1. Consumer Behavior in Service Encounters (Contd.)

2. 4 Agenda Customer Perceptions Customer Satisfaction
Chapter 4
Customer Perceptions
Customer Satisfaction
Service Encounters: The Building Blocks for Customer Perceptions
4-2

3. Customer Perceptions
“Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. This is a highly individual process based on each person’s needs, values and expectations”
Schiffman and Kanuk,2002

4. Customer perceptions
How customer assess whether they have experienced quality service and whether they are satisfied
Perceptions are always considered relative to expectations.
A discussion of quality and satisfaction is based on customer’s perceptions of the service - not some predetermined objective criteria of what service is or should be.

5. Transaction versus Cumulative Perceptions
The customers will have perception on single, transaction-specific encounters as well as overall perceptions of a company based on all their experiences.
Isolated encounters are the building blocks for overall, cumulative experience evaluations.
Understanding perceptions at the transaction-specific level is critical for diagnosing service issues and making immediate changes.

6. Customer Satisfaction
“Satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provides a pleasurable level of consumption- related fulfillment.” (Richard Oliver)
Satisfaction is the customer’s evaluation of a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met the customer’s needs and expectations
Satisfaction is viewed as a broader concept, while
service quality is a component of customer satisfaction.

7. Customer Perceptions of Quality and Customer Satisfaction
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8. Service Encounters
Service encounters or “Moments of Truth” are the building blocks for customer perceptions
Customer’s point of view –
The most vivid impression of service occurs in the service encounter when the customer interacts with the service firm
Organization’s point of view –
Each encounter presents an opportunity to prove its potential as a quality service provider and to increase customer loyalty

9. The Service Encounter types of encounters:
remote encounters, phone encounters, face-to- face encounters
is an opportunity to:
build trust
reinforce quality
build brand identity
increase loyalty

10. A Service Encounter Cascade for an Industrial Purchase
Sales Call
Delivery and Installation
Servicing
Ordering Supplies
Billing
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11. Evidence of Service from the Customer’s Point of View
Contact employees
Customer him/herself
Other customers
Operational flow of activities
Steps in process
Flexibility vs. standard
Technology vs. human
People
Physical
Evidence
Process
Tangible communication
Servicescape
Guarantees
Technology