2 April – 29 April
Facilitator: Assistant Professor Per Echeverri
This module deals with a variety of issues linked to the very interaction individuals have with service organizations, in their role as customers. We address issues such as the customer perspective as a fruitful perspective for service development, employee and customers practices, employee demeanour, service encounter interaction, dramatization in service, interactive value formation, value co-destruction, service recovery, interaction with misbehaving customers, and multimodal communication (including gestures, mimic, and body language).
WELCOME TO MODULE 4
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Participants will after the module be able to:
– understand and describe the wide range of issues linked to customer interaction (outlined above) and, ultimately the formation of customer experience,
– understand and describe the relation between the process of employee-customer interaction to cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and organizational structures
– understand and describe generic and contextual theories that explain why the phenomena of customer interaction is realized
– use and relate concepts and theories on customer interaction in an analysis of own service context
Video
Interactions in service encounters, Per Echeverri
This video provides an overview of the area by describing typical interactions and what really happens during service encounters.
Dramatization in service encounters, Per Echeverri
The video illustrates the value creating mechanism of dramatizing the mundane.
Nonverbal communication in service encounters, Per Echeverri
The video illustrates the tools that are used in interaction which are not based on words.
Value co-creation and value co-destruction in service encounters, Per Echeverri
The video provides a theoretical framework of the upside and downside of value formation.
Communication in public transport, Robert Sahlberg
Robert Sahlberg at Karlstadbuss talks about communicative messages which customers are confronted with during service interaction in this specific industrial context.
Needs in public transport, Robert Sahlberg
Robert illustrates what needs are addressed and seen as the prerequisites for understanding communicative messages.
ACTIVITIES FOR ALL LEARNERS
Individual study
Watch the video resources and read the course literature (see below). You may also conduct your own search for literature with for example Google Scholar and share resources you find useful via Twitter using hashtag #uce72.
http://scholar.google.se/
Tips on how to find articles and other literature
Reflective blog posts
This course is very much about reflection as well as learning through writing and commenting. This work is done on personal blogs. In your blog posts you should reflect upon the content of this module and refer to the videos and the literature, or other literature related to the topic.
Post your texts in your connected blog . All posts will be shown on the course front page. Each week of the module will have a certain blogging activity. For details see below.
Comment on other blogposts
Each week we want you to read and comment on at least three posts by other participants.
Webinars & Tweetchat
In almost every week, we will meet for a webinar in Adobe Connect. See each week for times and details.
Link to webinar: sunet.zoom.us/my/uce72/
WEEKLY BREAKDOWN
Week 1
Blog about your expectations of the module and in what way it will be of benefit to you (and/or to your organisation/business). Officially registered participants might instead blog about their project.
Read and comment on at least three posts by other participants.
There will be no live event in this week.
Week 2
In your blog post for week 2 reflect upon one or two videos presented above and reflect on how the presented concepts relate to your organisation. Officially registered participants might instead blog about their project.
Read and comment on at least three posts by other participants.
Webinar: Friday, 13 April 12.00 – 13.00 CEST (check your timezone)
We meet as always in: sunet.zoom.us/my/uce72/.
Week 3
Blog: Identify a situation of interaction between staff and customer, which is NOT from your organization. Apply the concepts or models you have encountered during the module. Illustrate with photos, videos, instructions, texts, etc. Officially registered participants might instead blog about their project.
Read and comment on at least three posts by other participants.
There will be no live event in this week.
Week 4
Blog: Reflect upon how you could improve the work of your business/organization regarding customer satisfaction/experience with the help of the concepts or models highlighted in module 4. Officially registered participants might instead blog about their project.
Read and comment on at least three posts by other participants.
Webinar: Friday, 27 April 12.00 – 13.00 CEST (check your timezone)
We meet as always in: sunet.zoom.us/my/uce72/.
FOR PARTICIPANTS OF THE CREDIT BEARING COURSE
Assignment: ”Analysis of customer interactions in own company/organization”
In your individual assignment you should develop knowledge of the module theme, linked to your professional context. In this written assignment you should analyse different aspects of customers’ interaction with your organization. Build your analysis on relevant theories and/or models from the literature provided in the module. You are free to also use and reflect on other theories, models, concepts taken from other literature if they are shown to be fruitful and relevant for your analysis. Besides analysing the current contexts for customers’ interaction, you should make some conclusions regarding how the company can develop the prerequisites for effective and value creating interactions from a customer perspective. You can write in English or in Swedish. Results of your learning efforts should be described in a short module report (see below).
Make relevant limitations in your assignment and explain different premises of your analysis (e.g. how you prioritize between breadth and deep in your analysis and what customer interaction aspect you want to focus on). Please, use headlines to structure the content.
As an examination of this module a written report should be handed in consisting of maximum 3 pages written text (i.e. approx. 1 000 words, excluding front page, content list, references, appendixes etc). Hopefully, you can build on your blog posts for the module and the comments you received from others in this work. Strive for a good written structure in the text and an interesting argumentation. Use references (course literature, books, media, etc.) to back up your arguments where appropriate. As a complement, you may upload short film clips, pictures, or other sources of information as complementary information.
The maximum points for the assignment is 20, which means that 12 points are needed for a pass (G) and 16 points for a pass with distinction (VG).
Examination criteria
1 Reflections and depth of analysis.
2 Findings, solutions, recommendations.
3 Theory use, contextual explanations and issues.
4 Structure and argumentation in the text.
5 Use of space (pages), creativity, and visualization.
Deadline: Monday, 30 April 2018 08.00 CEST
You can hand in your report here. In order to do this you need to login with your Student-ID.
LITERATURE
Echeverri, P., & Skålén, P. (2011). Co-creation and co-destruction: A practice-theory based study of interactive value formation. Marketing Theory, 11(3), 351-373.
Echeverri, P. (2017). Bi-directional and stratified demeanour in value forming service encounter interactions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 36, 93-102.
Echeverri, P., & Salomonson, N. (2017). Embodied value co-creation: A turn-taking perspective on service encounter interactions. Journal of Creating Value, 3(1), 33-49.
Grove, S. J., Fisk, R. P., & Bitner, M. J. (1992). Dramatizing the service experience: a managerial approach. Advances in services marketing and management, 1(1), 91-121.
OTHER LITERATURE OF INTEREST
Alternatives to the bookchapter (Echeverri, 2007):
Echeverri, P., (2010), Bemötandeboken, Norsteds Förlag: Stockholm.
Grönroos, C. (2006). What can a service logic offer marketing theory. In: Lusch, R. & Vargo, S. (eds) The Service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Armonk, NY: M.E. Shape., 354-64.
Bradley, G. L., McColl-Kennedy, J. R., Sparks, B. A., Jimmieson, N. L., & Zapf, D. (2010). Service encounter needs theory: A dyadic, psychosocial approach to understanding service encounters. Emotions and organizational dynamism, 6, 221-258.
Gazor, H., Nemati, B., Ehsani, A., & Ameleh, K. (2012). Analyzing effects of service encounter quality on customer satisfaction in banking industry. Management Science Letters, 2(3), 859-868.
McColl-Kennedy, J. R., Vargo, S. L., Dagger, T. S., Sweeney, J. C., & van Kasteren, Y. (2012). Health care customer value cocreation practice styles. Journal of Service Research, 1094670512442806.