CXB2B: a multi-dimensional scale for customer experience in B2B services — Scale development and validation

Understanding and managing customer experience is pivotal in marketing, yet it's often approached through a business-to-consumer lens. This perspective overlooks the unique dynamics of B2B interactions, where buying behaviours and relational intricacies differ markedly. The existing literature, therefore, lacks a rigorous framework for capturing customer experience from a customer-centric, relational viewpoint in B2B settings, particularly concerning its influence on relationship quality.
This manuscript seeks to bridge this gap by proposing a structured approach to understanding customer experience in the B2B context. It presents findings from three distinct studies. Initially, a qualitative study generated potential scale items, followed by a quantitative phase focusing on refining and purifying the scale. The final quantitative phase involved validating the scale against measures of relationship quality.
Our research has identified four primary dimensions of customer impressions: two cognitive (factual and sagacious) and two affective (emotional and social). The study investigates how these dimensions of customer experience collectively shape the perceived quality of business relationships, offering a nuanced understanding that aligns with the complex nature of B2B interactions.