CUSTOMERS’ ROLES

IN SERVICE DELIVERY
 Customers’ Roles
in Service Delivery

• The Importance of Customers in Service

Delivery
• Customers’ Roles
• Self-Service Technologies—The
Ultimate in Customer Participation
• Strategies for Enhancing Customer
Participation
Importance of customers in
Service delivery
 Customers are a part of the production
process.
 A service experience heavily depends
on the audience’s (customer’s) input
levels also.
 Level of customer participation in
service varies across services.
 Role of other customers
How Customers Widen Gap 3
 Lack of understanding of their roles
 Not being willing or able to perform
their roles
 No rewards for “good performance”
 Interfering with other customers
 Incompatible market segments
Levels of customer participation
across different services
 Low - consumer presence required
during service delivery –
 Products are standardized
 Service is provided regardless of any
individual purchase
 Payment may be the only required
customer input
 Ex. Airline travel, Hotel stay, fast food restaurant.
Contd…
 Moderate - consumer inputs required for
service creation –
 Client inputs customize a standard service
 Provision of service requires customer
purchase
 Customer inputs are necessary for an
adequate outcome, but the service firm
provides the service
 Ex. Restaurant, Haircuts, annual physical exam etc.,
Contd..
 High - customer cocreates the service product
 Active client participation guides the customized
service
 Services cannot be created apart from the
customer’s purchase and active participation
 Customer inputs are mandatory and cocreate the
outcome
 Ex. Marriage counseling, major illness or surgery, lawyer
consultation etc.,
Importance of Other
Customers in Service Delivery
 Other customers can detract from
satisfaction:
 Disruptive behaviors
 Excessive crowding
 Incompatible needs
 Other customers can enhance satisfaction:
 Mere presence
 Socialization/friendships
 Roles: assistants, teachers, supporters
Customer Roles in Service
Delivery
Productive Resources

Contributors to
Quality and
Satisfaction

Competitors
Customers as Productive
Resources
 “Partial employees”
 Contributing effort, time, or other resources
to the production process
 Customer inputs can affect
organization’s productivity
 Key issue:
 Should customers’ roles be expanded?
reduced?
Customers as Contributors to
Service Quality and Satisfaction
 Customers can contribute to
 Their own satisfaction with the service
 By performing their role effectively
 By working with the service provider
 The quality of the service they receive
 By asking questions
 By taking responsibility for their own satisfaction
 By complaining when there is a service failure
Customers as Competitors
 Customers may “compete” with the service provider
 “internal exchange” vs. “external exchange”
 Internal/external decision often based on:
 Expertise capacity
 Resource capacity
 Time capacity
 Economic rewards
 Psychic rewards
 Trust
 Control
Self-Service Technologies—The
Ultimate in Customer Participation
 Produced directly by customers without
any direct involvement or interaction
with the firm’s employees.
 Advances in technology, have allowed
the introduction of wide range of self-
service technologies.
 Ex: ATM’s, Airline check-in, internet banking, online
auctions, etc.,
Customer Usage of SST’s
 Benefits > costs
 Customer readiness results from a
combination of – personal motivation,
ability and role clarity.
 Benefits to companies – cost savings
and revenue growth.
Success with SST’s
 Clear strategy
 Benefits to customer
 Motivating customers to try
 Making customers tech-ready
 Involving customers in the design of the
service technology system and processes
 Educating customer for encouraging
adoption.
 Strategies for Enhancing
Customer Participation

Effective
Recruit, Educate,
Define Customer Customer and Reward
Jobs
Participation Customers

Manage the
Customer
Mix
Strategies for Enhancing
Customer Participation
 Define customers’ jobs
 Helping himself
 Helping others
 Promoting the company
 Individual differences
 Not everyone wants to participate
Strategies for Recruiting,
Educating, and Rewarding Customers

1. Recruit the right customers

2. Educate and train customers to
perform effectively
3. Reward customers for their
contribution
4. Avoid negative outcomes of
inappropriate customer participation
Manage the customer mix
 Attracting maximally homogeneous
groups of customers
 Compatibility of customer segments