3.1.1. The customer, from the role of beneficiary to the role of relationship producer

At the end of the 1970s, within the academic world of marketing, many researchers such as Berry, Lovelock, Chase, Eiglier, Langeard and Shostack claimed the emergence of a new disciplinary field: service marketing in which the customer relationship would be different from that existing in product marketing. In terms of service, beyond being the beneficiary of the transaction, the customer is also one of the contributors who makes it possible to produce it. The “customer resource” is essential for this production. This customer contribution arises from the inability to separate production from the consumption of services [ZEI 85]: “While products are first produced, then sold and finally consumed, services are often first sold, then always produced and consumed simultaneously. Thus, the consumer must be present in the production of most services”. For example, for a plane journey, the customer is present during the production of the service and contributes to its creation by performing tasks that are their responsibility: buying their ticket, arriving on time, ensuring compliance with security instructions, presenting their identity card at the boarding gate, etc. This type of work done by the customer is called participation. The theory of servuction [ISG 87] explains that for a service to be produced, the presence of three factors is required: the customer and the physical support (necessary material means) which are always present and indispensable, the staff in contact which can sometimes be substituted by a direct relationship between the customer and the physical support. Using the example of an airplane journey, the service requires coordinated actions from the contact employee (hostess/steward), the customer (sitting in their seat, putting their bag in the luggage compartment) and the presence of the physical support (plane) to be produced correctly. Registration can be done via a terminal (direct customer interaction/ physical support) or via a hostess/steward (customer interaction/contact employee, physical support). The business–customer relationship is no longer a simple supplier–user relationship, but a relationship of co-creation of experience and relationship. The customer is then considered as a temporary employee of the company whose work, also called participation, can be characterized in two ways: by its intensity and its content.

The intensity of participation covers the customer’s degree of involvement in the process. This involvement can be cognitive, emotional and/or physical. Always present, it can be weak (only the customer’s presence is required in order to benefit from a massage) and gradually become strong when the customer co-creates the service, as in the case of a sports coaching program.

Participation can also be characterized by its content based on role theory [SOL 85]. It is then defined as the role that the customer must or can play during the production of services. These roles played by the customer are organized into two main families: the intra role and the extra role.

The intra-role is what the customer must do for the service to be performed, such as checking in for a flight, ordering in a restaurant, orienting themselves and serving themselves from the shelves of a store, etc. Without the performance of this role, the service cannot be produced. This intra-role is defined through service scripts. It generally consists of either providing information or making efforts. These can be of different kinds: cognitive, physical or psychological. When flying, the minimal role of the customer, which is to travel through the airport with their luggage, can quickly become physically and cognitively challenging for some customers.

Unlike the intra-role, the extra role covers activities that are not mandatory for the service production, but that the customer can possibly perform within the framework of the latter. They are part of the customer’s civic behavior. There are three such customer citizenship behaviors [BET 97]. First, the customer can promote the brand by generating positive word of mouth about it, word of mouth now greatly facilitated by social networks. Second, the consumer can cooperate with other people involved in the service process. They can cooperate with contact employees showing courtesy, mastering their roles as customers and sometimes taking their place. For example, on a train, a customer can substitute themselves for the controller by asking another customer to turn off their mobile phone. The customer allows the social norm to be respected [CAM 13]. The customer can also cooperate with other customers “by playing the role of helping other customers” by being a source of information [CAM 13]. Third, the customer can act as an organizational consultant by helping to improve service quality. “Customer complaints and suggestions can lead to the resolution of certain problems in service” [BET 97]. The response to the many and varied satisfaction questionnaires is another example of this role as a “performance feedback provider”. On this issue, how long will the customer accept performing this role without reward?

Intensity and content approaches are two complementary approaches to the customer’s role summarized in Table 3.1.

3.1.2. A role as a producer, a source of value for the company and the customer

Since the customer must participate to produce the service and since their activity is at the heart of the customer relationship, it is legitimate to ask whether the company should promote or restrict this participation. Most authors such as Prahalad and Ramaswamy [PRA 00] consider this participation as a source of competitive advantage because it creates benefits for the company as well as for the customer and intensifies the relationship between the actors.

The first benefit of participation for a company is the savings it generates. As early as 1979, Lovelock and Young demonstrated [LOV 79] that it is possible to improve the company’s productivity by increasing customer participation. Thus, some of the tasks usually assigned to the contact employee can be transferred to the customer. Some activity sectors, such as mass distribution through self-service, base their business model on this participation. For example, companies like IKEA have focused on this task shifting from the beginning. Thus, the customer must demonstrate a high degree of autonomy during the visit to the store and assume delivery and assembly of the furniture. The savings then benefit the Swedish giant, which pays part of them to the consumer through lower prices. In recent years, there has been an explosion in self-service technologies and consequently in the autonomous choices offered to customers.

The second benefit is greater customer satisfaction. When the customer participates and recognizes their role, they have clearer expectations about the service meeting and are able to better coordinate with the contact employees to achieve the benefits they are seeking [BIT 97]. As a result, they achieve higher levels of satisfaction.

Participation improves customer relations through a higher level of customer engagement with the company. This commitment can be of two types: calculated or affective [GUS 05]. Calculated commitment is a commitment based on economic reasoning related to the benefits of the service or the costs of major changes. When a customer participates, they develop a command of the tasks that are their responsibility. Learning new processes or performing the same actions again among competitors becomes a barrier to leaving the relationship. This phenomenon is well-known in the banking and insurance sectors. Some companies even propose to carry out the steps of changing service providers on behalf of the customer in order to be able to win them over, like ING Direct’s “Switching Service”. Affective commitment is defined as “a warmer or more emotional engagement, a factor that develops through a degree of reciprocity or personal involvement that the customer has with the company, resulting in a higher level of trust and overall commitment” [GUS 05]. Affective commitment is thus based on sharing values, developing social links and trust. By participating in the service, the customer gradually integrates the role he or she must play, a social network and a set of values specific to the organization [GOU 06]. He or she becomes socialized with the service provider. This organizational socialization increases the trust placed in the company and consequently the emotional engagement [MOR 94, BEN 97].

Although customer participation is a source of productivity, satisfaction and commitment, it also generates uncertainty in the company’s organization [BAT 02]. Indeed, its positive influence is conditioned by two elements developed in the third section of this chapter: the customer must master their role and they must be motivated to accomplish the tasks assigned to them. Otherwise, the workload perceived by employees increases [HSI 05], and participation becomes a source of dissatisfaction, of avoidance to customer competition, even to deviant behavior or behavior contrary to the company’s interests.

3.2.1. An enrichment of intra-role roles through the development of technologies in the relationship

The digitization of the economy has led to an intensification of the customer’s intra-roles. The introduction of technology into customer relations, through selfservice technologies, has increased the consumer’s tasks. Self-service technology (SST) is a process of technology–customer interaction that replaces personal interaction in contact with customers [CUR 05]. The first examples date back to the 1980s when ATMs (or automatic teller machines) were introduced in banks: the employee–customer counter interaction was replaced by a customer-banknote dispenser interaction. In the 2000s, the development of smartphones, the Internet and electronic terminals made these processes widespread. For example, a customer books their plane tickets on the company’s website, makes a bank transfer using a mobile application and uses scanners in stores. SSTs are a source of saving for the company; they thus reduce their payroll and material costs. They are successfully accepted when the customer finds it interesting to use them. It is possible to do your shopping at 2 am (time slot), from your couch (comfort), from pre-established shopping lists (time saving) with products delivered to your home (convenience), etc.

Digitization has thus enriched customer relations through a denser content of intra-roles, particularly in hedonic products/services. Many museums, for example, offer customers the opportunity to experience their visit in a different way. In the Historium in Bruges, Belgium, the customers walk through the streets of the city in medieval times using a virtual reality headset. Similarly, in the video game industry, the success of Pokémon Go in the summer of 2016 showed how digitization and augmented reality could superimpose reality and virtual reality. The customer’s role therefore becomes more active.

Intra-roles have also been modified by the customer’s increased skills. Until the advent of the Internet, customer relations were marked by an asymmetry of information between the company and the customer. The company had a better understanding of the market and a better knowledge of its products and services than the consumer. The Internet and the immediate access provided by smartphones are reshuffling the cards. Customers are able to become experts more than the contact employees. For example, in stores they sometimes know the products better than the staff. In the field of tourism, they are able to easily combine their experience by themselves by mobilizing different resources (airlines, car rental companies, hotels, etc.) without the need for a travel agency.

Finally, at the beginning of the 2000s, with players such as Airbnb and Uber, a new type of exchange began to emerge: the exchange of services between individuals via an Internet platform that acts as a trusted third party in a triangular relationship, a triad that Nguyen and Llosa [NGU 18] propose to call “collaborative services”. Collaborative services are part of a larger (and unclear) phenomenon, called the sharing economy, or sometimes collaborative consumption. Based on a C2B2C model, this new consumption pattern is based in particular on the ability of Internet platforms to connect individual service providers almost instantly with other individual service consumers. Collaborative services thus combine service-specific characteristics (the need for the customer resource to build the service, heterogeneity, uncertainty) with other aspects specific to them, namely the interdependence and interchangeability between two of the triad’s actors: consumers and service providers.

3.2.2. An intensification and diversification of the customer’s extra roles

While digitization has revolutionized the customer’s mandatory roles, it has also profoundly changed the extra roles. These roles were previously part of the customer’s customer citizenship behaviors, customers who spontaneously chose to help another customer, collaborate with employees or communicate positively about the brand. As part of a 4.0 relationship, companies have implemented real strategies to intensify and systematize these roles based on the multiplication of interactions with and between customers.

Companies develop a communication strategy based on positive word of mouth through social media and Internet communities. Their objectives are quantitative and qualitative. First of all, they are looking for the massification of positive reviews. Thus, in the tourism sector, some assessment sites such as TripAdvisor have become major challenges for the economic profitability of players. Furthermore, they want to bring forth apostles of the brand whose role is to promote and defend it. In this sense, Microsoft grants certain expert customers most valuable professional (MVP) status. The acronym MVP, traditionally used in sports (most valuable player), refers to a technical leader who shares their technical expertise of the brand’s products without being a Microsoft employee. These business strategies are of course risky, as more powerful customers can generate negative word of mouth, castigate the brand and weaken it.

This communication role then intersects with two other extra roles: helping other customers and cooperating with employees. Relationship 4.0 is marked by new interactions between customers, especially through social networks and online communities. Coupled with the above-mentioned increase in skills, communities have structured themselves around expert customers who advise and help more novice customers. In case of need (difficulties in using a product, failure, search for ideas, etc.), the reflex of customers is now to Google it, and no longer necessarily to come into direct contact with the brand. This behavior also means greater cooperation with employees.

Customers collaborate to create resources and ideas. The customer is first and foremost a source of innovative ideas. Crowdsourcing design [ALL 18] aims to integrate the customer into the company’s creative process. While this strategy is not new, it has intensified and is being “refreshed” with digitization. Unilever, for example, provides consumers with a website, Unilever Foundry, to interact with customers. Platforms such as eYeka specialize in connecting large groups (Procter & Gamble, Nestlé or Citröen) with customers. Companies offer new products and consumers react by submitting ideas to improve design.

Digitization has also increased their role as a source of product/service improvement. Performance tracking has become systematic. Henceforth, when software unexpectedly closes, the customer is offered to upload the information log that will be analyzed by the publisher in order to make it more stable. In stores, rapid satisfaction assessments at the checkout or on terminals with three or four smileys are generalized. The omnipresence of information systems, therefore, increases the possibilities for customer feedback. This feedback now extends to competitive intelligence: the consumer collects information about competing products and services through applications. Some passionate customers even spend their free time improving and developing Wase’s courses.

The following box shows how Blizzard, with its game Hearthstone, has developed a strategy to use digitization to intensify the customer’s extra roles.

These collaborative processes have also led to the emergence of a new extra role in the 4.0 relationship. The customer has also become a source of capital for the company: this capital can be financial or physical. Financially, consumers are involved upstream of the production of the product or service. Companies traditionally used business angels or banks to finance innovative projects. Digitization now offers new opportunities for fundraising: platforms like Kickstarter bring together creators and customers who are willing to invest. Each project is proposed for financing by Internet users for a given duration and a financial amount to be reached. When the sum is reached, the production of the product or service can begin. This financing system follows a different logic than that of banks and business angels. Unlike these financing organizations, whose motivation is based on short- or medium-term profitability, customers choose to provide capital if the project corresponds to their tastes, expectations or values. Thus, Amanda Palmer managed to raise more than a million dollars to finance her musical project solely on the willingness of fans to see her album produced. Concerning physical capital, the customer is at the heart of new business models. Whether it is Uber, Airbnb or BlaBlaCar, these companies base their activity on connecting a customer with a need with a customer with physical capital to be developed.

3.3.1. Motivating customers to play a greater role

Customer motivation is first and foremost a matter of a rational assessment of the roles offered to customers. It is the result of a comparison between the benefits and costs generated by the task performed. The customer therefore simultaneously answers the double question: what does this role that I take on provide me with? What resources should I deploy? From this comparison comes a motivation, or not, to perform a task in the context of customer relations.

The company can offer many benefits to motivate the customer to perform their tasks. These benefits have always existed for the most part in traditional services and have been amplified by digitization. The first of these is time saving and most SST research highlights time saving as an essential motivating factor [DAB 96, MEU 00, DAB 03, CUR 07]. The growth of websites selling and booking services on the Internet such as MyRenault.fr is partly based on this benefit. The second benefit is based on a sense of control and independence. Eiglier and Langeard [EIG 87, pp. 42–43] state that “the customer wants to feel that they have control over the situation”. For example, the use of scanners in stores is partly motivated by the possibility of controlling the amount of purchase at any time. When the customer performs a number of tasks, he or she can also save money. The development of online banking is based on this benefit: as the customer carries out a large number of autonomous operations over the Internet, operational costs are reduced and reflected in prices for consumers. As part of the 4.0 relationship, the customer may seek greater availability of the service or product. By performing their tasks independently, they can order products outside store opening hours, for example. Finally, the search for fun can motivate the customer to perform the tasks for which he or she is responsible [DAB 96]. The use of tablets to enrich content in museums is an example of this type of benefit.

The fulfillment of roles also represents a cost for the customer. To accomplish these roles, the customer can make a variety of efforts: physical, cognitive and emotional. Relationship 4.0 is marked by a development of cognitive and emotional efforts. Cognitive efforts are based on an understanding of the customer’s role. The augmentation of SSTs and the remodeling of customer paths by incorporating digital channels (application, website) make processes very complex for customers [LAR 17]. Similarly, emotional efforts, linked to the risks generated by digitization, have increased. These perceived risks are of three kinds: financial, psychological and performance. The financial risk arises when the customer is worried about ordering over the Internet for fear that their order will not reach them or that their credit card will be hacked. Psychological risk is the fear of not knowing how to use the technology or of making the wrong choices. Performance risk is based on the fear that the process will not achieve the expected result. These three risks require the customer to mobilize psychological resources to overcome anxiety. They are all the more present as digitization has led to a decrease in interactions with contact employees.

The customer then compares the perceived benefits and costs of performing these roles. This comparison then depends on the customer’s profile and the characteristics of the service. Depending on his or her skills, personality and past experiences, the gains and losses associated with participation will be perceived differently. A customer skilled with technology, being proactive and having a positive history with the brand, will more easily perceive time saving in the use of an interactive kiosk than someone else. Similarly, product/service characteristics such as reliability and clarity of role can change the perception of benefits and costs. To want to play an increased role, the customer must perceive that their actions will lead to the expected benefits and understand the role they must play.

In addition to this method of rational motivation, there is a more emotional process, especially with regard to extra roles. Extra roles can be the result of a rational approach as previously described but also of a feeling of reciprocity. If the company creates a strong relationship with the customer and makes him/her adhere to its values, he/she will tend to develop a willingness to reciprocate, manifested by positive word of mouth or stronger participation in innovation processes, for example. Crowdfunding, an example previously mentioned, also works according to this method.

3.3.2. Managing customer expertise

The strategy of companies to make the customer more active in customer relations is not limited to the presence of a visible benefit. The tasks required of the customer are increasingly complex [LAR 17]. Firms must, therefore, deploy strategies to manage customer expertise. These are based on two axes: the development of customer skills and the management of expert customers.

Companies must train the customer in his or her role in the 4.0 relationship. Of course, it is necessary to take into account the capacities, what the customer can do. Whether physically disabled or with mental health issues, illiterate or not, fluent in the local language, there are many difficulties for the customer to participate effectively. For example, the United Nations predicts that by 2075 the world population will have more seniors (+65 years old) than young people (less than 15 years old). The aging of the population requires that customer participation be reviewed to make it simpler, more user-friendly and adapted to the abilities of this growing population (sight, hearing, slower physical and cognitive activity, increased emotionality), regardless of familiarity with the technology. Customer paths, interfaces and physical support in general must be reinvented and adapted.

The consumer must, therefore, understand and learn the tasks he or she must or can perform in the customer journey. These training actions can be described by their content, means and timing. The content can be cognitive (simply explaining their role to the customer) and/or emotional (reassuring, valuing and encouraging the customer). Companies tend to limit training to a simple explanation of tasks. However, the customer needs to be reassured and must anticipate a positive experience. The addition of a few words of encouragement and valuation significantly improves customer participation [NIC 18]. The means used to train the customer can be diverse: material (guide, application, film, etc.) or human as well as contact employees. Companies like Leroy Merlin, who use “Welcomers” at the store entrance to explain their role to customers, achieve higher levels of satisfaction [NIC 18]. The timing of the customer’s training is also an important feature to analyze. Until now, in the absence of a clear strategy or legal obligation, companies have generally focused on reactive training, i.e. when the customer is lost on the tasks they have to perform in the context of customer relations [NIC 17]. The latter then approached the employees (counter, call center, chatbox, etc.) to understand their given role. This vision is evolving and companies are developing more proactive strategies. For example, companies provide tools on their websites or applications so that customers can understand their role upstream, like in IKEA which offers the customer a “how to shop” guide. This web page explains to the customer the different stages of their visit and some points of the process (the color of labels, sales aids, etc.). This allows the customer to understand, even before encountering any difficulties, the tasks he or she must perform.

This increase in skills is also reflected in the emergence of experts that the company must manage and these experts must be both valued and monitored. Valuation is based on a special status and various relational benefits. For example, on forums, they are identifiable by a specific name and are invited by the brand to special events. Their contributions are valued and highlighted and they benefit from preview information. However, these expert consumers are also problematic for companies. Some versions of video games have been failures because they were developed for the community of experts whose expectations were no longer in line with those of the mass of players. There are also false experts, giving bad advice. Similarly, interactions between customers can sometimes be problematic. Other networked video games see some customers verbally assault others. Some games fall under the power (the lead) of radical machos who insult any woman who wants to play, to the great despair of the gambling company that sees its volume of female players (half of humanity) decimated.

3.3.3. Rethinking the role of staff in the customer journey to create greater value

The increasing importance of the customer in customer relations leads to a rethinking of their journey and in particular the role of contact employees. Indeed, the generalization of SST processes and the rise in customer skills raise the question of the role of contact employees in the process. Some professions feel threatened as a result: in supermarkets, cashiers fear the development of automatic cash registers. For example, at Auchan, a French supermarket, nearly 2,000 jobs would be in jeopardy⁵. The success of the experiments at Amazon Go⁶ with the installation of “just walk out” portals could lead to the total disappearance of this profession in the long term. While the presence of staff is reduced, the importance of human interaction remains paramount to creating a sustainable customer relationship. The question then arises as to when in the service process tasks should be delegated to the customer and when employees should be present.

To do this, companies must analyze the customer journey and the different steps in terms of value. When does the presence of an employee bring real added value? Two proposals are made here: human presence remains desirable when the task is complex and stressful for the customer, because they have the perception that the solicitation to participate is higher than their current abilities. It is also complex when it involves tasks that are perceived as risky that should be supported by staff. This can of course be supported by technology but not completely replaced.

Therefore, the customer’s great moments of distress regarding an interaction with a robot, a defective technology or a technology unable to respond to a particular problem, also require the use of staff. The contact employees then find it best to troubleshoot and find a solution. There are, therefore, key moments to be detected in the customer journey where the human being takes on its full meaning. For example, when everything is going well, nothing looks more like a mobile phone operator than another operator. On the other hand, when there is a problem (theft, error, malfunction, etc.), it is a unique opportunity for an operator to show their superiority over competitors, and this often requires competent human contact. In other words, consumer 4.0 is changing the role of contact employees: from that of a service provider to all, they become an expert in complex situation management, a savior/handyman, a “MacGyver” of the service.

The way in which the service is delivered and therefore the role of the customer is nowadays strongly impacted by new technologies. However, we are only at the beginning. Managing your environment by talking or looking and by interacting with robots, means that service interactions will be profoundly renewed, transformed for the better (and sometimes for the worse) etc. Let us be clear-headed but positive. This future can be a source of great customer experiences, as long as some fundamentals remain present. The new participations proposed to the customer must be imagined with a permanent question in mind: what is the interest for the customer? What is the benefit of adopting this new process? Then, it is necessary to train the customer in these new roles and to take into account their capacity. Finally, everyone in our opinion must remain in their place. For example, a robot, even if it delivers messages of encouragement, even if it has humorous comebacks, must physically look like a robot and not like a human, thus limiting ambiguity and mistrust. Situations where interactions are embarrassing for the customer with regard to a human (not finding a department in the store, certain hygiene care in the hospital, etc.) may benefit from being carried out by robots without judgment, while in situations requiring real sharing or personalized moral support, the human seems to us much superior when he or she wishes. The magic moments or critical moments of an experience are to be identified and it is here that competent staff can make the real difference.