By Dr. Yingzi Xu Customers are no longer passive receivers of service offerings from companies, but rather value creators themselves. Companies realize that involving customers in service production and co-production is a cost-saving strategy and an effective way to satisfy customers. Co-production expands to co-design of new services as well as to co-recovery, which allows companies …
By Nancy J. Sirianni It is increasingly rare for customers to complete retail or service transactions without swiping their own credit cards or engaging with point-of-sale terminals. From hotel check in kiosks to tableside tablet computers in restaurants, firms are implementing customer-facing devices in service situations in landmark numbers. It’s no wonder, as frontline technology …
By Sterling Bone Can peer-to-peer interactions in a customer support community reduce the need for one-on-one traditional customer support service? New research sponsored by Arizona State’s Center for Services Leadership and published in the Journal of Service Research (JSR) attempts to address this question. Firms that leverage the collective wisdom and knowledge in their customer …
Great to see new research that’s happening on the intersection of multiple disciplines. With large amounts of data that companies are accumulating through various communication channels, finding new methods and metrics for timely and accurate analysis is becoming more and more critical. This research tested a new framework that allows to automate the analysis of …
By: Rajiv K. Sinha Warranties have traditionally been used as a means to signal to potential customers that the product is high-quality and to allay customers’ anxiety over purchasing a new product of unknown reliability. However, given large increases in reliability as well as the level of commoditization in consumer electronics markets, the value of …
By Dr. Florian v. Wangenheim We all enjoy using Internet services for free: communities, news websites and other web services often do not charge their users. In order to survive, free sites depend on advertising revenues. These can be increased through behavioral targeting, in which the advertiser makes use of information that he has about the …
By Bobbi Dangerfield @BobbiAtDell Michael Dell, said it best: “We’re a company with big ears” – a good thing considering there are more than 25,000 online conversations about Dell each day in English. While that number can be overwhelming, it underscores the wonderful opportunity social media offers for companies to listen, engage, and ultimately understand …
By Ruth N. Bolton Gen Y, or the Millennials, are frequently described as narcissistic compared with previous generations; they “want it all” and “want it now.” Yet, we are also told that they have higher levels of civic engagement – just look at the Arab Spring! Can both be true? Is it even possible to …
By Kristie Dickinson What would it take to convince you to pay for services on Facebook? What about LinkedIn? Or Classmates.com? In today’s world of “try now, buy later” premium models, it’s harder than ever to sway social networkers to upgrade to premium services. There is certainly a recipe for success, but what is the …
by Michael Wiles “Life is more fun if you play games” – Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald How do you engage your customers? Motivate your employees? Make it a game! Service firms are increasingly turning to gamification to enhance consumer and employee outcomes. It isn’t just teenage boys who care about games. Industry estimates are that …
