Hybrid Customer Interaction

Abstract

The increasing fusion of the digital and the physical world leads to new ways of customer interaction (Leimeister et al. 2014), induced by technology convergence, such as smart phones, tablet PCs and the social web (Brenner et al. 2014). For instance, customers walk down a shopping mall, utilizing their smart phone cameras to browse through available offers for products they just saw in the nearby shops. In this well-known hybrid customer interaction scenario customers are simultaneously present both in the physical world of the shopping mall and in the digital world of the mobile internet (Heinemann 2013). Technological progress and changed customer behavior, particularly the simultaneous use of multiple media, thus result in ‘‘channel hopping’’ (Heinemann 2013, p. 18). Especially mobile-commerce is a key factor for this convergence, as it enables the fusion of online and offline channels. This channel convergence replaces a clear separation of electronic channels (media-supported, e.g., the internet), stationary channels (e.g., local branches), and mobile channels (e.g., field service) (e.g., Neslin and Shankar 2009). Businesses offering their products and services in this setting face the challenge of redesigning their organizational structures through a customer-driven configuration of value chains to provide interaction channels, processes and systems as a ‘‘seamless system from a single source’’, referred to as ‘‘no-line systems’’ (Heinemann 2013, p. 3). The goal is to cope with a maximum convergence of interaction channels and technologies enabling hybrid and seamless customer interaction (Bettiga et al. 2013, p. 179). Additionally, from a strategic perspective the merging of channels also implies a process convergence which describes customers’ processes and companies’ CRM processes integration for the delivery of services across different channels and technologies. Customers are increasingly becoming part of these processes and have the option to obtain timeand location-independent services. Thus, hybrid customer interaction takes place on three levels: strategy (channel convergence), processes (process convergence) and systems (technology convergence). It addresses the convergence on those levels and influences their design from a company’s perspective (Bettiga et al. 2013). Designing no-line systems is a prerequisite for hybrid customer interaction and requires the modification of business models, processes and systems. Accepted after one revision by Prof. Dr. Sinz.