Customer process-centric artefacts: a literature review

Abstract

PurposeCompanies that strive to provide customers with value in their processes benefit from artefacts that allow them to better understand customer processes (CPs) and to influence CPs in ways that are valuable for customers. Such CP-centric artefacts (CPCAs) carry various labels across research fields, which inhibit their application or utilization for developing further artefacts. This study provides a structured overview of existing CPCAs and investigates which research foundations promote their development.Design/methodology/approachTwenty-five CP-related keyword combinations are applied in several iterations using multiple (meta) search engines to identify papers on CPCAs across different research streams. Introduced research frameworks organize the identified artefacts and indicate research gaps and reasons why some approaches are more successful in developing CPCAs than others.FindingsExisting CPCAs cover different aspects of CPs and utilize contextual factors of CPs to varying degrees to analyse or influence CPs. Research gaps are identified that indicate opportunities to develop further CPCAs. Taking instantiated methods in combination with CP-related descriptive knowledge as a foundation yields the highest potential for generating beneficial CPCAs.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to CP management literature by offering a foundation for the generation of CPCAs suitable for analysing and influencing CPs of end-consumers. This supports the establishment of a CP management aiming at optimizing both, interlinked business processes and CPs.

Business process prioritization criteria: a case study in the financial market

“…The promotion of process improvement, in turn, occurred through the use of continuous improvement projects guided by the operational quality area, which sought to understand, with the leaders of the operational mats, gaps and opportunities identified by the deviations from the service level agreement (SLA), indices of complaints in regulatory bodies and by customer expectations when they are in the service channels. This customer expectation will be referred to in this study as customer voice or customer sentiment (Palvölgyi & Moormann, 2021).…”

“…The analysis of indicators such as SLA, for example, showed that the process of issuing a real estate credit agreement met the agreed service level, while the client's request was being processed in the back office, but did not include the effective delay; considering that once the product is requested, it is necessary to register it in the real estate registry, among other steps. Given this scenario, the organization promoted a new approach that values customer satisfaction (Kreuzer et al, 2020;Palvölgyi & Moormann, 2021).…”

“…When such companies undergo expansion and increase in market share, they diversify their catalog of products and services to supply a more significant number of potential customers and thus ensure their growth. Offering more products implies creating or improving processes in order to maintain quality, productivity and ensure that, in the end, their consumers have a positive experience, consume again and recommend their products (Carvalho, Maia & Barbedo, 2012;Favretto, Roman & Sehnem, 2016;Palvölgyi & Moormann, 2021;Shukla, Swarnakar & Singh, 2021).…”

“…In the financial sector, new technologies (Asad, Mohajerani & Nourseresh, 2016;Kirakosyan & D an aiat a, 2014), intense competition and constant changes in customer needs (Karpen et al, 2015;Kreuzer et al, 2020;Moormann & Palvölgyi, 2013) led banks to seek for customer satisfaction not only through good products but also the offering of value through their processes (Palvölgyi & Moormann, 2021). Therefore, this article aims to analyze how an organization in the financial sector prioritizes its business processes for improvement projects and what criteria are adopted for such prioritization.…”