Customer roles in service delivery processes

Business Marketing

Customer's Role in Service Delivery

Southwest Airlines is an innovator in enlisting customers to be part of their own service delivery processes. From the extensive reliance on self-service check-in on their website to being one of the first companies to rely on kiosks in airports to have customers check themselves in, to their open-style seating on all flights, Southwest has so many engrained processes that customers can assist in service delivery, they seem to attract business and pleasure travelers who enjoy this process. From this standpoint, Southwest Airlines' approach of inviting customers to participate in many aspects of the service processes supports empirical research (Dabholkar, 1996) that validates consumers who see themselves as contributors to service (Bitner, Faranda, Hubbert, Zeithaml, 1997) actively seek out opportunities to do so.

Theoretical frameworks (Chowdhary & Prakash 2007) have been defined through the use of cluster analysis to illustrate how specific segments of consumers are attracted to be contributors to services delivered. This is allegorical to the students who like to help in a class, even as young as grade school or those shoppers in a mass merchandiser like Wal-Mart or Costco who look to help others find items. There is a specific type of consumer who seeks out opportunities to be a contributor to the service delivery experience, and Southwest has diligently worked to attract these types of consumers with success.