Dynamics of flexibility in service lexicon for improved customer experience and satisfaction: evidence from public healthcare sector in India

Abstract

Early marketing thoughts were highly descriptive of commodities and inherited manufacturing-based models. Recent studies have advocated for the development of service focus and contribute to the reorientation of marketing by aligning customer processes. The corresponding shift in service strategies has focused on the convergence of the new perspectives to form a new logic for marketing which is based upon co-creation of value and relationships. Furthermore, service providers operate in a rapidly changing environment and need a customer-centric philosophy for value creation. Therefore, a constant reinvention by the service provider in terms of flexibility has become a fundamental premise. Flexibility provides the potential to the firm to adjust in multiple fronts and deliver customized services rapidly. Despite the relevancy of flexibility in modern service business environment, the extant literature doesn’t explicate the dynamics of flexibility and its link with experiential value. .This thesis attempts to understand the dynamics of service flexibility and its link with customer experience and satisfaction in the context of public healthcare system in India. A multi-level case study was conducted in a public healthcare organization to explicate the multi-dimensionality of service flexibility. The qualitative findings proposed a framework of flexibility that assimilates several dimensions and provides a unique classification of service flexibility in terms internal flexibility and market-focused flexibility. The network of flexibility dimensions also explain the constituents of internal flexibility and provides several dimension of market-focused flexibility. The relationships proposed in the framework indicate that the dimensions of market-focused flexibility has a line of visibility with customers regarding adaptations to their changing demand and the consumption of customized services. Likewise, internal flexibility represents the adjustments in service capacity and process mechanisms of providers which influences the genesis of market-focused flexibility. Thus, the framework explains how the phenomena of flexibility across the delivery system amplifies the consumption experience. Further, a survey of healthcare professionals was conducted in public healthcare setting in Indian in order to investigate the relationships depicted in the framework. The results of the structural equation modelling support that internal flexibility as a higher order factor positively influences the dimensions of market-focused flexibility which further impacts on customer satisfaction. The effects of market-focused flexibility on customer satisfaction was also gauged by giving voice to the customers and including customer data into the study. Thus, the findings were also validated through a dyadic sample. The study provides several implications for theory and practice. The study has limitations which also provide avenues for future research.