Page 82 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

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

give them flexibility in delivering the services, offer tips to be spontaneous, and assist them in Notes
coping with difficult customers.

Reflect Evidence of Service

Before making a purchase decision, customers often try to assess the service evidence with the
help of tangible clues like the service organisation’s personnel, processes, and physical evidence.
They evaluate the behaviour of the service organisation’s personnel in terms of friendliness,
knowledge of procedures, and their willingness to help customers. Customers also assess the
flexibility involved in the processes and the physical evidence in terms of ambience and layout.
Organisations should understand the significance of these clues and make efforts to reflect
evidence of their service in terms of their people, processes, and physical evidence.

Task Collect the tangible cues (all that you can) associated with HDFC Bank,
McDonalds, Kingfisher Airlines and Matrix Salon. Analyse their impact on you and your
family’s perceptions as consumers.

Communicate and Create a Realistic Image

A service organisation should not only communicate its promises clearly but should also ensure
that it keeps its promises. This will create a positive image of the company in the eyes of its
customers. Word-of-mouth publicity about a company can create a positive or a negative image of
it in the minds of existing or potential customers. While customers who have had positive
experiences with the company will indulge in good word-of-mouth publicity, those who have had
unpleasant experiences will try to tarnish the image of the company by indulging in bad publicity.
Therefore, it is important for organisations to be realistic in making promises to their customers.
They should desist from making exaggerated claims that could damage their companies’ image
in future, due to their failure to meet promises.

Enhance Customer Perceptions of Quality and Value through Pricing

Often, customers view price as an indicator to assess the value or quality of a service. Customers
are dissatisfied if they feel that the service is not worth the price they are paying for it. The
dissatisfied customers will engage in negative word-of-mouth publicity, which can be dangerous
to the service organisation. Therefore, service organisations should adopt a pricing strategy that
can give a clue about the true value and quality of the service.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

13. The employee behaviour, the ambience, etc. are service promises.
14. The service availed from railway enquiry machines are . encounters.
15. . is a situation when a service failure has occurred and includes how well the
employees of the service provider respond to the situation.
16. . is the unsought or voluntary action of employees in delivering a service.
17. The . of a service influences customer perceptions of value, quality, and
satisfaction.

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