Technology versus face-to-face interaction
Congratulations to VBS researcher Dr Mary Tate, who has been awarded $298,000 from the Australian Research Council to investigate how people perceive digital services and what factors could optimise their experience.
Digital services have become almost ubiquitous in recent times – whether it's checking in for a flight, doing your banking or applying for a passport, it can usually be done without the need for face-to-face interaction.
But what impact is such technology having on the way organisations interact with their customers or stakeholders, and how could the customer experience of digital services be improved?
A lecturer at Victoria Business School wants to find out, and has won a prestigious grant from the Australian government to research the subject.
Dr Mary Tate, who is a senior lecturer in the School of Information Management, has been awarded $298,000 from the Australian Research Council to investigate how people perceive digital services and what factors could optimise their experience.
"I've long been interested in digital ways of communicating, offering services and generally engaging with stakeholders," Dr Tate explains.
"I want to find out what happens when you put technology into the middle of the relationship between organisations and customers."
Organisations eliminating the need to speak to a real person
She says it's become more common for organisations – be they business or government agencies – to offer self-service of different sorts, which eliminates the need to speak to a real person.
"Increasingly, organisations are pushing customers from a face-to-face interactions into digital or self-service models, sometimes offering no alternatives," says Dr Tate.
"A high proportion of users often struggle with the technology and in the worst cases may be excluded from accessing important services. It can be quite disempowering for people who have less digital know-how or access.
"On the other side of the coin, it also reduces the amount and quality of feedback organisations get – if you aren’t personally dealing with customers, you can’t tell what their experience is like."
Research will be based at Queensland University of Technology
Dr Tate is taking leave from her role at the School of Information Management to conduct the research, and will be based at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane.
"QUT has excellent industry connections, as well as with the Australian government's Department of Human Services (DHS).
"I'll be able to contribute to a project to redesign how the DHS delivers its services, from the ground up. I'm really excited about that opportunity."
Dr Tate says she’ll also being examining what are called predictive and preventative services, for example a system that monitors selected health indicators, or automatically pre-enrols a child in kindergarten or school when their birth is registered.
"I'll be asking whether things like that can – or should – happen without human intervention. Is it better service, or do people feel that’s an invasion of privacy?"
She believes the greatest potential benefits from her research will be the empowerment of people who are currently not fully engaging with technology.
"Groups such as the elderly, people with impairments, or people in remote communities with poor infrastructure may have difficulty accessing or using technology. I'd like to focus on those disenfranchised people to help them use digital services more effectively.
"The point is that technology is everywhere and most organisations are trying to use digital services where they can. The idea is that it will reduce costs and improve services – in an ideal world that can be true but there are also a lot of ways that can go wrong. So I want to look at what we can learn, with the goal of improving it for everyone."