Technology-based service experiences A study of the functional and emotional dimensions in telecom services

Abstract: As technology is invading the society of millions of people around the world today, more and more people are affected in their daily life by services such as Internet bank services, e-commerce, telecom services and ATM machines. Technical advances are providing new possibilities and solutions to many different customer needs. To be competitive on the market, companies must manage and take advantage of the opportunities technology is providing.One of the characteristics of services which require a lot of technical integration is that it often involves little or no physical interaction between customer and service provider in the service encounter. Under these circumstances it is many times hard for companies to control how customers experience their services, since the customer response is not being directly revealed for the company. It is nevertheless important for service providers to understand how their present and potential customers are experiencing their offerings since this knowledge provide the acquisitions for the value of the service.The present investigation aims to identify and analyze the dimensions that form the basis for the service experience and how it is linked to value in use. It further aims to study how users can contribute with information regarding the service experience within the technology-based service field.The reason for choosing the technological base for this research is that it could be assumed, according to above mentioned arguments, that there is a need for service providers within the technological-based service field to better understand what their customers are experiencing. Also, these services are just in its initiation phase when it comes to service research and there is much to be done when it comes to understanding technology-based service experiences.The research is based on a literature study of services experiences, as well as an empirical study of different functional and emotional dimensions of the technology-based service experience. Mobile phone users were invited to uncover the different aspects of their service experience and the value of different dimensions of service offerings created by other users and by companies.The contribution of this study is a framework where the major influencing dimensions of a technology-based service experience are put together and describe how the service experience is linked to value in use. The study also presents results regarding how users can contribute with valuable information regarding the service experience by co-creating in a service development process. Users were found to be better when it comes to create services that satisfied several of the most demanded functions and emotions, among others functions that regarded cost saving, and emotions such as the feeling of security.