Organizational Strategies For Filling The Customer Can-Do/Must-Do Gap

Keywords

Co-production; Combined KSAs; Customer capabilities; Customer experience; Customer resources; Customer variability; Organizational strategies; Value co-creation

Abstract

Service leaders have learned that it is not enough to attract customers who are ready and willing to experience what their organizations have to offer; they must also attract customers who are able to perform important roles in co-producing a successful service experience. This recognition has led to increasing interest regarding how organizations should manage these quasi-employees to ensure everything that must be done actually is done. Leading service organizations embrace this responsibility and have developed strategies to identify and accommodate variations in their targeted customers' capabilities. They know that client satisfaction depends upon the organization making up for deficiencies between what the customer must do to have a great service experience and what the customer actually can do. Surprisingly, there has been little systematic investigation into how organizations create and execute strategies to ensure that these deficiency gaps are filled. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that organizations that have developed systems and procedures to fill these gaps are likelier to satisfy their customers and achieve higher levels of repeat business than firms that have not. This article offers strategies for organizations that commit to bridging the customer can-do/must-do gap and thereby ensuring their customers have a successful service experience.

Publication Date

7-1-2015

Publication Title

Business Horizons

Volume

58

Issue

4

Number of Pages

459-468

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.03.010

Socpus ID

84937636569 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84937636569

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