1. Services Consumer Behavior
Chapter 4
Services Consumer Behavior

2. Chapter Objectives
Appreciate how consumer process models explain the manner in which consumers process information to make decisions.
Discuss the six steps that comprise the consumer decision model.
Understand the special considerations of service purchases as they pertain to the prepuchase, consumption, and postpurchase stages of the consumer decision process model.
Describe three theories that attempt to explain the consumer’s postpurchase evaluation with regard to customer satisfaction.
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

3. Opening Vignette: Planet Fitness
The gym actively supports a “Judgement Free Zone” and a “No Lunks” policy
Membership prices typically range from $10 to $15 a month
It does not employ salespeople and offers few extra amenities that drive up costs
It offers a clean, stylish facility with popular brand-name cardio and strength equipment
Planet Fitness has successfully promoted itself as the gym for the common person
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

4. Figure 4.1: Consumer Decision Process Model
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

5. The Prepurchase Stage: The Stimulus
Commercial Cues
Stimulus the thought, action, or motivation that incites a person to consider a service
Social Cues
Physical Cues
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

6. The Prepurchase Stage: Problem Awareness
Shortage (a need)
The Prepurchase Stage: Problem Awareness
Unfulfilled Desire (a want)
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

7. The Prepurchase Stage: Information Search
Internal Search
External Search
A passive approach to gathering information in which the consumer’s own memory is the main source of information about a product
A proactive approach to gathering information in which the consumer collects new information from sources outside the consumer’s own experience
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8. Figure 4.2: Multi-Attribute Choice Model for Evaluating Alternative Universities
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

9. The Prepurchase Stage: Evaluation of Alternatives
Nonsystematic evaluation
Such as the use of intuition—simply choosing by relying on a “gut-level feeling”
Systematic evaluation
Such as a multi- attribute choice model
Linear compensatory approach
Lexicographic approach
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

10. The Consumption Stage: Choice
Consumption process
Buying the product
Store vs. nonchoice choice
Using the product
Disposing of the product
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

11. The Postpurchase Stage: Postpurchase Evaluation
Strategies to minimize the consumer’s cognitive dissonance include:
After-sale contact with the customer
Providing a reassuring letter in the packing of the product
Providing warranties and guarantees
Reinforcing the consumer’s decision through the firm’s advertising
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

12. Prepurchase Stage Considerations: Perceived Risk
Consumers tend to perceive a higher level of risk during the prepurchase decision stage
Actions are associated with higher levels of consequences and uncertainty
Consequences—the degree of importance and/or danger of the outcomes derived from any consumer decision
Uncertainty—the subjective possibility of the occurrence of these outcomes
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

13. Prepurchase Stage Considerations: Perceived Risk
Five types of perceived risk
Financial risk
Performance risk
Physical risk
Social risk
Psychological risk
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

14. Prepurchase Stage Considerations: Perceived Risk
Reasons for perceptions of increased risk
Risk and standardization (heterogeneity)
Co-producer risk (inseparability)
Risk and Information
Search attributes
Experience attributes
Credence attributes
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

15. Prepurchase Stage Considerations: Perceived Risk
Service consumers are more brand loyal
Reduces the perceived risk associated with a purchase
Limited number of choices are available
Switching costs are higher
Search costs
Transaction costs
Learning costs
Loyal consumer discounts
Customer habit
Emotional costs
Cognitive costs
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

16. Mass advertising is less effective Word-of-mouth references rule
Prepurchase Stage Considerations: The Importance of Personal Sources of Information
Mass advertising is less effective
Word-of-mouth references rule
Target opinion leaders
Nonpersonal sources may not be available
Professional restrictions
Small firms may lack the resources or knowledge to advertise effectively
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

17. Prepurchase Stage Considerations: Fewer Alternatives to Consider
Each service provider tends to offer only one brand
A small number of outlets providing the same service
Lack of prepurchase information
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

18. Prepurchase Stage Considerations: Self-Service as a Viable Alternative
Many service providers must consider the customer’s own self-provision as a viable competitor in the marketplace
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

19. Figure 4.4: The Consumer Decision Process: Special Considerations Pertaining to the Prepurchase Stage
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

20. Consumption Stage Considerations
Consumption sequence differs
Goods: Production-Acquisition-Use-Disposal
Services: Production-Acquisition-Use
Stages are entangled and disposal is irrelevant
Evaluation occurs during and after consumptions
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

21. Figure 4.5: The Consumer Decision Process: Special Considerations Pertaining to the Consumption Stage
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

22. Postpurchase Considerations
Postpurchase models
The expectancy disconfirmation theory
Proposes that consumers evaluate services by comparing expectations with perceptions
The perceived control perspective
Consumers evaluate services by the amount of control they have over the perceived situation
The script perspective
Argues that rules, mostly determined by social and cultural variables, exist to facilitate interactions in daily repetitive events, including a variety of service experiences
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

23. Postpurchase Models: The Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory
The simplest and most powerful model
Customer satisfaction is achieved through the effective management of customer perceptions and expectations
Customer satisfaction = Perceptions > Expectations
Customer perceptions define reality
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

24. Postpurchase Models: The Perceived-Control Perspective
The basic premise is that during the service experience, the higher the level of control over the situation perceived by consumers, the higher their satisfaction with the service will be
Consumers give up cash and control in exchange for benefits
The concept of control consists of two types of control:
Behavioral control
Cognitive control
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

25. Postpurchase Models: The Script Perspective
“All the world’s a stage and all the people players”
Customers’ satisfaction is a function of script congruence
© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.