Services Marketing

Chapter 3 : Consumer Behavior

Differences Between Characteristics Of Goods and Services

Search Qualities
Experience Qualities
Credence Qualities

Consumer Decision-Making Process

Need Perception
Search for Information and Perceived Risk
Evaluation of Alternatives
Purchase Behavior
Post-Purchase Evaluation

External Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior
Implications For Service Providers

Chapter Summary

The intangibility property of services makes it difficult for customers to search for information, make a purchase decision, or even evaluate the service experience. This is due to the presence of more experience and credence qualities than search qualities in services. Hence, service providers need to deliver value added services to their customers to provide them a superior service experience.

Decision-making is involved in every purchase decision, whether it is to purchase a product or a service. The decision making process in the purchase of a service involves various steps such as need perception, search for information and the perceived risk, evaluation of the generated alternatives, the purchase decision and the post-purchase evaluation.

Further, the decision making process of the customer is influenced by external factors like his family, culture, subculture, reference groups and the social class to which he belongs. Marketers are innovating several ways to make service experiences memorable for the customer.

They are also trying to retain old customers since this is more profitable to the company than attracting new customers. Observing buyer behavior patterns helps marketers to target customers in a better way. The technological advances and globalization of economy make it possible for service providers to design new ways of providing their services.

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