Ch. 6 Consumer Decision Making

Consumer Decision Making

Commuters want and need to get to work daily therefore they need to pay to travel with mass transit or even pay to park. Transit commuters have to decide if Transit Center benefits are for them in long run. For example New york city employee and employers commuters have to determine whether transit benefits is the best service. They evaluate the cost for a regular metro if they had not signed signed up for transit benefits. It is a psychological factor as well, many people like to see what they are getting themselves into before purchasing product or service. These consumers may practice extensive decision making. They do their research before selecting this service. Transit center allows their commuter to choose their monthly expenses for commuting up to 230 dollars a month versus MTA where they offer standard  monthly and weekly metro cards and pay as you go. Transit center benefits allows you to choose your monthly expenses for both parking and mass transit, at the same time allows you to save with it's  pre-tax benefit. Once employees enroll in your company's TransitChek Program, they choose the amount from their paycheck to go toward their commute.  That amount gets deducted before taxes. Then commuters receive a commuter benefit product, either a card, pass or voucher, which will allow them to pay for commuting expenses, tax-free. This is an example of giving consumers flexibility and assurance that their money is being used properly.

Transit center tries to reduce discordance from consumers by allowing them to go online and manage benefits also using web friendly site to show commuters how much they are saving with transit commuter benefits. In addition to that tells commuters who care about the environment they live how they save money and reduce carbon emissions.

The stages of consumer decision making process:

The first stage that would lead a employee/commuter to enroll in Transit Center is the Need recognition of transit. Commuters know that they need mass transit to travel from home to work and back. Commuter in new york city for example will instantly think of purchasing metro cards to get them around mass transit. The objective is saving!


The information search takes place when companies are introduce to Transit Center Benefits. When the company has enrolled, the human resources department then introduce the services to employees of the company and inform them what Transit Center is about and how these are benefits for their employees. The employees then have to determine if this program benefits them. They start the comparison from purchasing the metro card directly from MTA kiosk or to save through transit center Transitchek program. Needless to say Transit center has helped over 500,000 employees save more than $110 million in taxes, while employers have saved over $35 million in payroll taxes. In addition Transit center sends out a positive message that attracts it's customers " Everyone benefits".

For the alternative evaluation stage its not very important because there are not too many employee commuter benefit programs that offer service such as Transit Center. The consumer does not have to compare services. Transit center service allows commuters to choose the amount from their paycheck to go toward their commute.  That amount gets deducted before taxes. It's that easy !

When employees are enrolled in Transit Center commuter benefit program and they start to understand how effective and convenient this service is, the "purchase" of service have been completed. However the post purchase behavior of the individual is to determine if this service has saved them money for the year.