Online customer experience in service settings : Analysing the customer expectations gap: a focus on the food delivery sector

Sammanfattning: Background: As the result of the constant business evolution and in addition to the 2020 worldwide sanitary crisis, online services demand has significantly increased. Shifting from a physical-based customer experience to an online customer-focused service providing. Multiple studies investigated the online customer experience and customer expectations related to the products industry. However, there seems to have a lack of recent research focusing on online customer experience in service settings. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse the customer experience in online service settings, focusing on the food delivery sector in France. The aim is to highlight a customer expectations gap between the customer expected service and the actual perceived service provided by the company. To fulfil this purpose, three research questions have been established. The authors aim to provide a new conceptual model to contribute to the theory. Method: For the purpose of this study, the research philosophy adopted key elements of interpretivism. A qualitative research design is used, combined with an exploratory case study method. Data were collected through 8 semi-structured interviews using a purposive sampling method and were analysed inductively.   Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the customer expectations gap in the online food service delivery, focusing in UberEats case study, is built upon two main factors: the customer expectations design and the online process, together enabling service improvements identification. The authors have thereby designed a new conceptual model in order to provide online food service providers such as UberEats sustainable solutions to reduce the customer expectations gap while using their app.  Keywords: Customer Experience, Customer Expectations, Customer Expectations Gap, Service Quality, Food Delivery Sector, UberEats