Asymmetries of Service: Interdependence and Synchronicity

On many dimensions, services can be seen to exist along spectra measuring the degree of interaction between customer and agent. For instance, every interaction features some number of contributions by each of those two sides, creating a spectrum of interdependence. Additionally, each interaction is further characterized by the relative pacing of these contributions, implying a spectrum of synchronicity. Where a service falls on such spectra can be a consequence of its design, but it can also be a function of its state. For example, as broadly evidenced empirically, an agent with several concurrent interactions will be slowed in each individual interaction, altering the service’s synchronicity. Here, we study a Hawkes cluster model of the service interaction, which we show captures the interdependence and synchronicity spectra and their resulting customer-agent (a)symmetries. We find insightful connections to behavioral operations, such as proving the occurrence of nonmonotonic performance (e.g., inverted-U throughput) from concurrency-driven asynchrony. Hence, we can prescribe the agent’s optimal concurrency level. Furthermore, we show how the service design dictates the efficacy of these operational improvements, proving that the concurrency-optimized throughput is itself nonmonotonic as a function of the interdependence. Of possible independent interest methodologically, we establish an interpretable temporal decomposition for Hawkes clusters.

Funding: A. Daw was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation [Grant CMMI-2441387]. A. Daw and G. B. Yom-Tov were supported by the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation [Grant 2022095].

Supplemental Material: All supplemental materials, including the code, data, and files required to reproduce the results, are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2024.0843.