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Design Supporting a ‘Customer-Perceived Intimacy’-Strategy in Healthcare Services

Part of: Design for Healthcare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Carmen Martens ,
Jasmien Herssens  and
Cécile Delcourt
Carmen Martens*
Affiliation:
University of Hasselt; University of Liege
Jasmien Herssens
Affiliation:
University of Hasselt;
Cécile Delcourt
Affiliation:
University of Liege
*
Contact: Martens, Carmen, University of Hasselt/University of Liege, Arts and Architecture/Management Sciences, Belgium, carmen.martens@uhasselt.be

Abstract

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Given that we live in a time within a growing competitive healthcare market, the customer experience and healing opportunities are on top of the priority list. However, little attention has been dedicated on how to merge the disciplines of architecture, healthcare and management to create healthcare environments to enhance the customer experience and the healing process. The goal of this paper is to explore how design can foster customer-perceived intimacy within a healthcare context to achieve enhanced customer outcomes, such as customer well-being. Understanding the importance of customer- perceived intimacy is paramount, as customers are constantly exposed to intimate situations. The study suggest that there is potential for such situations to be wrought with problems involving complexities associated with human cognition, emotions, physiological responses, and behaviors. A literature review is undertaken to highlight the antecedents and the short-term and long-term outcomes of customer- perceived intimacy. As a result, the paper provides a conceptual framework that raises many questions that need to be answered. In doing so, a solid foundation for future inquiry has been laid.

Keywords

Customer intimacyDesign processExperience designHealthcare servicesService design
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 927 - 936
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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