Simultaneity is about the production and consumption of a service taking place at the same time.

You have to be at the hairdressers to have your hair cut. You have to be at the dentist to have your tooth filled. It is these characteristics of service which give rise to the significant additional complexity which managers in service environments face. Simultaneity gives rise to an unpredictability in the behaviour of people, particularly in the actual interaction between customer and employee. Simultaneity provides organisations with the opportunity to use the customer as an unpaid employee (eg self service supermarkets), typically the interaction results in high levels of labour intensity and frequently during these interactions, personal judgements are required on behalf of the service provider (the solitictor or the doctor during a consultation). Some of the other problems are Safety, Signposting, Layout, Dcor, Manner of delivery, No pre-test/process control. When the customer is involved in the service process the company may have to introduce more stringent control mechanisms due to the possibility of unpredictable behaviour, e.g. for health and safety reasons. Customers can also affect the quality of the service delivery and output be their general attitude and disposition, sabotaging the process (to claim against company or get something free) or by being biased towards company, product, ethics or staff. Heterogeneity is about every interaction between the customer as a server being different, the so-called moments of truth that we sometimes come across. Each customer has a different set of requirements and the interaction between the customer and the service provider will determine the service providers behaviour. The lecture I give to the full-time MBA at 9.00am is not the same as the one I give to the part-time MBA at 8.00pm although the topic (and slides!) are identical. the problem associated with heterogeneity is that there is no standardization, ever customer is different and therefore it is unrealistic to expect that they will want the same and will have the same experience. The best an organization can do is hope to provide a tried and tested service which meets the needs of the greater good and can quickly fix and instigate recove ry for those who are not satisfied. Issues arising from this can be resolved/alleviated by greater emphasis on: training in terms of our need to be flexible and react to each individual customers needs; in terms of design, how do we put together the service; and in terms of quality, what does the service actually involve and how we do we measure if the customer requirements have been met or not. Intangibility the service cannot be touched or seen. Intangibility gives rise to difficulties in specification, subjectivity in so far as whose view is correct, mine or yours (what is a soothing dcor?); and gives rise to problems with measurement as there is no concrete aspect that we can get hold of (how do you measure how funny a comedy show is?). Also intangibility gives rise to difficulties in giving feedback or complaining, particularly if we are unable to explain what is wrong with the service. Perishability is about the fact that the service is time bound and cannot be stored. If a management consultant has no projects, then he or she cannot work. They cannot do consultancy in anticipation of the demand. When an aircraft takes off with an empty seat, the revenue opportunities of that seat have been lost forever. Finally, perishability means that we are unable to hold stocks which makes it difficult to provide the service between periods of extreme demand and in general causes problems with capacity management. Perishability also often results in being easy to imitate a service, if we think about internet banking versus telephone banking versus branch banking. Pricing strategies are also influenced by perishability. The fact that the empty hotel room generates no revenue without an overnight traveler - this gives rise to some interesting comparisons between the rack rate, ie: the full price for a hotel room booked in advance, against the price which it is possible to obtain by turning up on the night. Customer contact - manufacturing innately low contact and services high. Services can be seen to be moving between high and low contact operations or can be seen to cash in on both arrangements e.g. services in shop environment and on-line Service concept perception of what the service offers as opposed to the actual service product provided e.g. the procurement of a car means more than a means of transport, it can be an item of necessity, luxury, status, can improve quality of life/social life etc. The quality of the service provision can be affected by the customer interaction Service operations management involves understanding the needs of our customers, managing the processes that deliver the services, ensuring our objectives are met, whilst paying attention to the continual improvement of our services. We define service as the combination of outcomes and experiences delivered to and received by a customer. Customers therefore judge the quality of the service on the experience as well as the outcome. two perspectives:Customer what is experienced and the outcome - Operational how it is delivered