Customer Reactions to Service Separation

Abstract

Recent research suggests that inseparability is not a universal distinguishing characteristic of services and that the consumption of many services is or can be separated from their production. This research defines service separation as customers' absence from service production, which denotes the spatial separation between service production and consumption. In a series of qualitative and quantitative studies across different services, the authors examine customer reactions to service separation. The results indicate that service separation increases customers' perceptions of not only access convenience and benefit convenience but also performance risk and psychological risk. Furthermore, these effects differ across services. Specifically, relative to experience services, for credence services, the effects of separation on service convenience are mitigated, and the effects on perceived risk are magnified. Subsequently, the convenience and risk perceptions induced by service separation can influence customers' purchase decisions and postexperience evaluations. Customers prefer separation for experience services and when they have an established relationship with the service provider. Finally, the authors discuss the theoretical contributions and managerial implications and offer directions for further research.

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“…This is important because of the focus on the customer's perspective to date in the literature, with little known about the providers' experience. For example, recent research by Keh and Pang (2010) demonstrated that customer reactions to service separation are generally favourable. Although service separation increased customer's perceptions of 'access convenience and benefit convenience' it also increased 'performance risk and psychological risk' (Keh and Pang, 2010, p.55).…”

“…Services' marketing is defined in terms of its origins and distinction from physical products based on the four characteristics of intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability (Lovelock and Gummesson, 2004). Next, the infusion of technology (Bitner, 2001a;2001b) is reviewed in response to the breakdown of the inseparability assumption and the rise of separated service delivery (Keh and Pang, 2010;Paluch and Blut, 2013). Several types of technology infused service are reviewed, reflecting the shift from high touch low tech, to high tech, low touch service delivery (Schumann et al, 2012).…”

“…As a result of technology infusion, some of the long-held assumptions underpinning the IHIP paradigm, particularly around service inseparability, were challenged. With technology infusion, services scholars argued that services were able to be separated in both time and spacethat is, both temporally and spatially (e.g., Betancourt and Gautschi, 2001;Keh and Pang, 2010;Paluch and Blut, 2013). For services where separation was possible, this meant that providers and customers no longer necessarily needed to be in the same place at the same time for the service delivery to occur.…”

“…In a landmark study, Keh and Pang (2010) argued for the case of service separability, stating that the "…customer's absence from service production…denotes the spatial separation between service production and consumption" (Keh and Pang, 2010, p. 55). Paluch and Blut (2013) further explored the concept of service separation from the customer's perception in relation to customer satisfaction and their level of involvement.…”

“…If self-service technologies fail or are poorly designed, customers will become dissatisfied (Bitner, 2001a); thus, perceived self-service convenience drives uptake (Collier and Kimes, 2013). Technology failure is known to exacerbate the degree of technological anxiety experienced by individuals in the context of separated services (Keh and Pang, 2010), which also predicts declined usage (Meuter, Ostrom, Bitner & Roundtree, 2003). The extent to which a customer wishes to be involved also relates to the perceived 'fun-factor' associated with using self-service technologies (Curran and Meuter, 2007).…”