Benchmarking in service marketing – a longitudinal analysis of the customer

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the temporal development of the customers' psychological state, described by a multitude of constructs, throughout the whole decision‐making process in a service context in order to derive ideas for customer‐focused benchmarking.

A combination of qualitative and quantitative data contributes to a better understanding of psychological phenomena during purchase decision making. The present longitudinal study investigates the consumers' psychological state during the decision‐making process considering services in tourism industry applying the diary method. Qualitative in‐depth investigation of individual case studies provides further information for interpreting the results of quantitative analyses which aim at measuring constructs such as perceived risk, cognitive dissonance (CD), satisfaction and arousal on a higher level of abstraction.

Findings show that qualitative and quantitative data not only complement one another but also their interaction provides additional information about the individual consumer decision‐making process. As the longitudinal quantitative analysis shows that CD does not completely dissolve over time and significantly influences the level of satisfaction, complaint behaviour and word‐of‐mouth, additional qualitative data help interpret these findings and derive more effective marketing implications.

Implications for the marketing‐mix of service companies in general and travel agencies in particular are derived. The paper underlines the potential of innovational methodological approaches in marketing research.

The paper introduces a longitudinal mixed‐method approach to collect customer‐focused information relevant for benchmarking purposes of service companies. It contributes to scientific knowledge of decision making in general and CD in particular.