Exploring the Relationship between Service Process Planning and Customer Experience -From the Perspective of Service Provider in Taiwan Tourism Factories

Abstract

With the global economic change, Taiwan’s government has developed a unique creative living industry. Because of the change of national’s tourism habits, tourism factories have been thriving in the past ten years. The government hopes that tourism factory can provide the service with education and entertainment to give customers a good experience, and creates more jobs to improve unemployment. Although the overall economic benefit of the tourism factory is positive, there are still some problems appearing, such as the content of service is different. Many scholars put forward relevant issues and provide solutions, but much research was based on views of customers or managers, rarely from the perspective of service providers.

The study used the methodology of qualitative research, collected the data from interviews and participant observations, and analyzed the data with design tools. The cases are Taiwan Printing Discovery Center, and Taiwan Miso Cultural Center, both of them are in Taichung City. Their managers and service providers in the service process and customers visiting the site were chosen as interviewees. This study explores the relationship between service process(Guided tour and DIY) planning and customer experience by understanding managers’ planning, customers’ feeling, and the work experience of service providers, and then provide improvement direction of service process and service provider management. At the same time, this study added the perspective of service providers, hoping to find the importance of service providers in the service.

The results indicated that those who affect the development of service design include managers, customers, service providers and government. From two cases, we can see the importance of managers’ cognition and attitude towards service, and the influence of customer experience on service design. The government’s policies affect the way of funds used by tourism factories, and indirectly affect the development of services. The number and stability of service providers have also been confirmed that will affect the service development of the tourism factory. The well-trained service providers can make up for the lack of service, and their working experience has a great help to improve the service. At the same time, the attitude of service providers will also affect customers’ experience in service. Managers should look at the importance of service providers because through this study it is found that tourism factory’s services focus on human and human contact. Customer experience in service is closely related to service providers’ experience, and tourism factories should manage the service providers more carefully in order to achieve the highest quality of service.