MARK270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Servqual, Mystery Shopping, Official Statistics
Listening to customers through research:
In the following slides:
• Using customer research to understand customer expectations.
• Elements in an effective service marketing research program.
• Analysing and interpreting customer research findings.
• Using marketing research information.
• Upward communication.
Common research objectives for services:
• To discover customer requirements or expectations for service.
• To monitor and track service performance.
• To assess overall company performance compared with that of competition.
• To assess gaps between customer expectations and perceptions.
• To identify dissatisfied customers, so that service recovery can be attempted.
• To gauge effectiveness of changes in service delivery.
• To appraise the service performance of individuals and teams for evaluation, recognition, and
rewards.
• To determine customer expectations for a new service.
• To monitor changing customer expectations in an industry.
• To forecast future expectations of customers.
Criteria for an effective service research programme:
• Includes both qualitative and quantitative research.
• Includes both expectations and perceptions of customers.
• Balances the cost of the research and the value of the information.
• Includes satisfactory validity when necessary.
• Measures priorities or importance of attributes.
• Occurs with appropriate frequency.
• Includes measures of loyalty, behavioural intentions, or actual behaviour.
Portfolio of services research:
Research is NOT just surveys.
• Customer complain solicitation
• Critical incident studies
• Requirements research
• Relationship and servqual surveys
• Trailer calls or post transaction surveys
• Service expectations meetings and reviews
• Process checkpoint evaluations
• Mystery shopping
• Customer panels
• Lost customer research
• Future expectations research
Common means for answering questions:
1. Ask customers directly
• Mail, phone, face-to-face, online
• One-on-one, in groups, formal/informal
2. Observing customers
• Anthropological tools, qualitative depth
3. Get information from employees and front line service providers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
4. Database marketing research
• Use customer information files
• "capture" behaviour through data analysis
Conducting customer research in emerging markets:
Very different to developed markets
See global feature p. 134
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
In the following slides: using customer research to understand customer expectations, elements in an effective service marketing research program, analysing and interpreting customer research findings, using marketing research information, upward communication. Includes both expectations and perceptions of customers: balances the cost of the research and the value of the information, measures priorities or importance of attributes, occurs with appropriate frequency. Includes measures of loyalty, behavioural intentions, or actual behaviour. Research is not just surveys: customer complain solicitation, critical incident studies, requirements research, relationship and servqual surveys, trailer calls or post transaction surveys, process checkpoint evaluations, mystery shopping, customer panels. Common means for answering questions: ask customers directly, mail, phone, face-to-face, online, one-on-one, in groups, formal/informal, observing customers, anthropological tools, qualitative depth, get information from employees and front line service providers, database marketing research, use customer information files. "official" statistics: types of questions, the law, who to interview, confidentiality.
