Abstract
Companies have been deploying for the last 45 years Technology Based Self-Service systems (TBSS) such as ATMs as a means of replacing human centered interaction with technology in the process of service creation with their customers. Since the year 2010 companies have begun introducing more sophisticated information and communication technologies like Virtual Assistants (VAs) that allow people to interact verbally with cars, navigation devices, smart phones, PCs, tablets etc. (e.g. SIRI, Sher.pa). The companies working in the VA industry are starting to develop these systems for the wearable devices industry. Soon we will be able to interact with a VA in the form of Google Glass or Apple iWatches. Furthermore these companies are starting to test new service delivery alternatives. TBSS research is not able to keep pace with technological developments, therefore the generalisability of extant knowledge to these new technologies remains un-answered. Responding to the above observations, the aim of this study is explorative as it seeks to formulate problems, clarify concepts in order to create hypotheses and a conceptual model in a forthcoming paper. This study involved a thorough review of extant literature, exploratory face-to-face and telephone interviews with experts from different disciplines. Insights obtained from the study suggest the following points: (1) in the future there will be space in the marketplace for the three types of service deliveries identified in the literature: (a) humans, (b) TBSS and (c) intelligent machines such as VAs. (2) Despite the introduction of these new intelligent systems, customers will continue performing the service or parts of the service by themselves with the use of TBSS systems. (3) Users will not be able to absorb all the technological developments at the same speed as the innovations are coming out into the marketplace. (4) Finally intelligent machines such as VAs will foster new innovative service delivery alternatives in which the firm will act together with external parties through informal arrangements or formal alliances with a collaborative mindset. These insights make the following important contributions to the subject matter.
Highlights
Lovelock and Wright [1] provided a general definition of services stating that “a service is an act or performance offered by one party to another”
The experts believed that nowadays and in the future from a user point of view there will be room for the three types of service deliveries
Some people have a preference to be served by a human rather than by a machine, this variable is known as Need for Interaction (Dabholkar and Bagozzi [21], Curran and Meuter [36] and it has been defined as the importance of giving human interaction to the customer in the service encounter (Dabholkar [18]) This can be important in cases of complex services, problems with services or high level or luxury services
Summary
Lovelock and Wright [1] provided a general definition of services stating that “a service is an act or performance offered by one party to another”. Regarding this shifting to co-production activities, firms are recognizing that, in service contexts, customers are co-creators of the service and that the value derived from the service comes through usage and co-creation rather than exclusively through service provision or delivery in the traditional sense (Vargo and Lusch [3]), Michel et al [10]) Developments in technology such as the Internet are supporting the ways in which companies interact with their customers in this new service-centered view (Bitner et al [11]). Review of the literature revealed that there are very few studies investigating this constant evolution of technologies and business models that are blurring the line between industries
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