Week 9Services Marketing

How are goods & servicesdifferent?

Most services contain some element of goods.

Goods are the object,a service is the effort, performance or deed

A product can be either a good or a service

Purchasing a service is often more personal than purchasing

A product.

Bad service sticks in people’s minds!

Any examples of bad service?

Good service?

All retailers are classified as being in the services sector.

Service retailers in Australia aregrowing faster than product retailers

Services have four uniquecharacteristics:

Intangibility

Inseparability

Heterogeneity

Perishability

Intangibility

When a consumer buys a service, or a tangible product that has a service

element, they are buying an experience

Inseparability

The connection between the service provider, the customer’s

involvement in the service, and theinvolvement of other customers.

Heterogeneity

This is the lack of ability to control the quality and consistency

of a service before it reaches a customer.

Perishability

Services can’t be stored, andif they are not sold one daythey cant be kept to be sold

later.

Services are usually a high involvementpurchase.

This is because there is usually a high level of personalisation.

For this reason, many service organisations

put great emphasis on employee training, evaluation and motivation

Although a service is intangible,the P of ‘place’ still plays a major

tole in marketing.

Where should the servicebe in order to effectivelyreach the target market?

And to strengthen the brand?

Guidelines for advertising services

There are common guidelines for

advertising services, which relate back to the four unique

characteristics

Develop a word of mouthnetwork

Consumers of services oftenlook to personal sources for information

Use testimonials

Use promotions that award therecruitment of friends

Promise what is possible

Customers prepare expectationsto actual service delivery

Don’t overpromise!

Tangibilise the intangible

Make the service more concretethrough use of tangible symbols,

recommendations, years ofestablishment etc

Feature the relationship

A key element of services isthe relationship between provider &

customer

Illustrate the inseparability

Reduce fears about inconsistency

Use of testimonials, word of mouth, years of service

Focus on relevant factors

What do people want from your service?

Make that a focal point of your communications

Show the service as a series of events

Consumers often view servicesas a series of events

Look at marketing from a seriesof events perspective

The ‘halo’ effect

In services, first impressions areeverything

This can include phone contact,signage, store layout etc

In service situations, the atmospherecreated is important.

Use sight appeals (furniture, colour) sound appeals (to set mood, Inform)

touch appeals or scent appeals

The People Problem

People make up the most of the product of every service firm

And they involve customers as co-producers

Both can cause problems.

Like what?

How do you fix the employee problem?

Training

Empowerment

Enfranchisement (empowerment plus performance

based compensation)

How do you fix the customer problem?

Do you think customers are becoming too demanding?

So how do you manage customers?

Occupy waiting times

Communicate with customers

Understand customer habits

Empower staff to deal with customer complaints

Respond to complaints quickly

Examples?

Good or bad service experiencesin fashion retail?