{"id":8193,"date":"2021-10-04T14:10:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T18:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/bhr\/?p=8193"},"modified":"2022-05-24T14:38:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T18:38:11","slug":"creating-enchanted-customer-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/bhr\/2021\/10\/04\/creating-enchanted-customer-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Enchanted Customer Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Creating
By Alohaflaminggo<\/a> on Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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By J. Bruce Tracey<\/a><\/span>, Professor, Cornell University and <\/span>James Houran<\/a><\/span>, Managing Director, <\/span>AETHOS Consulting Group<\/span><\/p>\n

As the world attempts to recover from the seemingly endless Covid-19 pandemic, many hospitality companies have placed considerable emphasis on creating more engaging and enriching customer experiences. Indeed, there is growing evidence that customers are looking for something more and better (LaTour & Brant, 2021), and even great service may not be enough to meet the needs of the new normal. In particular, many customers are seeking extraordinary, \u201cenchanting\u201d experiences that are immersive and transformative (Phillips, 2019; Soulard, McGehee, & Knollenberg, 2021). As such, the curation of enchantment requires careful consideration of the customers who are seeking enchanting experiences, as well as the front-line employees and operational leaders who help make the magic happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Enchanted Customers<\/b><\/h2>\n

People seek and experience enchantment in a wide-array of contexts (e.g., exotic travel destinations) and activities (e.g., weddings). Psychology and management scholars have extensively studied emotions of \u201cawe, inspiration, wonder or surprise,\u201d but these efficacious sentiments sometimes combine with other particular thoughts and feelings to produce an even more potent experience for consumers and employees \u2013 a sense of <\/span>enchantment<\/span><\/i>. As we previously discussed (Houran & Tracey, 2021), recent studies suggest that enchantment is a complex arousal state filled with competing \u201cemotional, sensorial, timeless, rational, and transformative\u201d themes. This psychological cocktail disrupts the mundane or difficult experience of daily life with a positive feeling of connection to a \u201ctranscendent agency or ultimate reality\u201d (for a review, see Drinkwater at al., 2020).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We further proposed that Pine and Gilmore\u2019s (1999, 2013) famous concept of the \u201cexperience economy\u201d was evolving in important ways toward an \u201cenchantment economy\u201d (Houran & Tracey, 2021). <\/span>So,<\/span><\/i> w<\/span>here do people find enchantment in their lives?<\/span><\/i> Preliminary research by Lange et al. (2021) reveals that consumers intend to pursue \u201cenchanted marketplaces\u201d via five categories of events or experiences which they labeled:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n