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Keywords
Technology, Service quality, Customer service, Self-service
Abstract
Technology is profoundly changing the nature of services and the ways in which firms interact with their customers. The result, while positive, also has its downside. This paper elaborates on the opportunities that technology presents for firms to develop new services, and provide better, more efficient services to customers as well as the paradoxes and dark side of technology and services. The paper concludes with a section on what customers expect from technology-delivered services suggesting that "the more things change, the more some things remain the same". Customers still demand quality service no matter how the firm chooses to structure the relationship. It is incumbent upon firms to develop technology-based services that can provide the same high level of service that customers expect from interpersonal service providers.
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The field of services marketing and management and its related business tools and strategies are built upon challenges and issues that service providers and service businesses have faced over the last several decades. A major trend currently shaping the field and profoundly influencing the practice of services marketing is technology, specifically information technology. Technology is dramatically and profoundly changing the nature of services (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). It is resulting in tremendous potential for new service offerings, offerings not imaginable even a decade ago. Technology is radically changing how services are delivered, and it is enabling both customers and employees to get and provide better, more efficient customized services. Technology facilitates the global reach of services that historically were tied to their home locations. In fact some would argue that the Internet, the king of current technologies, is "one big service" vehicle.
Given the many potential positives, it is important to recognize there are paradoxes and a dark side to the infusion of technology into every aspect of service as well -- customers do not always welcome technology with open arms, and it threatens their privacy in many ways. Employees resist change and often do not see the value in technology. There is a loss of human contact...