BIZ104 Customer Experience Management: Reflective Essay on Experiences

This essay provides a reflective analysis of customer experience management (CEM) based on the author's personal experiences with a Mazda 2 Sedan and a Toyota Yaris. The author identifies pain points with the Mazda, focusing on safety concerns and a lack of customer centricity, while highlighting positive touchpoints with the Toyota, such as passenger space and customer service. The essay applies CEM concepts like customer journey, customer lifecycle, and customer centricity to compare and contrast the two experiences, ultimately concluding that Toyota Yaris provides a better overall customer experience due to superior technology, customer service, and a focus on customer needs. The essay also includes proto-persona diagrams illustrating both positive and negative customer experiences.

Running head: CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT
Customer Experience Management
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

1CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
I have purchased a Mazda 2 Sedan recently and my family has purchased recently a
Toyota Yaris. Therefore, I have got the experience of service delivered by these two cars.
Toyota Yaris Sedan has 1.3L regular unleaded petrol engine. In Australia, Yaris Sedan
costs approximately $16,500 and it has 4-speed automatic transmission systems. Yaris provides
mileages of 17.1 km/l and it runs in petrol.On the other hand, Mazda 2 Sedan has the engine
capacity of 1,496 cc with 4-cylinder. Mazda 2 Sedan provides the 19.8 km/l mileage and it
provides transmission of 6-speed with manual shift. In Australia, I paid approximately $17,690
for Mazda 2 Sedan.
According to me, Toyota Yaris is good with fuel economy and it is easy to park as it can
squeeze into cramped parking spots at our garage with ease. Yaris is roomy enough with optional
sports-tuned suspension. I find Toyota Yaris is a reliable vehicle as transmission and engine can
withstand the test of time. On the contrary, the Mazda 2 Sedan emits less smoke and it has good
safety feature also with six airbags, traction control and hill hold control. I find that driving
position of the car can be adjusted and the overall performance of the car is good.
Proto-persona diagram (Poor experience component)
User (Myself) Behaviour
 Straight hair
 Good strategic knowledge
 Fair
 Love driving
 Car lovers
 Understand the technologies
 Understand the importance of

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 Easy with life
 Take buying decision with emotion
 Not so good with the online purchase
innovation
 Not very systematic in life
 Traveller by nature
 Not very fast in making money
Demographic Need and Goal
 Male
 Graduate student
 Aged 21
 From the management background
 Lives in Australia
 Looking forward to creativity in life
 Love for driving and travelling
 The long drive is a preference
 Fascinated towards late night driving
 Driving since high school days
 Want to purchase luxurious cars
 Want to save the environment by less
emission of smoke
Two ‘Pain ‘Points and CEM approach
I want mainly four major things from a car and the automotive companies need to meet
the criteria of the customers. I think the first ‘pain point’ of Mazda 2 Sedan is the security as I
face the issue of keeping and feeling safe during the driving. Kerb weight of the car is 1027 kg
and Mazda 2 Sedan has a front airbag, belt pretension; however, Mazda 2 lacks the knee airbag
for drivers, passengers and rear. I find that Mazda 2 does not have the front airbag for the rear
passengers. I found this car smooth while test driving; however, lack of airbags and off-bit
steering made me panic while driving.In addition, Mazda 2 does not have the active bonnet and
AEB City as additional safety systems.Inside the car, I cannot listen to the honking of other
vehicles in case air-conditioner is on.

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According to me another ‘pain point' of Mazda 2 Sedan is the wellbeing of the riders and
the passengers. The wellbeing of the passengers and riders are related to the comfortable seats,
control system, protection of health and sense of relaxation (Fritzsche et al., 2014). I face the car
controlling issue in Mazda 2 as the ‘check engine' dashboard warning light remains on
sometimes. This light may on for the loose fuel cap, low fuel and ignition coils or spark plugs.
While driving Mazda, I face the common control issue of low sense of relaxation in rear seats as
the seats are quite higher than the normal.
Customer Experience Management (CEM) has one aspect of customer experience as it is
the total of all interactions with customers and prospects as they engage an encounter with the
company (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). I feelthe safety of the cars increases the experiences of the
customers as better safety differentiates the customer experience. I called several times to the
Customer Executives of Mazda; they did not pick up the calls and did not give me a reply to
emails. Customer centricity is about creating positive engagement after the sale by understanding
the customers and Mazda has been failing to do so. I love long driving during the weekend and I
found the car engine is getting warmer after a few hours in Mazda 2.The wellbeing of the
customers focus on the customer centricity issue as the customer centricity places want, needs,
expectations at the core of the business. Customer centricity helps to create the positive
engagement before and after selling of the cars (Homburg, Jozic & Kuehnl, 2017). Business
decisions are informed by the data of the customers and not the speculation.
Proto-persona diagram(Positive experience organisation)
User (Myself) Behaviour
 Straight hair  Fun loving nature

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 Tall height
 Good strategic knowledge
 Fair
 Easy with life
 Take buying decision with emotion
 Love to travel by luxury car
 Drive smooth car
 Lazy schedule
 Long distance travel
 Love speed
 The approach towards life is reluctant
Demographic Need and Goal
 Male
 Aged 21 years
 Graduate student
 Loves innovation
 Creative and patience
 Wants safety while driving the cars
 Sell the cars after use
 Long travelling without disruption
 Change the car after a few months
 Technical specification
Two ‘Touch’ points and CEM approach
Toyota Yaris has the ‘touch point' by giving extra space for the passenger as Yaris looks
after for both rear and front seats of the passengers as well. My family members easily manage
them in Toyota Yaris as it provides enough leg space and place for baggage as well. I find out
that Toyota Yaris provides decent leg rooms and small transmission tunnel provides space for the
three people can sit abreast. Interior and passenger space provides excellent agronomics, SE trim
has the sporty accents and it has a quality cabin at the quality price (Toyota.com, 2018). I
observe that it does not have any notable interior feature which one is new as it follows the
tradition and it makes the car looks traditionalist for my family.

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Toyota Yaris provides the advantage of a manual transmission and this one is quicker
than the automatic transmission. I think the EPA system of the car provides the one extra mpg on
the road. Fuel economy of Yaris is good and it uses the cruise control of many possibilities for
many drivers using long trips. As I like long drive and distance travelling, Yaris' 11.1-gallon fuel
tank helps me. My family also loves travelling and the Toyota Yaris is the perfect companion for
us in a long weekend.
Customer Experience Management (CEM) has the aspect of a customer journey which
explains the collective stories of the interaction of the particular target (Peppers & Rogers, 2016).
The customer journey is about standing by the customers in needs from encountering the
salesperson to subscribing the loyalty programme. Toyota Yaris provides us good customer
journey as it gives good mileage to the customers to embody the interaction in the prospect of the
customers. Additionally, the customer lifecycle is structured to explain the steps of engaging the
customer in making the purchase decision to make them loyal (Zolkiewski et al., 2017). My
father called Toyota Customer Care Department and the executives answered all the queries. The
customers can be loyal when the customers include awareness, selection, action, consideration
and retention.
Comparing and contrasting two experiences to explain why one experience is better than
the other
Mazda 2 comes with the standard kit, includes 16-inch alloy wheels, Bluetooth, USB and
CD player. Mazda 2 Sedan has its connect system and it has decent voice recognition. I found
that Mazda 2 Sedan gives a negative trait in riding with add-on G-Vectoring control. I face the
issue in long driving and I cannot control the car at ease. On the other side, the Toyota Yaris

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provides the brakes that will not easily fade and it has plenty of leg rooms. My father also found
Toyota Yaris does its function well in urban roads and it has speed manual transmission
smoothly shifts. I as youngster found that Toyota Yaris is more tuned with a user-friendly
interface. Toyota Yaris has easy entrance and it has a good exit. Toyota Yaris is better as it
provides extra mileage and a good amount of frontal visibility. As per my opinion, the steering of
the car is smooth and it has good precision handling.
Conclusion
It has been observed that a CEM strategy requires process change and it requires many
technologies. For me, Toyota Yaris provides a better experience as Toyota maintains the IT,
supply chain and marketing technology to become the service provider leader in Australia.
Customers' perspective depends on mainly customer centricity, customer lifecycle, customer
experience, customer journey and customer journey mapping. The organisation needs to
maintain good technology and system so that the business tactics can be maintained in order to
meet the demands of the customers.

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Reference List
Fritzsche, L., Wegge, J., Schmauder, M., Kliegel, M., & Schmidt, K. H. (2014). Good
ergonomics and team diversity reduce absenteeism and errors in car
manufacturing. Ergonomics, 57(2), 148-161.
Homburg, C., Jozić, D. & Kuehnl, C., (2017). Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 45(3), 377-401.
Lemon, K. N., &Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.
Mazda.com.au. (2018). Mazda2 | Australia's Best Small Hatchback & Sedan. Retrieved from
https://www.mazda.com.au/cars/mazda2/
Peppers, D., & Rogers, M. (2016). Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic
framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Toyota.com. (2018). 2018 Toyota Yaris Subcompact Car | A to B refined from A to Z. Retrieved
from https://www.toyota.com/yaris/
Zolkiewski, J., Story, V., Burton, J., Chan, P., Gomes, A., Hunter-Jones, P., .& Robinson, W.
(2017). Strategic B2B customer experience management: the importance of outcome-
based measures. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(2), 172-184.