The Role of Consumer Expectations - PDF
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Added on 2021-04-13
The Role of Consumer Expectations - PDF
Added on 2021-04-13
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Wolaita Sodo UniversityDepartment of Marketing and Sales ManagementService Marketing Assignment on: “The Roles and management of ConsumerExpectation”By: Lina FitsumId#: CBER/191/11Submitted to: Ins. Temmam March 19, 2021
Contents1.Introduction.........................................................................................................................................32.Definition, Formation and Nature of Consumer Expectations.............................................................33.The Role of Consumer Expectations....................................................................................................44.Managing Consumer Expectation........................................................................................................65.Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................9Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................10
Consumer Expectations: Roles and Management1.IntroductionSome companies have more than just a competitive advantage in consumer service, they haveunwavering customer loyalty. Studies hold that the key to delivering superior service isunderstanding and responding to consumer expectations. They also argue that systematicmanagement of customer expectations is a prerequisite for service quality assessment. In this piece ofwork it is intended primarily to provide a brief account of the roles of understanding consumerexpectations and how to manage the same. In the process, it is believed that a further clarity of theconcept is very demanding, the paper attempts to come up with the definition, nature and otheraspects 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 multipleways 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 areusually formed out of many source of information that lead to expectation about upcoming serviceencounters with a particular company. These source include prior exposure to the service, word ofmouth, 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, andParasuraman, 1993).Studies suggest that consumers may use multiple types of expectation in their satisfaction evaluationprocess (Tse &Wilton, 1988). The types most often referred to are predictive expectation andnormative expectation. Predictive expectations are generally defined as consumer beliefs about thelevel of service that a specific service firm would be likely to offer. These expectations are frequentlyused as standard of service against which satisfaction judgment are made (Churchill & Surprenant,1982). Whereas normative expectations are understood as consumers’ ideal level of service whichcan be referred as ‘desires’ too. Some writers have also identified three categories of consumerexpectations viz: fuzzy, implicit and unrealistic. The latter classification is discussed below togetherwith managing consumer expectations.
3.The Role of Consumer ExpectationsOne very important question worth asking here is why we study consumer expectations and whymarketers endeavor to accommodate their customers’ expectations? consumer expectation isstudied and managed generally because it plays multiple roles in marketing. Following is anaccount of discussion on the roles of consumer expectations. Despite a critical dearth of writingson the area, points and assertions are made by looking into studies which are one way or anotherrelated to the matter under consideration.Generally, the role of consumer expectation is observed in three stages: the first one is the prepurchase stage. In this stage expectations influence consumer decisions on which brand or typeof 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 pretrialbeliefs, prior knowledge about the quality of service provided in that clinic that the service hewill 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 usingthe service or product of a firm by the attitude of service personnel, other customer andequipment. In the post purchase, the last stage, expectations form the basis of evaluations ofsatisfaction (Oliver, 1980). Customers evaluate service quality by comparing their perception ofthe 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: consumerexpectations are antecedents to consumer satisfaction. According to a study (by Al-Msllam,2014), the two determinants of satisfaction are consumer expectations and perceived servicequality. He further puts a diagram of the relationships between the former two on one hand andthe latter on the other.
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