Toward a Conceptualization of Customer Productivity: The Customer's Perspective on Transforming Customer Labor into Customer Outcomes Using Technology-Based Self-Service Options

Abstract

Technology-based self-service is a rapidly emerging service option within retailing, with customers often serving as coproducers or quasi-employees, increasingly taking an active role in the production and delivery of the service experience. Traditional measures of productivity only refer to "provider-induced productivity" within these service settings. This internal orientation does not consider customers as a production factor but treats them as a free utility. This conceptual paper fills an important gap by promoting the concept of customer productivity as perceived by the customer (versus the perspective of the organization) and proposing a customer productivity framework.