Customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) among older customers of outdoor recreational services: Implications for well-being

Previous research on older customers’ well-being has not addressed how customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) can improve the well-being for older adults in outdoor recreational services. The objective of this study is to examine this gap in the literature, drawing on a value co-creation approach. Data is collected by in-depth interviews with 26 older customers (+55 years), of two outdoor recreational services in Australia, social dancing and sailing, which involve abundant interaction among customers. The findings identify four general well-being outcomes for older customers of these recreational services that emerge from value co-creation activities held during CCIs: (1) personal growth and learning, (2) sense of mastery and self-confidence, (3) positive relationships with others, and (4) self-acceptance and improved mental health. The findings are useful for managers of recreational services for elderly, government boards, community centers, and public policy makers. Management Implications: Sev­eral man­age­r­ial sug­ges­tions are pro­vided to man­agers of recre­ational ser­vices, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, and gov­ern­ment as­sis­tance pro­grams for older adults. The re­sults sug­gest that out­door recre­ational ser­vices 1. are not only use­ful to the older pop­u­la­tion for leisure pur­poses, but also for im­prov­ing dif­fer­ent di­men­sions of their well-be­ing. 2. should im­ple­ment train­ing pro­grams for their em­ploy­ees to in­crease their aware­ness of how CCIs can im­prove older cus­tomers’ well-be­ing and there­fore en­cour­age and em­power them to en­gage in in­ter­ac­tions with other cus­tomers. 3. should also re­design their ser­vice of­fer­ings for older customers and con­sider gen­er­at­ing in­stances for frequent so­cial in­ter­ac­tions and ac­tiv­i­ties among cus­tomers dur­ing or af­ter the ser­vice pro­vi­sion. 4. are encouraged to pro­mote out­door ac­tiv­i­ties that older adults can do to stay ac­tive while fol­low­ing so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­lines to avoid pro­longed pe­ri­ods of iso­la­tion.