Customer role and skill trajectories in services

Abstract

Customer behavior in services is usually perceived as volatile and unpredictable. However, this conceptual paper seeks to demonstrate that for service processes sharing certain common characteristics, one can find similarities in customer behavior patterns. On the basis of the extensive literature review, four types of service processes are identified in a matrix, and it is argued that specific combinations of customer roles and skills within each type of service processes form the basis for customer role and skill trajectories of certain length and structure. Two propositions are suggested at the end of the study to assist the empirical investigation of these trajectories, and some aspects of the problem of collective consumption are addressed.