Learning from a Wrong Consumer Perception: Bridging the Gap Between Created Value and Perceived Value

In the light of the development of E-CRM, the right customer perception of web site can improve management and customer relationships and better orients web site goals. This is true particularly in a specific market as well as the online tourism. The aim of this work is to underline how a wrong consumer perception may affect goals of a web site and consequently what management have to learn from this misunderstanding. The theoretical analysis is established on a tourism site web called Terremobili (Italy) through a learning approach that shows the misinterpretation between management and customer perception about the offer of this web site. Interviewing management and analyzing information, we demonstrated that the web site initially did not meet consumer needs and beliefs, and, moreover, its structure generated a wrong perception of consumer observation. The study offers useful details about which consequences firms may suffer because of a wrong customer perception of the web site generating opportunistic behaviors. Conclusion underlines the need of a perceptive concordance between management and customer perception as a way for the businesses to aim their goals.