The effects of survey timing on perceptions of service quality Available to Purchase

Disconfirmation models of service quality have attracted a lot of discussion about how consumers’ expectations are formed, but relatively little about the nature of their perceptions of service performance. This paper seeks to redress the absence of literature on the psychological underpinnings of perceptions in disconfirmation models of service quality. It argues that an individual’s perceptions may not be stable over time and that suppliers should be particularly interested in consumers’ perceptions at the time that the next repurchase decision is made. A model of the time elapsed effects of service quality perception is presented and research reported on a longitudinal survey of hotel customers’ perceptions.