1. Characteristics of consumers
of financial services
Drisya Saseendran

2. • Howcroft et al. (2003) identify five characteristics of
financial service consumers.
• During information search consumers rely more on
personal sources, such as recommendations of
friends and family.
• In service evaluations, consumers rely on a limited
number of quality cues, of which the majority is
related to the price and the physical aspects of the
service offering.
• In a face of many alternatives, consumers might
just pick out the first acceptable offering instead of
maximizing satisfaction by evaluating all the
different options

3. • Due to the intangibility, consumers perceive greater risk while
purchasing services and especially financial services.
• Finally, because of the greater risks, consumers tend to rely more on
brand loyalty and achieve toward a relationship with the service
organization.

4. Other characteristics
• Financial services consumers always prefer a personal, interactive
relationship with the service provider so that they know the
consumers very well.
• Financial service consumers prefer service providers who ensure
customer orientation ;those who consider their business needs and
what products should be beneficial for them.
• Financial services consumers prefer those service providers who
satisfy all their service needs and process their financing related
questions in a timely manner.
• Consumers prefer service providers who provide required information
to them so that they are equipped for making right decisions.
• Factors influencing choice of a bank by a customer are location
convenience, speed of service, competence and friendliness of bank
personnel.
• Ethnicity of consumer has a strong impact on consumption.
• Consumer satisfaction is influenced by service quality, service
features,service problems etc.

5. Financial traits exhibited by consumers.
• Consumers approach financial matters in a
variety of ways
Four dominant financial traits.
• • Financial planning: the extent to which a person
takes a long or short-term perspective when
• making financial decisions.
• • Financial risk: the willingness of an individual to
take on financial risk.
• • Financial engagement: the level of interest in
financial matters.
• • Financial decision making: whether a person bases
their financial decisions on intuitive factors such as
trust, or by analysing data and options.

6. FINANCIAL PLANNING
• Short term
• Tend to make financial decisions quickly
• with little thought for long-term
• consequences. Want to know “What’s in it
• for me now?” Point-of-sale information has
• greatest impact.
• Long term
• Want to know longer-term benefits and risks.
• Seek comprehensive information before
• making decision. Appreciate financial
• planning tools (e.g. online calculators).

7. FINANCIAL RISK
• Risk averse
• Will not knowingly expose themselves to the
• chance or risk of financial loss (though may
• not have sufficient knowledge to appreciate
• the true risks of different financial products).
• Risk tolerant
• Are willing to take financial risks in the hope
• of achieving favourable outcomes, and to
• tolerate some losses.

8. FINANCIAL ENGAGEMENT
• Engaged Are interested in and knowledgeable
about financial services.
• Wish to manage their own finances, view as hobby
not chore.
• Seek out relevant information. Enjoy using tools.
• Disengaged
• Are disinterested in and/or fearful of personal
finance.
• Tend to lack understanding of financial offerings,
and disinclined to learn more.
• Prefer simple explanations without jargon or
complex descriptions.

9. FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING
• Intuitive
• Tend to make financial decisions based on
intuitive factors such as instinct, trust, brand
or recommendation.
• Seek reassurance, need to feel decision is
right one for them
• Data-driven
• Tend to use logical, information-heavy
approach (e.g. weighing up pros and cons).
• Focus on facts and figures so that they can
easily compare different offers. Need to
know they have considered all options.

10. Conclusion…
• It is apparent that there is a noticeable
absence of any general conceptual
framework that describes how consumers
buy services
• There is a real need for marketing theories
and concepts to be developed specifically for
services
• The framework adopted by the interaction
approach already has potential for general
application in services as well as financial
services