The Language of Marketplace Rituals: Implications for Customer Experience Management

[Display omitted] ► Marketplace rituals can enhance customer experience management (CEM). ► These rituals are planned, symbolic and repeated performances executed for and with customers. ► Language is a key strategic element of these rituals, and can offer specific relational benefits. ► Ceremonial,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of retailing 2012-09, Vol.88 (3), p.367-383
Main Authors: Otnes, Cele C., Ilhan, Behice Ece, Kulkarni, Atul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Consumers
Consumption
Customer experience management
Customer relations
Customer satisfaction
Customer services
Language
Marketing
Retail atmospherics
Retail stores
Retailing industry
Rituals
Studies
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Summary:[Display omitted] ► Marketplace rituals can enhance customer experience management (CEM). ► These rituals are planned, symbolic and repeated performances executed for and with customers. ► Language is a key strategic element of these rituals, and can offer specific relational benefits. ► Ceremonial, conventional and commercial categories contain specific linguistic utterances. ► Providers also understand the potential negative consequences of ritual language for CEM. The domain of customer experience management (hereafter, CEM) includes every point of customer contact with products, services or businesses (Grewal, Levy, and Kumar 2009). In a recent special issue of the Journal of Retailing, Puccinelli et al. (2009) assert that a key atmospheric element of CEM that can shape customer satisfaction within the retail setting is the “interaction between the customer and employee” (p. 24). In this paper, we delve further into the social-interaction aspects of retail atmospherics, by focusing on how retailers and service providers use language to facilitate a specific type of provider/customer experience that we label the “marketplace ritual.” We use depth interviews and participant observation to: (1) analyze the structure and function of the specific utterances providers identify as salient when creating and executing marketplace rituals; (2) discuss the ways language contributes to perceived strategic CEM-related outcomes; and (3) examine providers’ perceptions of the potentially negative consequences of ritual language for CEM.
ISSN:0022-4359
1873-3271
DOI:10.1016/j.jretai.2012.02.002