Opportunities and challenges raised by Customer-to-Customer Interaction to service operations management: a quality management perspective

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the presence of other customers is an important social component of the servicescape with an impact on the quality of services provided and, in particularly, on customer experiences Therefore, increasing attention has been paid to customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) by management literature, both by marketing and by operations management scholars. As stressed in previous literature, there are several types of CCI, each of them posing different opportunities and challenges to service providers. Digital transformation has also been contributing to the emergence of new forms of CCI through online platforms and other social media channels. The diversity of CCI forms has recently led to the development of CCI typologies (and taxonomies. Yet, the implications of CCI on the systems and tools typically used to manage quality in service operations, highly focused on the reduction of variability and unpredictability, are still under-researched. Based on a review of the literature on CCI and on a critical analysis of some scenarios, this paper identifies the main strategies and tools that have been used to either foster value creation through CCI or to mitigate their negative consequences, giving a particular attention to transport services. From a services operations perspective, and more specifically from a quality management point of view, some recommendations are derived on how to better deal with this additional source of variability, inconsistency and complexity.