USC Marshall

In a service environment where expectations run high, service operations managers are increasingly charged with managing customer experiences. We often hear of the importance of making an emotional connection with customers. Although the importance of shaping customer experiences is widely acknowledged, the science of designing encounters based on behavioral science principles is still being developed. We submit that a set of psychological factors shape customer perceptions, describe how such factors are linked to the flow of an encounter, and identify research questions related to them. We are proposing a research agenda for service operations that has the potential for injecting science into the art of service encounter design.

In a service environment where expectations run high, service operations managers are increasingly charged with managing customer experiences. We often hear of the importance of making an emotional connection with customers. Although the importance of shaping customer experiences is widely acknowledged, the science of designing encounters based on behavioral science principles is still being developed. We submit that a set of psychological factors shape customer perceptions, describe how such factors are linked to the flow of an encounter, and identify research questions related to them. We are proposing a research agenda for service operations that has the potential for injecting science into the art of service encounter design.

The purpose of this paper (and the premise of the recent book) is

that services can be redesigned using psychological principles to deliver positive experiences for

any kind of service, not just those that lend themselves to fun; by definition, satisfaction with

a subconscious aspect of a service cannot be explained by the customer; and the psychological aspects

of service interactions have to be approached with the same level of rigor as that are used to design

processes that deliver the technical features of the service.

The purpose of this paper (and the premise of the recent book) is

that services can be redesigned using psychological principles to deliver positive experiences for

any kind of service, not just those that lend themselves to fun; by definition, satisfaction with

a subconscious aspect of a service cannot be explained by the customer; and the psychological aspects

of service interactions have to be approached with the same level of rigor as that are used to design

processes that deliver the technical features of the service.

The book identifies how findings in behavioral sciences can be used to design operations. The book identifies finding that shape customer experiences and provides new frame-works that link operations and behavioral sciences