Consumer Decision-Making in the Purchase of Estate Agency Services

Abstract

The paucity of research into the ‘demand side’ of services can becontrasted with the plethora of ‘supply side’ investigations. Thispaper reviews consumers' pre-purchase choice and decision-making in services, and summarises the findings of a survey ofproperty vendors who have purchased the services of estateagents. The findings highlight the importance of non-rationaldecision-making in estate agency service purchase, and the keyrole played by personnel in shaping consumer behaviour; whilesuggesting that price and physical appearance of the serviceprovider are not major evaluative criteria. The paper concludesthat existing theory on consumer behaviour for services is inadequate and calls for the imbalance of research into the ‘demand side’ to be addressed.