PROFESSIONAL SERVICES REDESIGN: A CHALLENGE TO NEW SERVICE DEVELOPMENT MODELS

摘要

Service industry researchers argue that one of the core competences for a successful service company consists in its ability to change, innovate and incorporate new technologies in its production process. Most of the studies developed in theses areas are focused mainly in mass service or service-shop industries. It is not very well discussed that some of the NSD challenges are related to the difficulty to anticipate and incorporate in the NSD process and in the new service's specifications the influences of its own characteristics: intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability. For instance, the users' role as co-producer of service process can result in additional variability and unpredictability of demands and tasks that may affect significantly the delivery process; front-line personnel may be empowered to change some services' specification to achieve specific client's need. This paper aims to discuss how a new professional service can be affected by its own characteristics and it reveals the main obstacles that hinder the redesign of professional services.