Customer self-service platform: the next practice for servitization of manufacturing

Servitization is argued to be a differentiation strategy for manufacturers to achieve a competitive advantage. There are two critical issues to be solved. First, most research focuses on how manufacturers conduct corporate transformation and business process reengineering to adapt the service design and delivery distinction. However, once manufacturers complete the transformation, their added services remain firm-based solutions. Customers primarily await the delivery of the offerings; in addition, their tacit needs are difficult to satisfy. Second, certain scholars have claimed that utilising value co-creation can solve the above problem. However, are customers willing to accept the invitation to create value in combination with manufacturers? How can customers participate in the process? Based on the analysis of the servitization dilemma and of the key successful factors for further development of servitization, the authors discuss that building a customer self-service platform (CSSP) is the path to satisfy customer autonomy desires and utilise their knowledge to maximise customer total value. This utilisation occurs when customers want to voluntarily satisfy their own interests, purposes or goals. Then, five key features of the CSSP are defined. Based on the perspective of the customer's digital engagement, knowledgeable engagement, and social engagement, this paper concludes with a CSSP model.