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Customers Roles in Service Delivery

- Dwayne D. Gremler

Provider Gap 3

CUSTOMER

Service Delivery
COMPANY

GAP 3
Customer-Driven Service Designs and Standards

Part 5 Opener

- Dwayne D. Gremler

Key Factors Leading to Provider Gap 3

Service Delivery

GAP 3

Key Factors Related to Customers:

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

Customer-Driven Service Designs and Standards

- Dwayne D. Gremler

Objectives
Emphasize the importance of customers in successful service delivery Describe the variety of roles that service customers play Review strategies for involving service customers effectively Result: productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction

- Dwayne D. Gremler

Class Exercise
Think about a unique service which you have consumed, about which you are quite satisfied

- Dwayne D. Gremler

1. What service have you selected? 2. Describe your role as a customer. 3. How did you learn your role?

7. When might other customers enhance/diminish your experience? 8. Could you be considered a partial employee of this organization? Why or why not? 9. When might you, as the customer , be able to enhance /diminish your experience? 10. Is this a service that you might, at some point, be able to provide for yourself? Why or why not?

4. How important is the customer to the service delivery process?

5. How would you describe your level of participation? 6. What influence do other customers have on your service experience?

- Dwayne D. Gremler

Levels of Customer Participation Across Different Services

Source: Adapted from A. R. Hubbert, Customer Co-Creation of Service Outcomes: Effects of Locus of Causality Attributions, doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 1995.

- Dwayne D. Gremler

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

(1) Productive Resources

(2) Contributors to Quality and Satisfaction

(3) Competitors

- Dwayne D. Gremler

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Customers as Productive Resources

partial employees
contributing effort, time, or other resources to the production process

customer inputs can affect organizations productivity key issue:

should customers roles be expanded? reduced?

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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

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Customers as Competitors
customers may compete with the service provider internal exchange vs. external exchange internal/external decision often based on: expertise resources time economic rewards psychic rewards trust control

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Technology Spotlight: Services Production Continuum

Customer Production

Joint Production

Firm Production

Gas Station Illustration 1. Customer pumps gas and pays at the pump with automation 2. Customer pumps gas and goes inside to pay attendant 3. Customer pumps gas and attendant takes payment at the pump 4. Attendant pumps gas and customer pays at the pump with automation 5. Attendant pumps gas and customer goes inside to pay attendant 6. Attendant pumps gas and attendant takes payment at the pump

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Strategies for Enhancing Customer Participation

Define Customer Jobs

Effective Customer Participation

Recruit, Educate, and Reward Customers

Manage the Customer Mix

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Strategies for Enhancing Customer Participation

- Dwayne D. Gremler

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Strategies for Enhancing Customer Participation

1. Define customers jobs - helping himself - helping others - promoting the company
2. Individual differences: not everyone wants to participate

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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