SERVICE

MANAGEMENT
- ASSIGNMENT ON
CONSUMER DECISION
MAKING PROCESS

By:
Divya Sanjana
R.no: 088514

INTRODUCTION
The action a person takes in purchasing and using products and services, including
the mental and social processes that preceded and follow these actions. The
behavioral science that helps answer questions such as: Why people choose one
product or brand over another , How they make these choices , and how companies
use this knowledge to provide value to their customers.

The decision making process undertaken by consumers with regard to a potential

market transaction before, during, and after the purchase of a product or services.
This is summarised in a diagram given below :

Consumer Buying Behaviour

What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The consumer
buying process is a complex matter as many internal and external factors have an
impact on the buying decisions of the consumer.

When purchasing a product there are several processes, which consumers go

through. They are as follows:

1. Need Recognition & Problem Awareness

A consumer has to recognize his need and should be aware of the problem he is
going through. For instance: If a consumer has to decide whether or not to buy a
particular product or service? It could be that his DVD player stops working and he
now has to look for a new one. So you have a problem or a new need. For high
value items like a DVD player or a car or other low frequency purchased products
this is the process we would take. However, for impulse low frequency purchases
e.g. confectionery the process is different.

2. Information search
Now that the problem area has been recognized i.e. the DVD player no longer
works and he needs to buy a new one. What’s the solution? Yes go out and
purchase a new one, but which brand? Shall he buy the same brand as the one that
blew up? Or stay clear of that? Consumers often go on some form of information
search to help them through their purchase decision. Sources of information could
be family, friends, neighbours who may have the product you have in mind,
alternatively you may ask the sales people, or dealers, or read specialist magazines
like What DVD? to help with their purchase decision. He may even actually
examine the product before he decides to purchase it.

3. Evaluation of different purchase options.

So what DVD player should he purchase? Shall it be Sony, Toshiba or Bush?
Consumers allocate attribute factors to certain products, almost like a point scoring
system which they work out in their mind over which brand to purchase. This
means that consumers know what features from the rivals will benefit them and
they attach different degrees of importance to each attribute. For example: sound
maybe better on the Sony product and picture on the Toshiba, but picture clarity is
more important to the customer than sound.

Consumers usually have some sort of brand preference with companies as they
may have had a good history with a particular brand or their friends may have had
a reliable history with one, but if the decision falls between the Sony DVD or
Toshiba then which one shall it be? It could be that a review the consumer reads on
the particular Toshiba product may have tipped the balance and that they will
purchase that brand.

4. Purchase decision
Through the evaluation process discussed above consumers will reach their final
purchase decision and they reach the final process of going through the purchase
action e.g. The process of going to the shop to buy the product, which for some
consumers can be as just as rewarding as actually purchasing the product. Purchase
of the product can either be through the store, the web, or over the phone.

5. Post Purchase Behaviour

The doubts about the product after you purchase, simply is post purchase
behaviour and research shows that it is a common trait amongst purchasers of
products. Manufacturers of products clearly want recent consumers to feel proud of
their purchase, it is therefore just as important for manufacturers to advertise for
the sake of their recent purchaser so consumers feel comfortable that they own a
product from a strong and reputable organization. This limits post purchase
behaviour. i.e. You feel reassured that you own the latest advertised product.

Consumer Decision Making Process

Case Study: Courier services
Gone are the days of using just the Postal department in India. Today everyone
wants personalised service - pickup and dependable drop off of posts. The
following is an example of a consumer decision making process with regard to
courier services:

Need Recognition:

Recently, my sister has moved to New York permanently. I, now have to courier
her regularly few medicines and some Indian products which are not available in
U.S.A. In order to send these products I had to enquire about the different
international courier services that are available in Hyderabad, which are cost
efficient and reliable.

Information Search:

Now that I had to look into the different international courier services available in
Hyderabad, I had to enquire about it and gather as much information as I could so
that I can avail the best services. In order to research on this I spoke to a few of my
friends who regularly use courier services and also personally enquired about the
different courier charges and the time factor from the courier offices.

Evaluation of different purchase options:

After gathering sufficient information regarding the different courier services, I
came up with a list of courier companies that provide international service. A few
are listed below:

 DHL (BlueDart)
 DTDC
 Indian Postal Services
 Dart Express
 City Courier

From the above I chose to use the services of DHL and Indian Postal Services
which scored the highest in my evaluation. The other courier services did not
provide tracking information, sufficient feedback, dissatisfactory customer service,
were unreliable and a few of them did not provide international service.
Hence I now had a choice between DHL and Indian Postal Services. DHL has been
the pioneer in courier services and provides excellent services to the customer like
tracking information, customer service, reliability, timely delivered but the only
catch for this service is that it is slightly more expensive than Indian Postal
Services. Indian Postal Services is economical and provides the same facilities as
DHL but somewhere it does lack reliability.

Purchase decision:
Reliability being my first requirement I chose to avail the services of DHL. The
best part of dealing with DHL is that it values the customer’s time and tries to
provide as much convenience as possible. To send a courier through DHL I was
only required to make a phone call to their office, within half an hour one of the
DHL agents was at my doorstep ready to pick up the package. This service
provided by DHL is extremely impressive as it saves a lot of time of the customer.

Post Purchase Behaviour:

The experience on dealing with DHL has been very impressive. The courier was
safely delivered within the given time, constantly track able and the entire deal was
transparent without any qualms. The experience was so satisfactory that I ended up
recommending the services of this company to my social circle.

Conclusion
DHL is a Committed, diverse and strong organization that values its customers. All the
achievements made by the organization has been possible because of the teamwork they
believe in - themselves and their company, a team with a winning attitude. The services
provided by them are excellent. It is a highly recommended organization with
guaranteed satisfaction.