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Configuring Satisfaction - An Explorative Study of IKEA's Customer Support in Sweden and Great Britain

Mikler, Miranda LU (2025) SIMZ51 20251
Graduate School
Abstract (Swedish)
This thesis examines customer satisfaction within IKEA's support services in Sweden and Great Britain by analyzing customer feedback data. It explores the intersection of anthropology and computational social science, contributing to the growing field of computational anthropology. The study identifies recurring themes in customer comments by employing a mixed-methods approach that combines computational text analysis with Actor-Network Theory (ANT). It examines the themes relationship with satisfaction levels, and communication channels. Topic modeling identifies word patterns in thousands of responses, while ANT provides insights into how interactions among people, technologies, and infrastructures shape customer experiences. The... (More)
This thesis examines customer satisfaction within IKEA's support services in Sweden and Great Britain by analyzing customer feedback data. It explores the intersection of anthropology and computational social science, contributing to the growing field of computational anthropology. The study identifies recurring themes in customer comments by employing a mixed-methods approach that combines computational text analysis with Actor-Network Theory (ANT). It examines the themes relationship with satisfaction levels, and communication channels. Topic modeling identifies word patterns in thousands of responses, while ANT provides insights into how interactions among people, technologies, and infrastructures shape customer experiences. The findings reveal shared and unique concerns across the two countries regarding customer support experiences, including logistics, communication, and agent quality. A key insight that surfaced through the study is that voice interactions are consistently associated with higher satisfaction, particularly regarding service quality topics. In comparison, chat is linked to lower satisfaction for logistics and technical problems. These patterns, alongside observed cross-national differences, highlight that customer satisfaction is shaped by the interplay of human and non-human actants in the service system. This research contributes to computational anthropology by illustrating how large volumes of digital data can be analyzed alongside theoretical frameworks. It offers practical recommendations for IKEA, addressing issues such as digital access barriers and communication gaps to enhance service quality. Ultimately, the study reveals that customer satisfaction is a dynamic process configured through complex interactions, highlighting the networked aspect of customer experiences. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Mikler, Miranda LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMZ51 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Customer Satisfaction, Topic Modeling, Actor-Network Theory (ANT), Computational Anthropology, Customer Support, Human-Technology Interaction
language
English
id
9204395
date added to LUP
2025-06-25 08:50:24
date last changed
2025-06-25 08:50:24
@misc{9204395,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines customer satisfaction within IKEA's support services in Sweden and Great Britain by analyzing customer feedback data. It explores the intersection of anthropology and computational social science, contributing to the growing field of computational anthropology. The study identifies recurring themes in customer comments by employing a mixed-methods approach that combines computational text analysis with Actor-Network Theory (ANT). It examines the themes relationship with satisfaction levels, and communication channels. Topic modeling identifies word patterns in thousands of responses, while ANT provides insights into how interactions among people, technologies, and infrastructures shape customer experiences. The findings reveal shared and unique concerns across the two countries regarding customer support experiences, including logistics, communication, and agent quality. A key insight that surfaced through the study is that voice interactions are consistently associated with higher satisfaction, particularly regarding service quality topics. In comparison, chat is linked to lower satisfaction for logistics and technical problems. These patterns, alongside observed cross-national differences, highlight that customer satisfaction is shaped by the interplay of human and non-human actants in the service system. This research contributes to computational anthropology by illustrating how large volumes of digital data can be analyzed alongside theoretical frameworks. It offers practical recommendations for IKEA, addressing issues such as digital access barriers and communication gaps to enhance service quality. Ultimately, the study reveals that customer satisfaction is a dynamic process configured through complex interactions, highlighting the networked aspect of customer experiences.}},
  author       = {{Mikler, Miranda}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Configuring Satisfaction - An Explorative Study of IKEA's Customer Support in Sweden and Great Britain}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}