Week 2
Understanding
Service Consumers
MKT 424E: Services Marketing Course
College of Management and Technology (Heliopolis Campus)
Instructor: Dr. Omayma Ouf
Semester: Spring 2025
The Practice of Advertising
Three-Stage Model of Service
Consumption
Prepurchase Stage
Service Encounter
Stage
Post-Encounter Stage
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Prepurchase Stage
Prepurchase Stage
• Customers seek solutions to
Prepurchase Stage
aroused needs
• Evaluating a service may be
difficult
• Understanding customers’
service expectations
Service Encounter • Components of customer
Stage
expectations
• Making a service purchase
decision
Post-Encounter Stage
5
Prepurchase Stage (cont’d)
1. Need awareness.
2. Information search.
3. Evaluation of alternative services.
4. Purchase decision.
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1. Need Awareness
• People buy goods and services to meet specific
needs/wants.
• External sources may stimulate the awareness of a
need.
• Companies may seek opportunities by monitoring
consumer attitudes and behavior.
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2. Information Search
• Customers search for solutions to satisfy need.
• Evoked set are all the alternatives that come to
mind from past experience or external sources such
as media and some may not be suitable.
• Consideration set are all the alternatives that the
customer is considering.
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3. Evaluation of Alternative Services
Multi-Attribute Model
• The model emphasized that consumers use service
attributes to evaluate and choose services according to
weights.
• Weights are given according to priorities of consumer.
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3. Evaluation of Alternative Services
Service Attributes
• Search attributes help customers evaluate a product
before purchase and are usually tangible
• Style, color, texture, taste, sound eg golf club –
restaurant appearance
• Experience attributes cannot be evaluated before
purchase—must “experience” product to know it
• Vacations, sporting events, medical procedures
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3. Evaluation of Alternative Services
Service Attributes (cont’d)
• Credence attributes are product characteristics that
customers find impossible to evaluate confidently even
after purchase and consumption
• Quality of repair and maintenance work of car
• Surgery
• Hygiene in restaurant
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3. Evaluation of Alternative Services
Service Expectations
• Customers evaluate service quality by comparing what
they expect against what they perceive they have
received (service experience).
• Expectations of good service vary from one business to
another, and among differently positioned service
providers in the same industry. Ex Airline- low cost
provider should have different service from that of a
complete service airline.
• Expectations change over time depending on innovation,
price, advertisement. 12
3. Evaluation of Alternative Services
Factors Affecting Service Expectations
Explicit & Implicit
Personal Needs Service Promises
Word-of-Mouth
Desired Service
Past Experience
Beliefs about
What Is Possible(
wrt personal needs) ZONE
OF
TOLERANCE
Perceived Service
Alterations (Based
on past experience)
Adequate Service Predicted Service
Situational Factors
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3. Evaluation of Alternative Services
Factors Affecting Service Expectations
• 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: (most important in choice)
• Service level that customer believes firm will actually deliver
• Zone of Tolerance:
• Range within which customers are willing to accept
variations in service delivery 14
4. Purchase Decision
• Consumers choose the most convenient choice
based on the multi-attribute model and perceived
risks.
• Some choices are easy to make others need
detailed comparison.
• Companies need to clarify important attributes and
reassure consumers about main risks.
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Service Encounter
Stage “Moment of
Truth”
Service Encounter
▪ Service encounters range from
Prepurchase Stage high- to low-contact
▪ Understanding the servuction
system
▪ Service marketing systems: high-
contact and low-contact
Service Encounter Stage ▪ Role and script theories
▪ Theater as a metaphor for service
delivery: An integrative
perspective
▪ Implications for customer
participation in service creation
Post-Encounter Stage and delivery
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Service Encounter
Range form High Contact to Low Contact
• High-Contact Services
• Customers visit service facility and remain throughout service
delivery (hotel – haircut – airline)
• Active contact between customers and service personnel
• Includes most people-processing services
• Low-Contact Services
• Little or no physical contact with service personnel
• Contact usually at arm’s length through electronic or physical
distribution channels
• New technologies (e.g. the Web) help reduce contact levels
(insurance – internet banking)
• Medium-Contact Services Lie in between These Two (dry
cleaning – movie theater – telephone banking – car repair) 18
Service Encounter
The Servuction System
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Theater As A Metaphor
For Service Delivery
• Service dramas unfold on a “stage”—settings may change as
performance unfolds
• Many service dramas are tightly scripted, others improvised
• Service facilities and environment are parts of the stage of the
theater
• Front-stage personnel are like members of a cast
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Theater As A Metaphor
For Service Delivery
• Like actors, employees have roles, may wear special costumes,
speak required lines, behave in specific ways
• Support comes from a backstage production team.
• Customers are the audience—depending on type of
performance, may be passive or active participants
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Post-Encounter
Stage
Customer Satisfaction
• Satisfaction defined as attitude-like judgment following a service
purchase.
• Customers have expectations prior to consumption, observe
service performance, compare it to expectations
• Satisfaction reflects the result of the comparison conducted
during and after purchase between the service performance and
the expected service.
• Research shows links between customer satisfaction and a firm’s
financial performance
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The Expectancy-Disconfirmation
Model of Satisfaction
Positive or
Negative
Disconfirmation
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Customer Satisfaction
• Satisfaction judgments are based on this comparison
• Positive disconfirmation if better than expected
• Confirmation if same as expected
• Negative disconfirmation if worse than expected
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Service Quality
• Service quality as a high standard of performance that
consistently meets or exceeds customer expectations.
• Consistency is the key word.
• Satisfaction is based on a single encounter while service
quality implies that the service level is consistent across all
or most transactions.
• Repeat purchase are based on service quality and not a single
transaction satisfaction.
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Service Quality (cont’d)
• Service quality dimensions include:
• Tangibles (appearance of physical elements)
• Reliability (dependable and accurate performance)
• Responsiveness (promptness and helpfulness)
• Assurance (credibility, security, competence and courtesy)
• Empathy (easy access, good communication, and customer
understanding)
• SERVQUAL Survey is a common tool to measure service quality.
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Customer Loyalty
• Loyalty is the customer’s willingness to continue making
purchases from a certain company over the long term.
• Defection is the opposite of loyalty and indicates problems in
service quality.
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Next Week
Developing
Service Products
and Brands