Toward a Provider-Based View on the Design and Delivery of Quality E-Service Encounters

Abstract

The advent of electronic-based service (e-service) transactions has resulted in numerous operational challenges for service providers. Extending previous service management insights, this article offers a provider-based framework identifying four overarching types of online interactions useful for advancing understanding on the design and delivery of quality e-service encounters. This framework allows for examination of the amount of service intervention, the degree of user participation, and the type of user connection underlying online interactions for both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications and platforms. The article discusses how the quality of each e-service encounter type—informational, self-directive, intervenient, and intensive— requires, from a systems quality and operational standpoint, the management of three elements (i.e., target market, concept, and delivery system) underlying the firm’s e-service operations strategy. The article proposes promising areas in e-service encounter quality research where further investigation of design and delivery issues is urgently needed. One immediate implication stemming from this framework is that there is likely no single best strategy or approach to designing and delivering effective (i.e., quality) online moments of truth. What is required is the apt configuration of strategic e-service elements underlying each distinct e-service encounter type vis-à-vis critical e-service system quality dimensions (e.g., manageability, reliability, usability).