Service Complexity Perception

What it measures

Four items measure the degree to which a consumer perceives a service category as complicated and hard to understand, requiring substantial knowledge to evaluate and use effectively.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

Scale items

• I would have to know a lot to take full advantage of the options/programs offered by this type of service. [item may be truncated]
• The offerings in this industry are difficult to understand.
• A salesperson selling this kind of service needs to know a lot to do a good job.
• This service is complicated in nature.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Appears original to Burnham, Frels, and Mahajan (2003). Alphas .70 (long-distance service) and .82 (credit card). The higher alpha (.82) was obtained for the credit card context; long-distance was below threshold. Item 1 appears truncated—verify full wording against original article.

Citation

Burnham, T. A., Frels, J. K., & Mahajan, V. (2003). Consumer switching costs: A typology, antecedents and consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(2), 109–126.

Keywords