3.3 The Stage of Evaluation

It is during this stage that I had considered a number of other options before making my final decision. There were a number of other handphone service firms that could provide the similar kind of services and in making an evaluation of these firms, I used information that is obtained mostly from personal sources. This stage of the process is very important for a firm in order to win their customer as it is the stage where the customer either accepts or rejects the firm and these would be premised on their good and bad points. A firm that manages to gain the most good points would likely to win the loyalty of a customer (Adcock et al, 2001), (Guiltinan, 1996). In this case, it is apparent that the most appropriate selection was that of the Nokia service center as it provided the kind of services that were required and there was also a guarantee of the services provided, as opposed to other firms that had not given such a thing. Nokia has done well in relation to this stage as it had provided customers with a great amount of information in relation to the services being offered and what the benefits were for as customer like me with an issue like this (Kotler, 2008).

3.4 The Stage of Purchasing

It is at this stage that the customer makes the decision to purchase from a particular company and in this case, I has decided on the Nokia firm and this decision was made on an informed premise and relying on the information that is had obtained in terms of the nature of the services and feedback on it (Kotler, 2008).

3.5 The Stage of Post-purchase Evaluation

It is at this stage that a customer like me would take part in making a post-purchase evaluation. People like me are very concerned customers and are likely to be impacted by what is terms as being cognitive dissonance and this relates to the kind of perception that is apparent after a customer has made a purchase. It might be the case that an alternative would be preferable and when matters like these arise, it would be the case that a customer would be unlikely to use the same kind of services again and might change to other service providers (Joshi, 2005). Companies like these would have the task of addressing cognitive dissonance through ensuring that the kind of services that were provided were likely to have achieved my needs and wants. This is essential in order to make the customer be of the opinion that they have made the correct decision to use the services of Nokia and not other companies. Nokia has assured me that they had the technical knowledge on serving these kinds of hand phones and that going to ordinary service centers might compromise the use of my handphone and its service efficiency.

4.0 Analysis of the 4 p’s

The purpose of the framework would be to help a customer like me to decide as to whether to utilize the services of Nokia. This marketing mix would make reference to the kind of decisions that a firm would make in terms of make their services to be apparent to customers and the market. The 4Ps would be inclusive of the following:

1. The Service

2. The Place

3. The Price

4. The Promotion

(Kotler, 2009) (Joshi, 2005)