The Potential Hazard of Self-Service in Developing Customer Loyalty

Abstract

Recent developments in information technology imply that more service operations can now be transformed from expensive manual operations to low-cost automated self-service. Managers, however, are reluctant to replace personal service with self-service because of the potential negative consequence of self-service on social bonding and subsequent customer loyalty. In this article, the authors argue that the decision should be reframed as follows: “How can self-service be integrated with personal service?”