ch. 11

• Consumer Post-Choice Experience involves the consumer's perceptions and behaviors after making a purchase.
• The Consumer Post-Choice Model includes choice identification, decision confirmation, experience evaluation, satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and future response (exit, voice, loyalty).

Experience Evaluation

• Experience evaluation can be delayed or derailed.
• Consumption follows acquisition.
• Products may be acquired but never used.
• Experience evaluation is a mental process.
• Cognitive dissonance is doubt about the wisdom of choice.
• Buyer's remorse is cognitive dissonance.
• Experience evaluation uses the product and the realized benefits to feedback into the “decision confirmation” process, further affirming the wisdom of the choice or occasionally, disconfirming it.
• Preference Finality is the certitude vs tentativeness of a judgment that led to prefer and buy a product and is based on involvement with the product.
• Low involvement products are consumed without conscious evaluation.
• High involvement products are consumed with full consciousness of their performance.
• Evaluative Mode is consuming with the intention of evaluating the product's performance of high involvement consumers.
• Products must meet requirements and expectations in evaluative mode.

Satisfaction/ Dissatisfaction

• Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction is the positive or negative feeling after product use.
• These feelings influence future actions toward the brand and company.
• Getting satisfaction is the ultimate purpose of all consumer behaviors
• The choice the consumer makes must satisfy the consumer.
• If the product performs poorly, the consumer is dissatisfied.
• Satisfaction/dissatisfaction is caused by the product or services performance relative to expectations.
• Expectation Confirmation occurs when performance meets or exceeds expectations, leading to satisfaction.
• Expectation confirmation occurs when performance falls short, leading to dissatisfaction.

Consumer Satisfaction

• Achieving consumer satisfaction requires meeting consumer expectations about the product's quality.
• Quality is judged by performance level and consistency.
• Performance is the outcome of the product's use.
• Performance should occur every time (consistency).
• Consistency is less of a concern in advanced economies due to mass production, but it is important in underdeveloped economies.
• For services, quality judgments are based on the "what" and "how" of service.
• Outcome quality refers to the consequences of using the service
• Interaction Quality refers to the pleasantness of social interaction.

5 Dimensions of Service Quality

• Reliability: performing the service right the first time.
• Responsiveness: the service company responds to customer problems effectively.
• Assurance: instilling confidence in the consumer.
• Empathy: service employees empathize with, understand, and respect consumers.
• Tangibles: neat appearance of all tangibles (physical facility, vehicles, uniforms, etc.).

Measuring Satisfaction via Expectations Confirmation Model (Online)

• Site Navigation: easy site navigation is essential for satisfaction.
• Quality of product information: the website should provide quality information that is comprehensive, clear, and easy to understand.
• Shopping cart and order ease: easy item selection and ordering procedure, with features like saving the shopping cart and clear shipping costs.
• Privacy and trust features: secure transactions and clear privacy policies are crucial.

Post Purchase Factors

• Keeping the consumer informed about the order status via email updates.
• Order fulfillment: merchandise arrives on time and as expected.
• Problem Resolution: easy and cost-free resolution of order fulfillment mistakes.
• MultiChannel Customer Support: option to contact customer service through multiple channels.

Satisfaction Continuum

• Dissatisfaction: a negative experience, leading to no brand loyalty.
• Mere Satisfaction: absence of dissatisfaction, potentially leading to switching brands.
• Satisfaction as Contentment: prior expectations are met, resulting in moderate brand loyalty.
• Satisfaction as Enthusiasm: expectations are exceeded, resulting in strong brand loyalty.
• Satisfaction as Delight: an experience with highly positive emotions that exceed expectations, resulting in fanatical loyalty.

Future Response: Exit, Voice, or Loyalty

• Exit: consumers dump the brand and never buy it again.
• Voice: expressing satisfaction or dissatisfaction through word of mouth.
• Loyalty: Repeatedly buying the same brand and feeling a psychological commitment to it and spreading positive word of mouth.

Consumer Complaining

• The motivation to complain depends on dissatisfaction intensity, attribution (who is to blame?), and personality trait (self-confidence and aggressiveness).
• Some companies discourage complaints.
• Marketers may push consumers to take the exit option.
• Perceived Justice depends on how the company addresses the complaint.
• Resolving complaints to the consumer's full satisfaction can lead to re-patronizing the company.
• Perceived Justice is the consumer's perception of fair treatment during complaint resolution.
• Offering effective remedies and exceeding the perceived justice threshold can turn a dissatisfied customer into a stronger supporter.
• Customer Recovery refers to actions to remove dissatisfaction and to convert the unhappy customer into a satisfied consumer.
• Make Goods: offering refunds and concessions beyond consumer costs.
• Make goods should be easy to obtain with a sincere apology.

Consumer and Product Disposal

• Product disposal refers to the dispossession of product remnants.
• For consumable products, remnants are the containers.
• For durable products, remnants are old, unusable products.
• Recycling refers to submitting used products for reuse in making new products.

Choice+ Post Choice Involvement

• For low involvement products, purchase is immediate, and consumers don't want to go far or hassle.
• If the item is out of stock, consumers will buy another comparable brand.
• With high involvement purchases, purchase may have to wait until enough savings are accumulated or ancillary services are decided on .
• Sometimes, the entire decision process may need to be reopened.
• For low involvement products, the product fits into ongoing consumption patterns, and we consumer the product without conscious thought.
• If dissatisfied, consumers are unlikely to complain with low involvement products.
• With high involvement products, consumers continue to pay attention to product relation information and will likely engage in word of mouth passionately if the experience is unsatisfactory.
• At the disposal stage for high price items, consumers are to seek maximum salvage value.