Services Marketing 7e, Global Edition

Chapter 2:
Consumer Behavior
in a Services Context

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Services Marketing 7/e

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Overview Of Chapter 2

Customer Decision Making:

The Three-Stage Model of
Service Consumption

Pre-purchase Stage

Service Encounter Stage

Post-encounter Stage

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Services Marketing 7/e

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Pre-purchase Stage

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Services Marketing 7/e

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Pre-purchase Stage - Overview

Pre-purchase Stage

Service Encounter
Stage

Post-encounter Stage

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Customers seek solutions to

aroused needs

Evaluating a service may be

difficult

Uncertainty about outcomes

Increases perceived risk

What risk reduction strategies can

service suppliers develop?

Understanding customers service

expectations

Components of customer
expectations

Making a service purchase

decision

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Need Arousal
Decision to buy or use a service is triggered by need
arousal
Triggers of need:

Unconscious minds (e.g., personal identity and aspirations)

Physical conditions (e.g., hunger )

External sources (e.g., a service firms marketing activities)

Consumers are then motivated to find a solution for their

need
Courtesy of Masterfile Corporation
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Information Search
Need arousal leads to attempts to find a solution
Evoked set a set of products and brands that a consumer
considers during the decision-making process that is
derived from past experiences or external sources
Alternatives then need to be evaluated before a final
decision is made

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Evaluating Alternatives
Service Attributes
Search attributes help customers evaluate a product before
purchase

E.g., type of food, location, type of restaurant and price

Experience attributes cannot be evaluated before purchase

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

Credence attributes are those that customers find impossible to

evaluate confidently even after purchase and consumption

E.g., hygiene conditions of the kitchen and the healthiness of the

cooking ingredients

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How Product Attributes Affect

Ease of Evaluation
Most Goods

Most Services

Easy
To Evaluate

Difficult
To evaluate
Clothing
Chair
Motor Vehicle
Foods
High In
Search
Attributes

Restaurant Meals

Computer Repair

Lawn Fertilizer

Education

Haircut

Legal Services

Entertainment

Complex Surgery

High In
Experience
Attributes

High In
Credence
Attributes

Source: Adapted from Valarie A. Zeithaml , How Consumer Evaluation Processes Differ Between Goods & Services, in J.H. Donelly and W. R. George, Marketing of
Services (Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1981)
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Perceived Risks of Purchasing and

Using Services
Functionalunsatisfactory performance outcomes
Financial monetary loss, unexpected extra costs
Temporal wasted time, delays leading to problems
Physical personal injury, damage to possessions
Psychological fears and negative emotions
Social how others may think and react
Sensory unwanted impact on any of five senses

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How Might Consumers Handle Perceived

Risk?
Seek information from respected personal sources
Compare service offerings and search for independent
reviews and ratings via the Internet
Relying on a firm with good reputation
Looking for guarantees and warranties
Visiting service facilities or going for trials before purchase
and examining tangible cues or other physical evidence
Asking knowledgeable employees about competing services

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Strategic Responses to Managing

Customer Perceptions of Risk

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Understanding Customers
Service Expectations
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

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Factors Influencing Customer

Expectations of Service

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
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Components of Customer
Expectations

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Purchase Decision
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

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Service Encounter Stage

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Service Encounter Stage - Overview

Pre-purchase Stage

Service encounters range from highto low-contact

Understanding the servuction
system

Service Encounter
Stage

Theater as a metaphor for service

delivery: An integrative perspective
Service facilities
Personnel

Post-encounter Stage

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Role and script theories

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Service Encounter Stage

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

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Moments of Truth

[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 firms representative and the
expectations and behavior of the client which together will create
the service delivery process.
Richard Normann

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Service Encounters Range from

High-Contact to Low-Contact

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Distinctions between High-Contact

and Low-Contact Services

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The Servuction System

Source: Adapted and expanded from an original concept by Eric Langeard and Pierre Eiglier
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The Servuction System:

Service Production and Delivery
Servuction System: visible front stage and invisible
backstage
Service Operations
Technical core where inputs are processed and service elements
created
Contact people
Inanimate environment

Service Delivery
Where final assembly of service elements takes place and service is
delivered
Includes customer interactions with operations and other customers
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Theater as a Metaphor for

Service Delivery

William Shakespeare
As You Like It

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Theatrical Metaphor:
an Integrative Perspective
Good metaphor as service delivery is a series of events that
customers experience as a performance

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Implications of Customer
Participation in Service Delivery
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

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Post-Encounter Stage

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Post-purchaseStage - Overview

Pre-purchase Stage

Evaluation of service
performance

Service Encounter
Stage

Future intentions

Post-encounter Stage

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Customer Satisfaction with

Service Experience
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 (better)

Confirmation (same)

Negative disconfirmation (worse)

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Customer Delight:
Going Beyond Satisfaction
Research shows that delight is a function
ofthreecomponents

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

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Customer Delight:
Going Beyond Satisfaction

Best Practice in Action 2.1:

Turkish Delight: Back-Up
Company Offers Customers
Surprisingly Innovative
Solutions

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Provided excellent customer

service whatever the time
and wherever the place.

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Summary

Pre-purchase
Stage

Service Encounter
Stage

PostencounterStage
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