Services Marketing

Continuum of Products
• Salt (Tangibility dominance is high)
• Cold drink
• Consumer electronics
• Automobile
• Fast food outlets
• Airlines
• Investment mgmt
• Consultancy
• Teaching
Learning: No pure good or pure service. Products are bundle of
tangible and intangible in varying degree as it becomes a source of
differentiation as well. Co’s shall avoid marketing myopia ( Co. shd
not define it’s business too narrowly.
 Servuction Model
• Servicescape (Nonliving features comprising
the service environment)
• Contact personnel/ Service provider
• Other customers
• Organization and systems ( Rules, regulations
and processes of the organization)
 Seven categories of complaints about
Service Provider/ contact personnel
• Apathy: Do I look like I give a damn?
• Brush off: I want you to go away.
• Coldness: Indifferent service provider without
caring what customer really wants.
• Arrogance: You are the client. You must be stupid.
• Robotism: Cu. are treated as inputs in system.
• Rule book: S.P giving rules, even if rules don’t
make sense.
• Runaround: Passing the customer off to another
provider.
 MARKET FOCUSED MANAGEMENT
MODEL
1) The Service strategy and customer
2) Service strategy and employee
3) Service strategy and the system
4) The system and customer
5) The system and employee
6) Customer and an employee
 Intangibility
Problem:
• Difficulty in display and communication

Solutions: Use of tangibles,

Personal and non-personal communication
 Inseperability
• Critical incident
• Physical presence required
• Skills required
• Customer involvement
• other customers
• Solutions: Selection, training, consumer
management, multi site location
 Heterogeneity
• Variation/ Inconsistency

Solution:
• Customization
• Standardization
 Perishability
• Can not be inventorized
Solution:
Guesstimated about demand and supply
• Pricing
• Reservation
• Complementary services
• Managing Non peak time
 Core and supplementary services
• Core: Main Service/ Benefit
• Supplementary service: Additional Service
Supplementary Services can be Hygiene or
enhancing factors.
• Critical incident: Specific encounters between customer and
service employees that are satisfying or dissatisfying for one
or both parties.
 Level of Customer contact
• High Contact: Customer visit the service facility in person.
Customers are actively involved with the organization
throughout service delivery. E.g People processing services
• Medium Contact: less involvement with the service provider
facilities but DON’T remain throughout service delivery .
E.g possession processing services
• Low contact: Very little physical contact between customer
and service provider. Contact takes place at arm length with
electronic or physical distribution channel.
E.g Mental stimulus processing and information processing
services.
 Service as a system
Backstage Front stage

Technical Physical support Cu Other cust.

core Contact personnel N Contact points

Backstage Front stage

(Invisible) (Visible)
 Understanding customer
behaviour
• Understanding customers cost for the service
• Understanding customer’s needs and expectations can be
understood in terms of desired and adequate service
• Desired service is type of service customer wish to receive
(personal needs, past experience, service promise or word of
mouth) on the basis of what company can and should do.
(Belief about what is possible)
• Adequate Service: Threshold level of expectations ( minimum
level of service expected without getting dissatisfied) on the
basis of perceived service alteration and situational factors
such as Competition, price.
 Contd.
• Zone of tolerance: (The gap between adequate and
desired) The extent to which customers are willing to
accept variations in services provided.
Service Below adequate level Gives: Dissatisfaction
Service above desired level gives: Delight
 Evaluation of service/ Continnum of
product attributes
• Search
• Experience
• Credence
 Purchase Process for services
• Awareness of need
• Info search PrePurchase stage

• Evaluation of alternatives
• Request service from the service provider Purchase stage
• Service delivery
• Evaluation of service performance
• Future intentions Post purchase
 Positioning strategy
Market analysis Define mkt segments
Select Tgt Mkt.
Internal Articulation of desired position Mkt plan

Corporate Select benefits to be emphasized

analysis

Competitive Analyze differentiation Possibilities

analysis
 Positioning
• Importance vs. Determinance attribute
• Copy Positioning vs. Product positioning

• Perceptual Map: Representing consumer’s

perception of alternative products graphically
on given two attributes.
 Process/ Flowchart/ Blueprinting
• To see how the service is currently being
created and delivered at each step to
understand service encounter, customer
behaviour and experience at each stage.