2023-06-06 06:27:00
To illustrate what customer experience is, let’s take the example of buying a new smartphone. Chances are you’ve seen different ads, received reviews from friends, and even influencers. You make a choice and go to a store; for example, the one with a refined style. You then have a privileged contact with a seller and you finalize your purchase. After the purchase, you still receive various benefits that give you the feeling of being part of a big family. All these elements make you live a global experience.
A useful experience for all
Customer experience has become an essential tool for businesses. It is for this reason that you are asked for your first name to write it on your coffee, or that you probably prefer the brand of soda with the red can rather than the blue.
However, this experience is not only useful for companies. It is also for all of us. Studies have shown that spending money on experiences makes us happier than buying products. There is therefore a deep human interest, which explains in particular this commercial success.
The border between the real and the virtual
As a result, many people wonder how to improve the experiences we live. For this purpose, there are many tools. Some have been in use for a long time but others, more recent, must still be studied in order to know their real impact. In our laboratories at UCLouvain, we are particularly interested in immersion technologies. We often think of virtual reality headsets but there are many others. The general principle, however, remains the same, namely: to blur the boundary between the real and the virtual.
To study the impact of these technologies on our experiments, we invite volunteers to our laboratories. There, they have the opportunity to test immersion technologies in different contexts. We then question them via questionnaires and interviews.
Sometimes we even study their brain activity, heart rate and facial expressions. We have found that using these technologies simply makes our experiences more fun. We are also more energized and even engaged in what we are doing. You probably know that feeling of satisfaction, where you are fully involved in what you are doing and you lose track of time.
With such an importance of the experience, one can therefore imagine the impact that immersive technologies could have. Companies that effectively use these technologies will have a significant advantage.
Negative aspects
However, we also discovered negative aspects. The main one is that some people find it difficult to discover and use immersive technologies. This can lead them to feel controlled by the system rather than in control of it.
We know that technologies are evolving and not yet ready, but that seems to be the case for us too. Although it is very likely that we will see more and more of these technologies in the future, it will be more of a gradual evolution than a revolution.
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