Determining Consumer Satisfaction and Commitment Through Self-Service Technology and Personal Service Usage

Abstract

2Determining consumer satisfaction and commitment through self-service technology and personal service usage Key Words: Self-service technology, personal service, consumer satisfaction, affective commitment, temporal commitment, instrumental commitment, service encounter Abstract This paper expands research into self-service technology in the service encounter.Self-service technology is where customers deliver service themselves using some form of a technological interface. There is still a great deal unknown about selfservice technology, in particular its impact on consumer satisfaction and consumer commitment. With that in mind, this empirical study explores the relative impact of self-service technology on consumer satisfaction and on a multidimensional measure of consumer commitment containing affective commitment, temporal commitment and instrumental commitment. The results reveal that in a hotel context personal service still remains very important for assessments of satisfaction, and affective and temporal commitment. What is particularly interesting is that self-service technology, while also impacting these constructs, also impacts instrumental commitment. This suggests that positive evaluations of self-service technology may tie consumers into relationships with hotels. A discussion and implications for managers are provided on these and other results, and the paper is concluded with further potential research.3

The effect of self-checkout quality on customer satisfaction and repatronage in a retail context

“…The empirical results support the conceptual framework proposed in this study and the main findings of previous literature (e.g., Dabholkar et al 2003;Beatson et al 2006). There is evidence that self-checkout attributes positively impact user perceptions of service quality.…”

“…Also, customers are expected to perform an increasing number of services themselves, and getting them to allocate resources to completing a task and feeling satisfied is a challenge (Liljander et al 2006;Collier and Kimes 2013). Thus, it is important to understand not only the motives that drive consumers to use SSTs in general, and supermarket self-service checkouts in particular, but also their potential impact on consumers' assessments associated with the post-usage of SSTs and their experience with a company, such as service quality, customer satisfaction, and future intentions (Beatson et al 2006;Wang 2012). It is well established that customer satisfaction can affect customer retention (Meuter et al 2000) and that satisfaction in a self-service experience is a determinant for future use (Ding et al 2011).…”

The relevance of shopper logistics for consumers of store-based retail formats

“…signage, recreational areas, specially adapted trolleys) or services facilitating the shopping process (e.g. information services, sales advice and self-service technologies) (Bearden, 1977;Reinartz and Kumar, 1999;Tang et al, 2001;Baker et al, 2002;Beatson et al, 2006).…”

Self-Service Technology in Retailing. The Case of Retail Kiosks

“…Lack of human interaction is another problem of SSTs, which may be more significant in a high-service-context business such as hotels. Hotel guests felt kiosks were useful but felt employee service was more important (Beatson et al, 2006). It may be because the guests prefer personal contact in relating room conditions or services.…”