Design of the Customer Expectation Measurement Model in Dynamic Service Experience Delivery

Customer-focused service design and innovation is critical in enabling service firms to deliver what customers want. Although numerous studies have emphasized the importance of customer expectations in numerous disciplines, previous empirical research has only captured non real-time data. Furthermore, previous research contains no mathematical mechanism for correctly catching customer expectations. Service firms therefore must make additional efforts to analyze and predict customer needs according to previous empirical research, yet their predictions and customer expectations continue to exhibit a significant gap. Accordingly, this study proposes a systematical and quantitative customer expectation measurement model based on Fechner’s Law and the concepts of operation risk that service firms can use to measure real time customer expectations during service experience delivery. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol2/iss3/3

Developing a conceptual model for the internal data source to measure customer satisfaction

Traditional CSM approach is performed at certain frequencies. The gap between such events can be termed as a ‘blind period’, because customer satisfaction is left unobserved and unmanaged. The blind period may sometimes accelerate the growth of customer dissatisfaction. One way to eliminate the impact of the blind period is to reduce the gap between CSM events. The initial assessment indicates that conducting CSM more frequently, may weaken the accuracy of measurement, and increase the cost of the programme. The authors believe that the reason behind these limitations is the use of the external data source, collecting data directly from customer, therefore suggests using the internal data source, as an alternative to measure customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model for the internal data source to measure customer satisfaction. To achieve this objective, a conceptual model need to be developed based on three determined steps: define the formation of customer satisfaction value, identify the CSM factors and dimensions, and mirror the CSM instruments to identify the internal performance values. The paper indicates that internal data source could provide researchers with an alternative data source to measure customer satisfaction with minimum limitations on frequency of implementation, accuracy and cost

A review of service quality and service delivery: Towards a customer co-production and customer-integration approach

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers with an overview of the service quality and delivery domain, focussing on the inclusion of customer co-production and customer integration. Specifically, this paper concentrates on service quality (including quality measurement), the service environment, controls and their consequences. Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive review of the literature is conducted, analysed and presented. Findings: The review shows that service delivery is both complex and challenging, particularly when considering the unique characteristics of services and the high level of customer involvement in their creation. The facilitation, transformation and usage framework identifies how failures can occur at each stage of service delivery, beginning with the characteristics of the service environment, while control theory offers insights into the formal and informal controls that may be applied in the facilitation and transformation stages, which may reduce the likelihood or extent of such failures. Originality/value: Despite the fact that it is widely accepted that service quality is an antecedent to customer satisfaction, it is surprising that this customer co-creation aspect has been largely neglected in the extant literature. As such, the role that customer co-production plays in service quality performance has been examined in this paper. It is hoped that this examination will enhance both theoretical and practical understanding of service quality. It would be useful to find modern tools that can help in improving service quality performance

Hawk-Dove Game Based Interactive Design to Manage Customer Expectation

In the era of experience economy, how best to deliver memorable and exciting customer experiences has become a key issue for service providers, and customers can involve themselves in service experience delivery by actively deciding appropriate services rather than passively accepting existing ones. However, service providers frequently consider profit and cost first despite knowing that high-quality service can maximize satisfaction. A dilemma emerges particularly in the oligopoly market. Oligopoly service providers generally have no need to expend additional efforts and costs in attracting customers, and thus are considered a value-bounded context for customers in which providers only provide customers with existing services and restricted values. Accordingly, this study devises an interaction design mechanism to assist oligopoly service providers in effectively managing customer expectations within the dynamic interactions even in value-bounded contexts. The proposed mechanism models this interaction design problem as a series of Hawk-Dove games toward an evolutionary stable state. The simulation results suggest that oligopoly service providers should change their original mindset and design the interactions to manage customer expectations within the service experience delivery to not only achieve high satisfaction and profit but also engage customers to co-create the values

The Relationship Between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Telecommunication Industry: Evidence From Nigeria

This study investigates the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the telecommunication industry with a focus on Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) Nigeria. A total of 230 respondents participated in the study. Research questions and objectives were set, alongside the hypotheses that were formulated and tested. Descriptive statistics comprising the simple percentage and tables were used for data presentation and analysis. Regression analysis and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient were employed in testing our hypotheses. The study reveals that service quality has effect on customer satisfaction and that there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The researcher concluded by recommending that organisations should focus more attention on service quality, because of its effects on customer satisfaction. To ensure that customer satisfaction level is high, organisation must first of all know the expectations of the customers and how they can meet such expectations. Customer satisfaction helps in customer loyalty and retention. It has been discovered that it costs to attract new customer than to retain existing ones. It is also recommended that organisations should welcome suggestions from customers and more programmes should be designed to measure service quality and customer satisfaction.Customer, Service, Customer Satisfaction, Service Quality, Customer Loyalty.

Multichannel in a complex world

The proliferation of devices and channels has brought new challenges to just about every organisation in delivering consistently good customer experiences and effectively joining up service provision with marketing activity, data and content. A good multichannel strategy and execution is increasingly becoming essential to marketers and customer experience professionals from every sector. This report seeks to identify the key issues, challenges and opportunities that surround multichannel and provide some best practice insight and principles on the elements that are key to multichannel success. As part of the research for this report, we spoke to six experienced customer experience and marketing practitioners from large organisations across different sectors. In Multichannel Marketing: Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success, Akin Arikan (2008) said: ‘Because customers are multichannel beings and demand relevant, consistent experiences across all channels, businesses need to adopt a multichannel mind-set when listening to their customers.’ It was clear from the companies interviewed for this report that it remains challenging for many organisations to maintain consistency across so many customer touchpoints. Not only that, but the ability to balance consistency with the capability to fully exploit the unique attributes of each channel remains an aspiration for many. The proliferation of devices and digital channels has added complexity to customer journeys, making issues around the joining up of customer experience and the attribution of value of key importance to many. Whilst senior leaders within the organisations spoken to seem to be bought in to multichannel, this buy-in was not always replicated across the rest of the organisation and did not always translate into a cohesive multichannel strategy. A number of companies were undertaking work around customer journey mapping and customer segmentation, using a variety of passive and actively collected data in order to identify specific areas of poor customer experience and create action plans for improvement. Others were undertaking projects using sophisticated tracking and tagging technologies to develop an understanding of the value and role of specific channels and to provide better intelligence to the business on attribution that might be used to inform future investment decisions. A consistent barrier to improving customer experience is the ability to join up many different legacy systems and data in order to provide a single customer view and form the basis for delivery of a more consistent and cohesive multichannel approach. Whilst there remain significant challenges around multichannel, there are some useful technologies allowing businesses to develop better insight into customer motivation and activity. Nonetheless, delivery of seamless multichannel experience remains a work-inprogress for many

Impact of airline service quality on overall and female passengers' satisfaction : a case study of Tonga's domestic aviation market : a 190.893 (120 credit) research report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Aviation at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The primary objectives of this thesis are to determine the direct impact of airline service quality on passengers’ satisfaction in Tonga’s domestic aviation market. The determinants of airline service quality were identified by using the SERVQUAL dimensions (assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness and tangibles) as measurable indicators. A survey was conducted and 205 questionnaires were collected and analysed. Empirical results obtained via the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach revealed that airline service quality has a direct impact on overall and female passengers’ satisfaction. Furthermore, both overall and female passengers were mostly satisfied with the responsiveness dimension. The tangibles dimension was the dimension with the lowest level of satisfaction for overall passengers and the reliability dimension was the dimension with the lowest satisfaction for female passengers. Importantly, the research highlights the different levels of satisfaction among airline passengers in the monopolistic Tongan domestic aviation market. The findings have implications for the airline management

Implications of customer participation in outsourcing noncore services to third parties

Purpose Focal service providers increasingly involve customers in the decision-making about outsourcing parts of the service delivery process to third parties. The present study investigates how customers' outsourcing decisions affect the formation of the waiting experience with the focal service provider, by which the objective waiting time, environmental quality and interactional quality act as focal drivers. Design/methodology/approach To test our hypotheses in the context of cancer care, we gathered process data and experience data by means of a patient observation template (n = 640) and a patient survey (n = 487). The combined data (n = 377) were analyzed using Bayesian models. Findings This study shows that opting for a service triad (i.e. outsourcing non-core services to a third party) deduces customers' attention away from the objective waiting time with the focal service provider but not from the environmental and interactional quality offered by the focal service provider. When the type of service triad coordination is considered, we observe similar effects for a focal service provider-coordinated service triad while in a customer-coordinated service triad the interactional quality is the sole experience driver of waiting experiences that remains significant. Originality/value By investigating the implications of customer participation in the decision-making about outsourcing parts of the service delivery process to third parties, this research contributes to the service design, service triad and service operations literature. Specifically, this study shows that customer outsourcing decisions impact waiting experience formation with the focal service provider.Purpose Focal service providers increasingly involve customers in the decision-making about outsourcing parts of the service delivery process to third parties. The present study investigates how customers' outsourcing decisions affect the formation of the waiting experience with the focal service provider, by which the objective waiting time, environmental quality and interactional quality act as focal drivers. Design/methodology/approach To test our hypotheses in the context of cancer care, we gathered process data and experience data by means of a patient observation template (n = 640) and a patient survey (n = 487). The combined data (n = 377) were analyzed using Bayesian models. Findings This study shows that opting for a service triad (i.e. outsourcing non-core services to a third party) deduces customers' attention away from the objective waiting time with the focal service provider but not from the environmental and interactional quality offered by the focal service provider. When the type of service triad coordination is considered, we observe similar effects for a focal service provider-coordinated service triad while in a customer-coordinated service triad the interactional quality is the sole experience driver of waiting experiences that remains significant. Originality/value By investigating the implications of customer participation in the decision-making about outsourcing parts of the service delivery process to third parties, this research contributes to the service design, service triad and service operations literature. Specifically, this study shows that customer outsourcing decisions impact waiting experience formation with the focal service provider.A