Satisfaction, sacrifice, surprise: three small steps create one giant leap into the experience economy

The authors describe and explain the progression of economic value, showing that customizing a good turns it into a service, customizing a service turns it into an experience, and customizing an experience turns it into a transformation. Businesses that wish to prosper in the emerging experience economy should begin by mass customizing their goods and services. To determine which products to customize, many companies gather customer satisfaction or “voice of the customer” surveys that use market research techniques to get data. However, these techniques do not go far enough to determine what and where a company should mass customize, because customer satisfaction measures market, not individual customer, satisfaction. The authors conclude by presenting their 3‐S Model that shows the importance of driving up customer satisfaction and driving down customer sacrifice as a foundation for effectively instigating customer surprise.