Page 42 - SM Aug-Sep-2014

Hot off tHe Press The dark side of they had miraculously pulled my data from to participate in the design process and The trend asked how satisfed they expected to the last fve Schengen visas? Would I be towards more irritated if this visa was denied, than feel on completion of the process. customised As before, clients were randomly customer co-creation if I had not had to co-create my application assigned to delivery and non-delivery birthday cakes is a simple yet again? The answers are ‘yes’ and ‘yes’! example of So it was gratifying to see how a team groups to create service failures and co-creation of academics had designed a series the client and of experiments to test how customer successes. But, in this study, customers involving both were given different treatments to the supplier satisfaction varies under conditions of remedy the service failure – some The trend towards HAT DO ApplYIng FOr A vISA, Customer co-creation has become high and low co-creation, and in service simply received a discount, whilst others using the services of a coach, greater levels of Wordering groceries online and somewhat of a buzz word in both failures and successes. The authors used re-engaged in the design process. satisfaction than those who do not receive academic and practitioner circles and, in such opportunities. The authors found that service failure theory to develop a number of hypotheses product co-creation is trying to make your child sit still at the an era of increasing customer demand which they tested in four studies. under conditions of high co-creation However, frms that climb on the creating new customer hairdresser have in common? for customisation and self-expression, was experienced more negatively by customisation bandwagon need to All are examples of customers service challenges and working with providers to co-create this emphasis is unlikely to abate. customers who had high expectations understand the elevated risks of service Technological advancements now enable failure under such conditions, and must of what they would receive. Thus, the opportunities. Professor the product they wish to purchase. providers to work with their clientele Customer authors suggest that, when services fail, be alert to the relatively larger decreases Nicola Kleyn examines The quality of the outcome rests, to a during the product creation phase to co-creation has customers perceive the failure as having in satisfaction felt by customers who recently published varying degree, on the client’s input produce highly specialised offerings. become somewhat been co-created and this enhances co-created their offering. Under such Similarly, customers are seeking to wield conditions, corporate strategies to manage during the process of creating the negative feelings that result in lower research on the topic. product or service. more control over what they buy. of a buzz word satisfaction with the outcome. service recovery need to be designed and For some frms this is nothing new. The third and fourth studies used effectively managed. Consider consulting services, where the scenarios above to investigate the Thus, the fndings suggest that the quality of the outcome is usually Testing the hypotheses differences in customer perceptions working with customers to give them an dependent on the customer working side- In the frst study, consumers were under varying conditions of co-creation offering that will satisfy their desires for by-side with the consultant. exposed to a fctitious travel service where in the service recovery situation. customisation and compensate them for But for manufacturing organisations they were required to give varying levels of Where customers had not invested the time and energy wasted is the most Giving who are trying to move away from mass personal information – the more provided, time and effort to create their products, effective solution. customers an increasing say production to give customers an increasing the higher the level of co-creation. Some in the event of service failure they Fortunately, my visa went through. But in the value say in the value chain (think birthday cakes, clients ‘succeeded’ in making their did not want to invest in co-creating a if it hadn’t – I wonder how well the visa chain. An Ikea cars or Ikea furniture), understanding bookings whilst others ‘failed’. remedy and expected the company to processing service would have managed employee assisting a how customers are involved in a co- Statistical tests confrmed that, do all the work. However, in situations the situation? I suspect that there would client (right) creation process and re-defning customer where customers had invested a where clients who had invested in co- have been very little effort to work with me and (below) satisfaction is more of a challenge. signifcant amount of time and energy creation were offered the opportunity to to recover the situation. But, in an ideal an Ikea customer self- The title of a new article published in in making the booking and these work with the company to fnd a remedy, scenario, perhaps they would have applied assembling the the Journal of the Academy of Marketing efforts succeeded, they were more their satisfaction levels were higher. these fndings and assisted me to obtain personalised Science in may recently caught my eye. satisfed than those who had been For example, in the case of the shoe the outcome I was looking for … with a furniture he ordered Heiderich, Wittkowski, Handrich and less involved co-creation. The reverse, manufacturer – where the company discount of course! Falk (all from europe) have written a however, occurred in the case of failure went to great lengths to remedy the References: paper titled ‘The dark side of customer in the high co-creation scenario. These situation by giving a discount on Heidenreich, S., Wittkowski, K., Handrich, M. & Falk, co-creation: exploring the consequences customers were far less satisfed when the offer, as well as working with T. (2014). The dark side of customer co-creation: of failed co-created services’. much has their booking failed, than those who had customers to redesign their shoes – exploring the consequences of failed co-created been written about co-creation, but this is not received any customisation options. customer satisfaction levels were even services. Journal of the Academy of Marketing the frst piece I know of that investigates The second study involved creating higher than when customers did not Science. Published online 14 May 2014. service recovery in these contexts. a fctitious on-line shoe retailer called experience any service problems at all! perhaps the piece got my attention Design Your Shoes. Customers in the high Professor Nicola KleyN because I had just invested a few hours co-creation scenario were given options The results IS A memBer OF THe mArkeTIng FACUlTY AnD DepUTY DeAn AT THe flling out forms for a Schengen visa. The to select specifc materials, choose their The outcomes of both studies show UnIverSITY OF preTOrIA’S gOrDOn InSTITUTe OF BUSIneSS SCIenCe process not only extracted hefty payment, PHOTOS: supplied shoe colour and put their names or that giving customers opportunities to (gIBS). SHe reSeArCHeS, COnSUlTS but much time and energy. Did this make initials on the product. Once again, they co-create or customise their purchases AnD TeACHeS In mArkeTIng AnD BrAnDIng, WITH A FOCUS On me more invested in the process than if were given lower, or higher, opportunities can result in higher levels of customer COrpOrATe BrAnDIng. 40 40 strategicmarketing August–September 2014 strategicmarketing August–September 2014 August–September strategicmarketing 41