Section E Pratyush Barua | PGP/23/285

REPORT ON CUSTOMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS

One of the products which I have purchased recently is my laptop. Below are few of the factors
that influenced my decision.

Specifications:
I knew that I would be using high end software and huge volume of data would be needed to be
analysed, hence identified the need to look for a laptop with RAM of 4GB or higher. Also, since I
would be using the laptop for up to 2 years minimum, I decided to go for core i5 or higher. Since
I am not into gaming as much, a high-end graphics card was not on my list of priorities. Rest of
the specifications were pretty much similar across all the products.

Brand Image:
For any person who’s buying a laptop or any other electronic goods for that matter, brand of the
product matters a lot. It was the same in my case as well. I didn’t want to buy from a brand that
wasn’t well known even though it offered better specifications and price as it was a new entrant
in the market and was not deemed as reliable compared to established brands like HP, Dell,
Lenovo, Asus etc.

Pricing:
Once I locked up on the specifications and had multiple interchangeable brands in mind, the
next thing to do was to decide on the budget. Keeping all other expenses and prior
commitments in mind I decided to set the upper limit of the budget at Rs.60,000. I found and
listed 3 products across 2 brands that fit my criteria.

Reviews:
We are living in a world where all information that is required by us is at our fingertips. As a
customer I needed to know whether the product I was investing in was worth it. So, I looked up
on the online reviews for the product I was buying and the user ratings in sites like Amazon,
Flipkart, Paytm etc. I read close to 50-100 reviews by previous buyers before deciding on my
final choice.
Also, I saw multiple videos in YouTube of various tech gurus who provide a better insight into
the specifications, design and performance of a product.

Customer Support:
Electronic goods tend to have a lot of issues that can’t be solved without technical support and a
laptop is no different. I knew that I would be working day in day out on my laptop for the next 2
years so it was one of my top buying priorities to buy from a brand that has good customer
support be it online or offline.

Prior Experience:
My previous laptop was from HP. I bought it in the second year of my engineering and had a
very bad experience. The speakers gave out within 1.5 years and the customer support was also
not satisfactory. Even though HP is known for its customer support, since I had a prior
experience which wasn’t good, I decided against buying from HP.