Page 66 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 4: Customer Expectations and Perceptions of Services through Marketing Research

tuning their retail format, differentiate their shopping experience from others, evolve Notes
newer services and retain the profitable customers. From an academic point of view, they
also wanted to know the details of all types of competition - direct, indirect and substitute
– and the psychographic rationale for the continuing patronisation of the small ‘kirana’
stores which were located in the ground floors of every teeming multi-storied building of
the suburbs.
Questions:
1. Was it very necessary for Koop to find systematic answers to the above questions -
and then take decisions? What could be the consequences if Koop took decisions by
gut feelings or on the weight of their experiences?
2. How do you think should Koop Services go about finding the answers to the above
questions that would help them take decisions, which were turning out to be very
crucial to their survival?

3. What can be the reliability of such ‘scientific’ and ‘systematic’ studies, based on
which management can take decisions with confidence?

Source: C Bhattacharjee, Services Marketing: Concepts, Planning and Implementation, First Edition, Excel Books, New Delhi
Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. A service firm services its customer really well and it works on the principle of current
satisfaction maximisation. This firm might be suffering from

2. A service firm is losing its customers to competitors, but can’t find out the exact reasons
for their switch over. In this situation .can come their rescue.
3. Expectations make a customer perceive the received offer in a mode.

4. of a service firm’s customers would reveal that 80% of them contribute
only 20% of its revenues or profits.
5. In a study, certain groups of respondents, who are a fixed sample, are
chosen for continuous research over a long period of time.

4.2 Understanding Customer Expectations

Customer expectations plays key role in a company’s success. They have a deeper meaning in
services marketing than being mere requirements of a customer. They may also involve
customers’ predictions of what will happen in a service encounter or what the customers desire
to happen. Customer expectations are based on customers’ experience with the product or
service; feedback received from friends, colleagues, and relatives; or may be based on their
present needs.

Customers do not expect service providers to fulfil all their requirements but only that they
deliver what they have promised. They want to get a fair deal for the price they pay for the
service.

Example: Insurance customers often find that most of their requirements are not met by
insurance policies due to exclusion clauses. This tends to confuse the customers as to what is
actually covered by the insurance policy.

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