 Hello, learners. I welcome you to this session. In this session, we will discuss the course Marketing of Services of Become Fifth Semester. In this particular session, we will discuss the second unit, consumer behavior in services. We will discuss different topics in this particular session like the concept of consumer behavior, then the buying decision process followed by a particular person while buying a particular product or a service, then the factors that influence the buying decision process. We will also discuss the customer's expectation of service, then the factors that influence the customer's expectation of service. We will also discuss how customers evaluate the service, as well as the factors that influence customer perception of service quality. Let us start by discussing the particular concept that is consumer behavior. So, when we study consumer behavior, we study consumer as an individual or a group or an organization as well as it covers the factors that influence the buying decision process and the activities that are associated while buying, using and disposing a particular product or service. So, when we will discuss about the consumer behavior, consumer need to be studied from the different angles. As an individual, what type of decision he will take while he is going to purchase or availing a particular service, then as a group, then organization as well as what are the factors which are influenced the behavior of a consumer that a particular consumer shows while buying or availing the service. So, different activities a buyer performs while he selects a particular product or a service. So, all these are come under the particular concept consumer behavior. So, you know about service. Service is an intangible activity. This is provided by one party to another party. So, it is provided by the service provider, maybe a hotel, restaurant, maybe educational institution, maybe hospital. So, these are service providers and there are consumers. The patient is a consumer of hospital service. So, this is the intangible activity which is provided by the service provider. And by availing the service, the customer does not become the owner of the service. So, service does not result in the ownership of anything. If I avail the service of a hospital, I am not the owner of that particular hospital. I am just availing the service. So, this is quite a defined point of view when we consider the buying of a product. When we buy a particular product, a physical product, we become the owner of that particular product. But in case of availing of services, the customer never becomes the owner of that particular service. So, this is an experience. I experience a particular service. I go to a restaurant to have food. So, I experience the atmosphere. I experience the food that is provided. But I never become the owner of that particular restaurant or the hotel. Now, so let us discuss the buying decision process. When we will discuss the concept of consumer behavior, this is very important that we must know what are the steps that a consumer goes through while availing a service or purchasing a product. However, all these steps may not be followed means these steps are not received. However, to have a clear understanding of the buying decision process, the first step that we need to discuss is the need recognition or the problem identified by the consumer. So, when a consumer identifies a particular problem, he or she wants to solve that. In other words, when a particular need is recognized, the buyer wants to satisfy that need. For example, suppose you are very hungry and you want to have food. So, the need is for food and that can be satisfied if you visit to a particular restaurant. So, the need arises and you want to satisfy that need and for that you have to go to a restaurant to have food. Then, suppose tonight there is a party and you want to look very different. So, you want to change your hairstyle. So, the need you feel that you have to look different from your friends. So, you want to change your hairstyle. So, you will go to a cell room for hair dressing. So, when a particular need the consumer identifies, it starts the buying decision process. In the next step, the consumer seek information about the different alternatives or about the different restaurants for our example, where the consumer can have good food. So, in the second step, the information will be gathered from different sources. Maybe your friend circle, advertisements, salesman, you can go for website or you can visit to the actual restaurant. So, all this helps in gathering information about the particular need where to be satisfied. So, we will evaluate this information and then we will go to the third step that is evaluation of alternatives. So, on the basis of the information that we gathered, we will evaluate the different alternatives, means the different restaurants or different hospitals, etc., which are providing the same kind of service. We want to evaluate that which is the best for ourselves, which is the best to satisfy my need, which is the best alternative to satisfy your need. So, we will evaluate the alternatives in terms of brand, in terms of quality, in terms of price, etc. So, when in the third step, we will evaluate the alternatives, we will try to satisfy our need based on the brand of the service provider, the reputation of the image, the goodwill of the service provider, quality of the service. So, these are the different benchmark on the base of which we evaluate the service providers. In the next step, we will take the decision to purchase a product or to avail the service. So, all these steps need recognition, information seeking as well as evaluation of alternatives are the pre-purchase steps. When we take the decision to purchase or avail the particular service, means we are paying for it. In case of a physical product, we will take the ownership of the product and in case of service, we will experience the service. After this, the last step is post-purchase behavior. Means after availing the service or buying the product, we will use the particular product, the experience that we get there from availing the service, we will evaluate that. So, as a consumer, you may be satisfied with a particular service or you may not be satisfied with a particular service and if you are satisfied, you will recommend that particular service to others, to your friend circles and you will also repeat the consumption of that service. So, post-purchase behavior depends on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the consumer. If you are satisfied with the service, let us take the example of the restaurant. If you are satisfied with the food of the restaurant, the environment of the restaurant, definitely you will recommend that restaurant to your friend circle as well as you will go again to that particular restaurant when you feel hungry. So, this is the post-purchase behavior in the entire buying process. So, this helps the companies to advertise their products, to give a proper understanding of the service quality and this requires proper marketing recharge on the part of the service provider. Now, quickly we will go through the factors which generally influence the buying decision process of the consumer. A consumer takes a decision to avail a particular service or to buy a particular product and in the entire process, there are certain factors like income of the consumer, age of the consumer which influence the thinking process, the decision making process of the consumer. For example, if you have a good amount of disposable income at your hand, you will try to go to some places, means you will trying to avail some tourism service. So, the income is a factor which influence you to think about availing the service of a hospitality industry. So, we will visit a place, in that place you will stay in a hotel. So, all this need good amount of money. So, when income increases, people want to go for these activities tourism, etc. At the same time, age, your age will affect your buying decision process. So, at the age of 18, what your need comes at the age of 60, that need will not be there. So, it depends on each and every consumer who wants to avail a particular service or wants to buy a product. At the same time, our thinking process, our decision making process is also guided by some other factors like the culture, the environment, the religion, social class that we belong to. So, all these factors generally influence a buyer when he or she decides to purchase a particular product or to avail a particular service. Now, let us move to another important aspect of this particular unit that is customer's expectation of service. Means how a service will be judged? A service will be judged based on the expectation of the consumer. What he expects about the service and whether that expectation is made or not by the service provider. So, there are certain levels that we can discuss. So, this is desired service level. So, this is above the minimum level of service expectation. So, consumer's expectation of services can be discussed in terms of certain service level. So, first of all, it is the desired service level. Means this is the level above the minimum level of service expectation. So, it is based on consumer's exposure to good services and prior knowledge. So, what I desired the service provider if he or she can provide that level of service then the consumer becomes satisfied. However, it depends on the consumer to consumer as well as situation to situation. So, if I visit to a restaurant which is located in an urban area, the desired service level will be different when I will visit to a hotel in an urban area. So, that desired service level depends on the customer, depends on the situation and this is the above the level of minimum service requirement. We generally expect the good quality of food in case of a restaurant, good environment, neat and clean environment. So, this is the desired level of service. Then next is adequate service level. So, this is the minimum acceptable level of service and it is based on customer's perception of the service and if this level is not made, then customers are dissatisfied. So, this should be a minimum level. This is the adequate service level. If we get the adequate service level then we will just satisfy with the service. But if we get the desired service level, we will be delighted to have that service. So, this is the difference of satisfaction level. Then predicted service level. So, it is the anticipation about the delivery of the service, anticipation about the quality of the service that will be provided by the service provider. We predict something by viewing the restaurant from outside. We anticipate something that this restaurant will provide good quality food. Whereas we may have some anticipation that this is not so good restaurant and this will not provide us good quality food. So, this is the anticipation of the consumer. This is the prediction. We predict something about the service quality that to be provided by a particular service providing firm. Then the next important thing is the zone of tolerance. So, this is the gap between the desired level of service and the adequate level of service. So, in between the desired and adequate level of service, the consumer will accept the service with a minimum variation in the service quality. We may not get the desired service level, but we may depending on the situation depending on the time we may be satisfied with the adequate level of service. So, this is the zone of tolerance. The consumer if is not getting the desired level of service may be satisfied is the plain satisfaction with the adequate level of service. Now, the customer's expectation of service in influenced by defined factors. Number one, customer's need. So, need vary from person to person and therefore, the expectation of each consumer availing a particular service will be different. We may take an example that suppose in a hospital the need for doctor is generally same for all the basics, but in case of an accident there is an emergency need to avail the doctor. So, this is the emergency need. The need of a person is will be different in case of an emergency, in case of an accident as compared to a patient which is going to the hospital for a regular checkup. So, the need of the consumer differ from person to person and according to the situation that need may need to be adjusted. Customer's attitude. So, customer's attitude to different service will be different. Each customer will have different attitude. So, this expectation of the customer about the service is influenced by the attitude of a particular customer. Then, the alternatives available to satisfy the need. So, it influences the desired level of service. If we have restaurants, suppose there are five restaurants. So, alternatives are available to us for satisfy our need to have food. So, depending on the availability of alternatives, the customer's expectation of service will be different. If there is no alternatives, suppose there is only one restaurant, then we do not need to think about. So, the alternatives available will help us in forming our expectation of the service quality that will be provided in the five different restaurants. Then, the promises made by the service provider through advertisement. If the restaurants give some advertisement in the newspapers and we come across all these advertisements, it will help us in our shaping expectation of the food provided by those restaurants. Past experience of the consumer, this helps in forming the expectation of a better service if we have past experience of a particular restaurant. So, when we visit a particular restaurant, if we visited it last month, then our expectation may change to have a more delighted experience in that particular restaurant. Now, after having the service, a consumer evaluates the service, but how to evaluate that? As it is intangible, the service is intangible. So, evaluation of service depends on certain factors, like the speed, means the time taken by the service provider in delivering the service. Suppose we are very hungry, we are waiting in a particular restaurant to have food, and the restaurant is taking too much time in giving us food. So, this will give some negative indication in the service delivery process. The consumer is not satisfied with the time it is taking to deliver the food is how comfortably the customer is availing the service. You know that customer takes part in generating the service with the service provider. So, if the customer is comfortable, if you can comfortably involve with the service provider to generate the service, then it becomes easy for the consumer to avail the service. So, that comfortability level will be considered when the consumer will evaluate the service provided by the service firm. The next is personal recognition. So, to what extent the need of the customer is satisfied, that will be considered when a consumer will evaluate the service availed. So, if the need is fully satisfied, if the customer attains the desired level of service, then it will help in the evaluation of the service quality. Then let us discuss the factors that influence the customer perception of service. The perception means it is the interpretation of the stimuli received through different sense organs. Suppose we will visit a restaurant, if we get a batch mail, then our perception to that restaurant will be negative. We will not like to have food in that particular restaurant. So, this is the interpretation of the stimuli, the reaction to a particular information that we get from our sense organ. And it gives an impression, it creates a reaction in our minds. So, the perception of the customer about the service depends on various factors. Number one, service encounter. So, when the customer uses the service, actually the customer encounters with the different points of service provider. So, at the different point, the customer will experience the service, the service quality. For example, suppose we are going to visit a particular place to avail the tourism service and we are staying in a hotel. So, we go to the restaurant, we enquire about the rooms, we come into contact with the person sitting in the reception. So, these are the points where the customer encounters with the service provider. When the customer will pay the bill, again he will encounter us with the service provider. So, the service is intangible, the customer and the service provider come into different contact points. And these contact points helps in shaping the customer perception about the service. Similarly, the service evidence. So, you know the service is intangible, we cannot touch it, but we cannot touch it, we can experience the service. So, the certain elements of marketing mix like people, process and physical evidence helps us to get our service evidence. So, there is a continuous need of giving training to the people who are actually contacting with the customer. The technology that is used for simplification of the service delivery process. Then the physical evidence means in case of a restaurant the facility is available. How comfortably the customer can avail the food? In case of a hospital, how the case counter, x-ray, blood bank are comfortably placed in the building? All this helps in shaping the customer perception about service. Image. The reputation of the service provider is very important in shaping the customer perception of service. So, a good image of the service provider means a favorable perception of the customer. Price. Price indicates service quality and it influence also the perception of the customer about the service quality. Generally, high price is associated with high service quality. Then learners we have discussed different aspects in this particular unit and we mainly focused on the concept of consumer behavior, particularly in relation to service, the buying decision process of a consumer. Then we have discussed the customers' defined levels of expectation of service. We have discussed certain factors that influence the customer's expectation of service. At the same time, we have also focused on how customers evaluate the service in terms of speed, comfortability level, etc. We have also discussed the factors that influence the customer perception of service like service encounter, service evidence, image, price, etc. So, now we will come to an end to this particular session. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you.