Increased understanding of service experiences through involving users in service development

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to bring better understanding to how involving users in the development process of new mobile phone services can increase understanding of the overall service experience in a technology-based service setting. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on an experimental setting which aims to emulate the involvement of users in a service development process in order to provide information regarding the overall service experience. This is done by letting users evaluate both user- and company-created services. Findings - Users are found to be an important information source when it comes to understanding the overall service experience of technology-based services. The paper shows that users are to some extent better at coming up with services regarding value in use. The findings show that some of the most important experience outcomes that are demanded, functionally related outcomes, are better met by user-created services. Research limitations/implications - The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of a user perspective when it comes to understanding both the functional and emotional parts of the overall technology-based service experience. The result of this paper implies a more advanced user focus during service development in order to be able to know what it is that creates value for technology-based service users. Just how technology-based services are functionally and emotionally experienced by their users is a fairly new research area and more empirical studies regarding this subject will be called for in the future. Originality/value - This paper provides evidence of the importance of a user perspective when creating value propositions for technology-based service users. From a managerial point of view, it is of interest to see whether it will be possible to learn more about the users' service experience of technology-based services by involving them in the development process.