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Research Presentation . Online Customer Service: Is self-service no service at all? Monica L. Perry, School of Business February 17, 2005. Agenda Why is online customer service important? What questions did we hope to answer? What did we find? So What?.
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Research Presentation Online Customer Service: Is self-service no service at all? Monica L. Perry, School of Business February 17, 2005 • Agenda • Why is online customer service important? • What questions did we hope to answer? • What did we find? • So What?
Why is online customer service important? Consider the following scenario in the offline world…..
Research Questions and Related Literature • What is the range of online customer service in practice? • To what degree is online customer service self-service, assisted, and interactive? Related Literature- Service Quality Media Richness
Related Literature: Service Quality We Focus on 3 Service Quality Dimensions Parasuraman & Ziethaml (1991) • Assurance • Knowledgeable, Basis for Trust • Empathy • Individualized Attention • Responsiveness • Promptness
Service-Profit Chain Service Quality Greater Profitability (Heskett, Lovemen, Sasser & Schlesinger 1994) Supporting Literature: Financial Impact Customer Retention • Small Large Profits (25-100%) (Reicheld, Markey & Hopton 2000) Customization, Personalization Investments to Customize Service Interactions = Indicator of High Service Quality Strategy (Keltner, Finegold, Mason & Wagner 1999)
Lean Rich Related Literature: Media Richness Media Richness Theory • Characterize Channels of Communication based on “Richness” Continuum (Carlson & Zmud 1999; Daft and Lengel 1984, 1986) • Continuum based on: • Cue Type and Variety • Personalization Capacity • Feedback Immediacy • Ability to Convey Complex Information
What we developed: categorizing online service Interactive Rich Check Order Status Store Locator Static Customized FAQs Lean Non-interactive
What we found: descriptive results Content Analysis of web site for 200 cataloguers
So what? • Utility of an empirically grounded process for Classifying, Assessing Online Customer Service • Considerable Room for Possible Advantage Across Fuller Range of Customer Service : • Real-time online customer service • Access, Control, Changes to Orders once Placed
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