SM-Lec. 4-Consumer Behavior in Services Context, Contd

Services Marketing
Chapter 2:
Consumer Behavior
in a Services Context
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 1
Learning Objectives
Services Marketing
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
 explain the purchase process for services
 describe the three different types of attributes that consumers use to
evaluate products and how they relate to service offerings
 discuss why service characteristics like intangibility affect consumer
evaluation processes
 describe the relationship between customer expectations and customer
satisfaction
 explain the different levels of customer contact and their impact on
service design and delivery
 discuss critical incidents and their implications for customer satisfaction
 understand the elements of the total service system
 describe why service delivery can be viewed as a form of theater
 recognize the potential role of customers as coproducers of services
Pre-purchase Stage - Overview
Services Marketing
Pre-purchase Stage  Customers seek solutions to

aroused needs
 Evaluating a service may be
difficult
 Uncertainty about outcomes
Increases perceived risk
Service Encounter  What risk reduction strategies
Stage can service suppliers develop?
 Understanding customers’
service expectations
 Components of customer
expectations
Post-encounter Stage  Making a service purchase
decision
Understanding Customers’
Service Expectations
Services Marketing
 Customers evaluate service quality by comparing what they expect

against what they perceive
➔ Situational and personal factors also considered
 Expectations of good service vary from one business to another,

and differently positioned service providers in same industry
 Expectations change over time
Factors Influencing Customer
Expectations of Service
Services Marketing
Source: Adapted from Valarie A. Zeithaml, Leonard A. Berry, and A. Parasuraman, “The Nature and Determinants of Customer Expectations of
Service,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 21, no. 1 (1993): 1-12
Components of Customer Expectations
Services Marketing
Desired Service Level

• wished-for level of service quality that customer believes can and should
be delivered
Adequate Service Level

• minimum acceptable level of service
Predicted Service Level

• service level that customer believes firm will actually deliver
Zone of Tolerance
• Acceptable range of variations in service delivery. When service falls
outside this range, customers will react, either positively or negatively.
Purchase Decision
Services Marketing
 Purchase Decision: Possible alternatives are compared and

evaluated, whereby the best option is selected
➔ Simple if perceived risks are low and alternatives are clear
➔ Complex when trade-offs increase
 Trade-offs are often involved
 After making a decision, the consumer moves into the service

encounter stage
Services Marketing
Service Encounter Stage
Service Encounter Stage - Overview
Services Marketing
Pre-purchase Stage ● Service encounters range from high-

to low-contact
● Understanding the servuction

system
Service Encounter ● Theater as a metaphor for service

Stage delivery: An integrative perspective
➔ Service facilities
➔ Personnel
Post-encounter Stage ➔ Role and script theories
Service Encounter Stage
Services Marketing
 Service encounter – a period of time during which a customer

interacts directly with the service provider
➔ Might be brief or extend over a period of time (e.g., a phone call or visit
to the hospital)
 Models and frameworks:

1. “Moments of Truth” – importance of managing touchpoints
2. High/low contact model – extent and nature of contact points
3. Servuction model – variations of interactions
4. Theater metaphor – “staging” service performances
Moments of Truth
Services Marketing
“[W]e could say that the perceived quality is realized at the

moment of truth, when the service provider and the service
customer confront 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 firm’s representative and the
expectations and behavior of the client which together will create
the service delivery process.”
Richard Normann
Service Encounters Range from
High-Contact to Low-Contact
Services Marketing
Distinctions between High-Contact and
Low-Contact Services
Services Marketing
 High-Contact Services  Low-Contact Services

➔ Customers visit service ➔ Little or no physical
facility and remain contact
throughout service ➔ Contact usually at arm’s
delivery length through electronic
➔ Active contact or physical distribution
➔ Includes most people- channels
processing services ➔ Facilitated by new
technologies
The Servuction System
Services Marketing
The service business is
viewed as a system that
integrates marketing,
operations, and customers.
The term servuction system
(combining the terms service
and production) is part of the service organization’s physical environment visible
to and experienced by customers. This model shows all the interactions that
together make up a typical customer experience in a high-contact service.
Customers interact with the service environment, service employees, and even
other customers who are present during the service encounter. Each type of
interaction can create value or destroy value.
The Servuction System:
Service Production and Delivery Services Marketing
 Servuction System: visible front stage and invisible backstage
 Service Operations
➔Technical core where inputs are processed and the elements of the
service product are created
➔Contact people
➔Physical environment
 Service Delivery
➔Where “final assembly” of service elements takes place and service is
delivered to the customer, often in the presence of other customers
➔Includes customer interactions with operations and other customers
Theater as a Metaphor for
Service Delivery
Services Marketing
“All 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
Theatrical Metaphor:
an Integrative Perspective
Services Marketing
Good metaphor as service delivery is a series of events that
customers experience as a performance
Service facilities Personnel

• Stage on which drama • Front stage personnel are
unfolds like members of a cast
• This may change from • Backstage personnel are
one act to another support production team
Roles Scripts
• Like actors, employees • Specifies the sequences
have roles to play and of behavior for customers
behave in specific ways and employees
Implications of Customer Participation
in Service Delivery
Services Marketing
 Greater need for information/training

➔ Help customers to perform well, get desired results
 Customers should be given a realistic service preview in advance of

service delivery
➔ This allows them to have a clear idea of their expected role
and their script in this whole experience
➔ Manages expectations and emotions
Services Marketing
Post-Encounter Stage
Post-purchaseStage - Overview
Services Marketing
Pre-purchase Stage
● Evaluation of service
performance
Service Encounter
Stage ● Future intentions
Post-encounter Stage
During the post-encounter stage, customers evaluate the service

performance they have received and compare it with their prior
expectations.
Customer Satisfaction with
Service Experience
Services Marketing
 Satisfaction: attitude-like judgment following a service purchase or

series of service interactions
➔ Whereby customers have expectations prior to consumption,
observe service performance, compare it to expectations
 Satisfaction judgments are based on this comparison

➔ Positive disconfirmation (service is better than expected)
➔ Confirmation (same; it is as expected)
➔ Negative disconfirmation (service is worse than expected)
Customer Delight:
Going Beyond Satisfaction
Services Marketing
 Research shows that delight is a function of three components

➔ Unexpectedly high levels of performance
➔ Arousal (e.g., surprise, excitement)
➔ Positive affect (e.g., pleasure, joy, or happiness)
 Strategic links exist between customer satisfaction and corporate

performance
➔ By creating more value for customers (increased satisfaction),
the firm creates more value for the owners
Customer Delight:
Going Beyond Satisfaction
Services Marketing
 Best Practice in Action 2.1:

Progressive Insurance Delights
Its Customers
➔ Provided excellent
customer service which
allowed them to lower
costs and also increase
customer satisfaction and
retention
Getting Feedback during Service
Delivery
Services Marketing
 The importance of getting feedback during service

delivery is that when things are going badly for the
customer, there may still be an opportunity to practice
service recovery so that the customer leaves feeling
satisfied.
 Such an outcome improves the likelihood that the

customer will remain loyal.

SM-Lec. 4-Consumer Behavior in Services Context, Contd

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SM-Lec. 4-Consumer Behavior in Services Context, Contd

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Services Marketing

Pre-purchase Stage  Customers seek solutions to

 Customers evaluate service quality by comparing what they expect

 Expectations of good service vary from one business to another,

 Expectations change over time

Desired Service Level

Adequate Service Level

Predicted Service Level

 Purchase Decision: Possible alternatives are compared and

 Trade-offs are often involved

 After making a decision, the consumer moves into the service

Service Encounter Stage

Pre-purchase Stage ● Service encounters range from high-

● Understanding the servuction

Service Encounter ● Theater as a metaphor for service

Post-encounter Stage ➔ Role and script theories

 Service encounter – a period of time during which a customer

 Models and frameworks:

“[W]e could say that the perceived quality is realized at the

 High-Contact Services  Low-Contact Services

 Servuction System: visible front stage and invisible backstage

“All the world’s a stage and all the men

Service facilities Personnel

 Greater need for information/training

 Customers should be given a realistic service preview in advance of

During the post-encounter stage, customers evaluate the service

 Satisfaction: attitude-like judgment following a service purchase or

 Satisfaction judgments are based on this comparison

 Research shows that delight is a function of three components

 Strategic links exist between customer satisfaction and corporate

 Best Practice in Action 2.1:

 The importance of getting feedback during service

 Such an outcome improves the likelihood that the

You might also like