Customer-to-Customer Interaction (CCI) Through the Lens of Social Diversity

The notion that customers interact with one other in many services is increasingly recognised, as is the potential impact of such customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) on the customer experience. This is a conceptual paper, based on an initial narrative literature review, which explores CCI research through the lens of social diversity. This working paper looks back at several decades of CCI research and discusses a number of contributions which have contained a social diversity perspective. Building on this selection of literature, the paper also looks forward and identifies a number of research directions for CCI which could build on this social diversity tradition. The paper represents the preliminary stage of a much larger piece of research which will conduct a comprehensive narrative literature review on this topic. Given that some CCI research findings suggest that the social diversity of customers can contribute to CCI tensions, it seems important that service managers develop a sound understanding of this issue. They also need to find ways of embracing cultural diversity and of breaking down the CCI tensions originating from social diversity.