Introduction
Customers react differently to various products and services within the market. This is influenced by their cultural backgrounds and their understanding of how a particular product works. It is important for firms to understand consumer behaviour and how it affects their consumption trends regarding a particular service or product.
The service sector has become more complex and competitive and this has made the focus more directed toward meeting the needs of consumers. Firms have realised the importance of ensuring that the services they offer provide value to their customers.
It is important for business enterprises to understand ways in which they can influence the behaviour and attitudes of their consumers toward their services in a positive manner. Customers and their behaviours have a huge role to play during service interactions.
Customer Behaviour and Perceptions
Lovelock, Patterson and Wirtz (2010, p. 44) argue that the user experience of a service has an effect on the behaviour of that customer within the market place where the service is provided. Several things have brought about changes within the service industry; for example, the relationships the employees of a firm have with the customers when they are providing the service, has a big impact on consumer behaviour.
The initial impression created by an employee on a consumer when providing the service can influence negatively or positively, the customer’s perceptions. The way the service is delivered to the customer influences his or her perceptions regarding that particular product. A firm should ensure that the point where its service is offered is convenient for its customers and makes it easy for them to use it.
The systems that are used for operating the service and delivering it to the customers should be efficient. These systems need to be suitable for the functions that they have been designed for to ensure that the customer’s experience of the service is pleasant. The systems should offer customers knowledge on how best to use the services that are being provided for their maximum satisfaction (Lovelock, Patterson & Wirtz 2010, pp. 59-64).
They should also be well equipped to deal with gaps in knowledge that exist within the clientele. Services that require technical know-how should be simplified to make it easy for the customers to access them. Firms should provide additional technical support to their customers on how they can use such services.
The interaction between a company and its customers is vital in helping to sustain positive and strong relationships. Bowden (2009, pp. 65-69) argues that customer service employees within a firm should be able to understand the way customers make decisions within that given market. Customers need to be given adequate information regarding how a service works and the needs it is likely to satisfy.
They should also be made to understand how that particular service is better than the alternatives, which are offered by the firm’s competitors. This information can be crucial in helping a customer to reach a positive conclusion regarding a service and if it meets his or her expectations. Customers act well within an environment where the perceived risk that occurs after using a particular product is minimal.
A firm should have effective ways of handling customer’s complaints because they have an impact on consumer behaviour and perceptions regarding a service. Since there can be inconsistencies in the way the service operates, customers’ feedback is important in evaluating how a service performs in the market. Genuine complaints by a customer should be resolved to ensure that he or she feels positive about the service.
This boosts brand loyalty and encourages consumers to make a particular product their preference. Customer satisfaction is vital in ensuring that the perceptions of a customer toward the service that he is using remain positive (Wells & Foxall 2012, pp. 73-75). A customer is likely to cherish a service that allows him or her to solve his problems or satisfy his needs.
The perceptions of customers regarding the quality of service that is offered should be carefully analysed by the management for the organisation to create strong relationships with its customers. The level of competition in the service sector has become cutthroat and this requires business firms to evaluate the quality of the service they offer to their clients.
According to Khatibi, Thyagarajan and Ahmad (2002, p. 27), the quality of a service depends on its ability to satisfy clients’ expectations. It also depends on the firm’s capacity to create an atmosphere that inspires confidence and trust among the customers. It is necessary for firms to evaluate the quality of the services they offer their clients to know whether they are on track or not.
This evaluation can only be done through assessment of customers’ feedback and responses after they have used the service. Service products are intangible and firms cannot assess their quality and suitability in the market without engaging their customers. Customers can measure the attributes of a service more appropriately and can help a firm to understand whether it meets their desired standards.
Customers are the targeted users of any service and they provide the necessary critical and diverse opinions regarding how a service functions. For the customer feedback to be successful, firms should encourage their employees to improve their interactions with clients. Interaction with the customers helps the employees to understand the problems they are facing and how they can be resolved (Lin, Sher & Shih 2005, p. 326).
Employees must be trained to ensure that the quality of the services that are made available to the customers meets their expectations. Lovelock and Wirtz (2011, pp. 102-106) emphasise that the gap between what the customer expects and what he or she experiences while using the service should be narrowed. This is the only way through which a firm’s service can be able to meet the demands of its users.
Customers’ opinions and feedback provide a good background through which a firm a can understand their preferences and behaviour. Firms can come up with concepts, which reflect the preferences of their customers to ensure that the service offered responds to their needs.
The improvements to be made on a service can be obtained from the input customers offer to a firm in form of opinions and feedback. Companies can be able to formulate effective business strategies, which can be used to position their services within their target markets.
The human factor during service interactions is critical in influencing consumer behaviour and attitudes toward a particular service. Customers associate the behaviour of the employees of a firm to the product itself and this creates a bias in the way they perceive the company as well as its commodities. Positive customer care initiatives by employees can make the clients regard the service as reliable and worth his or her money (Rogelberg, Barnes-Farrell, & Creamer 1999, p. 425).
Negative attitudes regarding the employees of a firm by the customers are likely to affect the perceptions they have of that service. Employees who are in direct contact with customers need to set priorities regarding the best way customers’ expectations can be achieved by the service being offered to them. The firm should understand the services it offers and the way it can make them stand out in the market.
The firm should have a unique aspect in its offering, which makes its service resonate well with the expectations of its target customers (Rogelberg, Barnes-Farrell, & Creamer 1999, p. 429). A business enterprise must identify the profile of its clients in terms of age, economic status, cultural background and gender, to understand their behaviour and attitudes toward the service it offers.
This helps the firm to structure the attributes of its product by considering the behaviour and attitudes of the consumers. In this way, a firm is able to generate suitable marketing ideas that could assist it to improve the quality of services offered to its clients.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is vital for a firm to understand the behaviour of its customers and their perceptions toward the services that it offers to them. This helps the firm to establish the necessary customer loyalty within the market it serves. An effective relationship between a firm and its clients helps a firm to evaluate the value its service has within a particular market.
References
Bowden, JLH 2009, ‘The process of customer engagement: a conceptual framework’, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, vol. 17, no 1, pp. 63-74.
Khatibi, AA, Thyagarajan, V & Ahmad MI 2002, ‘Consumer perceptions on service quality of telemarketing in Malaysia’, Journal of Social Science, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 25-31.
Rogelberg, SG, Barnes-Farrell, JL & Creamer, V 1999, Customer service behaviour: the interaction of service predisposition and job characteristics’, Journal of Business and Psychology, vol. 13, no.3, pp. 421-435.
Lin, CH, Sher PJ & Shih, HY 2005,‘Past progress and future directions in conceptualizing customer perceived value’, International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol.16 , no. 4, pp. 318-336.
Lovelock, C & Wirtz, J 2011, Services marketing: people, technology, strategy, 7th edn, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Lovelock, CH, Patterson, PG & Wirtz, J 2010, Services marketing: an Asia-Pacific and Australian perspective, 5th edn, Pearson Australia, Sydney.
Wells, V & Foxall, G 2012, Handbook of developments in consumer behaviour, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.