Managing Consumer Expectations of Services

Future patronage decisions of service firms are closely linked to the quality of service and the level of satisfaction experienced during past and current service encounters. This research indicated there is a direct relationship between the level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction with service firms and patronage behavior but an inverse relationship between satisfaction with a service and the level of expectations consumers had prior to patronage. As consumer expectation increased the likelihood of meeting those expectations decreased creating a marketing dilemma which marketing managers of service firms must learn to manage. Based on these findings, managerial implications of how to manage consumer expectations to achieve both increased patronage behavior and a high level of customer satisfaction are discussed.