The impact of emotions on customer experience through using mobile application for food ordering in Finland

Abstract

This thesis aimed to research about customer experience but in a deeper understanding of emotion element inside customer experience. Under the circumstances, the thesis carried out a study through a mobile application for ordering food in Finland. The theoretical part of this thesis focused on defining customer experience, emotion and the application of PAD emotional model. For the empirical part, the study was conducted through two-phase research: the first phase was a short survey to identify qualified customers. After that, an interview form was prepared for customers to fill in. A qualitative method was used to analyze the data and a base for applying in the PAD model to understand their emotion during different customer journey. Customer maps were drawn through the result of the interview, in order to make a comparison and analysis. Case companies were Wolt & ResQ, which were both based in Finland and provided an online platform through a mobile application for food ordering, but each company operated in a different way to create a great customer experience. The result certainly answered how customer’s emotions were different from different factors: customer status (new user, moderate user, and frequent user) and customer journey. Customer journey maps were drawn based on the interview, in order to see the changes in customer’s emotions at a different stage during their experiences. Based on the result, this thesis suggested for future research, the research should be more focused in a wider range of participants and somehow, connecting with case company, so that the reliability for the research could help the company to understand more about their customers, in order to develop or upgrade the application.