Acceptance of Remote Services: Long-Term Adoption of Interactive Services Among Business Customers

Good-manufacturers are trying to differentiate themselves by adding services to their portfolio of tangible goods to become “solution providers” (Tuli et al. 2007). But it is not enough for manufacturers to wrap these services around their products as this may lead only to a temporary advantage. They will have to provide smarter services using the full potential of intelligent technology components inside the products (Allmendiger and Lombreglia 2005). The sophisticated technology employed enables services with a high degree of interactivity (Bolton and Saxena-Iyer 2009) that is about to revolutionize traditional remote repair, diagnostics and maintenance services (Biehl et al. 2004). Although manufacturers aim at selling these high-tech services to customers, the introduction to the market faces acceptance barriers (Biehl et al. 2004). Even if customers make a decision to adopt, this often does not lead to the customers implementing business processes of repeated practice. This step is especially crucial for market success, as increases in customer retention result in increased profitability (Reichheld and Sasser 1990) and manufacturers should aim at signing and renewing service contracts (Bolton et al. 2006).