CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS VS INDUSTRY STANDARDS
Among many changes which have taken place in regard to business-consumer relationship is the enactment of industry standards which aimed at instilling trust to the customers in their transactions. Well, it was a great idea because consumer loyalty was the result. After the standards were passed, consumers felt that they were being taken care of and that led to expansion of many businesses especially in the sector of food industry which initially was treated with a lot of suspicion because of many instances it had been associated with offering unhealthy food stuffs to the consumers (Pleger, 2016).
Some of the industrial standards which were passed ensured that consumers are taken care of in terms of ensuring that whatever the industries produced abide by the healthy standards and that made consumers to have confidence while purchasing industrial products because they believed that all had been taken care of by the standards (Tsang & Qu, 2011). And for sure that was the case, but not in all sectors of the economy since there are some of the industries which took advantage of the confidence from those standards to exploit their consumers.
Consumer expectations have always been in line with the industrial standards enacted but the results have always been negative. There have not been any interventions in regard to the enacted standards and more specifically in the food industry were cases of unhealthy practices have become the order of the day (Pleger, 2016). I mean, how many times we have heard of unhealthy practices in this industry despite of there being standards guarding the industry practices? A live example is that of Puerto Rico, an early sexual development epidemic which came about as a result of consumers being fed on locally natured chicken which contained high levels of estrogen.
In conclusion, industry standards can be seen as just scapegoats which have been used by different industries just to maintain consumer loyalty. They are no longer adhered to and that has been a betrayal to consumer expectations.
References
Pleger Bebko, C. (2016). Service intangibility and its impact on consumer expectations of service quality. Journal of Services Marketing, 14(1), 9-26.
Tsang, N., & Qu, H. (2011). Service quality in China’s hotel industry: a perspective from tourists and hotel managers. International journal of contemporary hospitality management, 12(5), 316-326.