Service encounter thinklets: how to empower service agents to put value co‐creation into practice

Abstract The concept of value co‐creation and the service encounter as locus of this value co‐creation gained much academic interest, notably in marketing research and service sciences. While the current research discourse mainly follows conceptual perspectives, there has been little research on the practical implications on service agents' enabling co‐creation of value in the information technology (IT)‐supported service encounters with clients. In this paper, we seek to bridge this gap and first use the example of IT‐supported citizen advisory services to show the fundamental deficiencies in current service agents regarding the implementation of value co‐creation work practices. We introduce the concept of service encounter thinklets, adapted from collaboration engineering, to overcome these deficiencies and to empower service agents to put value co‐creation into practice. We show how service encounter thinklets can complement existing advisory support measures to enable service agents to transform the IT‐supported customer service encounter into a collaborative work environment, bringing together themselves, customers and supporting information systems to co‐create the advisory's value. A test with employees in a public administration's front office has provided first evidence that service encounter thinklets can effectively empower service agents on the job to adapt their work practices and to bring value co‐creation into practice.