Factors Influencing Customer Expectations of Services

FACTORS INFLUENCING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS OF SERVICES

• Sources of desired service expectations (desired services Zone of tolerance adequate service)

1.     Personal needs

2.     Enduring service intensifiers - desired service expectations

•      Sources of Adequate service expectations

1. Transitory service intensifiers (urgent need-small purchase, doctors etc)

2. Perceived service alternatives (booking of tickets)

3. Customer‘s self perceived service roles (food service in hotel)

4. Situational factors (petrol bank, food served for marriage)

5. Predicted services (give quality service rather than predicted service)

•      Sources of both desired and predicted service expectations

1. Explicit services promises (ad -we promises to customers)

2. Implicit service promises (two company charges diff. prices)

3. Word-of-mouth communication

4.                 Past experience (previous exposure to the focal firm‘s service )

•      Managing customer expectations

•      During pre-purchase phase

1. Learn what customers expect

2. Tell customers what they can expect

3. Consistently provide the service that customers expect.

•      During the service encounter

•      During the post-purchase phase

CUSTOMER PROFILE

•      A good method of identifying and understanding customers is to develop customer profile.

•      This approach is similar to that used in market segmentation.

•      The marketers creates some basis for dividing the various customer groups.

•      The marketer then develops a typical customer profile which helps to analyze and understand consumer behavior.