As part of our CSM Spring Seminar Series, Prof Walsh from the Leibniz University Hannover gave a thought-provoking seminar. The title of the presentation was “Moments of truth at the doorstep: How courier service interactions affect key outcomes in online retailing”.

Abstract

Online shopping and the number of deliveries is getting bigger each year. Because a majority of customers still prefer home delivery to other types of delivery, there is a concomitant increase in in-person deliveries. However, there is surprisingly little research on how customers perceive the brief service encounter with the courier (delivery driver) as well as research linking customers’ perception of the delivery-service quality with service outcomes. In his talk, Prof. Walsh (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany) presented research findings that show that courier service quality (as perceived by customers) can impact satisfaction with the courier as well as key online vendor-related service outcomes (e.g., loyalty toward online retailer). He also explained that these effects are contingent on the type of courier customers interact with. Amongst others, the results emphasize the importance for online retailers to establish their own proprietary delivery capacities. Prof. Walsh concluded by pointing out that the courier-customer interaction is one of the areas where there seems to be a blind spot in the services literature.

Guest Speaker Biography

Prof Walsh is Professor of Marketing and Management at the Institute of Marketing and Management at the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. He received his MPhil from Manchester School of Management, UMIST and his PhD and Habilitation degrees from the University of Hannover, Germany. Prof Walsh has published his work in leading journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Service Research, British Journal of Management, and Journal of Business Research, among others.

We would like to thank Prof Walsh for his excellent presentation