What are the steps of the buying decision process?

Most of the successful companies research the buying decision process involved in their category. They ask the consumer when they first became acquainted with the product category and brands, what are their brand beliefs, how involved t1fey are with the product, how and how satisfied they are after purchase.
In a typical buying process the consumer passes through five stages:

Problem Recognition: The buying process begins when the buyer recognizes problem or need. The need can be triggered by internal or external stimuli. In the case, a person’s normal needs are hunger, thirst sex that rises to the threshold level becomes a drive.
In the latter case, a need is aroused by external stimulus. A person passes bakery sees fresh toasted bread that stimulates his hunger.
Marketers need to, identify the circumstances that trigger a particular need. Through marketing research the marketers can identify the most frequent stimuli that spark an interest in a product category. They can then develop appropriate trigger consumer interest.

Information Search: An aroused consumer will be inclined to search for more information. The consumer information sources fall into three groups:
Personal Sources: Family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, etc.
Commercial Sources: Advertising, sales persons, dealers, packaging, displays, etc.
Public Sources: Mass media, consumer ratings organizations, etc.
As a result of gathering information the consumer increases his awareness of availability of the service and its attributes.
In purchasing services, the customer tends to rely on the personal sources the personal experience in using these services.

Evaluation of Alternatives: The consumer evaluates the alternative services that satisfy his needs with the available information. He evaluates the distinct features of the service provider, quality and price. In case of services, the available alternatives are relatively smaller than the goods, because brand choice in services is limited. The quality of service can only be experienced but it is difficult to compare with other service firms purchase information of the service cannot be obtained.
In evaluating alternative for the purchase decision, the customers ranking in order importance the factors that contributes towards the purchase decision. For example, choosing a restaurant the customer considers factors such as food quality, menu, price, atmosphere and convenience. However, the importance attached to these factors may differ according to the purpose of visit to the restaurant.

Purchase Decision: After carrying out a thorough evaluation of the various alternatives, the customer chooses that service provider who will be able to satisfy his needs. The purchase of service is an experience which leads to satisfaction of customer needs. Production and consumption of service is a simultaneous activity. The service encounter involves interaction of the service provider and the customer. The success of the service largely depends on the service encounter. Hence, apart from motivating the staff to deliver the service, the service provider must also be aware of the moods and the emotions of the customer and try to influence those moods and emotions In ,a positive way. There are many factors that can be used in order to influence moods. the Ambience, Design of –Physical Setting, Limiting Waiting Time, Scheduling of Customers and Motivating the Staff who interact with the Customers.
At times the presence of other customers during service delivery may influence the service experience of the customer for an example a restaurant, resort, clubs, airlines etc.

Post-Purchase Behaviour: Only after experiencing the service, the customer will be able to judge the quality of service in relation to his expectations and actual service received. The consumer will experience some level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In some like the legal services, the customer will find it difficult to judge the service rendered -even after receiving the service.
The evaluation of the service received received gets further complicated by the role played by the customer in the “‘d livery process. Sometimes customers attribute some of the dissatisfaction with the services to their own disability to specify their needs or failure to perform their part of the service, rather than completely blame the service provider.