Operational Strategy
Voss et al. (2008) advocated that businesses that want to be experience-oriented need to embed and integrate the customer experience concept into their service delivery processes. From this point of view, the service operation strategy refers to the integrated processes through which a business can accommodate various resources (e.g., human resources, technology, etc.) by delivering the right offerings to the right customers at the right time (Roth & Menor, 2003). Subsequently, this enables the business to furnish customer experiences at various touchpoints in a coherent manner.
Voss et al. (2008) provided an Experience Strategy Framework that identifies four service experience strategies, including stage-ware (bricks and mortar or services-cape), org-ware (infrastructural management systems and policies), customer-ware (customer touchpoints) and link-ware (coordination, integration, and adaptation of systems and processes), as depicted in Figure 1. Implementing the service experience strategies is then regarded as actualizing the operational strategy choices to shape the total customer experience at various touchpoints to evoke an emotional response in the customer, which would ideally result in a purchase, loyalty, and other engagement behaviors.
Figure 1. Framework of service operational strategy choices
Connecting to the business reinvention methodology dimensions (Figure 1), the design of the service operations can also incorporate additional digital operants to facilitate service value delivery (as depicted in Figure 2), in addition to providing digital businesses with empowerment strategies for ecosystem flexibility and high-value fulfillment. In particular, the link-ware needs to take charge of such digital operants for proper coordination, integration, and adaptation of systems and processes.
Figure 2. Digital operants deployed to facilitate the operations of service value delivery and capture