Rural Retail Case Study

Situation Analysis

This case investigations the difference of pre-service expectations and perceived post-service satisfactions for tourists, local residents, and retailers in the rural tourism setting in IOWA. Rural tourism has getting popular, and the retailers in the rural tourism communities are benefited from the uniqueness services and products that they supplied. Especially, these retailers are able to provide customized goods and services to meet customers’ expectations. Tourism-based retailers customarily supply goods and services that make tourists’ visit to the area more enjoyable and memorable (Kean, Niemeyer, & Miller, 1996).

The impact of pre-service expectations and post-service perceptions are examined through the customer purchase intentions and the retailer loyalty. The case results reveal several issues. First, even there is no difference for pre-purchase intentions for both tourist and local resident groups, but service expectations do affect the post-purchase intentions, and retailers have to start to consider that current business strategies are effective or not. If the current business strategies are ineffective, then more marketing strategies have to be formed to meet the customer expectations in order to attract and increase the post-purchase intentions. Another outcome reveals that the local residents go to purchase at retailer shops often, even they have lower post-service satisfactions than tourists. This indicates that retailers are too optimistic to their products and services; therefore, it is necessary to enhance the relationship and customer loyalty with local residents for a sustainable business. Furthermore, retailers have to differentiate the tourists and local residents’ needs because of the tourism seasonality effect. Retailers in rural tourism communities must overcome obstacles of remoteness and seasonality, while acknowledging the diverse needs of two distinct market segments: local customers and tourist...