Consumer behaviour and services: A review

This article reviews the current literature in the fields of consumer behaviour and the marketing of services in order to examine the main issues facing the consumer in purchasing services, as opposed to goods. Five distinguishing characteristics of services are discussed and the implications of these for the consumers are placed within the information processing model of consumer behaviour theory. The article suggests that there are particular problems for consumers in acquiring effective information regarding services, making comparisons on the basis of that information and subsequently evaluating the service encounter. It is our contention that unless consumer responses to the particular problems associated with services are clarified, service marketing may be in danger of pursuing provider-orientated solutions rather than understanding the actual nature of the consumer decision process when purchasing services.