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Problem Augmentation in Services: Consumer Gratitude or Frustration? An Extended Abstract

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Abstract

Consider scenario 1: a customer delivers his car to a garage before work to have a standard 50,000 km service. The car mechanic rings the customer and suggests that in addition to the service, there are a number of other components that should be replaced to improve the car’s performance. Scenario 2: a customer agrees to a bathroom renovation budgeted at $15,000. During the renovation the builder suggests that the house should be re-stumped at an additional cost of $10,000. These scenarios represent examples of problem augmentation, whereby a service provider expands the scope of the customer’s presented problem or need. We ask: What does the customer feel in these scenarios? Who does the customer blame for these additional problems? Do they take the advice of the service provider?

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Correspondence to Aphrodite Vlahos .

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Vlahos, A., Bove, L. (2017). Problem Augmentation in Services: Consumer Gratitude or Frustration? An Extended Abstract. In: Rossi, P. (eds) Marketing at the Confluence between Entertainment and Analytics. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47331-4_153

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