Discuss the managerial implication of the client/company interface during the consumption stage.

Written by:            Sabita Baral

            

Discuss the managerial implication of the client/company interface during the consumption stage.

The consumption decision process includes the prepurchase choice among alternatives, the consumer’s reaction during consumption, and the post purchase evaluation of satisfaction.  Here, during the consumption stage, consumers make a store choice or a non store choice. It means deciding to purchase from a particular outlet or from catalog, Internet or variety of mail-order possibilities. The consumption of goods can be divided into three activities: buying, using and disposing. For example, the customer buys a box of detergent, uses it and disposes of the empty box after the detergent is used up.

This scenario does not apply to the consumption of service. There is no clear-cut boundary or definite sequence exists between the acquisition and the use of services because of its intangibility in nature. Due to the prolonged interactions between the customer and the service provider, the production, acquisition, and use of services become entangled and appear to be a single process. Furthermore, concept of disposal is irrelevant because of the intangibility and experiential nature of services. Service firms play an active role in customer consumption activities because services are produced and consumed simultaneously.  No service can be produced or used with either the consumer or he service firm absent. Due to the extended service delivery process, many believe that the consumer’s post choice evaluation occur both during and after the use of services, rather than only afterwards. Because of the above reason, this opens up the managerial implications during the consumption of service.  For example, the restaurant manager who visits dinners’ tables and asks, “How is your dinner this evening”? is able to catch problems, and change the consumers perception about the services they received, which the manufacturer of a packaged good cannot. In service industry due to the company interface during the consumption process, the service provider is able to catch the problem and hence service providing company can change their way of doing business.

REFERENCES

Hoffman K.D. & Bateson J.E.G. (2006). Services Marketing: Concept, Strategies, &

 cases. Mason, Ohio: Thomson Higher Education.