Disenchantment Discontinuance in the Diffusion of Self-Service Technologies in the Services Industry:

Abstract

The service industry has several unique characteristics. Since the client is also present as the service is produced, provider-client interaction is a special feature of services marketing. This provider-client interaction is being challenged due to self-service technology, especially in the banking industry. Previous research by the authors (Marr and Predergast, 1990 and 1001) suggests that not all customers accept this innovative change. Some customers, after adopting self-service technologies, have abandoned them and reverted back to obtaining services from a human staff member in a bank. Rogers (1962) has called this behavior “disenchantment discontinuance” in diffusion, which is where consumers reject an innovation (after they have adopted it) due to dissatisfaction with its performance, and revert back to their previous behavior. To date, no research has set out with the specific objective of examining the presence of disenchantment discontinuance. This paper examines disenchantment discontinuance by looking at customer use of self-service technologies in the retail banking industry. The survey of 302 banking customers indicated that there were less than significant levels of disenchantment discontinuance occurring.