Samenvatting

Several facts and developments in the economy and the spa industry lead to shifting customer demands. In combination with an insufficient understanding of the process of experiences and their effects on customers result in the need for a deeper insight into the individual customer experience in the spa industry. The key to success for spas is fine tuning the individual customer experience.
The aim of this research is to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the service experience in the Dutch spa industry through the customer journey. The problem statement is: What is the service experience of the Dutch day spa customer through the three phases of the actual customer journey, applied to Thermen & Wellness Anholts?

Recommendations for further research are based on gaps in the present study and deviations from the existing research. First, the reality as being part of the customer evaluation has not yet been studied. The present study suggests this; therefore, this is a recommendation for further research. Second, the present study failed to reveal an affective evaluation after every cognitive evaluation. Based on this, a recommendation is to research whether this is due to the limitations of this research or whether it can be confirmed by a study with a bigger scope. Third, a recommendation is to research to which extend interactions with personnel lead to behavioural responses. Fourth, in order to critically review conclusions from this study, a recommendation is to conduct a similar study with a bigger case study sample and participant sample, in order to get a clear understanding of the service experience of the entire Dutch day spa industry.