Consumer Behavior in a Services Context
and searches, advertising, retail displays,
3 Stage Model of Service Consumption
1. Pre-Purchase Stage
2. Service Encounter Stage
3. Post-Encounter Stage
Pre-Purchase Stage
Need Awareness
The decision to buy or use a service is
triggered by a person’s underlying need or
need arousal.
Needs may be triggered by:
1. Unconscious Minds - personal
identity and aspirations
2. Physical Conditions - hunger and
pain
3. External Sources - social media,
marketing activities such as
advertising
Information Search
Once a need has been recognized,
customers are motivated to search for
solutions to satsify the need. Several
alternatives may come to mind, and these
form the evoked set. The evoked set can be
derived from past experience or external
sources such as social media, online reviews
news stories, and recommendations from
service personnel, friends, and family.
Evaluation of Alternatives
Once the consideration set and key
attributes are understood, the consumer
typically makes a purchase decision.
Service Attributes
Customers need to compare and
evaluate the different service offering when
faced with several alternatives.
S e a rc h A t t r i b u t e s - t a n g i b l e
characteristics customers can evaluate before
purchase.
Experience Attributes - those that
cannot be evaluated before purchase.
Customers must “experience” the service
before they can assess attributes such as
reliability, ease of use,
and customer support.
Credence Attributes - characteristics
that customers find hard to evaluate even after
consumption. Here, the customer is forced to
believe or trust that certain tasks have been
performed at the promised level of quality.
Perceived Risk
Perceived risk is usually greater for
services that are high in experience and
credence attributes, and first-time users are
likely to face greater uncertainty. Know the
perceived risks customers face in purchasing
services and the strategies firms can use to
reduce consumer risk perceptions. It is likely
that you were worried about the possibility of
not making the best choice. The worse the
possible consequences and the more likely
they are to occur, the higher the perception of
risk.
Functional - unsatisfactory
performance outcomes
Financial - monetary loss, unexpected
costs
Temporal - wasting time,
cosequences of delays
Physical - personal injury or damage
to possessions
Psychological - personal fears and
emotions
Social - how others think and react
Sensory - unwanted effects on any of
the five senses
Service Expectations
Expectations are formed during the
search and decision-making process, and they
are heavily shaped by information search and
evaluation of alternatives. If you do not have
any previous experience with the service, you
may base your pre-purchase expectations on
online searches and reviews, word of mouth,
news stories, or a firm’s own marketing
efforts.
Desired Service - This is a “wished for” level
of service—a combination of what customers
believe can and should be delivered in the
context of their personal needs. Desired
service can also be influenced by explicit and
implicit promises made by service providers,
word of mouth, and past experiences.
Adequate Service - This is the minimum level
of service customers will accept without
being dissatisfied.
Predicted Service - This is the level of
service that customers actually expect to
receive. Predicted service can also be affected
by service provider promises, word of mouth,
and past experiences. Directly affects how
customers define “adequate service” on that
occasion. If good service is predicted, the
adequate level will be higher than if poorer
service is predicted.

Zone of Tolerance - Even the performance of

the same service employee is likely to vary
from time to time. The extent to which
customers are willing to accept this variation
is called the zone of tolerance.

Purchase Decision

After consumers have evaluated

possible alternatives by comparing the
performances of competing service offerings,
assessing the perceived risk associated with
each offering, and developing their desired,
adequate, and predicted service-level
expectations, they are ready to select the
option they like best.