Managing Temporality in Customer Experience

Understanding and application of the role of temporality in consumption can enhance managerial practice in a wide range of contexts. Fundamentally, new knowledge of consumer behaviour to include consumer perceptions of temporality will improve customer service and thereby improve customer satisfaction, in turn contributing to loyalty and profit. Further, knowledge of the criticality of customer perceptions of temporality provides managers an opportunity to increase empathy for, and opportunities for personalisationpersonalisation of, the customer experience during interactions with consumers. Acknowledging and appreciating the unique and varied temporal perspective and profile of customers, being as diverse as customers themselves and fluctuating throughout consumption experiences, significantly helps managers in understanding their customers. Management of temporal expectationstemporal expectations, and customer beliefs about the appropriate use of time in consumption experiences, has been overlooked and needs to be foregrounded in order to maximise customer experience. This chapter therefore concludes this book by providing suggestions for improving customer experience through new awareness of the importance of time to customers.