Chantale and Clinton Call for Service

CHANTALE AND CLINTON CALL FOR SERVICE

Customer value or customer perceived value is the trade off between the costs acquiring by purchasing a product and the benefits derived from using the same product. It is very important that the benefits outweigh the costs so that the product has value to purchaser. This paper will focus on the non-monetary costs associated with purchasing a new refrigerator for the Rileys household.

The Rileys are loyal customers of The Canadian department store and its private brand, Bryand. However their most recent experience with the Bryand fridge and its customer service had a lot of Psychological Costs to the family, especially Chantale and Clinton. Psychological cost is the mental effort and exertion that the customer undertakes to buy and use the product. It started from the first call Clinton made to the customer service department and the representative provided him with inaccurate information regarding the energy saving capabilities of the new fridge, which was the main reason for the family to buy a new refrigerator in first place. Then on June 29th Clinton had to cancel appointment with a client for the technician to arrive and later that day since the fridge still had not been fixed, they missed a previously planned special dinner occasion for Chantale’s brother, whom was coming from France. Last but not least under psychological cost we can point out to the fact that on July 3rd and 4th no one showed up to repair the product. These events had created a lot of mental pressure, frustration and anger for Clinton since he had to call, wait on the line, explain the over repeatedly and at the end see no result.

As mentioned in the case, Rileys did some shopping around, discovered the brand that will work best for them and travelled to The Canadian to buy it. This is Time and Energy cost for customer, which is the time invested by the customer through the buying process and the use of the product. The fact that each time the refrigerator broke down one family member had to stay home to receive the maintenance guy or all the time wasted on the phone, are extra energies invested due to bad service. Also the additional travels to grocery store to buy food more frequently than usual or going out to buy ice for the cooler are all time consuming. Here one can argue that all these extra time and energy could have been spent in a more productive way for the family, for instance, Clinton could have spent it with the scheduled client, which potentially would bring benefits to the family. This is the definition of Opportunity cost endured by customer.

There are other non-monetary costs that Rileys had to face. Disposal Cost, which is the cost that had been forced upon the family for disposing the food more frequently than usual due to not having a fridge that works properly nor being serviced in timely manner by The Canadian maintenance department. There is Maintenance