Betydelsen av mellanmänskliga möten online : En studie om B2C-interaktioner mellan kunder och kundservicepersonal

Sammanfattning: Today's retail consumer market is characterized by global, intense competition. In times of intense competition, long-term customer relationships are described as the key to both profitability and survival, which is achieved by creating value together with customers through mutual dialogue. For e-commerce companies, the opportunities for human contacts and dialogue with customers are very few and are about to be completely absent due to the prevailing trend to implement technical elements in customer service. At the same time, a lot of research points to the fact that there are great values in offering human resources in customer service, but we know quite little about these values in an online context. We also do not know if these values are so important that companies should take them into account in their strategic decisions. Therefore, our study aims to investigate the importance of interpersonal encounters online. The purpose is fulfilled by studying and analyzing interactions in customer service to create an understanding of what values arise and what impact these have on customer relationships. This is done through a qualitative research design, with an exploratory case study of 92 email conversations between customer and customer service online, which have been processed through text analysis and coding according to social resource theory. The results show that customer service encourages different social exchanges with customers, depending on the goal of the interaction. Social exchanges of concrete resources such as money, goods and information are actions that give customers increased convenience and financial value, which strengthens the relationships if the customer is satisfied. Social exchanges of particular resources such as love, status and service form actions that give customers personal experiences and social and emotional value, which provides increased customer satisfaction but also strengthens relationships with customers even more. The exchange that takes place in interpersonal meetings online can be understood as important for developing customer relationships and competitive advantages. This study can be used to guide research in the field of research regarding service encounters and help retailers create sustainable business models and strategies.