Enhancing service customer experience through gamification: a service design approach

Abstract

The service sector is a key driver of global economic and social development, with customer experience (CX) becoming a central focus for service improvement. Gamification has emerged as a promising approach to enhance service CX by delivering game-like experiences that foster customer engagement and value creation. However, gamification is still an emerging topic within service research, and future efforts are needed to broaden the understanding of its processes, mechanisms, and impacts on service CX. In addition, there is a lack of evidence supporting the effective integration of gamification and service design (SD), emphasizing the need for methodologies to bridge this gap since it can lead to missed opportunities for optimizing service innovation and CX. This thesis addresses these research gaps by investigating how gamification can enhance service CX across the customer journey and presenting a method that integrates gamification and SD to enhance CX in service contexts. To achieve this, the research is structured into three stages: (1) mapping key concepts in service CX research to establish a theoretical foundation, (2) developing a conceptual model for enhanced CX through gamification across the service customer journey, and (3) proposing and assessing a practical method to design gamified service experiences focusing on enhancing CX. Results are presented in three articles. Article I, Customer Experience Research: Intellectual Structure and Future Research Opportunities, integrates key concepts and current service CX research through a bibliometric review. Article II – Gamification in the Customer Journey: A Conceptual Model and Future Research Opportunities, conceptually explores how gamification can be structured and applied across different customer journey stages to enhance service CX by employing a systematic literature review. Article III – ServiceGameX: a method for designing service gamified experiences, presents a method integrating gamification and service design (SD) to create gamified service experiences focusing on enhancing service CX, which was applied in a real-world scenario. These studies contribute to theoretical advancements in research by (i) developing a conceptual framework that integrates service CX literature, (ii) presenting a conceptual model for gamification in the service customer journey, and (iii) introducing the ServiceGameX method, which integrates SD and gamification for designing gamified experiences focusing on enhancing service CX. This thesis also provides insights for managers and designers interested in enhancing CX through gamification. It offers a solid foundation for future research and practical applications in the intersection of service CX and gamification.