Exam 15: Consumer Relationships

Assume a customer is dissatisfied with a product purchased in a highly competitive market and there are low switching costs. How vulnerable is the company to defection by this customer?

Which term refers to the costs associated with changing from one choice, such as a brand, retailer, or service provider, to another?

Which type of switching costs involves lost time and effort?

Which term refers to the characteristic of relationship quality in which the consumer and firm understand each other and "speak the same language"?

Loyalty is a postconsumption affective reaction.

One characteristic of relationship quality is competence, which means the consumer views company and service providers as knowledgeable and capable.

Which term refers to the situation when a consumer chooses a competing choice, rather than the previously purchased choice, on the next purchase occasion?

Which term means that a consumer will tend to continue a pattern of behaviour until some stronger force motivates him or her to change?

One suggestion for handling consumer complaints effectively is to not admit any wrongdoing.

Alice would like to change dentists, but she dreads the time and effort it will take to find a new one. Which type of switching costs does this represent?

Relationship quality represents the degree of connectedness between a consumer and other consumers.

How is a complainer different from a non-complainer?

Which term refers to the portion of resources allocated to one brand from among the set of competing brands?

China Palace is a Chinese restaurant where a few customers recently suffered food poisoning. One customer was so mad that he tried to burn the restaurant down a week later. What type of behaviour did this disgruntled customer engage in?

Economic switching costs consist of the total economic resources that must be spent or invested as a consumer learns how to obtain value from a new product choice.

Opportunity switching costs involve lost time and effort.

After Starbucks changed their loyalty reward program, Sophia was so dissatisfied with how stars were to be rewarded to loyal customers that she went to #StarbucksRewards on Twitter and tweeted "@Starbucks I'm moving to @TheCoffeeBean because their rewards are better than what you propose. Adios #StarbucksRewards." Which type of behaviour did Sophia exhibit?

Personal switching costs refer to the emotional and psychological consequences of changing from one brand/retailer/service provider to another.

Satisfaction, joy, anger, and frustration are examples of postconsumption behaviours.

Angie was so embarrassed by her boyfriend's behaviour at a restaurant. The waiter brought out the wrong order and her boyfriend told him it was wrong but the waiter wasn't very nice about it. Then her boyfriend started yelling at him, calling him an idiot, and demanded to see the manager. People were staring at them and she just wanted him to stop carrying on like that. What type of behaviour was Angie's boyfriend demonstrating?