Susan Munro

Susan Munro, a fi nal-year business student, had breakfast and then checked the weather app on her iPhone. It predicted rain, so she grabbed an umbrella before leaving the apartment. On the way to the bus stop, she dropped a letter in a mailbox. The bus arrived on schedule. It was the usual driver, who recognized her and greeted her cheerfully as she showed her commuter pass. On arriving at her destination, Susan walked to the College of Business. Joining a crowd of other students, she found a seat in the lecture theater where her marketing class was held. The professor was a dynamic individual who believed in having an active dialog with the students. Susan made several contributions to the discussion and felt that she had learned a lot from listening to others' analyses and opinions. After class, Susan and her friends ate lunch at the recently renovated Student Union. It was a well-lit and colorfully decorated food court, featuring a variety of small stores. These included both local suppliers and brand-name fastfood chains, which offered different types of cuisine. There were stores selling sandwiches, crepes, health foods, a variety of Asian cuisine, and desserts. Although Susan wanted a sandwich, there was a long queue at the Subway outlet. Thus, she joined her friends at Burger King and then splurged on a caf latte from the Have-a-Java coffee stand. The food court was unusually crowded, perhaps because of the rain. When they fi nally found a table, they had to clear away the dirty trays. "Lazy slobs!" commented her friend Mark, referring to the previous customers. After lunch, Susan stopped at the cash machine, inserted her bank card, and withdrew some money. When she remembered that she had a job interview at the end of the week, she telephoned her hairdresser and made an appointment for later. When she left the Student Union, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Susan looked forward to her visit to the hairdresser. The store, which had a bright, trendy dcor, was staffed by friendly hairdressers. Unfortunately, the hairstylist was running late, and Susan had to wait for 20 minutes. She used that time to review a human resources course. Some of the other waiting customers were reading magazines provided by the store.

Eventually, it was time for a shampoo, after which the hairstylist proposed a slightly different cut. Susan agreed, although she drew the line at the suggestion that she lighten her hair color. She had never done it before and was unsure about how it would look. She did not want to take the risk just before her job interview. She sat still, watching the process in the mirror and turning her head when asked. She was very pleased with the result and complimented the hairstylist on her work. She tipped the hairstylist and paid at the reception desk. On the way home, Susan stopped by the dry cleaners to pick up some clothes. The store was rather gloomy and smelled of cleaning solution, and the walls needed repainting. She was annoyed to fi nd that although her silk blouse was ready as promised, the suit that she needed for the interview was not. The assistant, who had dirty fi ngernails, mumbled an apology in an insincere tone. Although the store was conveniently located and the quality of work was quite good, Susan considered the employees unfriendly and unhelpful, and was unhappy with their service. However, she had no choice but to use them as there were no other dry cleaners nearby. Back at her apartment building, she opened the mailbox in the lobby. Her mail included a bill from her insurance company. However, it required no action since the payment had been deducted automatically from her MasterCard. She was about to throw away the junk mail when she noticed a fl yer promoting a new dry-cleaning store nearby. It even included a discount coupon. She decided to try the new fi rm and kept the coupon. Since it was her turn to cook dinner, Susan looked in the kitchen to see what food was available. She sighed when she realized that there was nothing much. She decided to make a salad and call for the delivery of a large pizza. This story of Susan's day as a service consumer will follow us throughout this chapter to illustrate service-related consumer behavior concepts and theories.

Discuss this case.