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1. Introduction
In the service sector, different new-age and immersive technologies, which encompass various visualization tools such as avatars, virtual models, or virtual and augmented reality (AR) devices, among others, are integrated by companies and service providers in their digital strategies. The goal is to design immersive and realistic service experiences that offer many possibilities to customers to live experiences in real and virtual environments (e.g. Sung, 2020; Hoyer et al., 2020; Yim et al., 2017; Dey et al., 2018). For instance, customers can try out items such as clothes and makeup before purchasing them, which can potentially increase the satisfaction of the customers in terms of their shopping experiences. The incorporation of these technologies can also help service providers and companies provide a preview to customers of all of the services they offer while connecting physical and digital experiences (Batat, 2022a). For example, Starbucks uses an AR application that provides access to a virtual tour that connects the physical store with the digital space.
This review article draws on prior research that has examined different technologies used to design customer and service experiences in phygital settings (e.g. Batat, 2022a; Talukdar and Yu, 2021; Jacob et al., 2021). Our goal is to offer a new framework, namely extended reality technologies (ERTs), which can help service researchers and practitioners to design engaging phygital experiences that guarantee a continuum in customer value from physical to digital settings and vice versa. The main objective of the proposed framework is to conceptualize the relationship between ERT types and phygital experiences as well as lay the foundations for future research examining the role of different technologies in terms of extending consumption and service experiences from physical places to digital spaces and inversely.
Following this logic, we define the scope of the ERT framework, classify technological devices, platforms and tools and define their roles when designing phygital customer and service experiences. The proposed ERT framework is a significant component of service innovation that can help companies design compelling and engaging experiences in the phygital era (Batat, 2019, 2021, 2022b). It is a framework that can meet the needs of service providers in terms of improving the customer's experience in both physical and digital settings. Meanwhile, there is...