ICT, Multi-channels, and the Changing Line of Visibility: An Empirical Study Mary Tate Beverley G. Hope David Johnstone School of Information Management Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600, Wellington 6015, New Zealand mary.tate@vuw.ac.nz beverley.hope@vuw.ac.nz david.johnstone@vuw.ac.nz Abstract This paper argues that the advent of multi-channel environments, incorporating ICT-mediated channels, necessitates a reinterpretation of the ‘line of visibility’ found in the service quality literature. In a multi-channel environment, inconsistency or service breakdowns above the line of visibility gives a negative impression of organisational competence below the line. Many face-to-face contact points have been replaced by ICT-mediated contact points, and this gives a transparency to the line of visibility, allowing customers to see into the organisation’s back office systems. In this research, two propositions are empirically tested using mystery shoppers. We find that multi-channel customers using a mixture of face-to-face and ICT-mediated channels can gain insights into organisational systems, processes and values that were previously below the line of visibility. This suggests that organisations need to concentrate on consistent quality delivery throughout the organisation, including back-office processes, in order to maintain their customers’ confidence. 1. Introduction It has been said that to the customer, “the encounter is the service” [3], that is, customers form opinions of the service quality delivered by an organisation based on their encounters. Providing quality encounters requires commitment at all levels of the organisation, not only from customer-facing staff. Integrated internal resource systems and processes, supported by appropriate organisational culture and training, are required to provide consistent quality across channels [1] [8] [11]. Each channel in a multi-channel environment provides a point of contact with the organisation, presenting the visible face of the organisation. Collectively, these faces form a line of visibility between the customer and the organisation. A significant trend in channel strategy over recent years has been the provision of automated self- service channels such as interactive voice response (IVR) and Internet channels. These channels allow customers to perform a range of functions such as maintaining personal information, determining product availability, or checking on the status of orders. Servicing these channels often requires organisations to give customers access to information in back-end systems such as customer databases, inventory systems or order tracking systems, thus allowing customers to evaluate systems below the line of visibility. In this paper we explore the impact of multi-channel interactions on the line of visibility and on customer perceptions of quality. We suggest that self-service has made the line of visibility more transparent and that the line can develop cracks caused by inconsistent customer experiences across channels. Customers can now see much more deeply into an organisation’s core infrastructure, systems, processes, and values. This creates new challenges for organisations trying to deliver consistent quality in customer experiences. This rest of this paper is organised as follows. First we review the concept of the line of visibility from the service quality literature and apply it to a research model from the multi-channel e-commerce literature to develop theoretical propositions about the changing line of visibility. We then describe our methodology for testing the propositions with data collected by mystery shoppers operating across multiple channels. Next we qualitatively analyse the data with respect to the theoretical propositions to determine the extent to which they are supported. We conclude with some implications for research and practice and present some final remarks. Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2006 1 0-7695-2507-5/06/$20.00 (C) 2006 IEEE