Using Behavioral Research to Design Better Customer Experiences

Abstract

In the recently published book— The Customer Service Solution—authors Sriram Dasu and Richard Chase write that successful operation of service firms is critically tied to the implicit, or psychological, outcomes of a service offering. Based on behavioral science and psychology research, they focus on ways that service providers can influence customers’ affective response to service. They suggest ways to design services that are trusted, emotionally positive, and memorable by managing sequences, duration, choices, and attributions. Principles for sequencing services include getting unpleasant parts over with early on, segmenting pleasurable experiences, combining the unpleasant events, and building to a strong finish. Giving customers control over some parts of the service process improves their satisfaction, as does controlling the perceptions of a service’s duration.