“Self Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters” Written by Matthew Meuter, Amy Ostrom, Robert Roundtree & Mary Jo Bitner Article #24 Presented by Marcela Diaz-Espinoza

“Today’s fast-paced world is becoming increasingly characterized by technology facilitated transactions.” Self-Service Technologies (SST) are technological interfaces that enable customers to produce a service independent of direct service employee involvement.

Facts  Did you know that almost half of the retail banking transactions are now conducted without the use of a teller?  Did you know that even though we are pretty used to many of these SST there are many more that are being introduced as we sit in class?  Electronic self-ordering is rapidly approaching us  Can you think of any examples?

Objective  To explore customers experiences across a broad range of SSTs available in the marketplace.  Understand how customers feel about them (SSTs)  By focusing on memorable incidents about a recent SST interaction (good or bad)  Examining post encounter behaviors such as : *Complaining *Word of Mouth *Future intended behaviors

Previous Research *Conducted by Bitner, Booms and Tetreault and used CIT to examine the sources of dis/satisfactory evaluations in interpersonal encounters (1990) *Classified them into three categories: 1) employee response to service delivery failure 2) employee response to customer need and requests 3) unprompted and unsolicited actions by employees

Previous Research *Grove and Fisk conducted their studies in theme parks. *They found that service experiences were affected by others’ customers’ adherence to implicit or explicit rules of conduct and by perceived sociability of other customers Note: the set factors that leads to satisfying factors also leads to dissatisfying ones.

Current Study/Method Some of the questions driving this study: 1. What are the sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in encounter involving SSTs? 2. Are there sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with SST encounters similar to or different from the sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with interpersonal encounters? 3. How are the satisfaction and dissatisfaction encounters with SSTs related to attributions, complaining, word of mouth, and repurchase intentions? These were combined with a “Critical Incident Technique” (CIT) with quantitative measures of the mentioned above for the customers point of view

Current Study/Method * The importance of technology in the delivery of service leads us to: Marketspace transaction: a virtual realm where products and services exist as digital information and can be delivered through information based channels *Surveys we conducted via internet 1,000 people responded to survey 177 were eliminated for various reasons 53% were women while 47% were male

Current Study/Method Figure 1 Categories and Examples of SSTs in use Interface Purpose Telephone/Interactive Voice Response Online Internet Interactive Kiosks Video CD Customer Service *Phone banking *Flight Status *Order Status *Package tracking *Account Information *ATMs *Hotel checkouts Transactions *Telephone Banking *Prescription refills *Retail Purchasing *Financial Institutions *Phone banking *Flight Status *Order Status Self-Help*Info telephone lines *Internet info search *Distance Learning *Blood pressure machines *Tourist information *Tax preparation software *TV/CD based training

Current Study/Method Satisfying Incident Categories 1) Solved intensified Need. (11%) IN is defined as situations in which external environmental factors add a sense of urgency to the transaction. 2) Better than alternative (68%) 2a)Easy to use (16%) 2b) Avoid Service Personnel (3%) 2c) Saved Time (30%) 2d) When I want (8%) 2e) Where I want (5%) 2f) Saved Money (6%) 3) Did its job (21%)

Current Study/Method Dissatisfying Incident Categories 4) Technology failure (43%) 5) Process Failure (17%) 6) Poor design (36%) 6a)Technology Design Problem (17%) 6b)Service Design Problem (19%) 7)Customer Driven Failure (4%)

Conclusion  Possible bias from the population surveyed  Not randomly selected (used a survey company)  How can we develop trust in our firms who do not provide human contact?  Additional Support is needed