Search results

This study aims to introduce and characterize a specific form of self-service technology (SST), customer self-service devices (SSDs), as well as propose and apply a classification scheme of SSDs to encourage future research on such SSTs.

The paper is based on conceptual development of customer SSDs and exploratory qualitative insight from representatives of companies offering various types of SSDs.

This paper introduces SSDs as customer-possessed and controlled smart service devices aiming to solve problems from the customer’s perspective, often within completely new, customer-defined service processes and ecosystems. SSDs are not confined to the company-controlled service environment, and customers may thus use them wherever and whenever they so wish. The study characterizes SSDs based on service and customer use features, as well as on the subject of the service act (self/other vs belongings) and nature of service act (monitoring vs acting).

This study is limited to conceptual exploration with qualitative insights from six companies. Future research is needed to empirically study different SSDs by using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in various settings.

The paper conceptualizes SSDs as an extension to the traditional SST framework. It contributes to the understanding of how personal handheld devices can contribute to customer experiences. It provides research directions to stimulate further research in SSTs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine customers’ use experiences in a smartphone application (app) context. Apps have emerged as popular tools among marketing practitioners. In service research, however, smartphone apps, and their customers’ use experiences, have received limited attention.

This paper provides a conceptual overview and draws on an empirical two-phase study comprising diary narratives of using a specific app and semi-structured interviews on the use of multiple apps by app users.

Results show that indirect use experiences play an important role in the holistic service experience. Compared with direct experiences, indirect use experiences do not require the actual use of apps or direct contact with the user. Also the context, such as the time and location of app use, is important for both direct and indirect use experience.

This paper highlights indirect use experiences as a vital component of service experiences and encourages researchers not to restrict use experiences to direct use only. Indirect use experiences enable managers to gain deep insights into the everyday use experiences of current and potential customers.

First, previous research on service experience has mainly focused on direct use experiences. This study highlights that indirect use experiences are an important part of the service experience. Second, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first attempt to investigate the use experiences of smartphone apps in a service marketing context.

The purpose of this paper is to review customer experience formation (CXF) by first locating and analyzing how researchers approach CXF in the service literature and the theoretical underpinnings of these approaches, and then assessing which approaches are best suited for understanding, facilitating, and examining CXF in today’s service landscape.

This study systematically reviews 163 articles published between 1998 and 2015 in the service field.

This study illustrates how researchers approach CXF on the individual level by applying stimulus- interaction- or sense-making-based perspectives. These reflect researchers’ theoretical underpinnings for how individuals realize the customer experience within environmental, social, and temporal contexts through intermediation. Researchers further apply contextual lenses, including the dyadic and service- or customer-ecosystem lenses, which reflect their theoretical underpinnings for explaining how various actor constellations and contextual boundaries frame individual-level CXF. Finally, this study shows why the sense-making-based perspective, together with a service- or customer-ecosystem lens, is particularly suitable for approaching complex CXF in today’s service settings.

To advance theory, researchers should choose the approaches resonant with their research problem and worldview but also consider that today’s complex service landscape favors holistic and systemic approaches over atomistic and dyadic ones.

This study provides managers with recommendations for understanding, facilitating, and evaluating contemporary CXF.

This study advances the understanding of CXF by systematically reviewing its multiple layers, approaches, and dimensions and the opportunities and challenges of each approach.