A Customer Liberation Manifesto

Customers deserve better service than most service organizations are prepared or willing to provide them. This article describes the historical trends leading relentlessly to liberating service customers. The 21st century is portrayed as the customer century where respecting and trusting customers, serving the unserved and under served, and improving overall service levels become paramount. The implications for customer co-creation are explored. Technology enabled customer co-creation is also examined. Finally, the customer perspective is presented as the appropriate and necessary perspective for the service sector to adopt as customers are liberated or they liberate themselves. Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.