scholarly journals Setting the stage for service experience: design strategies for functional services

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 751-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Beltagui ◽  
Marina Candi ◽  
Johann C.K.H. Riedel
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Service Experience ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify service design strategies to improve outcome-oriented services by enhancing consumers’ emotional experience, while overcoming customer variability. Design/methodology/approach An abductive, multiple-case study involves 12 service firms from diverse online and offline service sectors. Findings Overall, six service design strategies represent two overarching themes: customer empowerment can involve design for typical customers, visibility, and community building, while customer accommodation can involve design for personas, invisibility, and relationship building. Using these strategies helps set the stage for a service to offer an emotional experience. Research limitations/implications The study offers a first step toward combining investigations of service experience and user experience. Further research can strengthen these links. Practical implications The six design strategies described using examples from case research offer managerial recommendations. In particular, these strategies can help service managers address the customer-induced variability inherent in services. Originality/value Extant studies of experience staging have focused on particular sectors such as hospitality and leisure; this study contributes by investigating outcome-focused services and identifying strategies to create unique experiences that offset variability. It also represents a rare effort to combine research from service management and interaction design, shedding light on the link between service experience and user experience.

Thomas Stewart: what leaders need to know about the new design revolution in services

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-22
Author(s):  
Brian Leavy
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Design Strategy ◽  
Harvard Business Review ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Customer Delight ◽  
Modern Manufacturing ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose With the growing importance of services in the overall economy, it is surprising that the notion of service firms investing in systematic and dedicated innovation activities has taken so long to materialize. This is now set to change as service firms undertake the kind of research, design and development disciplines which for more than a century have been mainstays of modern manufacturing. Design/methodology/approach S&L interviews the well-known former editor of Harvard Business Review Thomas A. Stewart and his co-author, former BloombergBusinessweek.com editor Patricia O’Connell, in their latest book, Woo, Wow and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Art of Customer Delight (Harper Business, 2016). They believe we are on the cusp of a “design revolution” in services. Findings The central thesis of their book is that services “should be designed with as much care as products are” and they include service “delivery” in that premise. Practical implications Service design principles offer powerful new ways to address the three basic strategy questions: What do we sell? To whom? And how do we win? Originality/value Service design helps you understand how to configure a set of activities, behaviors and touchpoints–a journey–that allows you to serve that customer well.

Service experience co-creation: conceptualization, implications, and future research directions

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina Jaakkola ◽  
Anu Helkkula ◽  
Leena Aarikka-Stenroos
Keyword(s):  
Service Management ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Integrative Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Service Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Marketing Methods

Purpose – The collective, interactive aspects of service experience are increasingly evident in contemporary research and practice, but no integrative analysis of this phenomenon has been conducted until now. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize service experience co-creation and examines its implications for research and practice. Design/methodology/approach – To map the multi-approach research area of service experience co-creation, the study draws on literature in the fields of service management, service-dominant logic and service logic, consumer culture theory, and service innovation and design, together with invited commentaries by prominent scholars. Findings – A conceptualization is developed for “service experience co-creation,” and multiple dimensions of the concept are identified. It is postulated that service experience co-creation has wider marketing implications, in terms of understanding experiential value creation and foundational sociality in contemporary markets, as well as in the renewal of marketing methods and measures. Research limitations/implications – The authors call for cross-field research on service experience, extending current contextual and methodological reach. Researchers are urged to study the implications of increasing social interaction for service experience co-creation, and to assist managers in coping with and leveraging the phenomenon. Practical implications – For practitioners, this analysis demonstrates the complexity of service experience co-creation and provides insights on the aspects they should monitor and facilitate. Originality/value – As the first integrative analysis and conceptualization of service experience co-creation, this paper advances current understanding on the topic, argues for its wider relevance, and paves the way for its future development.

A nearest-neighbor algorithm for targeted interaction design in social outreach campaigns

Kybernetes ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1243-1256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Interaction Design ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Positive Response ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Response Rates ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Solution Approach ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Social Outreach

Purpose Organizations rely on social outreach campaigns to raise financial support, recruit volunteers, and increase public awareness. In order to maximize response rates, organizations face the challenging problem of designing appropriately tailored interactions for each user. An interaction consists of a specific combination of message, media channel, sender, tone, and possibly many other attributes. The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of how to design tailored interactions for each user to maximize the probability of a desired response. Design/methodology/approach A nearest-neighbor (NN) algorithm is developed for interaction design. Simulation-based experiments are then conducted to compare positive response rates obtained by two forms of this algorithm against that of several control interaction design strategies. A factorial experimental design is employed which varies three user population factors in a combinatorial manner, allowing the methods to be compared across eight distinct scenarios. Findings The NN algorithms significantly outperformed all three controls in seven out of the eight scenarios. Increases in response rates ranging from approximately 20 to 400 percent were observed. Practical implications This work proposes a data-oriented method for designing tailored interactions for individual users in social outreach campaigns which can enable significant increases in positive response rates. Additionally, the proposed algorithm is relatively easy to implement. Originality/value The problem of optimal interaction design in social outreach campaigns is scarcely addressed in the literature. This work proposes an effective and easy to implement solution approach for this problem.

Evaluation of open health data portals for COVID-19 from the perspective of the user experience

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Wu ◽  
Le Ma ◽  
Hui Zhang
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Health Data ◽  
World Health ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Actual Application ◽  
Indicator Framework ◽  
Health Organization

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to construct an indicator framework for evaluating open health data portals from the perspective of user experience (UX) to reduce users’ learning costs, save their time and energy and strengthen the emotional connection with users, thereby encouraging them to actively use open health data. Design/methodology/approach This study uses card sorting, Delphi and analytic hierarchy process to determine the weights of indicators for evaluating open health data portals. Then, this study uses a coding method to score, evaluate and compare the selection of more than 120 open health data portals supported by organizations in more than 100 countries or regions that are in the World's top confirmed cases of COVID-19 as released by the World Health Organization. Findings At present, open health data portals have shortcomings with regard to UX. Different types of open health data portals vary significantly in the dimensions of technical experience and functional experience, but the differences in the dimensions of aesthetic experience, emotional experience and content experience are not significant. Originality/value The constructed open health data portal evaluation indicator framework introduces users' actual application needs and proposes optimization suggestions for the portal to meet the needs of users to quickly obtain, reliable and accurate health data.

Delivering warmth by hand: customer responses to different formats of written communication

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyao Ren ◽  
Lan Xia ◽  
Jiangang Du
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Relational Communication ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Message Delivery ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Effort

Purpose The effect of different formats of message delivery has received little theoretical and empirical examination. This research focuses on the effect of written relational communication formats used by service providers. This study aims to answer three questions: Do different formats of written communications (i.e. handwriting and print) influence customer perceptions (i.e. feelings of warmth) of service firms? What are the mediators of these influences (i.e. perceived effort and psychological closeness)? And under what conditions do they occur (i.e. what is the contextual factor)? Design/methodology/approach One field study and three laboratory studies were conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of format in written communication. Findings Handwritten messages are more effective than print messages in building relationships in a service context because they elicit stronger feelings of warmth because of both the perception of greater effort and feelings of greater psychological closeness to the service provider. However, the presence of handwriting fails to deliver feelings of warmth when the quality of core services is low. Practical implications Service providers can effectively use handwritten communication to signal effort and create psychological closeness for relationship building with their key customers only when the quality of core services meets customer expectations. Originality/value First, the research differentiates the formats of written relational communication (handwritten vs print), and links communication formats with feelings of warmth, which is an important factor for impression and relationship formation in the practice of services marketing. Second, based on cognitive-experiential self-theory, this research demonstrates the dual mediators underlying the effect of handwriting (vs print) on warmth: perceived effort and psychological closeness. Third, it identifies the quality of core service as a boundary condition for the effect of handwritten communication.

scholarly journals Co-creation and co-destruction of experiential value: a service perspective in projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos E.G. Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Service Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Design Practices ◽  
Project Outcomes ◽  
Advantageous Position ◽  
Contextual Awareness ◽  
Service Perspective

Purpose One way in which to induce an advantageous position is to improve the value outcomes experienced from commissioned projects. The purpose of this paper is to consider project stakeholders, such as end-users, as active co-creators of value. This may be achieved by taking into account interactive capabilities and service design practices. This may influence experiential and financial value outcomes for a range of project stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach A single case displayed as a pilot study helps to establish the transferability of the co-creation and the service experience to the construction context. Findings Findings show that project managers pay insufficient attention to the service experience. The analysis demonstrates users are treated as destroyers of value, rather than as co-creators of value. In addition to this, the findings suggest contextual aspects, such as unethical behaviour, misalignment of values, power asymmetry and lack of contextual awareness, may ultimately affect the project outcomes. Practical implications The implication for the construction context is to create awareness of interactive capabilities and service design practices, which permit the enhancement of experimental value outcomes. Originality/value Service-dominant logic is used as a variant perspective to analyse the project usefulness and benefits for a range of stakeholders. The originality comes from the initial exploration of how benefits could be collaboratively configured through interactive capabilities and service design practices with a range of stakeholders.

Towards a shared understanding of the service experience – a hospitality stakeholder approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceridwyn King ◽  
Enrique Murillo ◽  
Wei Wei ◽  
Juan Madera ◽  
Michael J. Tews ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◽  
Service Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Research Questions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to start a conversation on achieving a shared understanding among hospitality service co-creation participants. Adopting a stakeholder and service eco-systems approach, attention is drawn to the necessity for all service experience participants to have a shared understanding of the service experience and their role within it, for a sustained competitive advantage to be realized. Informed by community of practice (CoP) thinking, a road map of research questions is advanced encouraging insight into a macro level phenomenon that, traditionally, is only ever considered at the micro service encounter level. Design/methodology/approach A thorough multidisciplinary review of the literature was undertaken, providing an opportunity to present a viewpoint on the strategic implications of providing a sustainable competitive advantage via the hospitality service experience. Findings To achieve a shared understanding across the Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System, potential tensions among stakeholders are highlighted. Accounting for such barriers, institutional arrangements, combining organizational CoPs that are bridged by designated boundary objects, is advanced. Given the novel approach of applying a traditionally organizational phenomenon at a macro multi-stakeholder level, several research questions are proposed to inform thinking about this neglected perspective. Originality/value Acknowledging the innovation, agility and resources required to maintain a competitive service experience, the paper emphasizes the importance of adopting a macro perspective to effective service management. The hope is to stimulate academic interest to inform understanding as to how to build this capability as well as enhance practitioner interest in promoting stakeholders’ CoP for the benefit of the entire Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System.

Meaningful gamification for psychological empowerment: exploring user affective experience mirroring in a psychological self-help system

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manning Li ◽  
Patrick Y.K. Chau ◽  
Lin Ge
Keyword(s):  
Interaction Design ◽  
Psychological Empowerment ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Help System

PurposeInspired by the dynamic changes in our daily lives enabled via quantified-self technologies and the urgent need for more studies on the human-computer interaction design mechanisms adopted by these applications, this study explores the value of user affective experience mirroring and examines the empowerment effect of meaningful gamification in a psychological self-help system (PSS) that aids people in work stress relief.Design/methodology/approachBased on an analysis of the existing systems and theories in relevant fields, we conducted mixed-method research, involving semi-structured interviews, experience sampling experiments and user bio data triangulations, to identify the benefits of user affective experience mirroring and examine the impact of visual impact metaphor–based (VIM) meaningful gamification on PSS users.FindingsFor a gamified PSS, users generally perceive VIM as arousing more feelings of enjoyment, empathy, trust and usefulness, empowering them to gain more mastery and control over their emotional well-beings, especially with relieving their occupational stress and upbringing their level of perceived happiness. Overtime, VIM-based meaningful gamification further boosts such value of a PSS.Research limitations/implicationsWeaving together meaningful gamification and psychological empowerment theories, the results emphasized that successful empowerment of user through gamification in PSSs relies heavily on whether a deeper and meaningful affective connection can be established with the users, in short, “meaningful gamification for psychological empowerment”. Such an understanding, as demonstrated in our research framework, also sheds light on the design theories for persuasive technology and human influence tactics during human computer interactions.Practical implicationsThe results of the study demonstrate to practitioners how to make the best use of gamification strategies to deeply relate to and resonate with users. Even without complicated game-play design, meaningful gamification mechanisms, such as VIM facilitate the empowerment of users while gaining their appreciation, establishing a deeper connection with them and eventually generating persuasive effects on intended future behavioural outcomes.Social implicationsThe effective management of work-related stress with handy tools such as a VIM-based PSS can be beneficial for many organizations and, to a large extent, the society.Originality/valueThis study proposed and empirically demonstrated the empowerment effect of meaningful gamification for PSS users. In this cross-disciplinary study, theories from different research domains were synthesized to develop a more thorough and multi-faceted understanding of the optimal design strategies for emerging information systems like this VIM-based PSS.

Teaching farmers to hunt – developing commercial skills at BDO Hungary

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Zoltán Buzády
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Training And Development ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Content Type

TitleTeaching farmers to hunt – developing commercial skills at BDO Hungary.Subject areaOrganizational innovation, leading change, customer service management in professional service firms.Study level/applicabilityAdvanced undergraduate, MBA/executive education.Case overviewThis case describes the human resource (HR) dilemma faced by BDO Hungary in 2010, an international audit and tax consulting partnership, operating in the country since 1989. In order to continue its past growth story and to reach closer to “Big Four” BDO has to enter new business segments, offer more services to its existing customers and seize higher value‐added business potentials. The new strategy, however, is challenged by its incumbent, traditional core business: auditing, which is highly regulated by ethical, legal, and professional standards including non‐advertisement regulations to which the resulting organizational culture and HR routines are congruent. The case is described from the perspective of the Equity Partner, HR Director and Executive MBA student, who is tasked with a new HR plan for training and development and is charged with implementing it successfully. How best to adjust current training and development policies to the best meet new strategic growth goals? How to develop existing human capital? How to make employees more commercially oriented in such a conservative, risk averse, and highly regulated environment? How to improve their customer service and the sales skill?Expected learning outcomesExploring the importance of training and development in improving customer service levels in professional service firms operating in emerging markets. Understanding the limitations and the possibilities of transferring international HR policies and standards across borders and cultural differences.Supplementary materialsTeaching notes.

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