EXQ — Customer Experience Quality Scale

What it measures

Measures the quality of the customer service experience across four dimensions that collectively account for the totality of customer–service provider interactions. Product Experience captures the quality of the core service offering and associated tangibles. Outcome Focus captures the extent to which the service actually achieves the customer's desired outcome — distinguishing between service delivery quality and goal achievement. Moments of Truth captures the quality of pivotal interactions and touchpoints that shape the overall experience. Peace of Mind captures freedom from worry, trust, and reliability — the customer's sense of security and confidence in the provider. EXQ advances beyond service quality measures (SERVQUAL, SERVPERF) by capturing the broader experiential journey rather than specific service encounter attributes.

Response format

Likert (1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Scale items

Product Experience — quality of the core service or product (Likert 1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

• The product/service delivered by [company] meets my needs.
• [Company's] product/service helps me do what I want to do.
• [Company] has a product/service that does what I need.
• [Company] solves problems for me.
• [Company's] product/service is of excellent quality.

Outcome Focus — company's orientation toward customer results

• [Company] is focused on helping me to get good results.
• [Company] is committed to giving me good outcomes.
• [Company] puts me first when making decisions.
• [Company] is always thinking about how to improve outcomes for me.

Moments of Truth — managing critical customer interaction episodes

• [Company] treats me well when things go wrong.
• [Company] handles problems effectively.
• [Company] makes things easy for me when there is an issue.
• [Company] resolves problems quickly and efficiently.
• [Company] makes a special effort when I have an unusual request.

Peace of Mind — customer confidence in the company

• [Company] gives me confidence.
• I can trust [company] to look after my interests.
• [Company] makes me feel secure.
• I feel confident that [company] will deliver on its promises.
• [Company] gives me peace of mind.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Four subscale scores. Outcome Focus is the strongest predictor of customer loyalty and lifetime value — customers who achieve their intended goals are more loyal than those who receive high-quality service delivery without achieving their outcomes. Peace of Mind is particularly important in high-risk service contexts (healthcare, financial services, travel). EXQ has been validated in hotel, airline, banking, and retail contexts and is particularly suited to complex, multi-touchpoint service experiences.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Klaus, P., & Maklan, S. (2012). EXQ: A multiple-item scale for assessing service experience. Journal of Service Management, 23(1), 5–33.

Keywords