Developing a high-quality service experience for service operations that consumers are obliged to engage in

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K18423
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 7:Economics, business administration, and related fields
• Research Institution: Yokohama National University
• Principal Investigator: KURATA HISASHI 横浜国立大学, 大学院国際社会科学研究院, 教授 (20508428)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 田中 正敏 松本大学, 総合経営学部, 教授 (00252883)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: サービス・マネジメント / 顧客満足 / 定型業務 / 数理モデル化 / サービス品質 / 義務的サービス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the case of interpersonal services that consumers are obliged to participate, such as ticketing and fee payment, automation and IT are used to save labor and improve efficiency. However, in reality, there is a fact that the service site can only work smoothly if there is an adequate balance between human services and automated services. In this study, we examined the optimal balance between human services and automated services by focusing on mathematical model analysis. We developed several models, such as an unattended delivery model, an early service start model, an LPWA implementation model, which analyzed various aspects of interpersonal service processes. Then, we explore the win-win solution for simultaneous achievement of customer satisfaction and labor reduction at the service site. Moreover, we presented several findings about related research issues.

Free Research Field

経営学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

学術的意義としてはこれまで余り着目されなかった義務的サービスにおける顧客満足の問題と効率性や生産性の問題を，単なる技術の問題でなくヒトの関与で解決するという今までにない新たな着想で取り組んだ点に学術的新規性があり，今後の発展が期待できる．社会的な意義として，少子高齢化による労働力不足や日本のサービス生産性の低さに対して，機械化やIT化が推奨されているが，単なる技術導入では不十分であり，ヒトと機械の最適な組み合わせが必要であるという事実を考察した点は，顧客満足と効率化の同時実現のために社会貢献ができる．更には日本ならでは新たなサービス（ヒトと機械の融合）を世界に発信することもできる．