Product details

Illustrates how the different elements in a customer''s encounter with Internet services relying on physical service (labor-intensive customer support and/or logistics) affect one another. Presents a framework that suggests: 1) that improving service quality in specific elements results in cost reductions in others creating a virtuous cycle and 2) that some elements of the service encounter provide superior sources of competitive advantage than others because of the difficulty competitors have replicating them. Both findings have implications for managers of organizations involved in the provision of most services over the Internet because they illustrate how those managers can simultaneously increase organizational efficiency and customer effectiveness.; Illustrates how managers of services using the Internet for their core service encounter can simultaneously increase organizational efficiency and customer effectiveness.