Using Customer Segmentation to Build a Hybrid Recommendation Model

Camacho, P., de Almeida, A., & António, N. (2021). Using Customer Segmentation to Build a Hybrid Recommendation Model. In J. V. de Carvalho, P. Liberato, Á. Rocha, & A. Peña (Eds.), Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems - Selected Papers from ICOTTS20 (pp. 299-308). (Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies; Vol. 208). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4256-9_27The growing trend in leisure tourism has been closely followed by the number of hospitality services. Nowadays, customers are more sophisticated and demand a personalized and simplified experience, which is commonly achieved through the use of technological means for anticipating customer behavior. Thus, the ability to predict a customer’s willingness to buy is also a growing trend in hospitality businesses to reach more customers and consolidate existing ones. The acquisition of a transfer service through website reservation generates data that can be used to perform customer segmentation and enable recommendations for other products or services to a customer, like recreation experiences. This work uses data from a Portuguese private transfer company to understand how its private transfer business customers can be segmented and how to predict their behavior to enhance services cross-selling. Information extracted from the data acquired with the private transfer reservations is used to train a model to predict customer willingness to buy, and based on it, offer leisure services to customers. For that, a hybrid classifier was trained to offer recommendations to a customer when he/she is booking a transfer. The model employs a two-phase process: first, a binary classifier asserts if the customer who’s buying the transfer would eventually buy a service experience. In that case, a multi-class model decides what should be the most likely experience to be recommended.authorsversionpublishe

Managing by design

This editorial written by myself and Marc Gruber of EPFL. It explores the role of design thinking in the management of large organisations, and focuses on how design principles can be applied to the design of the workplace and the nature of work itself. As Head of Service Design at the RCA, my contribution is on how to apply design thinking methods for managers and the 6 key elements described in this approach In the last decade the importance of design and the value of design thinking as a tool for innovation has been recognized by both business and government. Design has become a strategic tool for business helping to translate technological innovation into user value, connecting with consumer needs and creating compelling product and service experiences that create new business value. In this paper we consider a further application of design thinking by considering how managers can apply it to the design of the workplace experience. Many enterprises, especially those in the knowledge economy, are defined by their human resources and their capacity to attract and retain talent. In this competitive environment the design of the employee experience and the services that support them and enable them to deliver value to the clients and colleagues, is a key differentiator. Applying design thinking to the design of work itself, the systems that support it, and the physical and virtual environments in which it takes place can help business and organizational leaders to attract and retain top talent, as well as to enhance productivity and operational effectiveness. In this paper we explore the key factors and principles by which leaders and managers can apply design thinking to transform the workplace experience and we propose 6 key elements for managers to enable that transformation and enhance social capital and business and organisational performance

Service Interaction Flow Analysis Technique for Service Personalization

Abstract Service interaction flows are difficult to capture, analyze, outline, and represent for research and design purposes. We examine how variation of personalized service flows in technology-mediated service interaction can be modeled and analyzed to provide information on how service personalization could support interaction. We have analyzed service interaction cases in a context of technology-mediated car rental service. With the analysis technique we propose, inspired by Interaction Analysis method, we were able to capture and model the situational service interaction. Our contribution regarding technology-mediated service interaction design is twofold: First, with the increased understanding on the role of personalization in managing variation in technology-mediated service interaction, our study contributes to designing service management information systems and human-computer interfaces that support personalized service interaction flows. Second, we provide a new analysis technique for situated interaction analysis, particularly when the aim is to understand personalization in service interaction flows

An Integrative Design Framework for New Service Development

Service innovation is focused on customer value creation. At its core, customer-centric service innovation in an increasingly digital world is technology-enabled, human-centered, and process-oriented. This requires a cross-disciplinary, holistic approach to new service design and development (NSD). This paper proposes a new service strategy-aligned integrative design framework for NSD. It correlates the underlying theories and principles of disparate but interrelated aspects of service design thinking: service strategy, concept, design, experience and architecture into a coherent framework for NSD, consistent with the service brand value. Application of the framework to NSD is envisioned to be iterative and holistic, accentuated on continuous organizational and customer learning. The preliminary framework's efficacy is illustrated using a simplified telecom case example. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Customer Experience Management

Dieser Beitrag leistet einen Beitrag zur Marketingforschung, da er den jungen aber von zunehmender Relevanz geprägten Forschungsstrang zum Themenkomplex CEM grundlegend entwickelt. Zum einen zeigt das identifizierte Rahmenkonzept auf, dass CEM über einzelne unternehmerische Fähigkeiten wie dem Design von Serviceerlebnissen, das die bisherige CEM-Forschung bestimmt hat, hinausgeht. Zum anderen leistet das Konzept einen Beitrag zur Synthese fragmentierter, aber miteinander zusammenhängender Literaturströmungen in der Marketingforschung ..

Nucleolus: the fascinating nuclear body

Nucleoli are the prominent contrasted structures of the cell nucleus. In the nucleolus, ribosomal RNAs are synthesized, processed and assembled with ribosomal proteins. RNA polymerase I synthesizes the ribosomal RNAs and this activity is cell cycle regulated. The nucleolus reveals the functional organization of the nucleus in which the compartmentation of the different steps of ribosome biogenesis is observed whereas the nucleolar machineries are in permanent exchange with the nucleoplasm and other nuclear bodies. After mitosis, nucleolar assembly is a time and space regulated process controlled by the cell cycle. In addition, by generating a large volume in the nucleus with apparently no RNA polymerase II activity, the nucleolus creates a domain of retention/sequestration of molecules normally active outside the nucleolus. Viruses interact with the nucleolus and recruit nucleolar proteins to facilitate virus replication. The nucleolus is also a sensor of stress due to the redistribution of the ribosomal proteins in the nucleoplasm by nucleolus disruption. The nucleolus plays several crucial functions in the nucleus: in addition to its function as ribosome factory of the cells it is a multifunctional nuclear domain, and nucleolar activity is linked with several pathologies. Perspectives on the evolution of this research area are proposed

Service design for experience-centric services

Service organizations are increasingly managing customer experiences to promote differentiation and customer loyalty. This article examines the design of experience-centric services, particularly the design of their context. Drawing on relevant literature in service and experience design, the authors develop a theory-based set of propositions for experience design.The propositions are then investigated empirically by means of 17 case studies of design agencies, consulting firms, and experience-centric service providers in different industries. Strong support was found for the designing of “customer journeys” and “touchpoints,” for sensory design, and for the designing of a dramatic structure of events. In addition, the engagement of employees, the management of fellow customers, and the close coupling of backstage employees and frontstage activities represent promising new frontiers in experience design. By identifying the current design practices of leaders in experience design, this study both informs this practice and presents a unique perspective on the design of service delivery systems