Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters
Summary (4 min read)
INTRODUCTION
- Concerns over unstable fuel prices, environmental protection, and energy security have prompted a renewed public and private interest in improving fuel economy.
- From a social and political perspective, the motivation stems from energy dependence and climate change considerations.
- Dynamic ecodriving involves the use of in-vehicle devices that provide direct feedback to the driver while driving.
- Public education through social marketing (i.e., marketing directed at promoting a social good through behavioral change) has the potential to change travel behavior to reduce GHG emissions.
- The paper is organized into four sections.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Since ecodriving includes both driving and maintenance practices, there are many combinations of actions that individuals can take to improve driving efficiency.
- It is likely that most drivers actively engage in some practices without further prompting.
- Some of the key driving and maintenance practices listed on the EcoDrivingUSA™ website are (2): Avoid rapid starts and stops;.
- Use the lowest weight motor oil to improve kinematic viscosity; Change air filters, as recommended by the manufacturer; Accelerate smoothly and coast to stops and parking spots;.
- The authors focus on public education and awareness programs, with less discussion on behind-the-wheel training, feedback technologies, and fleet applications.
Europe
- Research into the effectiveness of ecodriving education programs has been predominantly based on longitudinal driving trialsEcodriving research into education program effectiveness has been predominantly based on longitudinal driving trials.
- A similar Belgian study showed that savings from 5 to 25% could be achieved by following Dutch ecodriving guidelines (4).
- It initiated 41 local transport projects, resulting in 95 kilotonnes (kt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) savings (8).
- The program owed much of its success to its extensive partnerships with public and private institutions, as well as its advertising campaign, which focused on immediate individual benefits, such as cost savings and comfort rather than the environment.
Asia-Pacific
- Most public education programs in the Asia-Pacific are in Japan and Australia.
- One public education website, www.ecodrive.jp, provides ecodriving tips to viewers and serves as a portal to other informational websites (11).
- In an early effort in Australia, Syme et al. (1987) conducted a study evaluating the effects of a television campaign encouraging viewers to conserve petroleum by implementing ecodriving practices.
- The researchers evaluated the effect of two different campaigns: one emphasized saving money and the second good citizenship.
- In 2001, the Victorian Environmental Protection Authority and Sustainable Energy Authority Victoria developed a one-day training program on the environmental and safety implications of driving habits; however, there were no studies of its impacts (13).
North America
- Begun in 2007, Canada’s nationwide ecodriving initiative is led by the ecoENERGY program.
- Canada began a nationwide ecodriving initiative in 2007, which is led by the ecoENERGY program.
- Ecodriving initiatives began more recently in the United States.
- The Alliance has discontinued its ecodriving campaign efforts, at present, due to budgetary cuts (16).
- This study found that the sample knew about ecodriving practices on a “moderate” level, but they did not implement their knowledge (19).
METHODOLOGY
- The authors designed a controlled study in which respondents were divided equally into an experimental and control group.
- Both groups then participated in a longitudinal study as described below.
Longitudinal Survey
- The research team conducted recruitment and data collection for the longitudinal study from June to December 2010.
- Researchers also asked attitudinal questions to capture demographics, existing vehicle ownership, and climate change views.
- Participants did not know which group they were in nor did they know that there was another group.
- The experimental group was then asked to visit the EcoDrivingUSA™ website during the upcoming week to introduce and provide more in-depth ecodriving information.
- Three months later, all participants were administered the “after” survey, which asked 62 questions concerning any changes in vehicle ownership, maintenance, and driving practices.
Study Limitations
- There were severalSeveral limitations that arose along the study’s duration.
- The questions were tailored to explore comparative response changes, and the time between surveys was relatively long.
- Nevertheless, driving behavior could not be verified, as respondent vehicles were not equipped with telematics equipment.
- This study relies on respondent- stated response.
- In addition, given some knowledge of the study purpose, self-assessment bias may have occurred in how efficiently respondents actually drive.
LONGITUDINAL SURVEY RESULTS
- The study results are divided into three sections.
- The first section presents the sample demographics.
- The second describes the effectiveness of the ecodriving information through a comparison of the experimental and control group.
- In the third section, the authors focus on specific responses of the experimental group to the ecodriving information.
Demographics
- The survey demographics demonstrate that the control and experimental groups were broadly distributed across key characteristics.
- The sample size was 53 for the control group, and 51 for the experimental group.
- This population was selected so researchers, based at the university, could cost effectively implement multiple recruitment methods (i.e., email, posters, class announcements) within the limited study budget.
- Both groups exhibited a diverse income distribution, with more than 20% of each sample earning more than $100,000 annually.
- The race distribution of the samples exhibited a Caucasian share reflective of the state population; however, Asians were over represented, and African-Americans and Hispanics were under represented.
Before-and-After Response: Differences Between the Control and Experimental Group
- The longitudinal survey probed respondent “self-perceived efficiency,” as well as more specific changes in driving and maintenance behavior.
- Because the survey data were mostly ordinal in nature, the authors used non-parametric tests to evaluate the statistical significance of reported behavioral changes.
- In the case of Figure 1, the reported highway speeds shifted downward.
- The shift in before-and-after survey responses suggest that a subset of the experimental group receiving ecodriving information made a cognizant effort to adjust their driving in ways to improve efficiency in contrast to the control group.
- In these three cases, the distribution of the control group responses did not change markedly.
Behavioral Changes Within the Experimental Group
- Overall, the comparative response shift between the experimental and control group strongly suggests that providing ecodriving information through the EcodrivingUSATM website did induce the experimental group to shift behavior more than they would have otherwise.
- It is important to emphasize that this shift reflects a distribution of effects and is driven by a subset of people who did adopt behavioral changes.
- To explore this behavioral dynamic further, this section probes the experimental group responses to ascertain key qualities of those that adopted behavioral changes and which specific behaviors were altered.
Self-Assessment of Driving and Maintenance Changes
- Respondents in the experimental group post-survey were asked directly whether they changed their driving behavior and maintenance practices as a result of reviewing the website.
- Respondents were first asked whether they had made driving behavior changes.
- Those that answered “Yes”yes to this second question were asked to identify which practices they adjusted.
- Only seven attributed vehicle maintenance changes to the website, most of whom changed the oil and checked tire pressure more frequently.
- Thus, the number of experimental group respondents engaged in meaningful changes in their maintenance practice was far smaller than the majority who altered some driving practices.
Ecodriving Score
- To evaluate how respondents in the experimental group shifted as individuals, respondents were each given two “ecodriving scores”—one for the “before” survey and one for the “after” survey —based on 12 survey questions that assessed their knowledge and practice of ecodriving principles (e.g., acceleration and braking patterns, frequency of driving behavior adjustment, highway cruising speed, and vehicle aerodynamics).
- While there is no definitive threshold, the authors defined a score of 60% as descriptive of general ecodriving practice responsiveness.
- Respondents in Quadrant IV scored above 60% for both the before-and-after surveys.
- Quadrant II defines those below the 60% threshold for both surveys, and the opposite quadrants show respondents that scored above the threshold in one survey and below it in the other.
- The areas separated by shaded regions indicate relative improvement.
Demographic, Attitudinal, and Vehicular Characteristics of Improved Drivers
- In Figure 2, the authors divide the experimental group into “improved” and “non-improved” subsamples.
- Figure 3 presents key distributional differences between those that improved.
- Distributions of each group’s demographics and usage of the EcoDrivingUSA™ website reveal several interesting findings.
- With regards to respondent attitudes, improved drivers tended to have slightly higher fuel cost concerns, as well as stronger beliefs in climate change and the severity of anthropogenic contributions.
- Interestingly, theThose in the improved subsample had newer autos than their cohorts who did not improve, with mean vehicle ages differing significantly (6.7 years vs. 11.6 years, p = 0.0020).
Website Effectiveness
- Respondents were asked to visit the EcoDrivingUSA™ website and view key information and features that were deemed interesting, but they were not required to visit the entire website.
- The first question sought to understand which features of the site they reviewed.
- Responses for both the improved and not n-improved subsamples suggest that there are a number of facts about car maintenance that were unknown.
- Other maintenance practices were also considered at levels not observed in practice, which suggests that undertaking proactive maintenance practices are among the more difficult ecodriving tasks.
- This reinforces the conclusion that most of the improvements resulting from the ecodriving information were in the area of driving behavior versus vehicle maintenance changes.
CONCLUSION
- This study assessed the effectiveness of education provided by the EcodrivingUSATM website between June to December 2010.
- The reported shifts are statistically significant and evidence of improvement in some drivers is shown from multiple angles in the data.
- It is clear, however, that not everyone modifies their behavior as a result of static ecodriving information, and some may only do so in small ways.
- Respondents more often changed driver behaviors versus maintenance practices as a result of the ecodriving information.
- This study suggests that static ecodriving interventions could play an important role.
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References
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"Self-Service Technologies: Understa..." refers background in this paper
...It is well established that customer satisfaction can affect customer retention and profitability (Anderson and Fornell 1994; Mano and Oliver 1993; Oliver 1993, 1997; Price, Arnould, and Tierney 1995; Reichheld and Sasser 1990)....
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...Given the considerable interest in studying complaining behavior (Oliver 1997; Tax, Brown, and Chandrashekaran 1998), it is important to understand the extent and nature of complaining that occurs in the SST context....
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5,915 citations
"Self-Service Technologies: Understa..." refers background in this paper
...It is well established that customer satisfaction can affect customer retention and profitability (Anderson and Fornell 1994; Mano and Oliver 1993; Oliver 1993, 1997; Price, Arnould, and Tierney 1995; Reichheld and Sasser 1990)....
[...]
4,811 citations
Additional excerpts
...Roundtree are Assistant Professors of Marketing, and Mary Jo Bitner is AT&T Professor of Services Marketing and Management, Ari2ona State University. Each author contributed equally to the manuscript. The authors thank the three anonymous JM reviewers for their insightful comments on previous drafts of the article. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the Center for Services Marketing and Management at Arizona State University for its support, as well as Greenfield Online, a division of the Greenfield Consulting Group, Westport, CT, for assistance in data collection. service encounters into this technology-oriented context. This need is illustrated in many ways: For example, almt)st half of all retail banking transactions are now eonducted without the assistance of a bank teller (Lawrence and Karr 1996). In additit)n, although some SSTs have hccome commonplace {e.g., ATMs, pay-at-the-pump terminals), more innovative SSTs continue to be introdueed. For example, the Internet enables shoppers to purchase a wide variety of products without having to visit a retail outlet or converse with a serviee employee. In some states, u.sers can file for divorce or evict a tenant using an automated kiosk rather than go through the traditional court system. Electronic selfordering is currently heing developed by fast-food restaurants, and self-scanning at retail stores has been tested and is projected to become widely available in the future (Dabholkar 1996; Gibson 1999; Merrill 1999). It is increasingly evident that these technological innovations and advances will continue to be a critical component of customer-firm interactions. These technologybased interactions are expected to become a key criterion for long-term business success. Parasuraman (1996) lists the growing impt)rtance of self-service as a fundamental shift in the nature of services....
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...Amy L. Ostrom and Robert I. Roundtree are Assistant Professors of Marketing, and Mary Jo Bitner is AT&T Professor of Services Marketing and Management, Arizona State University....
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...50 / Journal of Marketing, July 2000 Journal of Marketing Vol. 64 (July 2000), 50–64 Matthew L. Meuter, Amy L. Ostrom, Robert I. Roundtree, & Mary Jo Bitner Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters Self-service technologies (SSTs) are increasingly changing the way customers interact with firms to create service outcomes....
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"Self-Service Technologies: Understa..." refers background or methods in this paper
...The three main sources of dis/satisfaction with interpersonal service encounters mentioned previously are (1) response to service delivery failure, (2) response to customer needs, and (3) unprompted or unsolicited actions (Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990)....
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...Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault (1990) explore customer–employee interactions in restaurants, hotels, and airlines....
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...The critical incident method has been used in a wide variety of disciplines (e.g., Copas 1984; Lathan and Saari 1984; White and Locke 1981), including marketing (Bitner, Booms, and Mohr 1994; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990; Grove and Fisk 1997; Iacobucci, Ostrom, and Grayson 1995; Keaveney 1995)....
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...Because of this, most service encounter research has focused on interpersonal interactions, mainly between customers and firm employees (Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990; Mohr and Bitner 1995; Price, Arnould, and Deibler 1995; Solomon et al. 1985; Surprenant and Solomon 1987)....
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...…used CIT to investigate the sources of dis/satisfactory evaluations of SST interactions.1 This technique is a form of content analysis that involves the classification of stories or critical incidents with the intent of uncovering emergent patterns or themes (Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990)....
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Frequently Asked Questions (11)
Q2. What are the future works in "Self-service technologies: understanding customer satisfaction with technology-based service encounters" ?
Although the Web-based sample was appropriate for this study and provides substantial benefits, the sample presents limitations that should be addressed in further research. There are several important avenues for further research in this area. This is another avenue for further research. Whereas their study was designed to examine the range of SSTs to assess underlying similarities, further research could be designed specifically to allow comparison of the cells within the matrix.
Q3. What is the importance of regular maintenance for SSTs?
Just as continual training and investment in frontline employees helps improve service delivery, SSTs must receive ongoing maintenance to ensure continued effectiveness.
Q4. What are the main ways to limit the impact of customer-driven failures?
Continually acquiring customer feedback and providing extensive SST training are two ways to limit the impact of customer-driven failures.
Q5. What are some examples of customer service that are now provided through SSTs?
Questions regarding accounts, bill paying, frequently asked questions, and delivery tracking are just a few examples of customer service that are now provided through SSTs.
Q6. What are the main factors affecting the evaluation of service encounters?
They find that the factors affecting the evaluation of the service encounter can be classified into three main categories: (1) employee response to service delivery failure, (2) employee response to customer needs and requests, and (3) unprompted and unsolicited actions by employees.
Q7. What percentage of the respondents describing customer-driven failures complained?
Only 30% of the respondents describing technology design incidents complained, whereas 25% of the respondents describing customer-driven failures complained.
Q8. What are the main sources of dissatisfaction with interpersonal service encounters?
The three main sources of dis/satisfaction with interpersonal service encounters mentioned previously are (1) response to service delivery failure, (2) response to customer needs, and (3) unprompted or unsolicited actions (Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990).
Q9. What is the main reason for the increase in competition among firms with similar SSTs?
This may lead to more competition among firms with similar SSTs and provide a greater incentive for firms to improve technology interfaces and SST capabilities and expand SST service offerings for customers.
Q10. What is the main reason why consumers are still fascinated with the capability of various SSTs?
Many consumers are still fascinated with the capability of various SSTs and seem pleasantly surprised when the SSTs perform successfully, because many SSTs are still in their infancy.
Q11. What is the fastest growing segment of technologically related transactions?
Although in this research the focus was end62 / Journal of Marketing, July 2000users of SSTs, the fastest growing segment of technologically related transactions is in the business-to-business realm (Hof 1999).