customer role in service delivery
TRANSCRIPT
CUSTOMER
COMPANYService Delivery
Customer-Driven Service Designs and
Standards
Provider Gap 3
GAP 3
Key Factors Leading to Provider Gap 3
Gap 3: Role of Customers in Operational Design & Delivery
• Customers Not Performing Their Role in the Process– Lack of Understanding– Lack of Ability– Lack of Willingness– Ambiguity & Uncertainty About What They Want
• No Reward for Good Performance• Interaction with Other Customers• Incompatible market segments• Impact: Customers Introduce Variability to an Operation• Solution: Limit & Control Customer Involvement Through
Process Design & Technology
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Customers’ Roles in Service Delivery
• The Importance of Customers in Service Delivery
• Customers’ Roles• Self-Service Technologies—The Ultimate in
Customer Participation• Strategies for Enhancing Customer
Participation
Critical Role of the Customer
The idea of the service factory
Simultaneous Production & Consumption
People in the Service Mix – 7P’s
Employees
Customers
Others
Marketing Exchange --- Creating Value
• By participating in the service delivery process, customers create value for themselves
The Drama Metaphor
• actors• audience• script• setting• props
Levels of Customer Participation Across Different Services
Importance of Other Customers in Service Delivery
• Other customers can detract from satisfaction
• disruptive behaviors• excessive crowding• incompatible needs
• Other customers can enhance satisfaction• mere presence• socialization/friendships• roles: assistants, teachers, supporters
Customer Roles in Service Delivery
Productive Resources
Contributors to Quality and Satisfaction
Competitors
Customers as Productive Resources
• “partial employees”– contributing effort, time, or other resources to
the production process
• customer inputs can affect organization’s productivity
• key issue:– should customers’ roles be expanded?
reduced?
Customers as Contributors to Service Quality and Satisfaction
• Customers can contribute to– their own satisfaction with the service
• by performing their role effectively
• by working with the service provider
– the quality of the service they receive• by asking questions
• by taking responsibility for their own satisfaction
• by complaining when there is a service failure
Customers as Competitors
• customers may “compete” with the service provider• “internal exchange” vs. “external exchange”• internal/external decision often based on:
– Expertise capacity– Resources capacity– Time capacity– economic rewards– psychic rewards– trust– control
The Era of Self-serve Technology
Types of Services –
Technology vs. People based
Natural Evolution to tech-based
Concern with losing the people connection
Technology Spotlight:Services Production Continuum
1 2 3 4 5 6
Gas Station Illustration1. Customer pumps gas and pays at the pump with automation2. Customer pumps gas and goes inside to pay attendant3. Customer pumps gas and attendant takes payment at the pump4. Attendant pumps gas and customer pays at the pump with automation5. Attendant pumps gas and customer goes inside to pay attendant6. Attendant pumps gas and attendant takes payment at the pump
Customer Production Joint Production Firm Production
Strategies for Enhancing Customer Participation
EffectiveCustomer
Participation
Recruit, Educate,and Reward Customers
Define CustomerJobs
Manage theCustomer
Mix
Strategies for Enhancing Customer Participation
Strategies for EnhancingCustomer Participation
• Define customers’ jobs– helping himself– helping others– promoting the company
• Individual differences:– not everyone wants to participate
Strategies for Recruiting,Educating, and Rewarding Customers
1. Recruit the right customers2. Educate and train customers to perform effectively
On site --- place and function orientation
3. Reward customers for their contribution4. Avoid negative outcomes of inappropriate customer participation
Manage the Customer Mix
•Access the compatibility of segments•Isolate incompatible segments•Enhance segment compatibility
Characteristics of Service that Increase the Importance of Compatible Segments