Services Marketing 7e, Global Edition
Chapter 2:
Consumer Behavior
in a Services Context
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 1
Overview Of Chapter 2
Customer Decision Making: Pre-purchase Stage
The Three-Stage Model of
Service Consumption
Service Encounter Stage
Post-encounter Stage
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 2
Definition : Consumer Behavior
Consumer Behavior :
Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or
organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and
dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy
needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer
and society.
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 3
Pre-purchase Stage
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Pre-purchase Stage - Overview
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
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The pre- purchase process of
consumers in services
Evaluation of predicted
Need
quality performance Service Expectations
Information
Arousal
Search Evaluation of alternatives
Knowledge
Internal External Purchase Decision
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Need Arousal
Decision to buy or use a service is triggered (caused) by
need arousal
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(suggested) 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
High in Search Attributes(quality) help customers evaluate a
product before purchase
E.g., type of food, location, type of restaurant and price
High in Experience Attributes cannot be evaluated before
purchase
The consumer will not know how much she/he will enjoy the food,
the service, and the atmosphere until the actual experience
High in Credence Attributes are those that customers find
impossible to evaluate confidently even after purchase and
consumption
E.g., hygiene(cleanliness) conditions of the kitchen and the
healthiness of the cooking ingredients (elements)
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 9
How Product Attributes Affect
Ease of Evaluation
Most Goods Most Services
Easy Difficult
To Evaluate To evaluate
Clothing Restaurant Meals Computer Repair
Chair Lawn Fertilizer Education
Motor Vehicle Haircut Legal Services
Foods Entertainment Complex Surgery
High In High In High In
Search Experience Credence
Attributes Attributes 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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Components of Customer
Expectations
Desired Service Level
• wished-for level of service quality that customer believes can and should be
delivered
Adequate(acceptable) Service Level
• minimum acceptable level of service without being dissatisfaction
Predicted Service Level
• service level that customer believes firm will actually deliver
Zone of Tolerance
• Acceptable range of variations in service delivery. “The zone of tolerance is
usually defined as the range of customer perceptions of a service between
desired and minimum acceptable standards ( Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman,
1993 ).
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Purchase Decision
Purchase Decision: Possible alternatives are compared and
evaluated, whereby the best option is selected
Simple if perceived(suppose) risks are low and alternatives are
clear
Complex when trade-offs increase
Trade- offs are often involved: “A balance achieved between two desirable but
incompatible features”; a compromise.
After making a decision, the consumer moves into the service encounter stage
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 12
Service Encounter Stage
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Service Encounter Stage - Overview
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
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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
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 (symbol) – “staging” service performances
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Moments of Truth
“We 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(ground, stadium). 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
Web Define: A time when a person or thing is tested, a decision has to be
made, or a crisis has to be faced.
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Moments of Truth :
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Distinctions between High-Contact
and Low-Contact Services
High-Contact Services Low-Contact Services
Customers visit service Little or no physical contact
facility and remain Contact usually at arm’s
throughout service delivery length through electronic or
Active contact physical distribution
Includes most people- channels
processing services Facilitated by new
technologies
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Service Encounters Range from
High-Contact to Low-Contact
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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
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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The Servuction System
Source: Adapted and expanded from an original concept by Eric Langeard and Pierre Eiglier
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Theater(Hall) as a Metaphor(symbol)
for Service Delivery
“All the world’s a stage and all the men
and women only players. They have
their exits and their entrances and each
man in his time plays many parts.”
William Shakespeare
As You Like It
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Theatrical Metaphor:
an Integrative Perspective
Good metaphor(symbol) as service delivery is a series of
events that customers experience as a performance
Service facilities Personnel (staff)
• Stage on which drama • Front stage personnel are
unfolds(explain) 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
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Implications(not expressed) 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
Slide © 2010 by Lovelock & Wirtz Services Marketing 7/e Chapter 2 – Page 24
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 the below comparison
Positive disconfirmation: (if the service is better than expected)
Confirmation : (if it is as expected)
Negative disconfirmation : ( If it is worse than expectation)
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Customer Delight(enjoyment):
Going Beyond Satisfaction
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
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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
Provided excellent customer
service whatever the time
and wherever the place.
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Summary
• Key Steps • Customers face perceived risks
1. Need arousal which marketers should reduce
Pre-purchase 2. Information search with some strategic responses
Stage 3. Evaluation of alternative
solutions • Zone of tolerance: Adequate to
4. Purchase decision desired. Dissatisfaction if service
level falls below adequate level.
• Moments of Truth: importance of • Servuction model – variations of
Service Encounter effectively managing touchpoints interactions
Stage
• High/low contact service model – • Theater metaphor – “staging”
understanding the extent and service performances
nature of contact points
• In evaluating service performance, • Unexpectedly high levels of
Post- customers can have expectations performance, arousal, and
positively disconfirmed, confirmed, positive affect are likely to lead
encounterStage or negatively disconfirmed to delight
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