Advisory Service Support that Works

Abstract

Modern information technology promises to improve service encounters through automated documentation or better decision traceability. At the same time, research suggests a negative impact of technology on human-to-human advisory services: including the possibility that computers might degrade the quality of interpersonal communication and reinforce unpleasant behaviors. Consequently, despite obvious improvements, information technology might have a negative impact on how the participants perceive the service. This might imply serious consequences for the service provider: dissatisfied clients, ineffective information exchange, and/or lack of transparency. This scenario slows down the diffusion of computers into advisory services in banks and insurance companies, and so designing systems for use in interpersonal services remains a challenge. This article provides evidence that LivePaper, a system designed alongside the material practices of a financial advisory encounter, helps to improve important service quality dimensions, making the services not only more pleasant for the participants, but also improving key marketing and business metrics of the service. In experimental advisory services, the sessions supported with LivePaper outperformed conventional services with regard to overall bank service quality and satisfaction, salesperson listening and interaction rating scores, as well as information transparency. This shows that a carefully designed system not only preserves the perceived quality of a service, but might improve it objectively, and has implications for the marketing and business value of the service.