Services Marketing 7e, Global Edition

Chapter 2:
Consumer Behavior
in a Services Context

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 _verview _ Chapter 2

Customer Decision Making: Pre-purchase Stage

The Three-Stage Model o Service
Consumption

Service Encounter Stage

Post-encounter Stage

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 Pre-purchase Stage

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 Pre-purchase Stage - _verview

m Customers seek solutions to aroused

Pre-purchase Stage needs
m Evaluating a service may be di icult
m Uncertainty about outcomes Increases
perceived risk
m What risk reduction strategies can
Service Encounter Stage service suppliers develop?
m Understanding customers¶ service
expectations
m Components o customer expectations
m Making a service purchase decision

Post-encounter Stage

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  eed Arousal

m Decision to buy or use a service is triggered by need arousal

m Triggers o need:
å Unconscious minds (e.g., personal identity and aspirations)
å Physical conditions (e.g., hunger )
å External sources (e.g., a service irm¶s marketing activities)

m Consumers are then motivated to ind a solution or their need

Courtesy of Masterfile Corporation

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 In ormation Search

m  eed arousal leads to attempts to ind a solution

m Evoked set ± a set o products and brands that a consumer considers during
the decision-making process ± that is derived rom past experiences or
external sources

m Alternatives then need to be evaluated be ore a inal decision is made

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 Evaluating Alternatives ±
Service Attributes

m Search attributes help customers evaluate a product be ore purchase

å E.g., type o ood, location, type o restaurant and price

m Experience attributes cannot be evaluated be ore purchase

å The consumer will not know how much s/he will enjoy the ood, the service, and the
atmosphere until the actual experience

m Credence attributes are those that customers ind impossible to evaluate con idently
even a ter purchase and consumption
å E.g., hygiene conditions o the kitchen and the healthiness o the cooking ingredients

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 wow Product Attributes A ect
Ease o Evaluation

Most Goods Most Services

Easy Di icult
To Evaluate To evaluate

Clothing Restaurant Meals Computer Repair

Chair Lawn Fertilizer Education

Motor Vehicle waircut Legal Services

Foods Entertainment Complex Surgery

wigh In Search wigh In wigh In

Attributes Experience Credence
Attributes Attributes

Source: Adapted rom Valarie A. Zeithaml , ³wow Consumer Evaluation Processes Di er Between Goods & Services,´ in J.w. Donelly and W. R. George, Marketing o Services (Chicago: American
Marketing Association, 1981)
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 Perceived Risks o Purchasing and Using
Services

m Functional±unsatis actory per ormance outcomes

m Financial ± monetary loss, unexpected extra costs

m Temporal ± wasted time, delays leading to problems

m Physical ± personal injury, damage to possessions

m Psychological ± ears and negative emotions

m Social ± how others may think and react

m Sensory ± unwanted impact on any o ive senses

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 wow Might Consumers wandle Perceived Risk?

m Seek in ormation rom respected personal sources

m Compare service o erings and search or independent reviews and ratings via the
Internet

m Relying on a irm with good reputation

m Looking or guarantees and warranties

m Visiting service acilities or going or trials be ore purchase and examining tangible
cues or other physical evidence

m Asking knowledgeable employees about competing services

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 Strategic Responses to Managing Customer
Perceptions o Risk

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 Understanding Customers¶
Service Expectations

m Customers evaluate service quality by comparing what they expect against

what they perceive
å Situational and personal actors also considered

m Expectations o good service vary rom one business to another, and

di erently positioned service providers in same industry

m Expectations change over time

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 Factors In luencing Customer Expectations o Service

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 Components o Customer Expectations

Desired Service Level

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Adequate Service Level

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 Purchase Decision

m Purchase Decision: Possible alternatives are compared and evaluated,

whereby the best option is selected
å Simple i perceived risks are low and alternatives are clear
å Complex when trade-o s increase

m Trade-o s are o ten involved

m A ter making a decision, the consumer moves into the service encounter stage

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 Service Encounter Stage

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 Service Encounter Stage - _verview

Pre-purchase Stage ? Service encounters range rom high- to low-

contact

? Understanding the servuction system

? Theater as a metaphor or service delivery:

Service Encounter Stage An integrative perspective

å Service acilities

å Personnel

å Role and script theories

Post-encounter Stage

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 Service Encounter Stage

m Service encounter ± a period o time during which a customer interacts directly

with the service provider
å Might be brie or extend over a period o time (e.g., a phone call or visit to the hospital)

m Models and rameworks:

1. ³Moments o Truth´ ± importance o managing touchpoints
2. wigh/low contact model ± extent and nature o contact points
3. Servuction model ± variations o interactions
4. Theater metaphor ± ³staging´ service per ormances

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 Moments o Truth

³[W]e could say that the perceived quality is realized at the moment o truth,
when the service provider and the service customer con ront one another in the
arena. At that moment they are very much on their own« It is the skill, the
motivation, and the tools employed by the irm¶s representative and the
expectations and behavior o the client which together will create the service
delivery process.´

Richard  ormann

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 Service Encounters Range rom
wigh-Contact to Low-Contact

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 Distinctions between wigh-Contact and Low-
Contact Services

m wigh-Contact Services å Little or no physical contact

å Customers visit service acility and å Contact usually at arm¶s length
remain throughout service delivery through electronic or physical
distribution channels
å Active contact
å Facilitated by new technologies
å Includes most people-processing
services

m Low-Contact Services
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 The Servuction System

Source: Adapted and expanded rom an original concept by Eric Langeard and Pierre Eiglier

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 The Servuction System:
Service Production and Delivery

m Servuction System: visible ront stage and invisible backstage

m Service _perations
å Technical core where inputs are processed and service elements created
å Contact people
å Inanimate environment

m Service Delivery
å Where ³ inal assembly´ o service elements takes place and service is delivered
å Includes customer interactions with operations and other customers

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 Theater as a Metaphor or
Service Delivery

³All the world¶s a stage and all the men and

women merely players. They have their exits
and their entrances and each man in his time
plays many parts.´

William Shakespeare
As You Like It

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 Theatrical Metaphor:
an Integrative Perspective

Good metaphor as service delivery is a series o events that customers

experience as a per ormance

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 Implications o Customer Participation in
Service Delivery

m Greater need or in ormation/training

å welp customers to per orm well, get desired results

m Customers should be given a realistic service preview in advance o service

delivery
å This allows them to have a clear idea o their expected role and their script in this whole
experience
å Manages expectations and emotions

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 Post-Encounter Stage

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 Post-purchaseStage - _verview

Pre-purchase Stage

' Evaluation o service

per ormance
Service Encounter Stage
' Future intentions

Post-encounter Stage

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 Customer Satis action with
Service Experience

m Satis action: attitude-like judgment ollowing a service purchase or series o

service interactions
å Whereby customers have expectations prior to consumption, observe service
per ormance, compare it to expectations

m Satis action judgments are based on this comparison

å Positive discon irmation (better)
å Con irmation (same)
å  egative discon irmation (worse)

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 Customer Delight:
Going Beyond Satis action

m Research shows that delight is a unction o threecomponents

å Unexpectedly high levels o per ormance
å Arousal (e.g., surprise, excitement)
å Positive a ect (e.g., pleasure, joy, or happiness)

m Strategic links exist between customer satis action and corporate per ormance
å By creating more value or customers (increased satis action), the irm creates more
value or the owners

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 Customer Delight:
Going Beyond Satis action

m Best Practice in Action 2.1: Turkish

Delight: Back-Up Company _ ers
Customers Surprisingly Innovative
Solutions

å Provided excellent customer service

whatever the time and wherever the
place.

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 Summary

> Key Steps marketers should reduce with some strategic

Pre-purchase Stage
1.  eed arousal responses
2. In ormation search
3. Evaluation o alternative solutions > Zone o tolerance: Adequate to desired.
4. Purchase decision Dissatis action i service level alls below
adequate level.

> Customers ace perceived risks which

> Moments o Truth: importance o e ectively > Servuction model ± variations o interactions
Service Encounter managing touchpoints
Stage > Theater metaphor ± ³staging´ service
> wigh/low contact service model ± per ormances
understanding the extent and nature o
contact points

> In evaluating service per ormance, > Unexpectedly high levels o per ormance,
Post-encounterStage customers can have expectations positively arousal, and positive a ect are likely to
discon irmed, con irmed, or negatively lead to delight
discon irmed

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