Archives of Design Research

Customer value has been one of the critical topics for service innovation research and practice (Woodruff, 1997). Most of value research has focused on conceptualizing the ill-defined value notion (Sánchez-Fernández & Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007; Woodruff, 1997) and identifying different dimensions of customer value (Boztepe, 2007; Smith & Colgate, 2007). These traditional value studies mainly examined different levels of product offerings (i.e., the attributes, consequences/benefits, and basic goals) as an influential factor for the customer value of the offerings. However, they fail to integrate the modern understanding of value that value phenomenologically emerges in customers’ consumption processes (value-in-use) and their contexts (value-in-context) (Gummerus, 2013), which are all related to customer service experience (Vargo & Lusch, 2008). While the distinction between products and services is regarded obsolete (Minkiewicz et al., 2014), it is instead argued that products and services are both consumed as experiences. Therefore, the need for understanding user value in experience has been emphasized (Minkiewicz et al., 2014; Turnbull, 2009).

User value and customer experience have both been considered as complex and debatable concepts for research (Helkkula & Kelleher, 2010). While user value concerns multiple dimensions and categories (Boztepe, 2007; Sánchez-Fernández & Iniesta-Bonillo, 2007; Smith & Colgate, 2007), user experiences are holistic, involving multiple stages of user processes (Shaw & Ivens, 2005; Turnbull, 2009). Whereas there is existing research that explores user value and user experience separately, studies that integrate both concepts, which explore the nature of user value in the holistic user experience are rare (Turnbull, 2009).

In this paper, we draw on the service-dominant, value-in-experience, and phenomenological perspectives on the user value of the public childcare service and investigate it during overall stages of users’ experience processes in their life world. We start with theoretical foundations of service experience and user value and describe a case study.

First of all, experiential elements that acted as triggers for users’ value assessments were identified. They consisted of communication media, word of mouth, service networks, service rule/policy, customer center staff, service registration processes, interactions with the childcarer, users’ short-term life change, physical evidence of care, and users’ long-term life transformation. This result differs from Smith & Colgate’s (2007) product-centered value sources (i.e., information, products, interactions, environment, and ownership), in that it adds communication-related elements (communication media and word of mouth) and processes (service registration processes) as important factors to cause the user value of services. Furthermore, as the experiential value triggers were recognized alongside the users’ holistic service experience stages, it provides insights into how the value triggers shift as users go through different stages of their holistic service experience (Table 3).

Next, different dimensions of user value were identified associated with the defined experiential triggers during the holistic service experience process. Table 4 reports detailed user value belonging to different dimensions and specifies how the value was destroyed (-) or constructed (+) by what qualities of the experiential triggers. The value destruction was related to users’ negative feedback whereas the value construction to their positive response. Before the interaction with the service, most of users felt negative or suspicious about the childcare service due to bad media reports about similar kinds of services. Also, even when users were registered to the service, their value had still remained unrealized until they built trust in their assigned childcarer. However, their value of the service gradually became positive, once they interacted and had a good relationship with the carer.

Overall, the main dimensions related to users’ value construction (i.e., their satisfaction and positive feedback) or value destruction (i.e., dissatisfaction and negative feedback) were functional value, relational value, educational value, social value, and self-esteem value. The functional value was concerned with the utilitarian benefits of the childcare service. Whereas Boztepe’s (2007) utility value is related to the utilitarian consequences and the accomplishment of a behavioral or cognitive task enabled by a product, this study’s functional value includes intangible qualities of the service (e.g., reliability and service availability), as well as process qualities (e.g., convenient registration processes). The relational value was concerned with users’ feeling or perception caused by interpersonal relationships in the childcare service. The educational value was related to the benefits of users’ learnings or their childern’s growth/development. The social value is similar to the social significance value as identified by Boztepe’s (2007) in that both refer to socially oriented advantages. However, whereas Boztepe’s (2007) dimension is achieved through owing or experiencing a product, this study’s one is attained through the short-term and long-term outcomes of using the service. Finally, similar to Holbrook’s (1994) esteem value, the self-esteem value is concerned with users’ benefits in terms of their own dignity, identity and status.

Among the five value dimensions, the dominant ones that emerged across the entire service experience process were affected by the functions of the service and the relational benefits resulting from using and reflecting on the service. In the earlier stages of the service experience process, the functional value was dominant, while during the later stages, the relational value was highlighted. Not surprisingly, the role of childcarers was definitely important in enhancing user value. The childcarers affected the user’s perception of the functional quality of the service (e.g., systematic and professional care systems for children with special needs) as well as the relational quality (e.g., human touch). Thus, the key functions of the public childcare service were embodied and enacted by the human actor’s performance.

Therefore, it can be argued that for value-oriented childcare services, the development of human resources should be prioritized. Particularly, service providers can concentrate on the factors enabling the (+) value experiences as key points for maximizing user value. Training the staff and carers in terms of building their empathy for users and professional skills, knowledge, and competencies is required. Also, enhancing the satisfaction and needs of the staff and carers is required and important, given the delivery actors’ job satisfaction and mindset greatly affect the quality of their interaction and engagement with users (Zeithaml & Bitner, 1996).

Built on the S-D logic, this study considered user value as emerging from the holistic service experience, and explored how different dimensions of user value were constructed in different stages of the holistic user experiences of the public childcare service. The study indicated which dimensions of user value were involved in the childcare service and what experiential triggers concerned user value.

This study’s finding can offer designers and managers an holistic view of users’ experiential value involving the childcare service. The initial experiential user value map that this study proposes has a different benefit from existing service design tools such as customer journey maps and service blueprints, which all chart a flow of event-centric customer experiences along the service process. Although they help designers understand the holistic customer service experience, that understanding alone has a limitation in capturing insights into user value; which elements of the service experience are valued by users and how. Much value literature emphasizes that customer experiences are “not” customer value, but the interpretation or evaluation of them leads to value (Helkkula & Kelleher, 2010; Sandström et al., 2008). Therefore, existing service design research focusing on understanding service experiences may be complemented by the experiential user value map to better achieve the ultimate goal of service innovation, which is the creation of user value (Woodruff, 1997).

Since this study initially explored experiential user value, its finding is specific to the context of the public childcare service in South Korea, selected for this study. There may exist different childcare service models that have different service elements, structures, and processes. Therefore, to build more generalizable theory of the experiential user value of childcare services, multiple case studies with different types of childcare services could be investigated. Also, while this study offers an understanding of user-centered, experiential value formation, there is a need for integrating this knowledge and insights into providers’ value proposition processes in order to contribute to value-oriented service innovation and business.