All staff need to be trained to support a customer s sense of uninterrupted service and importance to the firm. This is the place within a service firm where organizational innovations are most promising but most often overlooked. The ease with which this interaction is handled is often referred to as internal service quality . Train customers to participate appropriately Often customers must themselves play a role as co-producers or unpaid staff for the service to be delivered. This requires them to learn their role and execute it properly.
Firms often overlook the customer s role.
An increasing number of services firms solicit customer input on what would make a new service or service delivery process most attractive to them. Once the service is being delivered, both customer and staff roles may vary. If the design is for self-service, then customers will be taking the lead production role. When services firms introduce an innovation, the customer s role may need to change. This raises issues about whether or not customers want to take on the effort of learning a new role.