Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Figure 13.6 
Assessing 
customer 
satisfaction
Source : Adapted from 
Parasuraman, Zeithaml 
and Berry (1985) .
Promises
Past experiences
Word of mouth
Reliability
Assurance
Tangibles
Empathy
Responsiveness
Customer
expectations
Customer
experiences
Satisfaction
gap

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PROVIDING SUPERIOR SERVICE
Word-of-mouth communications with influencers and the customers’ past experiences also 
affect service level expectations.
Prior experiences with the service provider, or with similar providers, are often the 
starting point in creating expectations. When customers step into a restaurant they are 
often judging the experience based on other restaurants they have visited. They typically 
make verbal comparisons: ‘It was more relaxed than. . . ’; ‘The food was better than it was 
at. . . ’. In addition to the customer’s own prior experiences, expectations are also often 
affected by the opinions of friends, relatives or colleagues, who have related their experi-
ences. Depending on the standing of these opinion makers in the customer’s esteem, they 
can have a significant influence on what is expected, and even deter trial of a particular 
service.
A third major determinant of expectations is the promises the company itself makes 
prior to customers using it. These promises, by way of advertising messages, sales pitches 
and general image created through pricing strategies and so on, set up standards to which 
the company is expected to live. Pitching them can be difficult: promising too little may 
result in failing to attract the customers in the first place (they may be seduced by more 
attractive competitor promises); promising more than can be delivered may result in dis-
satisfied customers. The smarter companies manage their customers’ expectations at each 
step of the service encounter, so that expectations align with what the firm can actually 
deliver (Coye, 2004).