An important feature in the service sector is that the clients act as co-producers. This co-production can be quite passive, like undergoing a beauty treatment. This relatively high degree of participation can affect the perception before, during and after the service providing process in a negative way. On the other hand, clients are less likely to complain since they are part of the process and can attribute a part of their discontentment to themselves.

Client Insecurity

Due to some of the features of the service market, the clients can potentially be insecure. They tend to be insufficiently convinced that a certain service will live up to their expectations. Important to notice here, is that in this context security is a relative concept.

Causes of Client Insecurity

Client insecurity is a consequence of the perceived risk, which is determined by two factors:

Quality perception: the estimated chance of a ‘bad buy’ depends on the perceived quality.
Involvement level: the personal interest in a ‘bad buy’ depends on the level of involvement of the client.

The basic characteristics of services has a large influence on these two factors, often more so than with physical products.

Quality Perception

In this context, quality is defined as ‘living up to the expectations of the client’. Doubt, or even fear that the service won’t live up to the expectations can be caused by some general factors, such as the complexity of the service, or bad previous experiences, and so on.

There are also specific causes for the problem of quality perception, which are based on the differences between goods and services:

The way through which needs are fulfilled: goods provide physical, touchable objects to achieve this, whereas services don’t. They fulfill needs through an immaterial process.
The outcome of the process: physical goods in themselves, already provide evidence that the production process went well. Services on the other hand, are less visible and often clients just have to wait and see to know it will go well.
The price: in many forms of service providing, the price depends on the size of the necessary process, in contrast to goods, where the price is already set before the client invests.

Involvement Level

The perceived risk also depends on the personal interest of the client in the acquisition of the service. A bad performance can have financial, psychological, social and functional consequences. This is reinforced by the transitory nature of service. Once a service has been provided, it is often not possible or meaningful to replace or fix it. Like a cab that was too late, or a plane that someone has missed.