Amy L. Ostrom

Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters

Self-service technologies (SSTs) are increasingly changing the way customers interact with firms to create service outcomes. Given that the emphasis in the academic literature has focused almost exclusively on the interpersonal dynamics of service encounters, there is much to be learned about customer interactions with technology-based self-service delivery options. In this research, the authors describe the results of a critical incident study based on more than 800 incidents involving SSTs solicited from customers through a Web-based survey. The authors categorize these incidents to discern the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with SSTs. The authors present a discussion of the resulting critical incident categories and their relationship to customer attributions, complaining behavior, word of mouth, and repeat purchase intentions, which is followed by implications for managers and researchers.

Moving Forward and Making a Difference: Research Priorities for the Science of Service

Given the significant, sustained growth in services experienced worldwide, Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership embarked on an 18-month effort to identify and articulate a set of global, interdisciplinary research priorities focused on the science of service. Diverse participation from academics in a variety of disciplines working in institutions around the world—in collaboration with business executives who lead organizations ranging from small startups to Global 1000 companies—formed the basis for development of the priorities. The process led to the identification of the following 10 overarching research priorities: • Fostering service infusion and growth • Improving well-being through transformative service • Creating and maintaining a service culture • Stimulating service innovation • Enhancing service design • Optimizing service networks and value chains • Effectively branding and selling services • Enhancing the service experience through cocreation • Measuring and optimizing the value of service • Leveraging technology to advance service For each priority, several important and more specific topic areas for service research emerged from the process. The intent is that the priorities will spur service research by shedding light on the areas of greatest value and potential return to academia, business, and government. Through academic, business, and government collaboration, we can enhance our understanding of service and create new knowledge to help tackle the most important opportunities and challenges we face today.

Choosing among alternative service delivery modes: an investigation of customer trial of self-service technologies

Electronic commerce is an increasingly popular business model with a wide range of tools available to firms. An application that is becoming more common is the use of self-service technologies (SSTs), such as telephone banking, automated hotel checkout, and online investment trading, whereby customers produce services for themselves without assistance from firm employees. Widespread introduction of SSTs is apparent across industries, yet relatively little is known about why customers decide to try SSTs and why some SSTs are more widely accepted than others. In this research, the authors explore key factors that influence the initial SST trial decision, specifically focusing on actual behavior in situations in which the consumer has a choice among delivery modes. The authors show that the consumer readiness variables of role clarity, motivation, and ability are key mediators between established adoption constructs (innovation characteristics and individual differences) and the likelihood of trial.

Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service Innovation:

With the global focus on service-led growth has come increased need for practical techniques for service innovation. Services are fluid, dynamic, experiential, and frequently -produced in real time by customers, employees, and technology, often with few static physical properties. However, most product innovation approaches focus on the design of relatively static products with physical properties. Thus, many of the invention and prototype design techniques used for physical goods and technologies do not work well for human and interactive services. This article describes one technique—service blueprinting—that has proven useful for service innovation. Service blueprinting is securely grounded in the customers experience and it allows the clear visualization of dynamic service processes. The technique is described in detail including real case examples that illustrate the value and breadth of its applications.

The influence of technology anxiety on consumer use and experiences with self-service technologies

Abstract The explosion of new technologies is revolutionizing the retail environment. Yet, not all consumers choose to use the new technologies nor do all consumers see these changes as improvements. In this research, we explore usage patterns and benefits of using self-service technologies (SSTs) based on a sample of 823 consumers. We also assess the influence of individual characteristics, specifically technology anxiety (TA) and particular demographics, on SST usage patterns and satisfaction levels. The findings indicate that respondents with higher levels of TA use fewer SSTs and that TA is a better, more consistent predictor of SST usage than are demographic variables. In addition, TA was found to influence overall levels of satisfaction, intentions to use the SST again and the likelihood of participating in positive word-of-mouth for those consumers who had an initially satisfying experience.

Service Research Priorities in a Rapidly Changing Context

The context in which service is delivered and experienced has, in many respects, fundamentally changed. For instance, advances in technology, especially information technology, are leading to a proliferation of revolutionary services and changing how customers serve themselves before, during, and after purchase. To understand this changing landscape, the authors engaged in an international and interdisciplinary research effort to identify research priorities that have the potential to advance the service field and benefit customers, organizations, and society. The priority-setting process was informed by roundtable discussions with researchers affiliated with service research centers and networks located around the world and resulted in the following 12 service research priorities: stimulating service innovation, facilitating servitization, service infusion, and solutions, understanding organization and employee issues relevant to successful service, developing service networks and systems, leveraging service design, using big data to advance service, understanding value creation, enhancing the service experience, improving well-being through transformative service, measuring and optimizing service performance and impact, understanding service in a global context, and leveraging technology to advance service. For each priority, the authors identified important specific service topics and related research questions. Then, through an online survey, service researchers assessed the subtopics’ perceived importance and the service field’s extant knowledge about them. Although all the priorities and related topics were deemed important, the results show that topics related to transformative service and measuring and optimizing service performance are particularly important for advancing the service field along with big data, which had the largest gap between importance and current knowledge of the field. The authors present key challenges that should be addressed to move the field forward and conclude with a discussion of the need for additional interdisciplinary research.

Gender differences in the impact of core and relational aspects of services on the evaluation of service encounters

Research in services marketing suggests that services consist of two components: (a) the core service (e.g., the dinner served at a nice restaurant) and (b) the relationship between the service provider and the client (e.g., the friendliness of the waiter). These dimensions are logical analogues to those in the social psychological literature describing leaders effective at task-oriented behaviors (i.e., those focused on getting the job done) and social-oriented behaviors (i.e., those leaders focused on maintaining group cohesion). A third literature, on gender differences, consistently describes men as agentic (i.e., goal oriented) and women as communal (socially oriented). A synthesis of the ideas from these literatures suggests hypotheses regarding which factors should be most influential to male and female consumers in determining customer satisfaction with service encounters. The results from three experiments provide support for the hypothesis that women may be generally more sensitive to relational aspects of a service encounter and men to core aspects, though there appear to be several factors moderating these findings which are not easily explained in a simple, unified theory.

A Cup of Coffee With a Dash of Love An Investigation of Commercial Social Support and Third-Place Attachment

This study introduces theory about how deficits in social support motivate consumers to replace lost social resources by forming relationships with customers and employees in commercial “third places.” The authors demonstrate support for a multiple-indicator, multiple-cause model that illustrates how six common events that destroy or erode a persons social support can cause the person to obtain emotional support and companionship in a third place. The model supports the linkage between commercial social support and a consumers sense of attachment to a third place that harbors his or her social support network. The authors also propose and test hypotheses that reveal that consumers obtain social support in a third place to the extent to which they lost it outside the place. In essence, third-place patrons match their lost support to their commercial support, thus remedying negative symptoms associated with isolation. The article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications and limitations.

Loyalty programs and a sense of community

Purpose – Previous research has explored the impact of customer participation in organizational‐sponsored loyalty programs on customer loyalty; however, the findings are mixed. Other research, outside the loyalty program literature, reveals that customers who socially interact with other customers, via participation in brand communities, often exhibit an intense loyalty to the sponsoring brands. Proposes to investigate the following questions: “Can loyalty programs be differentiated based on whether or not members perceive a sense of community?”; and “Does a perception of a sense of community impact member loyalty to sponsoring organizations?”Design/methodology/approach – Q‐technique factor analysis is utilized analyzing statements from loyalty program participants. Principal component factor and cluster analyses confirm a two‐tiered classification schema distinguishing loyalty programs based on perceptions of communal benefits. Differences between the two factors are explored. A survey developed from the...

The effect of guarantees on consumers’ evaluation of services

Recently, several service firms (e.g. Hampton Inn, Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts) have successfully implemented service guarantees. Little research, however, has been done examining the conditions under which service guarantees are the most effective. The current research examines how the presence of a guarantee affects consumers’ pre‐purchase evaluations. It also investigates interactions between multiple extrinsic cues such as the presence of a guarantee and information about the quality level of firm offering the guarantee. The results suggest that while guarantees can enhance consumers’ perceptions of quality, especially in situations characterized by greater service quality variability, they are less effective in the presence of other quality cues.