Unit II: Topic 1: Consumer

Behaviour for Services

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Teaching Faculty - Ms. Surbhi Pahuja (Asst. Prof.)
 LEARNING
OUTCOME

PO C K Course Outcome
s O Level unit
Descriptio
n

PO CO K3 Consumer Able to examine the criticalities

1 2 Behaviour of Consumer Behavior in Services
in Services and examining potential
measures to Service Quality
 Introduction

Any individual who purchases goods and services

from the market for his/her end-use is called a
consumer. This topic will be helpful to know how
service marketer understand
Nature of consumer behaviour to prepare their

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marketing strategy

Book:

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Christopher Lovelock, Jochen Wirtz and Jayanta

Chatterjee, Service Marketing People, Technology,

Strategy, Pearson, 7e
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Nature of Consumer
Behaviour

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 SEARCH, EXPERIENCE & CREDENCE
PROPERTIES

•SEARCH QUALITIES: attributes that a consumer can

determine before the purchase
•EXPERIENCE QUALITIES:attributes data consumer can
determine only after the purchase
•CREDENCE QUALITIES:attributes that consumer

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mayfind impossible to evaluate even after purchase &
consumption

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•Search attributes: Search attributes are features like style, colour, texture,

taste,

sound etc. Which customers can sample before purchase. For instance, customers

can visit a hotel room, or check out the restaurant menu before deciding to

purchase the service.

•Experience attributes: When attributes of a service cannot be experienced

before a purchase, the customer has to rely on experience attributes. For

instance, a customer can see the menu at a restaurant, buy he/she has to taste the

food and beverages before making a purchase. Some restaurants are able to provide

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customers a free dish which they can sample or experience before taking

the decision to purchase the services of the restaurant.

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•Credence attributes: These attributes of the service cannot be tested even after the

consumption of the service. Hospital surgery. There is no way a patient can know

whether the surgery was done properly. In such cases the customer has no

choice by to rely on the reputation of the surgeon who has performed the

surgery. This makes it imperative for service businesses to enhance the reputation of

their business and rely on the word-of-mouth that customers would spread

once they have experienced uneventful services from the service provider.
 Customer Service
Defined
•Customer service is a series of activities designed to
enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the
feeling that a product or service has met the customer
expectation.
•Logistics plays a vital support role.
•Pre transaction customer service elements (before

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sale) : occur prior to or apart from the sale of
products/services.

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•Transaction elements of customer service (during
sale): occur during order cycle.
•Post transaction customer service elements (after
sale): occur after the product or service has been sold. ›
 Differences among Services Affect Customer
Behavior

•Consumers are rarely involved in the manufacture of

goods but often participate in service creation and
delivery
•Challenge for service marketers is to understand how
customers interact with service operations
•Introduce the aspects of consumer behavior that a

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marketer must understand in five categories of
consumer behavior:

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￭Need recognition
￭Information search
￭Service purchase and consumption
￭Post purchase evaluation

￭Role of culture
Stages in Consumer Decision
Making and
Evaluation of Services

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Categories in Consumer
Decision Making and
Evaluation of Services

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 1. Need
Recognition
•Firstly it is very important to identify the need and
then it has to be analyzed . •Need Can Be
Recognized On The Basis Of routine problem,
planned problem and unplanned problem.
•Need Recognition And Problem Recognition is and

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the same thing.

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 2. Information
Search
•In buying services consumers rely more on personal
sources. WHY?
•Personalinfluencebecomespivotalasproduct complexity
increases
•Word of mouth important in delivery of services
•With service most evaluation follows purchase

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⚬Internet shopping sites such as Amazon.com have
become a common source of information about

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products.
⚬Epinions.com is an example of consumer-generated
review site. The site offers product ratings, buying tips,
and price information.
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 3. Evaluation of
Alternatives
•The next step is to evaluate the various
alternatives available in the market.
•Evaluative criteria are certain characteristics that
are important to you, say for example such as the
price of the backpack, the size, the number of

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compartments, and color.
•An individual after gathering relevant information

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tries
⚬ to choose the best option available as per
his
⚬ need,
Taste
⚬ preferences and
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pocket.
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 4. Purchase and
Consumption
•Service Provision as Drama:-Need to maintain a
desirable impression
•Service “actors” need to perform certain
routines

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•Physical setting important, smell, music, use of
space, temperature, cleanliness, etc

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 5. Post Purchase use and
Evaluation of Product
It may be in the form of two states:-
⚬SATISFIED:- If the customer is satisfied then he/she
will repeat the purchase and will spread positive
word of mouth.
⚬UNSATISFIED:- If the customer is unsatisfied then he/she will

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never purchase the service, will spread
negative word of mouth, go to consumer court.

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