A Stepwise Model of Customer Experience Management for Iranian ICT Sector

Knowing and managing the concept of customer experience is the main factor in creating competitiveness for any organization. Moreover, without customer experience management, a business cannot specify appropriate strategies to maintain the current market and business sustainability. However, most of the existing studies have looked at this subject abstractly and have not provided a comprehensive model based on steps taken in the customer journey. This research aims to fill the gap by providing the body of knowledge with a comprehensive model for customer experience management, where the stepwise nature of the concept is maintained. Using a grounded theory (GT) strategy, 20 experts in the Iranian IT sector took part in this study. Data gathered using an interview protocol that was made based on reviewing the existing literature. Both reliability (Inter-coder rating) and validity (face and content validity) measures for the data gathering tool were obtained. Three coding approaches of grounded theory (open, axial, and selective coding) were applied to analyze the data. This study introduced a stepwise model of customer management experience through the customer journey steps. The model also contains the prerequisites conditions to realize the customer experience in the IT sector and reveals the contextual factors affecting the process and finally the consequences of applying the model.