ServiceFriday: Confidence is Key – The Uncertain Consumer and Attribute Alignment

Is there any real difference between choosing a fast food place for dinner and choosing a pediatrician for your child? Absolutely there is, but the reason goes beyond the context of the service’s impact. One is an experience service, which is a service with attributes that can be evaluated with actual experience of the service. The other is a credence service, which is a service with attributes that are difficult to evaluate even with experience. But how exactly do these attributes affect the consumer thought process and subsequent purchase behavior?

“Alignable attributes” are the attributes that are shared but differ in value across options whereas “nonalignable attributes” are the attributes that belong to only one option. A set of studies published in the Journal of Consumer Research investigated how the type of service impacted which attributes consumers relied more on for comparison. Researchers also focused on the role of uncertainty as a mediating factor among the studies.

The objective of Study 1 was to examine the weighting of alignable and nonalignable attributes in the evaluation of experience and credence services. Participants read a booklet that contained attribute descriptions of either two restaurants (experience) or two physicians (credence). They then were tasked with indicating their purchase likelihood, writing down their thoughts while comparing, describing their confidence level and familiarity with the service, and grading the attractiveness of each attribute. “Participants relied on alignable attributes when evaluating the two experience service options, but they focused more on nonalignable attributes when evaluating the two credence service options.” researchers discovered.

Study 2 examined the role of uncertainty in consumers’ reliance on alignable versus nonalignable attributes when evaluating different service options. Participants were assigned to each of four conditions where they were given information about either two experience or credence service options. They were also given 10 reviews of the two options but one condition had five people prefer one option and five the other (high uncertainty condition) while the other condition had 9 people prefer one option versus one person preferring the other (low uncertainty condition). For the experience service options, participants in the uncertainty condition were closer to a 50-50 split on preference. “For the credence services, participants allocated more points to the superior-nonalignable option even when uncertainty was low and their preference for the superior-nonalignable option was accentuated when uncertainty was high.”

Managerial implications

The two crucial findings from this research are: a) consumers focus more on nonalignable attributes as the basis for evaluation of credence services and b) the higher level of uncertainty associated with credence services underlies consumer’s reliance on nonalignable attributes.

“Our findings suggest that managers should take attribute alignability and uncertainty into consideration when developing positioning and communication strategies, as consumers make comparisons between alternatives all the time.” For experience service provider, researchers suggest managers build on their alignable attributes (e.g. a bank offering more competitive interest rates). For the credence service provider, researchers recommend creating innovative and distinctive attributes (e.g. an insurance company offering personalized consultation).

“For those credence service providers that do not have a dominant nonalignable attribute and are competing on alignable attributes, framing the service as a low-uncertainty purchase decision might render their offerings more attractive.”

To explore the full article, go to the Journal of Consumer Research. (A fee may apply.)