And finally, we highlight the driving factors and barriers for providing customer experience within luxury travel industry.