Customer Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Customer Behaviour - Essay Example Three key concepts, service quality, satisfaction, and customer loyalty are no longer the centre of creating a relationship with consumers. The latest trend in emphasis in relationship to the consumer is value (Foss 2011). Creating value for the consumer, or at the very least the appearance of value, has emerged as the economic crisis has created a dynamic in which economic restraint is in fashion. Therefore, expenditures are assessed for the value in contrast to the cost that is experienced by the consumer. While value may be at the forefront of the corporate goals in relationship to consumer expectations, service quality, satisfaction and customer loyalty comes through the value that is attached to a product or service. While these concepts may seem to have become set aside in favour of value, value is defined by these aspects so that the consumer feels they are getting the best possible service and product for their money. One cannot truly create value if quality and satisfaction are not met, and without quality and satisfaction, loyalty will not be the result. In trying to determine value, it is important to set criteria through which the company can operate and the consumer can perceive the value of their purchase. As an example, if a company can build computers for a lower rate, but still maintain high quality that have added an aspect of value for the consumer. ... Customer value comes when people become customers through repetitive buying behaviours, though adapting to the culture of the product line, and through becoming a resource that is then tapped in order to create further success. Understanding how customer value is achieved requires understanding consumer behaviour. Thus an understanding of the relationship between the organisation and the consumer can be achieved (Samover, Porter, and McDaniel 2011). The necessity to understand how value to the consumer and customer value is achieved must be attained through an understanding of relationships as they are defined through service quality, satisfaction and customer loyalty provides for the comprehensive understanding of customer value and in achieving value for the customer. Without the foundational concepts, the idea of value becomes a meaningless term with no basic understanding. It is essential that service quality, satisfaction and customer loyalty be involved in the construction of t he overall dynamic of the relationship that exists between the organisation and the consumer. Through these concepts, value is constructed Value The idea of value is based upon the exchange of use for benefit. From the perspective of the consumer, a product provides value through the benefits that are achieved in its use in comparison to the money that was spent to achieve the purpose that was intended. Value to a consumer, in this economic stage of history, is defined on a great number of levels, some of which are at the basic level, others residing at the level of self-actualisation. If Maslow’s Theory of Needs is applied to the concept of value, the basic needs such as food, shelter, and safety are