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1 – 10 of 338Joel E. Collier, Daniel L. Sherrell, Emin Babakus and Alisha Blakeney Horky
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential differences between types of self-service technology. Specifically, the paper explores how the dynamics of public and private…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential differences between types of self-service technology. Specifically, the paper explores how the dynamics of public and private self-service technology influence customers' decision to use the technology.
Design/methodology/approach
Existing customers of private and public self-service technology were surveyed from the same industry. Using structural equation modeling, the authors examine how relevant self-service constructs influence evaluations and attitudes of customers across both settings.
Findings
The analysis reveals that customers' control and convenience perceptions differ across public and private self-service technology. Additionally, customers placed a heavier emphasis on the hedonic or utilitarian evaluation of a service experience based on the type of self-service technology.
Practical implications
For managers of self-service applications, understanding the unique differences of public and private self-service technology can aid in the implementation and adoption of the technology. By properly understanding the differences of the self-service types, managers can provide a beneficial experience to the customer.
Originality/value
By identifying and describing two distinct categories of SSTs, this study allows managers and researchers to better understand how and why individuals choose to utilize individual self-service technologies. Through understanding the unique dynamics of a public and a private SST experience, retailers can determine the appropriate strategy for customer adoption based on the utilitarian or hedonic functions of the technology.
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Petranka Kelly, Jennifer Lawlor and Michael Mulvey
Purpose: The development of service automation continues to underpin the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors providing benefits for both customers and service companies. The…
Abstract
Purpose: The development of service automation continues to underpin the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors providing benefits for both customers and service companies. The purpose of this chapter is to showcase the practice of self-service technology (SST) usage in the contemporary tourism and hospitality sectors and present a conceptual framework of customer SST adoption.
Design/Methodology/Approach: This chapter offers an examination of theory, research and practice in relation to SST usage in tourism, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks arising for both customers and service providers. Since the benefits are achieved only if SSTs gain effective adoption with customers, this chapter focuses on concepts underpinning the study of customer SST adoption. Drawing on SST adoption factors and SST customer roles, a conceptual framework of SST adoption is discussed.
Findings/Practical Implications: This chapter examines the principles and practice underpinning the usage of self-service technologies in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors, with specific reference to customer SST roles in co-creation. The customer SST roles provide a more detailed and nuanced picture of the customer perspective on SST usage. These nuanced roles are captured in a conceptual framework which seeks to further refine the understanding of customer SST adoption.
Research Implications & Originality/Value: The framework provides a useful foundation for further research with a focus on customer empowerment in SSTs. The future development of service automation will require a balance between the delivery of a personalised and smarter customer experience and technology applications that are unobtrusive and which do not pose any ethical or privacy concerns.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of shopper age on attitudes toward and use of retail self‐service technology (SST). The age variable has received relatively…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of shopper age on attitudes toward and use of retail self‐service technology (SST). The age variable has received relatively little attention in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaire responses from three age groups are compared. Also, cluster analysis is used to group subjects based on similarity in attitudes toward and use of SST.
Findings
Compared to younger consumers, older consumers had experience with fewer types of SSTs, less confidence in using SST, reported missing human interaction to a greater degree, used self‐checkout less often when the option was available, were less willing to pay a premium for express checkout, and were more likely to attribute a corporate self‐interest for the introduction of SST. For the total sample of 718 subjects, 40 percent reported using store self‐checkout 15 percent of the time or less when the option was available. Only 25 percent of subjects reported using automated store checkout on more than half of their shopping occasions.
Research limitations/implications
Only eight types of SST were studied and only one technology was investigated in depth.
Practical implications
Based on the findings of this study, four managerial actions are recommended that may potentially increase traffic throughput at automated retail checkout.
Originality/value
This is believed to be the first study to find significant differences among age groups on multiple dependent variables associated with SST. Also, the identification of consumer clusters based on attitudes toward and use of SST may be novel.
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Joel E. Collier, Michael Breazeale and Allyn White
When a failure occurs with a self-service technology (SST), do customers want to give back the “self” in self-service? The authors explore employee’s role in a self-service…
Abstract
Purpose
When a failure occurs with a self-service technology (SST), do customers want to give back the “self” in self-service? The authors explore employee’s role in a self-service failure and how the presence of other customers can change that role. Specifically, they examine how the self-monitoring of customers behavior during a failure can change recovery preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from customers of a movie self-service ticket kiosk and a grocery self-checkout. Three experiments were conducted.
Findings
Results from these studies find that customers want employees to fully take over a transaction after a failure if it takes place in isolation. If other patrons are present or waiting in line, then customers prefer the employee to simply correct the problem and let them complete the transaction. Finally, the servicescape along with the presence of other customers in a self-service area can induce self-monitoring behaviors and alter optimal recovery strategies.
Research limitations/implications
These findings have implications on the appropriate amount of recovery assistance customers need in a self-service experience.
Practical implications
This research reveals the social and functional complexities associated with executing a satisfactory SST failure recovery, particularly with respect to determining the extent to which the employee or customer should control the attempt.
Originality/value
This is the first study to examine the employee’s role in a self-service failure. While other studies have examined customers’ intentions in a self-service failure, authors examine how a service provider can assist in the recovery of a self-service failure.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction with the use of self‐service technology (SST) in a retail setting.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction with the use of self‐service technology (SST) in a retail setting.
Design/methodology/approach
In cooperation with a survey firm, a total of 424 respondents were collected from among consumers who had experience of using multimedia kiosks at convenience stores in Taiwan. The conceptual model was tested by using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment both, initially, influence perceived control and convenience and then affect consumer satisfaction, which in turn has an impact on consumer continued behavior intention. In addition, perceived enjoyment is found to enhance consumer satisfaction, but perceived usefulness is not.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a conceptual model to synthesize the essence of the ECM‐IT model and two important incentives in self‐service (i.e. perceived control and convenience) in order to provide a theoretical explanation for consumer satisfaction in the self‐service context. This not only extends the ECM‐IT model, but also remedies previous self‐service literature that lacked the theoretical background in investigations of consumer satisfaction.
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Toni Hilton, Tim Hughes, Ed Little and Ebi Marandi
Employees have traditionally played a major role in the customer ' s service experience. Yet self-service technology (SST) replaces the customer-service employee experience…
Abstract
Purpose
Employees have traditionally played a major role in the customer ' s service experience. Yet self-service technology (SST) replaces the customer-service employee experience with a customer-technology experience. This paper seeks to use a service-dominant logic lens to gain fresh insight into the consumer experience of SST. In particular, it aims to consider the resources that are integrated when consumers use SSTs, their co-production role and what might constitute value.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents findings from 24 semi-structured interviews that focus on the everyday experiences of consumers in using SST. Both genders and all socio-economic categories within all adult age groups from 18 to 65+ were included.
Findings
There is a danger that organizations embrace SST as an economic and efficient mechanism to “co-create” value with consumers when they are merely shifting responsibility for service production. The paper identifies risks when customers become partial employees and concludes that customers should perceive the value they gain from using SST to be at least commensurate with their co-production role.
Research limitations/implications
The qualitative study was confined to the consumer perspective. Future research within organizations and among employees who support consumers using SST would extend understanding, as would research within the business-to-business (B2B) context. Quantitative studies could measure the frequency and extent of the phenomena the authors report and assist with market segmentation strategies.
Practical implications
The application of service-dominant logic highlights potential risks and managerial challenges as self-service, and consequent value co-creation, relies on the operant resources of customers, who lack the tacit knowledge of employees and are less easy to manage. There is also the need to manage a new employee role: “self-service education, support and recovery”.
Originality/value
The paper draws attention to managerial challenges for organizations to ensure that SST adoption enhances and does not destroy value. Additionally, it highlights the importance of distinguishing between co-production and co-creation.
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This paper investigates self‐service technology (SST) encounters among Canadian B2B (business‐to‐business) customers. It provides an understanding of key determinants of…
Abstract
This paper investigates self‐service technology (SST) encounters among Canadian B2B (business‐to‐business) customers. It provides an understanding of key determinants of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This research also explores issues relating to service recovery in case of SST failure and effects of favorable/ unfavorable SST encounters on business relationships. The study finds that B2B customers experience satisfaction from different sources as compared to B2C customers. These sources include speed, process efficiency and cost savings. Service recovery has been found to be a critical problem with regards to SST.
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Cheng Wang, Jennifer Harris and Paul G. Patterson
The purpose of this paper is to explore situational influences on customers' actual choice between self‐service and personal service and to examine the impact of past experiences…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore situational influences on customers' actual choice between self‐service and personal service and to examine the impact of past experiences on self‐service technology (SST) attitudes and behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A supermarket self‐checkout machine is the SST under investigation. A mixed qualitative research design was used and a total of 209 observations and 47 interviews were obtained from customers in five supermarket stores in Australia.
Findings
Perceived waiting time, perceived task complexity, and companion influence are the three situational factors that impact on a customer's actual choice between self‐service and personal service. Past experiences influence SST attitudes and behavior in a more complex manner than SST characteristics and other individual difference variables.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may not be generalizable to internet‐ or telephone‐based SST contexts.
Practical implications
By understanding what factors affect a customer's choice, better strategies can be developed to manage and coordinate multiple service delivery options. The findings also highlight the importance of preventing frequent failure and providing speedy recovery in the SST context.
Originality/value
This paper goes beyond SST attitudes/intentions and focuses on the moderating effect of situational factors on a customer's actual SST behavior. It also examines the impact of focal product and product‐norm experiences on SST attitudes and behavior.
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Self-service technology (SST) has become popular in many areas, but consumers from many countries still prefer human-provided services. Why is this so? The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Self-service technology (SST) has become popular in many areas, but consumers from many countries still prefer human-provided services. Why is this so? The purpose of this paper is to understand the possible reasons by integrating two perspectives: personal characteristics marketing and the information systems success model (IS success model).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose an integrated model and conduct an empirical questionnaire survey which generates a total of 345 valid responses.
Findings
The authors find that personal technology anxiety and the need for interpersonal interaction are critical factors that affect SST usage continuance intention. Furthermore, personal technology anxiety affects the consumer’s perception of the quality of both the information and the SST system itself, which determines the level of satisfaction and the intention to continue to use the system. Second, the IS success model perspective reveals that the following factors determine the level of perceived satisfaction with SST: information quality, system quality, enjoyment and design. However, only information quality and system quality affect the intention to continue SST usage. The authors also find that satisfaction and the need for interpersonal interaction also determine the SST usage continuance intention.
Originality/value
The IS success model is found to be helpful in understanding the underlying reasons for this. To aid in the development of successful future SSTs, these findings can be referenced by countries in which SST is not so popular. Our proposed model further enhances the theoretical development of the IS success model.
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