Does Customer Experience Management Pay Off? Evidence from Local versus Global Hotel Brands in South Korea

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the role of customer experiences in increasing hotels’ sustainable competitiveness through its impact on service quality, customer satisfaction (CS), and brand relationship and then compares five local hotel brands and seven global hotel brands operating in Seoul, South Korea. Drawing on Schmitt’s (1999) Strategic Experiential Modules, we collected survey data from 300 respondents who had previous experiences with the hotel brands studied.

We found that experiential modules (the “sense” module and “feel–think–act” module) affect service quality (measured as human service and physical service) for local hotel brands. The “feel–think–act” experiential module, however, only affects service quality for global hotel brands. Additionally, physical service has a strong effect on CS for both local and global hotel brands. Finally, CS has significant influence on consumer–brand relationships for both hotel types. In conclusion, the study provides the critical strategic implication that customer experience management can be utilized to sustain a competitive advantage, which may result in stronger consumer–brand relationships for hotel customers.

本研究通过考察客户体验对服务质量、客户满意度（CS）和品牌关系的影响，调查客户体验在提高酒店的可持续竞争力中的作用，然后比较在韩国首尔运营的五家本地酒店品牌和七家全球酒店品牌。借助施密特 (1999) 战略体验模块，我们收集了来自300名受访者的调查数据，这些受访者曾对酒店品牌进行过研究。

我们发现，体验模块（“感知”模块和“感觉-思维-行为”模块）影响本地酒店品牌的服务质量（从人员服务和设施服务角度来衡量。然而，其中的“感觉-思维-行为”体验模块仅影响全球酒店品牌的服务质量。此外，设施服务对本地和全球酒店品牌的客户满意度影响都很大。最后，客户满意度对两种酒店类型的“消费者-品牌”关系都有显著影响。在结论中，研究提供了关键的战略意义，客户体验管理层可以用它来保持竞争优势，以增强酒店消费者-品牌关系。

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer–brand relationship
• customer satisfaction
• experience management
• global branded hotel brand
• local hotel brand
• service quality