Why do customers use self-service information technologies in retail? The mediating effect of perceived service quality

To ensure a high level of service quality (SQ), retailers think about offering self-service information technologies (SSIT) at the point of sale. However, the explanatory value of the SQ for SSIT adoption is barely researched. Thus, the present study examines the mediation effect of SQ within the technology acceptance model. Building on data from a laboratory experiment using a fully functional application for Tablet PCs, the partial least squares approach is applied. The findings reveal that the perceived SQ partially mediates the effect of the attitude towards using on the intention to reuse. Therefore, retailers have to emphasize the service-related value of SSITs.     

Assessing the Self-service Technology Encounters: Development and Validation of SSTQUAL Scale

Self-service technologies (SSTs) have enhanced the role technology plays in customer interactions with firms, yet instruments that systematically measure the service quality of SSTs from the perspective of customers remain underdeveloped. Based on psychometric scale development approaches, this study conceptualized, constructed, refined, and tested a multiple-item scale that examined key factors influencing SST service quality. Through qualitative and quantitative studies in four separate phases, a 20-item seven-dimension SSTQUAL scale was developed that includes functionality, enjoyment, security, assurance, design, convenience, and customization. The scale demonstrates sound psychometric properties based on findings from various reliability and validity tests as well as vigorous scale replications across industries and consumer traits using several different samples. The utility of the proposed scale is discussed for implications, limitations and future research.     

The Drive Relation Among Interface Management, Service Ability and Service Performance： Case Study on Hotel Industry

服务界面管理是考察服务交互行为的新的理论视角。本研究构建了界面管理与员工服务能力、员工服务绩效和企业服务绩效等变量间的驱动关系模型。基于酒店企业的实证分析发现：服务企业的界面管理有助于提升服务系统的整体效率,界面管理对员工的服务能力存在显著但是有差异的驱动影响力,它对企业整体服务绩效的驱动影响力大于对员工个人服务绩效的驱动影响力,员工服务能力在界面管理与服务绩效间具有中介效应。     

Developing a framework to improve virtual shopping in digital malls with intelligent self-service systems

Growing movements to urban places, increasing unemployment, decreasing buying power, rising real estate cost and demanding consumers for convenience and price are creating challenges for retailers. This paper reviews a sample list of retail channels, and proposes a systematic framework for conceptualizing the data-driven, and mobile- and cloud-enabled intelligent self-service systems to improve virtual shopping. With adoption of intelligent self-service systems, – more service oriented, more instrumented (from sensors to smart phones for monitoring consumers׳ behaviors), interconnected (patterns of interactions), and intelligent (algorithms help recognize patterns) – retail organizations can provide more cost effective quality retail service experiences to consumers.     

Employee display of burnout in the service encounter and its impact on customer satisfaction

This study examines if employee display of burnout symptoms in service encounters has an impact on customer satisfaction. An experimental approach was used in which the employee's display of burnout (absent vs. present) and the service performance level (low vs. high) were the manipulated factors. The results show that employee display of burnout had a negative impact on customer satisfaction, that this effect was mediated by customers’ appraisals of the employee's emotional state, and that the effect was stronger under the condition of low service performance.     

The role of self-service technologies in restoring justice

As an increasing number of customers choose to interact with service firms via technology, there is an urgent need to understand whether consumers react differently to technology-based failures/recovery efforts than human failures/recovery efforts. Using resource exchange theory as a framework, the present investigation examined the role of failure mode (SST vs. face-to-face encounter) and recovery mode on customers' fairness perceptions. Results from Study 1 suggest that compensation offered by a front-line employee might be more effective in restoring justice with traditional failures (match condition) than with SST failures (mismatch condition). Findings from Study 2 further support the matching hypothesis in terms of distributive justice. On the other hand, human touch seems more effective in restoring interactional fairness than on-line recovery. The follow-up study extends the matching hypothesis to satisfaction with problem handling and repurchase intent. Managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

The employee brand: Is yours an all-star?

In this article, a typology is presented which will help organizations better reflect the brand image they desire. The assisting typology is based on the extent to which employees know and understand the organization's mission, values, and desired brand image, and the degree to which they perceive their psychological contracts with the organization as being honored. Organizations can be classified as all-stars, rookies, injured reserves, or strike-out kings, based on the characteristics of a preponderance of their employees. As categorized, rookie organizations cannot deliver the desired brand image because most of their employees lack the knowledge and understanding to do so. Injured reserve organizations, on the other hand, cannot achieve the same because firm employees perceive their psychological contracts with the organization as having been violated, which renders the individuals unwilling and unmotivated. For their part, strike-out king organizations share rookie and injured reserve organizations' worst characteristics. Finally, and conversely, all-star organizations consistently deliver the desired brand image to others because their employees are both able and motivated to do so. To help firms attain this highly desired status, specific guidelines are presented herein which may help organizations become “all-stars” in their own right.     

A Meta-Analysis of Relationships Linking Employee Satisfaction to Customer Responses

The authors report a meta-analysis of relationships linking employee job satisfaction to customer satisfaction and perceived service quality in studies that correlate employee data with customer data. Overall, both relationships are positive and statistically and substantively significant. Moderator analyses show that service industry characteristics (relationship versus encounter, personal versus non-personal) and methodological characteristics (aggregated versus individual level of analysis, concurrent versus predictive survey) moderate these relationships. Estimation of a path analytic model using the aggregated data shows that customer-perceived service quality completely mediates the relationship between employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?

This paper uses the concept of psychological distance under construal level theory to explore the differences in the customers’ evaluations of overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, based on their experiences with the traditional staff-checkout method and the relatively new self-checkout machines. Two empirical studies, a field survey with retail shoppers in UK (N1 = 313) and an online survey with members of a consumer panel in Australia (N2 = 474), show that the perceived quality of staff-checkout has a stronger positive impact on the overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, than the quality of self-checkout. Similarly, satisfaction with staff-checkout has a stronger positive effect on store satisfaction and loyalty, than the satisfaction with self-checkout. Finally, loyalty to staff-checkout also has a stronger positive influence on store loyalty, than the loyalty towards self-checkout. These results show that despite growing use of self-service technology, frontline staff continue to be important for overall store evaluations.     

Frontline employees׳ attitudes towards self-service technologies: Threats or opportunity for job performance?

Increasing diffusion of self-service technologies (SSTs) on the points of sale impacts on traditional retailing from several perspectives. For instance, SSTs have direct effect on front-line employees. Indeed, they may cause a potential reduction in personal contacts with clients, reduction of workers, modifying the job conditions and so on. To date, the effect of SSTs on the points of sale has been mainly investigated from a consumers׳ perspective, by mainly focusing on consumers׳ acceptance and usage of these systems. The aim of this paper is to make employees׳ point of view clearly emerge, through a qualitative approach focusing on the investigation of employees׳ perception of the consequences of these technologies on job performance. The content analysis based on exploratory in-depth interviews involves 250 frontline employees. Authors examine the success of technology from employee׳s standpoint by evaluating their attitude and considering the impact on their job performance perception. In this way, the analysis allows defining new variables which are not previously investigated, such as the perception of speed for task completion, which emerged as the most important factor for employees׳ self-evaluation. Hence, this study offers support for evaluating job performance considering the specific case of SSTs in the frontline employees as initial insights rather than definitive understandings.     

Perceived controllability and service expectations: Influences on customer reactions following service failure

Endeavors to address issues surrounding service failure have centered mainly on the topic of service recovery. In particular, perceived fairness and organizational responses to service failures are highly popular topics in the literature. Yet the vast majority of customers fail to voice their dissatisfaction to the firm. Consequently, it is important to understand how consumers process service failures regardless of the recovery outcome. This study examines the impact of perceived controllability over service failures and service quality expectations on customer reactions to those failures. Findings indicate that customers react quite negatively when they believe the service firm could have easily prevented the failure. Conversely, when customers feel partly responsible for the failure or are ambiguous about its cause, the negative effects of poor performance are somewhat mitigated. Finally, high service quality expectations also buffer the firm from the negativity effect. Managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.     

Does delaying service-failure resolution ever make sense?

Conventional wisdom suggests that service providers should respond to their failures as quickly as possible. Some research, however, points out that delaying resolutions may produce highly desirable results. The study here investigates these competing views by examining under which conditions an immediate or a delaying resolution produces more positive consumer responses in term of re-patronage and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Based on the concept of service separation, this research identifies an interaction effect between service separation (separated service, non-separated service) and response timing (immediate response, delaying response) on consumers' post-consumption intention. This research also finds that the relationship between service separation-response timing interaction and consumer response is mediated by consumers' negative emotions. This study contributes to refining our understanding of consumer psychology in service recovery. Practically, the studies also enable service providers to better allocate their resources to recover different types of services' failure.     

Key influencers and inhibitors on adoption of the Internet for banking

The focus on new technologies in service situations is growing and is of particular importance in financial services contexts. It is argued that there is mutuality of benefit for both bank and customer through the adoption of self-service technologies (SSTs), of which e-banking is but one example. While the economic imperative for banks’ adoption of e-banking solutions is clear, the value proposition for the customer can be less evident. It is proposed that the value proposition on offer through e-banking could be better conveyed to customers were banks to have a greater understanding of the appropriateness of the on-line medium for products as they varied according to complexity level. This paper reports on a study which examined customer-stated propensity to purchase financial products on-line at varying levels of complexity. Findings underline the importance for banks to achieve a customer-oriented balance between face-to-face relationship-managed activity and online enablement and to understand now this balance varies according to customer and complexity of product. Strategic marketing implications for the case bank are discussed.     

Pleasantly Plump: Offsetting Negative Obesity Stereotypes for Frontline Service Employees

Obesity is described as the fastest growing public health challenge facing developed nations (Prentice, 2006). This research introduces the topic of obesity to the retailing literature by examining the interplay between obesity in frontline employees and customer evaluations of service transactions. Baseline effects are established that show customers evaluate employees and firms more negatively if the frontline worker is obese compared to average weight. Two follow-up studies identify means by which firms may offset the negative obesity effects. Specifically, signaling theory is drawn upon in Study 1 to justify the introduction of observable quality cues as a means to offset negative stereotypes. Results indicate that the presence of unambiguous quality cues attenuate unfavorable judgments of the obese employee and the affiliated retail store. In Study 2, a countervailing, jovial stereotype is primed as a means to offset the more prominent negative ones. Retail managers can use this research as a means to understand an important caveat to frontline service evaluations and as the basis for managing a prominent negative stereotype.     

Managing service shutdowns: Cash refunds or vouchers?

Service shutdowns—extended disruptions of operations—caused by exogenous events are on the rise. Such shutdowns pose major challenges for service providers, customers, and regulators. Providers prefer vouchers as a means of service recovery to limit bankruptcy risk, whereas customers demand cash refunds or vouchers that include a generous bonus. Regulators, on the other hand, insist that customers must be granted the right to be reimbursed in cash. This paper shows that a zero bonus is optimal under the voucher-only strategy, whereas the provider should always include a positive bonus with the voucher under the hybrid strategy that allows customers to choose between the cash refund and voucher options. Surprisingly, despite its higher flexibility in service recovery design, the hybrid strategy can be dominated by the voucher-only strategy in terms of profit and welfare. Moreover, we show that the ranking of strategies differs across the two important dimensions of expected profit and survival under shutdown. Finally, we study competition among providers and show that a high-quality provider is more likely to use cash-back as the service recovery strategy than its low-quality competitor.