Self-Services - Do Not Leave Your Customers Alone with the Technology

New arising technologies change the modes of interaction between companies and their customers. So-called self-service technologies (SSTs) allow integrating customers as active participants into companies’ business processes and thereby are expected to generate not only more efficient processes but also positive effects on customer satisfaction. As some customers do not consider their integration as an improvement and others are not able to use the SSTs, companies have to provide personal support offering direct response, assurance and social interaction. As for many companies the corresponding economic effects remain unclear, the aim of this paper is to develop a quantitative decision model that allows to decide on the integration of customers in business processes while considering of the necessary customer support on an economically well-grounded basis. To demonstrate the applicability of the model and its practical utility, we conduct a case study.