Creating Do‐It‐Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies

Citation

Lukosius, V. (2007), "Creating Do‐It‐Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 322-322. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760710773148

The “do‐it‐yourself customers” concept is not new and it has been approached by businesses worldwide. Business areas where this concept has been successfully applied are too numerous to list and include airlines with online check‐in, ATM machines, self‐checkout registers in grocery stores, furniture assembly operations at home. These all involve consumer participation in the final product/service creation. But can there be a systematic approach or framework that would fit most companies desiring to create a positive and participatory consumer experience? Dr Peter Honebein and Roy Cammarano suggest that “coproduction experiences come about by design, and not by default” (p. 229). This book is all about designing better coproduction systems that create positive experiences for all involved parties.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of do‐it‐yourself customers through two basic ideas. First, consumer involvement, which can range from the lowest, emotional and physical levels, to the highest, codesign and cocreation levels, is necessary to create coproduction experience. Second, managers should look at consumers not just as customers but rather as employees and ambassadors.

Chapter 2 opens the stage for the coproduction experience model, “which illustrates the orchestration of four specific factors that contribute to consumers' overall performance” (p. 33). This is not be confused with the coproduction experience process, “which leverages the ideas behind the model into fluid roadmap” (p. 24). Subsequent chapters rely heavily on the coproduction experience process: in the beginning of each chapter the reader is presented with a one‐page diagram of the process and “you are here” sign.

Chapter 3 takes the reader back to the front row seating in psychology 101: do you remember conditioning, social learning and cognitive psychology? Such converging principles are neatly tied in with the coproduction experience model through empirical evidence, from energy conservation studies in Holland all the way to motivating those in weight‐loss programs.

Chapter 4 is interesting in presenting how data mining principles from marketing research are applied to extract customer value. By applying this research methodology, the reader should be able to answer three crucial questions: are the services/products delivered by your company intended to help customers achieve specific goal? How can a company close the gap between expected experience and anticipated customer experience? How can we change customer's experience with innovative solutions?

Chapters 5 through 8 comprise four building blocks of coproduction experience design: vision, access, incentive, and expertise. Vision “enables customers to know what they are trying to achieve” (p. 113). Access is “a force that provides customers the tools and resources they need to perform” (p. 140). Incentives “encourage customers to perform in a way they might otherwise not” (p. 167). Expertise is “the knowledge and skill customers possess to accomplish product‐related task” (p. 195). In short, this is the heart of the book and these chapters should not be skimmed!

Chapter 9 serves two purposes. First, it explains how various sources of information, such as employees, competitors, third‐party media, etc., “are known to influence the good and bad within customers” (p. 200). Each source of information has varying levels of uncontrollability and, therefore, the second purpose is to provide few principles that are likely to put the company back in the drivers' seat.

Lastly, chapter 10 looks at the coproduction experience from top management's perspective. To enhance this experience, every business must shift focus from tactic to strategic initiative by overcoming resistance from within. Hopefully, suggested principles will help companies to become coproduction revolutionaries.

This is an interesting book and is worth reading for several reasons. First, it synthesizes a wealth of principles and relationships pertaining to coproduction experience in a simple, easy to understand, and concise model. Second, its practical and managerially‐oriented approach will appeal to middle and top management. Third, numerous cases, examples, and stories were carefully chosen and nicely placed throughout the book to facilitate better understanding of the model.

Creating Do‐It‐Yourself Customers is likely to be benefit managers who wish to create competitive advantage through coproduction of experiences with their customers. This book is “industry independent”: principles should work equally well for those managing small local banks or selling model airplanes. Those of you teaching graduate marketing courses might include this text as an optional reading (especially for services marketing classes).