This paper argues that, in services, the participation of the customer in service delivery means that the traditional resource utilisation/customer satisfaction dichotomy used by many operations managers is too simplistic. In particular, the paper uses qualitative data from customers of two call centres to suggest that operations objectives need to place greater emphasis on the role of coproduction, manifest in customers' expectations and experiences of quality in their service encounters with frontline employees. The paper highlights the different findings for end consumers of insurance when compared to business customers of a bank, and concludes with suggestions for future research and for practicing managers
