SERVICE MARKETING

Customer Expectations of Service

Chapter # 4

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 Undoubtedly, the greatest gap between customer
expectations and service delivery exists when
customers travel from one country to another.
For example, in Japan the customer is supreme. At
the morning of large departmental stores in Tokyo,
sales personnel line up to welcome customers and
bow as they enter.

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Customer Expectations

Are beliefs about service delivery that serve as

standards or reference points against which
performance is judged.
Because customers compare their perceptions of
performance with these reference points when
evaluating service quality, thorough knowledge
about expectations is critical to services marketers.
Knowing what the customer expects is the first and
possibly most critical step in delivering quality
service.

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Meaning and Types of Service
Expectations

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Meaning and Types of Service
Expectations
Ideal Expectations: Customers has heard from various
sources and made of the mind. Everyone says good
restaurant.
Normative Should Expectations: Its expensive restaurant.
It ought to be having good service.
Experienced Based Norms: Restaurant is good. However
service is slow at peak hours.
Acceptable Expectations: I expect they serve adequately.
Minimum Tolerance Expectations: Visit this restaurant
because of price and not service

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Expected Service: Level of Expectations

Desired Service and Adequate Service

Desired Service is a blend of what
Desired Service
customers desire or believes can be
and should be. It reflects the hopes of
customers to be fulfilled.

Adequate Service is what is available at

present. Adequate service represents Adequate Service
minimum tolerance expectations.

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Expected Service: Level of Expectations

Desired Service and Adequate Service of

A Customer for Restaurant

Restaurants are classified in many ways :

Fast Food: Desired Service expectations are quick, convenient,
tasty food, clean setting.
Expensive Restaurant: desired service elegant surroundings,
gracious employees, candlelight, fine food.
Ethnic Restaurants
Airport Restaurants

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Expected Service: Level of Expectations

Desired Service and Adequate Service of

A Customer for Restaurant

The adequate service expectation level on the other hand, may

vary from different firms within category or subcategory.
Within the fast food restaurant, a customer may hold a higher
expectation for McDonalds than for Burger King, having
experienced consistent service at McDonalds over time and
somewhat inconsistent service at Burger King.

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The Zone of Tolerance

Service vary across providers, across

Desired Service
employees from the same provider and
even with the same service employee.
Zone of
Tolerance
The extent to which customers recognize
and willing to accept this variation is called
Adequate Service
the:

ZONE OF TOLERANCE.

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The Zone of Tolerance

If the service drops below adequate service

the minimum level considered acceptable
customers will be frustrated and most likely Desired Service
dissatisfied with the company.
Zone
of
If the service performance is above the zone Tolerance
of tolerance at the top end where the
performance exceeds desired service Adequate Service
customers will be very pleased and probably
quite surprised as well.

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The Zone of Tolerance

Bus Stop
Passengers waiting for the bus.

If the service is higher than the zone of

tolerance customer are very
delighted. Ex:Arrives on time.

If it is exceeding the zone of tolerance

then customers are very unhappy.

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The Zone of Tolerance

Different Customers Posses Different Zones of

Tolerance
Some customers have narrow zones of tolerance, requiring
a tighter range of service from providers, whereas other
customers allow a greater range of service.
Very busy customers would likely always be pressed for
time, desire short wait times in general also hold
constrained range for the length of acceptable wait times.

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The Zone of Tolerance

Different Customers Posses Different Zones of

Tolerance
An individual customers zone of tolerance increases or
decreases depending on a number of factors, including
company controlled factors such as price...

When price increase, customers tend to be less tolerant to

poor service. In this case, the zone of tolerance decreases
because the adequate service level shifts upward.

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The Zone of Tolerance

Zones of Tolerance Vary for Service Dimensions

Customers tolerance zones also vary for different service
attributes or dimensions.
The more important the factor, the narrower the zone of
tolerance is likely to be.
Customers are likely to be less tolerant about unreliable
service (broken promise or service errors) than other
service deficiencies, which means that they have higher
expectations for this factor.

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 The Zone of Tolerance

Zones of Tolerance for Different Service Dimensions

Desired Service
Level
of Zone
Expectation Of Tolerance

Adequate Service Desired Service

Zone
of
Tolerance

Adequate Service

Reliability Empathy
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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Because expectations play such a critical role in
customer evaluation of services, marketers need and
want to understand the factors that shape them.

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 Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of Desired Service Expectations

Personal Needs

Desired Service

Enduring Service
Intensifiers Zone
of
Tolerance

Adequate Service

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 Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of Desired Service Expectations

Personal Needs : include physical, social,

psychological categories.
Enduring Service Intensifiers : are individual,
stable factors that lead to heightened sensitivity
to service
This can further divided into Derived Service
Expectations and Personal service Philosophies

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 Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of Adequate Service Expectations
Transitory Service
Intensifiers

Desired Service
Perceived Service
Alternatives
Zone
of
Tolerance
Self-Perceived
Service Role Predicted
Adequate Service Service

Situational
Factors
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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
When consumers are interested in purchasing services,
they are likely to seek or take in information from several
different sources.
For example: they may call up a store, ask a friend or
deliberately track newspaper advertisements to find the
needed service at the lowest price.
They may also receive service information by watching
television, surfing the Internet or hearing an unsolicited
comment from a colleague about a service that was
performed well.
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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
In addition to these active and passive types of external
search for information, consumers may conduct an internal
search by reviewing the information held in memory about
the service.

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 Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service Expectations
Explicit Service
Promises

Implicit Service
Promises

Desired Service Word-of-Mouth

Zone
Past Experience
of
Tolerance

Predicted
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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
Explicit Service Promises : are personal and non-personal
statements about the service made by the organization to
customers.
Personal when they are communicated by the
salespeople or service or repair personnel
Non-personal - when they come from webpage,
advertising, brochures and other written publications.

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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
Implicit Service Promises : are service related cues other
than the explicit promises that lead to inferences about what
the service should and will be like.
These quality cues are dominated by price and the tangibles
associated with the service.
The higher the price and the more impressive the tangibles,
the more a customer will expect from the service.
Example: A customer who stays at an exclusive hotel is
likely to desire and predict a higher standard of service than
from a hotel with less impressive facilities.
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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
Word of Mouth Communication:
These personal and sometimes non-personal statements
made by parties other than the organization convey to
customers what type of service will be like and influence both
predicted and desired service.
Word of Mouth Communication carries a particular weight as
an information source because it is perceived as unbiased.
Word of Mouth Communication tends to be more important in
services that are difficult to evaluate before purchase and
before direct experience to them.
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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
Word of Mouth Communication:
Experts and including Consumer Reports, friends and family
members and also the Internet forums are also word-of-mouth
sources that affect the level of desired and predicted service.

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Factors that Influence Customer
Expectations of Service
Sources of both Desired and Predicted Service
Expectations
Past Experience:
The customers previous exposure to service that is relevant to
the focal service, is also another force in shaping predictions
and desires.
Example: Guests comparing each stay in a particular hotel with
all previous stays in that hotel. The guests can compare their
experiences in other hotels and hotel chains.
Customers can also compare across industries: hospital
patients compare hospital stays against the standard of hotel
visits.
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 END OF THE CHAPTER

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