Who is the customer in customer experience? Developing the concept of co-customers

Customer experience (CX) has been gaining increasing attention in service research. Yet, until recently, CX literature had largely assumed that the experiencing actor—the customer in customer experience—is a single individual customer. Recent studies, however, suggest a shifting focus from an individual experiencing actor. Hence, this study proposes an expanded conceptualization of customer in customer experience that recognizes a collective experiencing unit. We review the CX literature and the broader service and marketing literature. We integrate knowledge from multiple perspectives to offer an encompassing definition of the customer that can generate significant implications for CX and service research.