marketing management chap 12

philip kotler defines service as

any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in ownership of anything. its production may or may not be linked to a physical product

services

intangible, inseparable, perishable, and variable products, often in a form of a promise

quality of service is determined by

the expectations of customers with service and the actual service they get

services compromise soft parts or intangible products such as

knowledge, attention, advice, and experience that improve the productivity and performance of the product

most significant characterisics of services

• intangibility

• inseparability

• heterogeneity

• perishability

• non-ownership

intangibility

services do not have a physical presence and cannot be felt, smelt, or tasted

inseparability

a service cannot be differentiated from the person or organisation responsible for providing it

heterogeneity

no two services can always be precisely alike

perishability

services cannot be saved, stored, resold or returned after they have been used

non-ownership

ownership cannot be transferred in the case of services

in many nations, growth of primary and secondary sectors is directly dependent upon what ?

the growth of the services sector

marketing mix

various marketing activities are used to promote and sell a product in the market

the 7ps of service marketing mix

product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence

service marketing

process of researching and promotiong an intangible product to the market

service marketing serves the following purposes in organizations

• maintaining relationships

• creating multiple touch points

• making service proliferate

• customer retention

maintaing relationships

relationships are key factor when it comes to marketing of services. relationships helps in building a long lasting relationship which would lead to repeat sales, goodwill and positive WOM

creating multiple touch points

service marketing involves many touch points for customers

making service proliferate

consumers have many service options to choose from

customer retention

as competition becomes more intense, multiple service providers struggle for a limited pool of customers. in fact, retaining old customers is even more important than attracting new ones.

service quality

relates to providing a total experience rather than only basic services

according to ISO 9000, quality is

a degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfil the requirements

according to paraguyan and berry, quality is

exceeding what customers expect from the service

in order to provide consistent quality services to customers, organizations are required to…

measure the exxisting and desired quality of services

service quality can be measured by

determining the difference between service expectations and services actually experienced by the customers

perception gap

the gap between what a customer expects from the service and what they think they have got

gap models

organizations use service quality models that capture and define service quality

customer gap

refers to the difference between what customers expect from the service and what management believes customers expect from the service

knowledge gap

supports managerial decision making; for example a sales manager can set sales targets for the coming year by considering current market conditions

delivery gap

refers to the difference between service quality specifications for a service and delivery of those specifications by the service provider

communication gap

difference between service that was delivered and the what was promised to the customer by the orgamization

gap 5

refers to the sum of gaps from one to four and the overall comparison of what customers expected and their perception of the service they recieved from the service provider

servqual

instrument that is basedon five service quality dimensions, together known as the RATER framework

RATER framework

stands for

• reliability

• assurance

• tangibles

• emapthy

• responsiveness

reliability

the service offered by an organization needs to meet the expectations of customers consistently

assurance

service personnel should have a thorough knowledge of this service they are providing to customers

tangibles

while the nature of services is intangible, there are certain tangible aspects of services that customers can measure

emapthy

the service personnel of an organization should be accesible and open to communication

responsiveness

service personnel should be prompt in attending to customers and serving their requirments

customer satisfaction

defined as creating a high value experience with each aspect of the product or service

three conditions that defines performance of the product or service and customers satisfaction level are

• dissatisfied

• expected, satisfaction

• more than expected, highly satisfied or delighted

how can customers be retained

by delivering high quality customer value that could generate total customer satisfaction

in order to gain high customer value, organizations tend to

maintain high service quality standards

zeithaml (1998) defines customer value as

the consumers overall assesment of what is recieved relative to what is given