Page 71 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING
P. 71
Services Marketing
Notes
Example: A customer in a big city who needs a loan to buy a house knows that he can get
a loan from any of the nationalised or private banks or housing finance companies in the city.
Hence, he will have high adequate service expectations than a customer who lives in a rural
town with only a nationalised bank providing the requisite service.
A Customers Self-perceived Service Role also affects his/her adequate service level expectations.
The self-perceived service role of a customer is the extent to which the customer perceives he is
capable of shaping the service encounter and influencing the level of service he receives from a
service provider. A customer is likely to have high expectations of adequate service if he plays
an active role in making the service provider aware of his service expectations. Further, the
customers expectations of adequate service are likely to be high if he perceives that the service
provider is wholly responsible for providing a good service encounter and that the customer
has no role to play in it.
Example: A young girl who has knowledge in designing bridal dresses will actively
participate in designing her own bridal dress and her adequate service expectations are high.
Later, if the dress is not done according to her expectations, she will be very dissatisfied due to
the active participation she had shown to ensure a good service delivery.
However, despite receiving a bad service, a customer may or may not complain about it. If the
customer has a low zone of tolerance and high expectations of adequate service, he will complain
about the bad service, otherwise he will not.
Situational Factors are the factors, which make a customer compromise on his adequate service
expectations on learning that the conditions of service delivery are not under the control of the
service provider.
Example: Consider a situation in which there has been a power failure in some parts of
the city as a result of which a cable service provider is not able to beam his programs. In such a
situation, the zone of tolerance of the customers of the cable service provider increases and their
expectations of adequate service reduce since the customers too understand that the supply of
power is not in the service providers control.
Predicted Service Expectations of a customer can be defined as the level of service a customer
believes he will receive from a service provider.
Example: A customer who expects that a flight may be delayed due to bad weather will
have a lower level of adequate service expectations.
Factors that Influence both Desired and Predicted Service Expectations
In addition to the above-described factors, there are also some factors that influence both desired
and predicted service expectations of a customer. These factors include explicit and implicit
service promises, word-of-mouth communication, and past experiences.
Explicit Service Promises are the statements made by a service provider in which he explicitly
promises to provide a certain level of service. Explicit service promises made by a service
provider through advertisements, personal selling, brochures and so on, heighten the desired
and predicted service expectations of customers.
Example: Dominos Pizza promises to deliver fresh and hot pizzas at the customers
doorstep within 30 minutes of placing the order.
66 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
