Consumer’s Persistence in Solving their own Problem with Self-Service Technology

An increasing range of technology services are now offered on a self-service basis. However, problems with self-service technologies (SSTs) occur at times, even for the best service providers due to the technical error, staff error, or consumers’ own mistakes. Considering the role of consumers as co-producers and the increasingly frequent situation where service staff are not immediately available to recover the SST failure, we aim to study consumer’s behaviours and strategies in solving their problem with SST and identify the factors contributing to their persistence in solving the problem. A focus group with user support staff has been conducted, yielding some initial results that help us to conduct the next phases of the study. Next, using Critical Incident Technique, data will be gathered through focus groups with users and think-aloud method while observing users trying to solve their problem with SSTs