Testing a Multi-Channel Service Design Method

Although the multi-channel shopper has recently become a dominant consumer type, firms are still struggling with consciously designing their multi-channel service mix. In this paper, a design method based on QFD (Quality Function Deployment) is introduced and tested for defining eservices that have to function in a multi-channel context. Within a design research perspective, a structured field experiment was conducted, using control group testing. Two measurement instruments were used: questionnaires for business participants (n=62) and a protocol for external observers (n=56) to measure performance of design tasks throughout the process. We found that business teams tend to bias towards the supplier’s perspective at the expense of customers and channel partners. The new method scored significantly better than the control group method on a number of evaluation criteria: customer orientation, channel coherence and communication between different stakeholder perspectives.