This document discusses marketing research objectives for understanding customer expectations and perceptions of services. Some common objectives include identifying dissatisfied customers, discovering customer requirements, monitoring service performance, and assessing gaps between customer expectations and perceptions. Effective research programs include both qualitative and quantitative research, measure perceptions and expectations, and occur with appropriate frequency. Various research methods are described, such as customer complaint solicitation, relationship surveys, mystery shopping, and focus groups. Finally, the document outlines the stages of the research process and ways to analyze findings using importance/performance matrices and zones of tolerance.