Customer perception

Customer perception
See also
Perception of brand Brand equity measure Global marketing strategy Brand promise Perceived quality Components of brand Hospitality product quality Product quality Competitive positioning

Customer perception include impressions, awareness, knowledge and feelings about a given product or company that buyers have, comparing it with competing products. Customer perception is influenced by:

• preferences for quality or price
• positions of competitive products on the map of product perception,
• weaknesses and strengths of the product or service
• product features that give it the best chance of being seen and accepted by buyers.

Customer perception of company's brand in the awareness should occupy a specific, distinctive and desirable place in comparison with the products of the competition. It is strongly affected by advertising, marketing mix, public relations activities and social media mentions.

E-commerce and customer perception

E-commerce (electronic commerce) develops quickly and globally so companies use electronical commerce to interact with consumers to obtain a competitive advantage. The key indicators of the defeat or success of companies that use e-commerce are presence on the website, quality of electronic services and low price. Assessment of the provision of e-service on the virtual market and the general appreciation of the client determine the quality of e-service. The quality of service is awkward to demystify and measure. The quality of services affects consumption decisions so service quality indicators are used to appraise the quality of contentment with e-commerce channels and virtual community web pages. Customers do not appraise each sub-process closely during a singular visit to an online shop. Services are perceived by them as a general process and effect. The quality of e-services is a crucial consideration for customers because they can more easily collate prices and technical attribute of the product by the internet than through conventional channels. Web customers anticipate higher or identical service quality levels than conventional channel customers.

SERVQUAL

SERVQUAL is a model that is used to measure customer perception of the services quality. This model consists of five dimensions. Lee G.G. and Lin H.H. mention about:

• "tangibles (physical facilities and the appearance of personnel)
• reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately)
• responsiveness (willingness help customers and provide prompt service)
• empathy (caring and individualized attention provided to customers by the service provider)"

Measuring the quality of the web service is a challenge because there are inequalities between this service and conventional customer service.

Company and customer perception

The company should create a climate for services to encourage customers to use the services of this company. The climate is the common perceptions of the employees of processes, kind of conduct and practices that are rewarded and advocated in a concrete setting. Sometimes in the company is many climates. The climate is the climate for something, for example for a innovation, service. The climate for service is a climate with regard to service of customer and the quality of this service. The service climate in the company will be stronger if employees notice that delivering a high quality of service is rewarded. This climate gives customers positive experiences and a positive perception of the quality of the company's services.

Ndubisi N. O. mentions about five prospects for measuring and defining quality of service. These perspectives are:

• "the transparent view
• the product-based approach
• user based definitions
• the maufacturing-based approach
• the value-based definitions"

The coordination of operations of each function results in high quality of service.

Steps to achieve the optimal interface of customer-service

To accomplish the optimal interface of customer-service can may use of these steps:

1. Determine procedures or standards of the interface of service, behaviour and requisite appearance
2. Determine duration of customers waiting and the duration of service for each segment or class of customers which are served by each employee of service
3. Give conspicuous incentives as well as performance reviews treads
4. Follow up and give apparent performance encouragements for best performance of service.

References

• Lee G.G., Lin H.F. (2005). Customer perceptions of e‐service quality in online shopping. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 33 Issue: 2
• Ndubisi, N. O. (2003). Service quality: understanding customer perception and reaction, and its impact on business. Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business, 5(2), 207-219.
• Schneider B, White S.S., Paul M.C. (1998). Linking Service Climate and Customers Perceptions of Service Quality: Test of a Causal Model. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 83, No.2, 150 – 163.

Footnotes

Author: Joanna Zawiślan