When Do Customers Get What They Expect? Understanding the Ambivalent Effects of Customers’ Service Expectations on Satisfaction

Abstract

Extant research established that customers’ expectations play an ambivalent role in the satisfaction formation process: While higher expectations are more difficult to meet and thus cause dissatisfaction, they simultaneously increase satisfaction via customers’ perceived performance owing to a placebo effect. However, to date, knowledge is scarce on the question under which conditions either the positive or negative effect of expectations on satisfaction prevails. Building on information processing theory, the authors hypothesize that an essential contingency of the indirect, placebo-based effect is the degree to which customers are able and motivated to process a service experience. Three studies with a total of over 4,000 customers in different service contexts provide strong evidence for this hypothesis. Thus, managers are well advised to provide a realistic or even understated prospect if the service context favors customers’ ability or motivation to evaluate. Conversely, if customers are neither able nor motivated to evaluate the service, increasing customer expectations represents a viable strategy to enhance satisfaction. Relatedly, if customers hold low service expectations, managers should foster customers’ ability and motivation to evaluate the service. In contrast, if service expectations are high, managers may benefit from reducing the likelihood that customers overly focus on the service performance.

A new insight into alumni satisfaction model for Islamic higher education institutions (IHEI)

“…In the expectation approach, how the consumers expect their experiences from service consumption is assumed to be their anticipation for satisfaction in the absence of any assessment (comparison) of actual outcomes or performance. Hence, consumers are thought to adapt a certain level of performance and form their expectation consistent with the performance levels, and such expectations serve as a baseline for the satisfaction (Oliver, 1993; Appleton-Knapp and Krentler, 2006; Ofir and Simonson, 2007; Barlow et al , 2016; Habel et al , 2016).…”

When do forecasts fail and when not? Contingencies affecting the accuracy of sales managers’ forecast regarding the future business situation

“…Further, we focus on information processing theory (e.g., Sujan 1985) in order to find contingencies that might reduce this information or knowledge gap leading to reduced uncertainty and therefore to enhanced forecast accuracy. In a systematic information processing mode, decision makers evaluate information in a piecemeal manner leading to a deeper comprehension of the current decision situation (e.g., Habel et al 2016;Mills, Wu, and D'Mello 2017;Prinz, Bergmann, and Wittwer 2019). In turn, systematic information processing arises from the decision maker's ability to evaluate and motivation to evaluate (Petty and Cacioppo 1986).…”

Will the customers be happy? Identifying unsatisfied customers from service encounter data

“…further analyzing Identifying unsatisfied customers from encounter data the complex relationship between customer expectations and satisfaction. As Habel et al (2016) propose, it is worthwhile to explore if a controlled increase of customer expectation within a certain application might lead to significant changes in the satisfaction scores-or vice-versa. Another option in line with current research would allow to measure how the personalization of services influences the individual customer satisfaction (Rafaeli et al, 2017).…”