The Roles and Management of Consumer Expectations in Marketing

This assignment from Wolaita Sodo University's Department of Marketing and Sales Management examines the roles and management of consumer expectations in service marketing. The paper begins with an introduction and defines consumer expectations, differentiating between predictive and normative expectations, and discussing their formation from various sources. The core of the assignment focuses on the roles of consumer expectations, including their influence on pre-purchase decisions, experiences during consumption, and post-purchase satisfaction evaluations. It emphasizes that expectations serve as a basis for evaluating satisfaction and service quality. Furthermore, the assignment explores strategies for managing consumer expectations, including accommodation, alteration, and abandonment, as well as the importance of addressing fuzzy, implicit, and unrealistic expectations. The paper concludes by highlighting the significance of understanding and managing consumer expectations to enhance customer service, achieve customer satisfaction, and build lasting customer relationships. The assignment references several key studies and authors to support its arguments and analysis.

Wolaita Sodo University
Department of Marketing and Sales Management
Service Marketing Assignment on: “The Roles and management of Consumer
Expectation”
By: Lina Fitsum
Id#: CBER/191/11
Submitted to: Ins. Temmam
March 19, 2021

Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................... 3
2. Definition, Formation and Nature of Consumer Expectations...............................3
3. The Role of Consumer Expectations.....................................................................4
4. Managing Consumer Expectation.........................................................................6
5. Conclusion............................................................................................................ 9
Bibliography............................................................................................................. 10

Consumer Expectations: Roles and Management
1. Introduction
Some companies have more than just a competitive advantage in consumer service, they have
unwavering customer loyalty. Studies hold that the key to delivering superior service is
understanding and responding to consumer expectations. They also argue that systematic
management of customer expectations is a prerequisite for service quality assessment. In this piece of
work it is intended primarily to provide a brief account of the roles of understanding consumer
expectations and how to manage the same. In the process, it is believed that a further clarity of the
concept is very demanding, the paper attempts to come up with the definition, nature and other
aspects of consumer expectations. The work finalizes its discussion with a very short conclusion.
2. Definition, Formation and Nature of Consumer
Expectations
‘Consumer expectations’ also known in literatures as ‘customer expectations’ is defined in multiple
ways by researchers. The widely used definition of the term as framed (by Olson &Dover, 1979)
provides that it is a set of pretrial beliefs about a product or service. Consumer expectations are
usually formed out of many source of information that lead to expectation about upcoming service
encounters with a particular company. These source include prior exposure to the service, word of
mouth, expert opinion, publicity, and communication controlled by the company (e.g., advertising,
personal selling, and price), as well as prior exposure to competitive services (Zeithaml, Berry, and
Parasuraman, 1993).
Studies suggest that consumers may use multiple types of expectation in their satisfaction evaluation
process (Tse &Wilton, 1988). The types most often referred to are predictive expectation and
normative expectation. Predictive expectations are generally defined as consumer beliefs about the
level of service that a specific service firm would be likely to offer. These expectations are frequently
used as standard of service against which satisfaction judgment are made (Churchill & Surprenant,
1982). Whereas normative expectations are understood as consumers’ ideal level of service which
can be referred as ‘desires’ too. Some writers have also identified three categories of consumer
expectations viz: fuzzy, implicit and unrealistic. The latter classification is discussed below together
with managing consumer expectations.

3. The Role of Consumer Expectations
One very important question worth asking here is why we study consumer expectations and why
marketers endeavor to accommodate their customers’ expectations? consumer expectation is
studied and managed generally because it plays multiple roles in marketing. Following is an
account of discussion on the roles of consumer expectations. Despite a critical dearth of writings
on the area, points and assertions are made by looking into studies which are one way or another
related to the matter under consideration.
Generally, the role of consumer expectation is observed in three stages: the first one is the pre
purchase stage. In this stage expectations influence consumer decisions on which brand or type
of product or service to buy. For instance, if a person gets sick and needs to get some treatment,
one of the factors that will make him choose a clinic to the exclusion of others is his pretrial
beliefs, prior knowledge about the quality of service provided in that clinic that the service he
will get from that particular clinic is somewhat better than the rest available for him.
The other one is during consumption. This is where a consumer may get affected while using
the service or product of a firm by the attitude of service personnel, other customer and
equipment. In the post purchase, the last stage, expectations form the basis of evaluations of
satisfaction (Oliver, 1980). Customers evaluate service quality by comparing their perception of
the service with their expectations. This last one is subject to further discussed below.
The Role of Consumer Expectation as the Basis of Evaluations of Satisfaction: consumer
expectations are antecedents to consumer satisfaction. According to a study (by Al-Msllam,
2014), the two determinants of satisfaction are consumer expectations and perceived service
quality. He further puts a diagram of the relationships between the former two on one hand and
the latter on the other.

According to this Article, the other factor aside, customer expectation has significant effect on
customer satisfaction. The effect can be positive or negative; depends on how well expectation is
managed. It is critical for marketers to find out about their customers’ expectations in advance
because a failure to meet or exceed these expectations could lead to dissatisfaction and defection.
In some instances, customers have well-formed expectations—for example, when they have a
great deal of experience with a particular service or product. In other instances, expectations may
be ill-defined, in which case asking customers to state expectations might help formulate or even
create them.
Other studies also confirm the foregoing argument. For decades marketing scholars have been
using the theory of disconfirmation to explain the formation of customer perceived service
quality and satisfaction. According to this theory, service quality and satisfaction result from
how well the actual service performance, in other words, the service process and outcome much
with expectations. The idea of disconfirmation has its roots in Helson’s (1948, 1964) adaptation
theory which suggests that states of satisfaction/dissatisfaction results from comparison between
one’s perception of service quality and one’s expectation level.
The role of consumer expectations as a wheel for change of service quality: customer
expectation also plays irreplaceable role in delivering a higher service quality. This is true if
expectations are properly studied and systematically approached. Failure to do so may constitute
a factor which would a push a service rendering firm out of the market. Service is praised or
criticized because of expectations.
The influence of consumer expectations is well expressed in a statement made by most
marketing scholars that is “firms should either exceed or meet their customers’ expectations”.

Accordingly, true customer satisfaction and stellar customer service can only happen through a
complete and proper understanding of the customer expectations. Unless a company knows what
they want, who they are and what they expect, it would be difficult to even match up to the
expectations. Companies should make it a practice to ask their customers whether they have been
able to meet or exceed their expectations through the products or services and customer service.
Understanding consumer expectations promotes customer service: as a business owner, one has
to understand that there are service expectations that his/her company must meet to become
successful. Many businesses use marketing strategies to promote their customer service and
how it will meet consumer service expectations. Before one’s targeted audience makes the
decision to interact with his/her company, it expects a harmonious and pleasant buying
experience. Without understanding customer service, a company can’t attract the people it
most wants to buy its products and services. Customer service techniques such as efficiency,
reliability, and competence build immediate goodwill and make it more likely that first-time
customers will become long-term customers.
4. Managing Consumer Expectation
As per the foregoing discussions, expectations and their management are of great significance to
service quality and satisfaction. In the following couple of pages the techniques and strategies of
managing consumer expectations are presented.
One has to, at the outset, admit that there is no a generally agreed up on formula for managing
consumer expectations. Different researchers have suggested their own approaches and strategies
of managing expectations in their protracted works. Below is a presentation of summary of
strategies and techniques of managing expectations from handpicked studies.
In a study (by N. Sheth and Mittal, 2014) it is argued that customer expectations cannot always
be met. Per the article the argument by scholars that expectations should either be met or
exceeded doesn’t always hold true. It states that there are expectations which sometimes become
unjustified. To deal with this and other complexities associated with expectations the study has
come up with three strategies of managing customer expectations, namely, accommodation,
alteration and abandonment.

The Article views accommodation as the major goal of every marketing and it is about
accommodating (fulfilling) the expectations of customers. To this effect it has identified three
sub strategies for any company to live up to or perhaps exceed its customers’ expectations.
Accordingly, accommodation takes the following forms: 1) product/service innovation; 2)
segmentation, niching and positioning and 3) TQM, quality and customer satisfaction movement.
The study holds that indeed accommodation should be the primary measure to be taken by
companies but there are still infeasible and unrealistic expectations whose accommodations is
either costly or highly unlikely and thus need to be altered, hence alteration. One way to sort out
expectations that require altering is to plot them in relation to what a firm can realistically
deliver. Expectations too discrepant to a firm’s performance are counterproductive. If they are
too low, they hold no appeal for the firm’s offering. If too high, they will lead to customer
dissatisfaction with the firm’s performance. Therefore, both low and high expectations should be
shaped rather than accommodated. Finally, expectations too discrepant to shape should be
abandoned.
In another study (by Ojasalo, 2001) which was carried on the specific subject of “Managing
Customer Expectations in Professional Services”, it is held that expectations in professional
services may be fuzzy, implicit and unrealistic. Customers may have fuzzy expectations when
they expect something of a future service but do not have a precise idea of it. This kind of
expectation is therefore vague that customers cannot tell what level of quality of service they
expect from a service rendering firm. If these expectations are not met, customers may
experience dissatisfaction but cannot tell precisely why. Precise expectations are understood as
the reversals of fuzzy expectations.
Implicit expectations according to the study is associated with situations in which some elements
of a service are self-evident in that customers do not actively and consciously even think about
them, or about the possibility that they will not materialize. The existences of these sorts of
expectations become obvious when they are not met. On the flip side, explicit expectations are
conscious assumptions or wishes about a service in the customers’ mind. Customers pay explicit
attention to whether these expectations are met and know clearly what went wrong when they are
not met.

Unrealistic expectations are those which are highly unlikely to be rendered by a service provider
or even by the customers themselves. They involve defining the problem and designing solutions
and the execution of the solution and its effects. Realistic expectations are regarded as the
reversals of unrealistic expectations. In the study it is understood that the more realistic
expectations are the more likely to be met and good customer perceived service quality is more
likely. Customer’s set of expectations about a service may constitute all of the above mentioned
kinds of expectations.
This study, thus, suggests that making fuzzy expectations precise, implicit expectations explicit
and unrealistic ones realistic facilitates long term quality of professional service and customer
satisfaction. To this effect the study recommends the following for marketers to consider while
managing expectations:
1. Keep in mind that customers may have several other kinds of expectations towards the
service than just expressed aloud the provider;
2. Remember that the customers’ satisfaction level with the service may vary significantly,
and always consider customer satisfaction in the short and long term;
3. To realize effective expectations management focus fuzzy expectations, reveal implicit
expectations and calibrate unrealistic ones; and
4. Use expectations management primarily to high long term quality service in order to
create long term customer relationships.
A study (by Parasurman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1991) is the other work considered here according
to which customer expectation has crucial role in service quality assessment and its structure is
complex, characterized by both desired and adequate service levels that seem to change in
response to variety of factors. The study has also provided its insights into five suggestions for
managing consumer expectations. Accordingly, service delivery firms should: demonstrate fair
play; be reliable; manage promises; build relationship; and build a customer franchise through
customer service.
Some experts of the area and marketing managers also provide tips for an effective way of
managing consumer expectations. Accordingly, companies need to:

1. Cover more solutions: this calls for companies to well equip their front line employees
so that they get variety of solutions to potential customers’ inquiries. This would let
customers understand the complexity of a particular problem, engage directly with its
solutions and ensure they don’t have unrealistic expectations.
2. Be transparent: companies should make their policies, rules, values and practices
transparent through their media outlets such as websites, social media, company
literatures and etc. They also need to make their employees practice the above things.
This enables customers to build trust and develop realistic expectations about the
company.
3. Be optimistic and realistic: service rendering firms need to make and keep customers
happy and they know that a quick resolution will do that after all, everyone wants to hear
good news, such as the problem will be fixed, the refund will be made or the solution will
be implemented now. While it is good to be optimistic for customers, it’s more important
to be realistic and set the right expectation.
4. Give clear time lines: most customers do not mind waiting as long as they understand
why they understand that glitches, errors, and bugs come up. But they expect marketers
to be honest about them.
5. Always follow up: companies are advised to follow up their customers to round out their
experience. This lets customers share their new experiences as well which in turn helps
the company act accordingly.
Finally, others also urge service marketers to: clearly identify their customers; ask their
customers questions; train their staff; say ‘thank you’ their customers; focus on the senses of
customers; respond to customer concerns; encourage customers to share their experiences; be
innovative; and update their technology.

5. Conclusion
In this monograph an attempt is made to provide, among others, a presentation of the roles of
consumer expectations and strategies to manage the same. Accordingly, expectations and their
proper understanding have manifold pivotal roles in marketing, service marketing to be very
specific. And these roles are manifested in the different stages of marketing: namely pre
purchase, during consumption and post purchase. It is also explained that expectations promote
service quality if studied and well managed. Customer expectations are also understood to form
the basis of evaluating customer satisfaction. Further, expectations, exploited properly, help
firms to communicate service differentiation and personalize its marketing.
Managing customer expectations is a prerequisite to creating a satisfied customer, quintessential
goal of marketing. The predominant approach achieving this goal has been to endeavor to meet
customer expectations. This approach is lopsided and needs balancing by attempts to shape
rather than merely fulfil expectations. And customers with expectations too discrepant to shape
need to be abandoned. This work has also considered detailed tips on how to manage customer
expectations and has reached a conclusion that there is no one- size- fits- all technique. This
work also recommends that the different types of expectations be identified and approaches to
study and manage them should be designed.

Bibliography
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