Decomposing service conveniences in self-collection

Purpose: Service conveniences (SCs) play a deterministic role in motivating consumers’ participation in self-collection (via attended pickup points or unattended automated locker systems). Accordingly, the SERVCON model provides a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of SCs, whereas the Kano model explains consumers’ satisfaction formation in response to multi-dimensional service attributes. Anchored on synthesised insights of both models, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to qualitatively apply the SC concept to develop specific service attributes of self-collection; and second, to quantitatively examine these attributes in relation to consumers’ satisfaction formation. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative Kano model is adopted for survey questionnaire design and data analysis, and 500 valid responses are obtained from an online panel of respondents in Singapore. Findings: SCs are decomposed into 11 service attributes reflecting access, benefit, transaction and post-benefit conveniences of self-collection services. Distinctive patterns of satisfaction formation are revealed in response to specific service attributes; for example, consumers are most responsive to improvement in transaction convenience. Furthermore, as service performance level increases, benefits of spatial accessibility diminish, whereas those of temporal accessibility increase. Practical implications: This study reveals key service attributes influencing the self-collection services’ convenience and impact on consumers’ satisfaction. Guidelines are presented for designing an optimal resource allocation strategy for logistics service providers to promote self-collection services. Originality/value: This study synthesises diverse logistics literature on self-collection services under the central theme of SCs, thus enriching the conceptual development of SCs with a decomposed framework of logistics service attributes.