Introduction to Services marketing
Services
are intangible products produced and consumed simultaneously in a short period
Infosys, an Indian technology company offers Information Technology solution to
ANZ Grindlays Bank those are intangible in nature. Here, a customer ANZ cannot
touch the product but can perform banking tasks using software. Infosys offers
Consulting Services, Cloud Solutions, enterprise resource planning software, block
chain technology, and other services. These Solutions may have a software
product, website, software manual, and a report in the tangible format,
but clients like ANZ do not see coding testing and executing part of the
solution. Apart from this, business meetings follow-up calls and annual
maintenance are series of actions and performances in an intangible format
executed on a particular time and place.
Services Marketing characteristics.
Intangibility
Services
are employee actions and performances based on company procedures and are not a
physical goods. Thus one cannot touch, feel, see or inventoried like
goods. For example Apollo hospitals performance actions like medical
examination, diagnosis, treatment, and surgery on patients that cannot be seen
or touched. In many situations, patients don’t know how surgery has been
done. Due to this characteristic of Intangibility, managers find it difficult
to forecast and execute the demand. For example Taj Vivanta, Panaji, Goa,
experiences huge demand in March, April, and May. Conversely the demand
goes down in July. Yet, Taj Vivanta, has similar number of rooms to book
throughout the year.
Further
Services cannot be patented; Hence these are copied easily by competitors.
Services cannot be easily demonstrated like goods. Though, Metro rail
carries passengers from one destination to another it cannot show how exactly a
rail was driven. So this is quality measurement is another hurdle for marketers
and consumers. A customer finds it difficult to assess the service quality of
restaurants like Saravanan's,V asudeva adigas, and Adyars. In addition to these
Services marketers has a hurdle of deciding about what to include in
advertising and other marketing communications. Indian Institute of Management
Bangalore can communicate about courses but cannot advertise the pricing. The
unit of service cost is complex and difficult to determine. Lakme saloons have
different beauty solutions at different price points. This difference leads to
the evolution of price quality relationships that vary from customers to
customers.
Heterogeneity:
Services
are performed by people. Therefore, services performed by different people are
not the same. Even the same person's service performance on different days
varies. Further, a customer who avail services may have different
perceptions and satisfactions. These characteristics exhibit services
heterogeneity. For example , Kesari travels may provide two
different packages to two different customers on the same day depending upon a
customer's affordability and acceptability. Keasri travel desk executives may
provide maximum offers to customers in the morning when they are fresh to work.
However, same executives may offer less packages to customers in the late
evening when they are tired. These variations in services based on people's
time and the organization pose a big challenge for maintaining the service
quality. Apart from this, other customers at a service location also influence
customers' purchase. A few customers like crowded service outlets and a few do
not. Added to this, employees behaviour also determines customers purchasing.
In addition to this, if a service is given by the third party, it increases the
service heterogeneity. For instance, Airtel customer queries are answered by
IBM executives who are not part of the organization. However, customers think
that they have called Airtel executives.
Simultaneous production and consumption
The
major distinguishing feature between goods and services is goods are produced
first and sold later. Whereas services are sold in the beginning and production
takes place later. To illustrate, Hero motocorp produces the two-wheelers at
Kolar plant in Karnataka, dispatched to Bengaluru, sold over months and used by
customers over the years. But OYO has to sell its rooms first and customer
experience the stay and dining later. Here, customers of OYO is a part of the
production and consumption by asking room boy for facility adjustments or
modifications. Customers can ask for sugarless tea or spicy dishes with a
dining staff. A notable thing in this entire process is a customer interacts
with the service employees regularly in a production and consumption process.
Therefore, a customer may be happy or happy with the room service. In a travel
industry company like VRL do not allocate seats next to the female passenger to
any strange male passenger. If seats are not reserved like that a female
customer may not experience the service properly. This services characteristics
of simultaneous production and consumption often makes service providers take
the role as a part of the product. Shahrukh Khan, a film actor from India,
actively takes part in the production and marketing of his red chillies
entertainment products.
As
service production consumption is simultaneous, scaling it to the masses is a
daunting task. More than that, customers’ satisfaction depends on employee
services and his interactions with the firm in real time. A customer who walks
into State Bank of India will be either happy or unhappy after his interaction
with a clerk or cashier. Due to this feature of production and
consumption simultaneously, a few companies are decentralizing their operations
to localize services. McDonald's restaurants in the different countries have
adopted local sourcing; It reduces the cost of importing and also provides
local Cuisine. McDonald India, do not sell beef burgers due to religious
sentiments but sell veg burgers in a large quantity. Another problem of
production consumption simultaneously is irritated customers. As they are
part of a production and consumption process, they expressed their
happiness or unhappiness on the process itself. Wonderla and excel amusement parks
must have secure yet fun facilities in their premises otherwise customers
express their opinion on the location also on social media.
Perishability
Services
cannot be stored, saved or returned or resold. A journey in Indian railways by
a customer cannot be stored or saved. Here, customers would experience a
service in a given time. If a customer is unhappy about the train facility in
the journey, can he return it? No, because they are perishable in nature. Today
with Advent of mobile phones and internet-based movie technologies, movie theatres
in India are facing occupancy rate issues. One cannot inventory the seats of a
particular show. Hence, PVR should make proper demand forecasting for the
capacity utilization. Services cannot be returned or resold. Flipkart in their
first Bill Billion Day Sale did not anticipate technology problems. Customers
on that day could not buy anything. Later, Flipkart had apologized in the
public for the service failure.
Services marketing mix
People
Employees of the organization who are part of a service delivery influence buyer behavior. They create awareness about services. Reliance Trends executives provide new arrival information to customers
Employees grooming and their behaviors have a direct impact on customers satisfaction. Hence,air hostesses in the Indian Indigo Airlines should be wearing company uniforms and have a cordial relationship with customers while serving in an airline industry.
In certain services like education and career counseling, service providers themselves act as a service. The success of an education institution solely depends on teachers. However, in certain services like house maintenance plumber has a relatively less significance in the service delivery though they are very critical for the organizational performance. In a few services, customers' timely information or requirements have a significant role in the service delivery. If requirements are not specified or information not given when required it affects the service quality. For example, a customer books an apartment with a Godrej property without specifying his requirements in the beginning has to accept later whatever the property built by the Godrej. A customer who goes to the indica saloon should tell about a haircut style in the beginning. Otherwise, he cannot modify it later. Social media has allowed customers to share their opinions and recommendations to other colleagues or customers. When The War like a situation has broken up between India and China many have asked the customers and colleagues and friends to boycott the China mobile applications like Tick Tock and sharechat.
