Exploring Transformative Service Consumers’ Life Regrets

This research explores the fundamental life regrets of Australian transformative service consumers. Life regrets influence consumers’ decisions and yet it is under-researched, especially the area of profound life regrets that may result from transformative service experiences. Life regrets are difficult, mostly irreversible decisions that may fundamentally reshape transformative consumers’ worldviews. Using semi-structured, convergent interviews with a convenience sample of 30 participants, rich data were collected, eliciting deep insights into the presence and consequences of fundamental life regrets emanating from transformative services’ experiences. Manual thematic analysis identified transformative service contexts such as family planning, higher education, and relationship legal services that left consumers with enduring regrets. Unlike the existing literature, this study found that some fundamental life regrets continue to haunt participants, with ‘decision ghosts’ of ‘what could have been’ sometimes lingering for decades after the decision. To the authors’ best knowledge, this study provides novel findings that extend the current stock of knowledge about consumer life regrets, is the first study undertaken in Australia and the first qualitative examination. The findings assist practitioners in recognising the potential for lingering consumer regrets to result from their transformative service and redesigning appropriate strategies and plans to deal with lingering dissonance outcomes.