It is typically assumed that all promotional advertising and positive word of mouth is beneficial for a company. However, research has shown this can actually hinder a company’s ability to thrive when the amount of competition is high in the market. In the article, “Strategic Implications of Keeping Product Value Secret from Competitor’s Customers,” the …
The service industry has always been centered around face-to-face encounters between businesses and customers, but with new developments such as AI, robots, and virtual reality, new “spaces” of interaction have been added to the mix. Businesses have to consider digital, physical, and social spaces and until recently, they have been regarding these as fully separate …
Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond. If you like our blog and posts, …
The hit T.V. show Spongebob Squarepants turned 20 years old this past May and one iconic episode featured Bikini Bottom’s lovable sponge with a tough choice many consumers are faced with: choosing a product from an assortment. Tasked with choosing between the “best paper towel around” and the “best paper towel in town”, Squarepants elects …
Is there any real difference between choosing a fast food place for dinner and choosing a pediatrician for your child? Absolutely there is, but the reason goes beyond the context of the service’s impact. One is an experience service, which is a service with attributes that can be evaluated with actual experience of the service. …
Online retail has taken over the service industry and with new technology being consistently developed, it is not going anywhere anytime soon. One issue common among online retailers is customers’ perceived quality (PQ) decreasing upon receiving and interacting with the physical product. This ultimately leads to lower customer satisfaction and often causes financial woes for …
Strategic Service Institute: Is Your Firm Agile? What does success look like in our fast evolving environment? If you are picturing only the service delivery that is currently wowing your customers, you might find rough road ahead. “Companies and their leaders must be evolving one service while at the same time thinking about the next,” …
Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond. If you like our blog and posts, …
As shopping is on its way to becoming an exclusively online process, how can retailers capture the attention of consumers in an environment where the focus is much narrower than in a physical store? In an article written by Barbara Kahn, she presents the research found to determine consumer patterns of attention and which aspects …
Logic would have us believe a free product will sell faster than one that costs money. However, research has proven otherwise when dealing with price promotions, the results of which were published in the Journal of Retailing. A common form of price promotion is “to offer consumers upgrades of their purchased products at a special …
