Three Stage of Service Consumption

Quiz 2

“Describe how the three-stage model of service consumption could explain consumer behavior in a low-contact service like investing.”

The three-stage model of service consumption is a customer decision making process of the service purchasing. There are three stages of the purchase process for service which are as follows: pre-purchase stage, service encounter stage and post-encounter stage.

A pre-purchase stage is a stage before making decision. In this stage, customers try to find solutions from service providers in order to fulfill their existing needs. They try to search information and evaluate which service provider can deliver the best solution for them in order to come up with the right decision. In this process, marketers have to be able to identify the needs of people, what are their expectations, what benefits or value they are looking for, in order to deliver what they need. Moreover, marketers can use external sources to stimulate customers’ needs. Therefore, it is necessary for marketers to do the research from time to time in order to monitor the change of consumer attitudes and behavior in each service.

The next stage is a service encounter stage which happens when the customer uses the service. Service encounters range from high contact to low contact according to the industry of each company. The level of contact refers to the difference of servuction system or service marketing system that we will discuss in detail at the end of the essay. It is very important for service providers to observe or notice consumers at this stage in order to understand and arrange pleasant market offerings to customers during encounters.

The last stage is a post-encounter stage, a stage after consumers use the service. Customers will compare service performance from their experience with their expectations. If service performance equals customer expectations, it means customers are satisfied with the service. If service performance exceeds than...