Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Syllabus
Module I
Introduction to services: What are services, Why service marketing, Difference in goods
and service in marketing, Myths about services, Concept of service marketing triangle,
Service marketing mix, GAP models of service quality
Module II
Module III
Module IV
Module V
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Module VI
Managing demand and capacity – Lack of inventory capability, Understanding demand
patterns, Strategies for matching capacity and demand, waiting line strategies
Module VII
Module VIII
Physical evidence in services: Types of service scapes, Role of servicescapes, Frame work
for understand service scapes & its effect on behaviour, Guidance for physical evidence
strategies
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INDEX
Contents Page No
Module I ………………........................................... 3-16
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MODULE-I
Marketing:
Is the task of creating, promoting, & delivering the goods/services to consumers &
businesses.
If you pay a plumber to mend a dripping tap, that's a service. The plumber has agreed to carry
out a service for an agreed amount of money.
Sometimes services will be supplied with goods. A new boiler being fitted will involve both
the supply of goods (the boiler) and a service (the fitting).
Dry Travel
Nurseries & Childcare Garages Hairdressers
Cleaners agents
Services marketing, as the label suggests, relates to the marketing of services, as opposed to
tangible products (in standard economic terminology, a tangible product is called a good).
The use of it is inseparable from its purchase (,i.e. a service is used and consumed
simultaneously)
It does not possess material form, and thus cannot be smelt, heard, tasted, or felt.
The use of a service is inherently subjective, in that due to the human condition, all
persons experiencing a service would experience it uniquely.
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As examples of the above points, a train ride can be deemed as a service. If one buys a train
ticket, the use of the train is typically experienced concurrently with the purchase of the
ticket. Moreover, a train ride cannot be smelt, heard, tasted or felt as such. Granted, a seat can
be felt, and the train can be evidently heard, nonetheless one is not paying for the permanent
ownership of the tangible components of the train.
Services (by comparison with goods) can also be viewed as a spectrum. Not all products are
pure goods, nor are all pure services. The aforementioned example of a train ride can be
deemed a pure service, whilst a packet of potato chips can be deemed a pure good. An
intermediary example may be a restaurant (as the waiter service is intangible, and the food
evidently is tangible in form).
A service is the action of doing something for someone or something. It is largely intangible
(i,e, not material) a product is tangible(i.e, material)since you can touch it and own it. A
service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased and
cannot be owned since it quickly perishes. A person could go to a café one day and have
excellent service and then return the next day and have poor experience. So often marketers
talk about the nature of a service as:
Inseparable-From the point where it is consumed and from the provider of the service.
For e.g.: You cannot take a live performance home to consume it (A DVD of the same
performance would be a product,not a service).
Perishable-In that once it has occurred it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way
For e.g,once a 100 meters Olympic final has been run there will be no other for 4 more years,
and even then it will be staged in a different place with many different finalist.
Variability-Since the human involvement of service provision means no that two services
will be completely identical.
For e.g., Returning to the same garage time and time again for a service on your car might see
different levels of customer satisfaction, or speediness of work.
Right of ownership- is not taken to the service, since you merely experience it,
for eg, an example an engineer may service your air-conditioning, but you do not own the
service, the engineer or his equipment. You cannot sell it on once it has been consumed, and
do not take ownership of it.
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Implications of Intangibility
When you buy a cake of soap, you can see, feel, touch, smell and use it to check its
effectiveness in cleaning. But when you pay fees for a term in college, you are paying
for the benefit of deriving knowledge and education which is delivered to you by
teachers. In contrast to the soap where you can immediately check its benefits, there is
no way you can do so in case of the teachers who are providing you the benefits.
Teaching is an intangible service. When you travel by an aeroplane, the benefit which
you are deriving is a service (transaction) but it has some tangible aspects such as the
particular plane in which you fly (and the food and drink which is served). In this case
the service has both a tangible and intangible aspect as compared to teaching which
has hardly any tangible aspect.
Implications of Heterogeneity
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There is no sure knowledge that the service delivered matches what was planned and
promoted
The human element is very much involved in providing and rendering services and
this makes standardization a very difficult task to achieve. The doctor who gave you
his complete attention in your last visit may behave a little differently the next time.
The new bank clerk who cashed your cheques may not be as efficient as the previous
one and you have to spend more time for the same activity. This is despite the fact
that rules and procedures have been laid down to reduce the role of the human
element and ensure maximum efficiency.
Airlines, restaurants, banks, hotels have large number of standardized procedures.
You have to reserve a room in a hotel and this is a straight forward procedure for
which all the steps are clearly defined. Human contact is minimal in the computerized
reservation systems, but when you go to the hotel there will be a person at the
reception to hand over the key of your room.
The way this person interacts with you will be an important factor in your overall
assessment of the service provided by the hotel. The rooms, the food, the facilities
may be all perfect, but it is the people interacting with you who make all the
difference between a favorable and unfavorable perception of the hotel.
Implications of Perishability
Services cannot be stored and are perishable. A car mechanic who has no cars to
repair today, spare berths on a train or unsold seats in a cinema hall represent a
service capacity which is lost forever. Apart from the fact that a service not fully
utilized represents a total loss, the other dimension of this perishability aspect is that
most services may face a fluctuating demand. There is a peak demand time for buses
in the morning and evening (office hours).
Certain train routes are always more heavily booked than others. This fluctuating
demand pattern aggravates the perishability characteristic of services.
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The service sector is growing at very fast pace. Eventually advanced countries will produce
only services and there will be no manufactured goods output at all. This belief is there
because sector is growing so rapidly that other sectors cannot grow at the same pace. This
fear is baseless. In fact both manufacturing and service sector have grown.
In manufacturing sectors there are more workers than before, the manufacture sector itself
needs services. Therefore service sectors support manufacturing sector and not growing at the
expense of manufacturing.
Secondly it is fact that need for services can be felt very easily modern day consumer spend
more money on services than for manufacturing of goods.
Thirdly some services in fact aid to improve and increase production and productivity.
All elements within the control of the firm that communicate the firm‘s capabilities
and image to customers or that influence customer satisfaction with the firm‘s product
and services:
Product
Price
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Place
Promotion
Product: The product concept in service sector is the way in which organization seek
to satisfy consumer need. A product here refers to ―service rendered‖
Products are: Savings account, Fixed Deposit, Recurring Deposit, Current Account,
and Loan, therefore service rendered by banks are important. Therefore the product
concept in any financial sector is the financial rendered.
Price: This is similar to the product pricing. Total price, discount, mode of payment,
price discrimination are similar to these adopted in product marketing the vital factor
in pricing the service is the quality.
Quality of service determines the price of service. Time is also a determinant of price.
Ex: The rate of interest charged on loan is the rpice, 5% interest for 2years.This is
how price is determined for the service. Price discrimination also takes place.
Similarly student‘s concession in bus fares which is different for senior citizens
indicate the price differentiated.
Place: This refers to distribution channel of service-How the service will reach the
customer?
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Promotion: Advertising public relations are used as promotional tool in services. But
in services, provider of services themselves becomes an important element of
promotion mix.
People: Here people refer to service provider. In a product concept manufacturer will
have control measure as manufacturing operations are concerned Consumers are not
bothered about the way in which the product is manufactured. But in case of services,
the service provider is in direct touch with the customer. His behavior and operating
process decides the product quality. If the customer is not happy with the type of
service provided the producer of the service will lose the market.
Process: In some services, consumers also become co-producers.Ex: A self service
hotel, where food provided in the counter to get his food. Here there are no servers at
the table. In some places, consumers themselves have to put the rubbish after eating in
to a disposable bin. Therefore production process is a part of marketing mix.
Physical Evidence: This will form a part of marketing mix. The consumers of service
cannot examine the service before purchasing it, as in the case of products. Therefore
they need tangible evidence to satisfy themselves regarding the quality of service.
Ex:College
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The magnitude and the direction of each gap will affect the
Service quality. For instance,
Gap 3 will be favorable if the
Delivery of a service exceeds the standards of service
required by the organization, and
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Customer gap: The difference between Customer expectations and perceptions – the
Service quality gap.
Gap 3: The difference between Specifications or standards of service quality and the
actual service delivered to customers.
Gap 4: The difference between the services delivered to customers and the Promise
of the firm to customers about its service quality.
First of all the model clearly determines the two different types of gaps in service marketing,
namely the customer gap and the provider gaps. The latter is considered as internal gaps within a
service firm. This model really views the services as a structured, integrated model which
connects external customers to internal services between the different functions in a service
organization.
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MODULE – II
All Marketing activities are directed towards consumers, as they initiate production of
goods/services.
The ultimate success of all economic activities depends on producing what the buyer consider
suitable. Consumer purchases goods/services based on their mental and economic forces.
The mental force creates desires and wants to satisfy pride, fear, love, fashion etc.
The Economic force is the purchasing power which may decide the buying pattern to choose
between those wants and select according to priority of consumption.
Thus the marketers prime job is to find what, when, where, how, and from whom the consumer
decide to purchase goods and services.
The purpose of market research is to gain insight into the process and critical factors that
influence the decision making of the consumer.
-Analysis of market opportunities
-Selection of target market
-Determination of marketing mix elements
All of these depend on the life style, attitude and economic condition of the consumer.
There are many factors that influence consumer behavior. Potential customers are subject to
various stimuli. Service firm must understand how the consumer would respond to different
service features,price,appeals,etc,along with major forces in the marketing environment i.e.,
economic,social,cultural factors. All these stimuli influence the buyer‘s decision making process
and evoke positive or negative response towards products/service. This is called as the stimulus
response model.
It is clear from the above that the human behavior has two components:
*Buyers Characteristics
*Buyers Decision Making Process Models of Buyer Behavior
*Promotion
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Buyers Characteristics:
Cultural Factors:
Culture refers to the values; practice or customs of the people in the society. It is the social
heritage of the society & influences the life style of the people. Every culture evolves unique
patterns of food habits, clothing and social interaction, in some cases value becomes enforced
through legal system.
Cultural factors are influenced by religion. Ethnic groups, fashion, leisure time etc.Cultural
factors are not static but adaptive.
Increased value in health in western society is an emerging cultural norm. This reflects on
changes in food consuming patterns like low calorie food, hormone free meat etc.Also growth of
gum and other health care centers increase in leisure time also has influence on use of many
services like resorts, types of holidays etc.
While in india,a higher rate of literacy in women & more working women. This gives rise to
changes in banking hours which are more convient, availability of domestic service & growth for
child care centers.
Social Factors
a. Reference Group: Primarily in the form of friends and work colleagues or secondary in
the form of remote personalities with whom there is no two way interaction.
b.Family: Marketers are interested in the roles & influence of husband, wife, children &
parents on the purchase of goods & service.
Decision regarding package holidays are dominated by wives where as decisions on financial
investments are dominated by husbands.
Personal Factors
Buyers age & life cycle
-Food & choice of restaurant, type of insurance required, banking facilities etc.
(Bachelor, married or retired stage)
Occupation & Economic Circumstances
Lifestyle
Time is valued
Psychological Factors
Determinants are motivation, perception, liking & beliefs & attitudes influence buying
behavior.
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Motive or Drive is a need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek
satisfaction of need.
Perception is a process by which an individual selects, organizes & interprets information
to create a meaningful picture of what he/she has seen or heard.
Learning Theory-Suggests that a learning is produced through interplay of drives, stimuli,
cues, responses etc.This helps service firms to answer.
Search Qualities, Attributes that a consumer can determine before purchasing a product,
It includes color, style, price, fit, feel, hardness &smell.
Experience, Attributes that can be discerned only after purchase or during consumption,
It includes taste & wearability.products such automobiles, clothing, furniture and jewelry are
high in search qualities because their attributes can be determined before purchase.
Credence includes characteristics that the consumer may find impossible to evaluate even after
purchase & consumption. Examples are Appendix operation & brake relining on automobiles.
Search qualities are those attributes of a product which the consumer can determine before the
purchase. This is more common in physical goods. For example color, style, fit, feel, smell etc.
The second is the experience qualities, which are the attributes which can only be determined
after the purchase, or during the process of consumption. The third is the credence qualities i.e.
characteristics which the consumer cannot evaluate even after the consumption, like auto repair
or medical diagnosis.
For example, it may be difficult for a patient to assess whether or not a hospital provided
appropriate services. Such characteristics exist invariably in services.
In nutshell, most goods are high in search qualities and most services are high
in experience or credence qualities.
The following Figure gives a continuum of evaluation for different types of products based on
search, experience and credence qualities.
As services are rich in experience and credence qualities, the following important aspects related
to consumer decisions making process need to be understood.
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Customer‘s expectation is nothing but belief about delivering of service. It is against this belief
that performance is judged. Customers compare their perceptions of performance with the actual
performance delivered. Therefore knowing “WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT” is the first step
for service provider. Not knowing “WHAT CUSTOMER WANTS COULD PROVE
DISASTER AND LOSS OF CUSTOMER”.
Among the various aspects of expectation what we need to explore is the following about service
marketing.
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There are several types of expectations about service. The first one could be termed as Desired
Service and the second one as Adequate Service.
DESIRED SERVICE:
This is the level of service which customer hopes to receive or ―WISHED FOR‖ level of
performance. Desired service is a mixture of what customer believes “CAN BE” and
“SHOULD BE”.
E.g. Give a cloth to dry cleaner to remove dirt and stain. Desired service is to remove dirt and
stain. In the opinion of the customer this “CAN BE DONE” and “SHOULD BE DONE”.
Similarly if you go to a placement services to register your name, the following will be the
desired service.
That is what you hope and with for but you also know that due to economic reason or availability
of ideal job opening as above, you may have to think of something else. You want something but
you know pretty well that it is not possible. For this reason, a customer holds another lower level
expectation. This lower level of expectation is called “ADEQUATE SERVICE”. This level of
service is acceptable to the customer.
WHO IS A CUSTOMER
A Customer is the most important person in our office. A customer is not dependent on us, we
are dependent on him. A customer is not an interruption of/our work. He is the purpose of it. We
are not doing a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.
A customer is not someone to argue. No one has won an argument with a customer.
A customer is a person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them profitably to
him and to ourselves. Customer is always right.
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The important question that we need to ask is “WHETHER CUSTOMERS HOLD THE
SAME OR DIFFERENT EXPECTATION LEVELS FOR SERVICE FIRMS IN THE
SAME INDUSTRY”.
E.g Are service expectation is same from all placement bureaus? Or same for all dry cleaners?
Or same for all restaurants.
b. Expensive restaurant
DESIRED SERVICE:
a. Quick
b. Tasty Food
c. Convenient
a. Fine Food
b. Excellent surroundings
c. Candle Light
In summary we can say that DESIRED SERVICE seem to be more or less same for SERVICE
PROVIDER.
But adequate service expectation level however is likely to vary for different firms within a
category i.e. within fast food restaurants or within 5 star restaurants, customer‘s expectation
might vary.
Expectation of adequate service could be different though both are 5 star hotels.
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Normative Expectations
Most time this restaurant is good but when it gets busy the
service is slow
Acceptable Expectations
ZONE OF TOLERANCE:
Zone of Tolerance is the variation between desired service and Adequate Service.
The extent to which customers recognize and are willing to accept this variation is called ZONE
OF TOLERANCE.
If the service drops below the adequate service (the min level considered acceptable)-customers
will be frustrated & the satisfaction with the company will be undermined.
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If service performance is higher than the zone of tolerance at the top end-where performance
exceeds desired services-customers will be pleased & probably quite surprised ―CUSTOMER
DELIGHT‖.
Zone of tolerance is the range or window in which customers do not particularly notice service
performance, when it falls outside the range (either +ve or-ve), services get customer attention.
This tolerance zone can expand or contract with in a customer. An airline customer zone of
tolerance will narrow when he/she is running late & is concerned about making the plane. A
minute seems much longer-adequate service level increases on the other hand a customer who
arrives at airport early have a larger tolerance level.
When the price is more the customer tends to have less zone of tolerance about poor service.
Customers are likely to be tolerable about unreliable service (broken promises or service errors)
than other service deficiency which means they have higher expectations for those factors.
Now we need to analyze, what factors or what are the sources for Desired Service Level and
Adequate Service Level.
1. Personal need
2. Derived service expectations
3. Philosophy about services.
1. PERSONAL NEED:
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1. Physical
2. Psychological
3. Functional
Example : A cricket fan goes to watch a, match in the stadium. He stands in the Q, and enters the
stadium after 2-3 hours. Obviously he will be feeling thirsty and hungry. He hopes and desires
that food and drink vendor will passes through as early as possible.
Imagine another cricket fan who has brought lunch bag and water, entering the stadium by
standing in the Q. This person has Zero Level of desired service from the vendor. Personal
needs vary from individual to individual.
Derived service expectation occurs, when another person or group of people drives customer
expectations.
E.g Take the case of an information services dept in an insurance company. The expectation of
the head of the information services is based on the insurance customer he serves. Now imagine
that the computer is down and his customers complain. The head of the IT department need to
keep the system up and running. It is not his own expectation but is derived from the pressure of
the customers.
E.g 2 A parents choosing a holiday resort for the family. Here service is chosen at the pressure of
children. Therefore parent derived this service from children.
Service Philosophy comes from those customers who are themselves in service business or
worked for a service business in the past. If you have ever been a waiter in a hotel, you are likely
to have a standard for restaurant services.
E.g You may feel that customer should not wait for more than 15 minutes to take the order. You
may be more tolerant for the little extra time that may take in the kitchen for preparation to be
ready than a person who has no such exposure.
In general, customers who are themselves in service business or have worked for them in the past
seem to have especially strong service philosophies.
Adequate service means level of service the customer finds Acceptable. There are 5 factors,
which lead you to adequate service.
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E.g An accident where insurance is to be claimed or break down of an office equipment during
the busy period. These situations raise the level of adequate service expectation.
Performing a service right the first time is very important. Fixing thing right, second time is even
more critical than it was first time. Automobile repair proves this point. If there is a problem with
your automobile brakes and you send it to the service provider you expect the company to fix the
brakes. If you experience further problems with the brakes after the repair your Adequate Service
Level. Will increase. In general service recovery expectation is higher than initial service
expectations.
2. Perceived Service Alternatives: Perceived Service Alternatives are other providers from
whom the customer can obtain service. If customers have multiple service providers to choose
from or they can provide the service for themselves (cloth pressing or lawn mowing etc.) their
levels of adequate service are higher than those of customers, who believe that it is not possible
to get better service elsewhere, E.g., if you have only one hotel in your town, you have no
choice.
3. Customers Self Perceived Service Role: This means, that the customers expectation are
partly shaped by how well they believe they are performing their own roles in service delivery.
One of the key elements in the service is customer‘s active participation. When customer
believes they are doing their part in delivery, their expectations of adequate service is increases.
Eg. If your car needs a repair, prepare a list of items to be fixed. Give this list to the mechanic. In
this way you have played your role properly.
4. Situational Factors: Situation decides whether adequate service level should increase
decrease. Eg., Personal emergencies such as serious automobile accident likely to intensify
customer service expectations of the insurance companies. On the other hand, catastrophes that
affects a large number of people at one time like earthquake or flood may lower service
expectations because customers recognize that insurers are under pressure and totally submerged
with demands coming from several quarters. Customers who recognize and feel that these
contingencies are not the fault of the service company may accept lower level of service in this
given context. In general, we can say situational factors, temporarily lowers the level of adequate
service, thus widening the zone of tolerance.
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5. Predicated Service: This is the final factor which influences adequate service. In this case,
customers anticipate certain performance level. If customers predict good services their level of
adequate service are likely to be higher than if the predicated service is poor. Eg., when colleges
are closed, for vacation, the expectation of the student is that, that will be faster service in the
canteen due to less students. This will probably lead them to have higher standards for adequate
service in the canteen during vacation.
Predicated service is nothing but estimate or calculation of the service a customer will receive.
Source of predicted Service :( Common factors affecting desired & adequate service)
There are statements made by organization to the customers. These statements could be
personal or impersonal. It is personal, if it is communicated by sales people or repair /
maintenance people. They are impersonal, when they come from advertising, or any other
written publications. One of the sources of predicted service is Explicit Service Promise.
If the service is delivered, exactly the way they are promised, then customers
expectations will be met. However this is not the case in practice. Sales Person, Over promise in
order to get orders and thereby they increase the predicted service level by the customers.
Implicit Promises are those which can be got by cues such as price, tangible associated
with the service. In general, higher the price and more impressive the tangibles, the more a
customer will expect from the service.
Eg; 1. If 2 services (let us say TV or Video repair services) quote different prices, for
servicing the equipments, then, the customer feels that the service who has quoted a higher price,
gives service which is better than the one who has quoted less.
Eg., 2 : If a customer stays in a five star hotel is likely to expect higher standard of
service than the other who stays in a three star hotel.
3. Word of Mouth: Word of Mouth tends to be very important in services that are difficult to
evaluated before purchase. Word of mouth tells the customer about likely level of service. Based
on this the customer will predict.
4. Past Experience: Past experience of the customer has an effect on prediction of future
services, when you stay in a particular hotel, you are going to compare your present stay with all
other previous stays you may also compare you stay in other hotels. This past experience gives
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rise to predicted level of service. It is true of hospital services, cable operator services, Telephone
services etc.,
They are:
1. Service Encounters,
2. Evidence of service,
3. Image,
4. Price.
Perception of Service
Image Price
Service Encounter: From the customers point of view, the most vived impression of service
takes place in the serve encounter, i.e., when the customer interacts with the service firm.
For Eg., the customer goes to a Hotel and following are the encounters that he needs to face. 1.
Checking into the hotel, 2. Being taken to the room by an attendant, 3. Eating a restaurant meal,
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The customer would be thinking of these moments of service encounters which is as shown
below :
Restaurant Meal
Wakeup call
Checkout
It is in these encounters that customers get an idea of organization‘s service quality. Each
Encounter contributes to the overall satisfaction of the customer and willingness to do business
with the organization again. From the organization point of view, each encounter presents an
Some services have few encounters and others have many. Mistakes or problems that
occur in the early level of service are particularly critical, because a failure at this point results in
Sales Call
Servicing
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Ordering of parts
Billing
Importance of Encounters: If a customer is interacting with the company for the first time, the
initial encounter will create first impression about the organization. A customer calling for repair
service on a household appliance (Say Geyser) may well hang up and call a different company if
he is treated rudely by the customer service representatives, put on hold for a lengthy period or
told that two weeks is earliest someone can be sent out to make the repair. If this is the kind of
replay a customer gets, even if the company is technically sound, in its repair service, the
company may not get a chance to do business if the initial telephone encounter drives the
customer away.
Even when the customer have multiple interactions with the firm, each individual
encounter is important in creating an image of the company in the mind of the customer. Many
positive experiences adds up to positive image of high quality, while many negative interaction
will leave the customer feeling unsure about the company‘s quality and consistency of service.
For eg., a customer wants to talk to a Nursing home regarding some health care problem.
He could have a poor encounter with the organization with regard to appointment but very
positive encounter with the Nurse and O.K. Encounter with both Lab Technician and the Doctor.
This mixture of experience will leave the customer wondering about the quality of organization
and the customer will be unsure of ―What to expect next from this organization‖.
Logically, not all encounters are equally important in building relationship. For every
organization, certain encounters are key to customer satisfaction. For eg., in the Hospital context,
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a study of Patients showed that encounter with the Nurse and the Physician are more important
Apart from common key encounters, there are some memorable encounters like ―One bad
Apple‖, ruins the rest and drive the customer away, no matter how many are what type of
encounters have occurred in the past. These can occur with very important events, such as failure
to deliver an essential piece of equipment at a most crucial time. (life Saving Drug or X – Ray
film)
A service encounter occurs every time a customer interacts with the service organization.
There are three types of service encounters. 1. Remote encounter, 2. Phone encounter, 3.
Face to Face encounter. A customer may experience any of these type of encounters alone or a
combination of all the three in his / her relations with the service firm.
Remote Encounter:
First, encounter can occur without any direct human contact such as when a customer
interacts with the bank through A.T.M. System. Or a Ticketing Machine. Remote encounter also
occurs when the firm sends billing statements or communications to customers by mail.
Although there is no direct human contact, each represents an opportunity for the company to
establish quality perception in the minds of the customers. In remote encounters the tangible
evidence of the service and the quality of technical process becomes the primary basis for
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Phone Encounter:
frequent type of encounter between the customer and the company occurs over the phone.
Almost all companies relay on phone encounters in the form of customer service, enquiry
attending and order booking. The judgment of quality in phone encounters is much more
complex than in remote encounters. Because there is a high possibility for variation in the
interaction, such as Tone of voice, Employee knowledge, Effectiveness in handing the customer.
For eg., to ensure quality in a Telephone encounter, when a customer telephones the firm,
if the call received by a person who cannot handle the customer, the least he could do to transfer
the customer to another executive of the company who can handle the customer and answer all
the quires.
A third type of encounter is the one that occurs between the employee and the customer
in direct contact. This normally happens in a shopping situation or in a hotel or any service
organization. Determining an understanding service quality issues in Face to Face context is very
complex. Verbal and Nonverbal behaviors are both important ingredients of quality.
Also other tangible things like dress, equipment, information catalogue, physical settings
are equally important. In a Face encounter the customer also plays his role in communicating to
the organization, ―what is it that he is excepting for the present and for the future‖.
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Due to the fact the service encounters are very important in building quality perceptions
and ultimately influence the customer satisfaction with the organization, a lot of research work
has been done to determine the sources of customer‘s favorable and unfavorable perceptions.
One such method used is called ―Critical Indecent technique‖ to get customers and employees to
provide stories about satisfying and dissatisfying service encounters they have experienced.
Practioners & writers use satisfaction and quality interchangeable but researchers have
Reliability
Assurance
Empathy Customer
Product Customer
Quality Satisfaction Loyalty
Tangibles
*Consumer Emotions:
Can also affect their perceptions of satisfaction with products and services.
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In addition to products & service features & one‘s own individual feelings & belief, consumer
satisfaction is often influenced by other people.
Eg.Satisfaction with a family vacation trip is a dynamic phenomenon, influenced by reactions
and expressions of individual family members express in terms of satisfaction or dissatisfaction
with trip will be influenced by the stories that are retold among the family & selective memories
of the events.
Service Quality:
In case of pure service (HealthCare, Financial services, Education), service quality will be the
dominant element of customers evaluation.
In case of customer service or service offered in combination to a physical product (I.T services.
Auto services) service quality is critical in determining customer satisfaction.
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analyzed to find out the root cause of failure, so that it can be rectified. Therefore every
organization must have a recovery system which should be known well to every employee in the
organization.
4. Encourage Spontaneity:
Memorable encounters occur for customers even when there is no system failure and no special
request.
While employee behaviors would appear to be somewhat random and uncontrollable, there are
things that organizations can do to encourage positive behavior and discourage negative
behavior.
Recruitment and selection procedures can be used to hire employees with strong service
orientation and who has natural tendency and service minded.
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MODULE-III
BUILDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH SEGMENTATION AND
RETENTION STRATEGIES
1. The objectives is to explain relationship marketing and the foundation of retention
marketing strategy.
2. Show the benefits of customer retention to both the customer and the organization.
3. Discuss how to segment and why market segmentation must be the foundation for
effective relationship strategies.
4. Present retention strategies used by organizations to build relationships with their
customers.
Relationship Marketing:
Relationship marketing (of relationship management) is a philosophy of doing business, a
strategic orientation that focuses on keeping and improving current customers, rather than on
acquiring new customers. This philosophy assumes that consumers prefer to have an ongoing
relationship with one organization than to switch continually among providers in their search for
value. Building on this assumption and the fact that it is usually much cheaper to keep a current
customer than to attract a new one, successfully marketers are working on effective strategies for
retaining customers. (easy to retain present customers. It costs roughly 5 times to find a new
customer).
It has been suggested that firms frequently focus on attracting customers (the ‗first act‘)
but then pay little attention to what they should do to keep them (the ―second act‖). Follow the
‗bucket theory of marketing‖. By this we mean that marketing can be thought of as a big bucket.
It‘s sales, advertising and promotion programs that fill the top of the bucket. As long as these
programs are effective, the bucket stays full. However, ‗There‘s only one problem if ―there is a
hole in the bucket‖. When the business is running well and the organ is delivering on its
promises, the hole is small, and few customers are leaving. When the operation is weak and
customers are not satisfied with what they get, however, people start falling out of the bucket
through the holes faster than they can be poured in through the top. Emptying is faster than
filling.
1. Goals of Relationship Marketing:
The primary goal of relationship marketing is to build and maintain a base of committed
customers who are profitable for the organization. To achieve this goal, the firm will focus on
the
1) attraction, 2) retention and 3) enhancement of customer relationship. First the firm will seek
to attract customers who are likely to become long-term relationship. First the firm will seek to
attract customers who are likely to become long-term relationship customers. Through market
segmentation (to attracts and retain segmentation has to be close), the company can come to
understand the best target markets for building lasting customer relationships. As the number of
these relationships grows, the loyal customers themselves will frequently help to attract (through
word of mouth) new customers with similar relationship potential.
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Once they are attracted to begin a relationship with the company, customers will be more
likely to stay in the relationship when they are consistently provided with quality products and
services and good value over time. They are less likely to be pulled away by competitors if they
feel the company understands their changing needs and seems willing to invest in the
relationship by constantly improving and evolving its product and service mix.
A bank checking account customer becomes a better customer when she sets up a savings
account, takes out a loan, and / or uses the financial advising services of the bank. And a
corporate account becomes a better customer when it chooses to do 75 percent of its business
with a particular supplier rather than splitting the business equally among three suppliers. In
recent years, in fact, many companies have aspired to be the exclusive supplier of a particular
product or service for their customers. Over time these enhanced relationship can increase
market share and profits for the organization.
Benefits of Customer Retention:
Both parties in the customer / firm relationship can benefit from customer retention. That
is, it is not only in the best interest of the organization to build and maintain a loyal customer
base, but customers themselves also benefit from long term associations.
a) Benefits for Customers : Assuming they have a choice, customers will remain loyal to a
firm when they receive greater value relative to what they expect from competing firms.
Remember that perceived value is the consumer‘s overall assessment of the utility of a product
based on perceptions of what is received and what is given. Value represents a trade off for the
consumer between the ‗give‘ and the ‗get‘ components. Consumers are more likely to stay in a
relationship when he gets (quality, satisfaction, specific benefits) exceed the gives (monetary and
no monetary costs) When firms can consistently deliver value from the customer‘s point of view,
clearly the customers benefits and has an incentive to stay in the relationship.
b. In addition to the specific inherent benefits of receiving service vale, customers also
benefit from long-term relationships because such associations contribute to a sense of well-
being and quality of life. Building a long-term relationship with a service provider can reduce
consumer stress as initial problems, if any, are solved special needs are accommodated, and the
consumer learns what to expect. This is particularly true for complex services (eg. Legal,
medical, education), for services where there is high ego involvement (eg., hair styling, health
club, weight loss program), and for services that require large investments (eg. Corporate
banking, insurance, architecture). After a time the consumer begins to trust the provider and a
count on a consistent level of quality service. Ego investment, trust are the important factors.
c) Human nature is such that most of us would prefer not to change service providers,
particularly when we have a considerable investment in the relationship. If the service provider
knows us, knows our preferences, and has tailored services to suit our needs overtime, then
changing providers would mean educating a new provider on all of these factors. The costs of
switching are frequently high in terms of both costs of transferring business and the
psychological and time related costs. In fact one of the stressful and unsetting aspects of
relocating to a new geographic area is the need to establish new relationships with service
providers such as banks, schools retailers, doctors and hairdressers. This is the reason why
people would not like to change the area of residence.
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d) Most consumers (Whether individuals or business) have many competing demands for
their time and money and are continually searching for ways to balance and simplify decision
making to improve the quality of their lives. When they can maintain a relationship with a
service provider they free up time for other concerns and priorities. And excellent example is the
case of dual career families, for which the decision about who should care for their children
during the workday is one of the most important decisions they make. Once they have identified
and established a satisfying relationship with a good caregiver (whether it be can individual a
day care center, or a preschool) family stress is reduced and the quality of family life is
improved. Should something happen, that requires a change in caregivers, or should the
relationship quality deteriorate for any reason, family stress levels immediately increase. Thus, a
stable relationship with a good child-care provider is directly reflected in quality of life.
Frequently families are willing to pay premium prices to maintain stable, predictable, high
quality care for their children. Eg: Boarding Schools, Hostel facilities, etc.,
II Benefits for the Organization : The benefits to an organization of maintaining and
developing a loyal customer base are numerous. They can be linked directly to the firm‘s bottom
line.
Increasing Purchase: As consumers get to know a firm and are satisfied with the quality
of its services relative to that if its competitors, they will tend to give more their business to the
firm. And as customers mature (in terms of age, life cycle, growth of business). They frequently
require more of a particular service. Eg: Laundry, Haircutting.
a) Lowest Costs: There are many start-up costs associated with attracting new customers.
The include advertising and other promotion costs, operating costs of setting up accounts and
systems, and time costs of getting to know the customer. Sometimes these initial costs can
outweigh their revenue expected from the new customers in the short term. A prime example
occurs in the insurance industry. Typically the insurer doen‘t recover its up-front selling costs
until the third of fourth year of the relationship. Thus, from a profit point of view, there would
seem to be great incentive to keep new customers once the initial investment has been made. Eg:
Hotels.
Even ongoing relationship maintenance costs are likely to drop over time. For example,
early in a relationship a customer is likely to have questions and to encounter problems as he or
she learns to use the service. Once learning has taken place the customer will have fewer
problems and questions (assuming the quality of service is maintained at a high level) and the
service provider will incur fewer costs in serving the customer. Eg: Hotels, Airlines.
b) Free Advertising through word of mouth: When a product is complex an difficult to
evaluate. And there is risk involved in the decision to buy it as is the case with many services
consumers most often look to others for advice on which providers to consider. Satisfied. Loyal
customers are likely to provide a firm with strong word of mouth endorsements. This form of
advertising can be more effective than any paid advertising the firm might use, and has the added
benefit of reducing the costs of attracting new customers. Eg: Consumer and Consumer durable
products.
c) Employee Retention: It is easier for a firm to retain employees when it has a stable base o
satisfied customers. People like to work for companies whose customers are happy and loyal.
Their jobs are more satisfying and they are able to spend more of their time fostering
relationships than scrambling for new customers, In turn, customers are more satisfied and
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become even better customer a positive upward spiral. Because employees stay with the firm
longer, service quality improves and costs of turnover are reduced, adding further to profits.
Relationship building becomes difficult with new employees. Eg: Bank Manager.
d) Lifetime value of a customer; ―If companies knew how must it really costs to lose a
customer, they would be able to make accurate evaluations of investments designed to retain
customer. Unfortunately, today‘s accounting systems do not capture the value of a loyal
customer‖. One way of documenting the value of loyal customers is to estimate the increased
value or profits that accrue for each additional customer who remains loyal to the company
rather than defecting to the competition.
Customer Satisfaction
Employee Loyalty
Underlying logic of customer retention benefits to the organization
Process for Market Segmentation and targeting in services
Many aspects of segmentation and targeting for services are the same as those for manufactured
goods. There are differences, however. The most powerful difference involved the need for
compatibility in market segment. Because other customers are typically present when a service
is delivered, service providers must recognize the need to choose compatible segments or to
ensure that incompatible segments are not receiving service at the same time. A second
difference between goods and services is that service providers have a far greater ability to
customize service offerings than manufacturing firms have Consequently, a services marketer
can choose a broader set of segments or sub segments to serve than can many manufacturing
firms, particularly if they can keep these segments separate from or compatible with each other.
Eg: Serve one with soft drink in an aircraft and not the other.
1. Identify bases for segmenting the market: Market segments are formed by grouping
customers who share characteristics that are in some way meaningful to the design, delivery,
promotion, or pricing of the service. Common segmentation bases for consumer markets include
demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, and
behavioral segmentation. Segments may be identified on the basis of one of these characteristics
or a combination.
Marketing principles, Market Segmentation and Market Targeting:
Bases for market segmentation: Demographic segmentation: Dividing the market to form groups
based on variables such as age, sex, family size, income occupation, or religion.
Geographic Segmentation: Dividing the market to form different geographic units such as
nations, countries or states.
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Psychographic Segmentation: Dividing buyers to form groups based on social class, life style
or personality characteristics.
Behavioral Segmentation: Dividing buyers to form groups based on knowledge, attitude, uses
or responses to a service.
Requirements for effective segmentation: Measurability: The degree to which the size and
purchasing power of the segments can be measured.
Accessibility: The degree to which the segments can be reached and served.
Substantiality: The degree to which the segments are large or profitable enough.
Action ability: The degree to which effective program can be designed for attracting and
servicing of the segments.
Criteria for Evaluation Market Segments for Market targeting: Segment size and Growth:
includes information on current sales, projected growth rates and expected profit margins.
Segment structural attractiveness: Includes current and potential competitors,
Substitute products and services, relative power of buyers and relative power of suppliers.
Company objectives and Resources: Involves whether the segment fits the company‘s
objective.
Demographic Segmentation: In other cases, geographic variables (nations, countries, states,
regions) form the base for dividing the market place of identifying potential unmet needs.
Psychographics Segmentation: Many times, it is not a particular demographic or geographic
variable that defines the market segment, but rather a shared sense of values, a common life
style, or common personality characteristic among consumers in the segment. A service based on
psychographic segmentation will focus on such factors in the design and delivery of the service.
Behavioral Segmentation: At other times, a segmentation strategy may be formed around
behavioral characteristics of consumer such as their knowledge, attitudes or usage patterns.
In businesses to business marketing the applications situation of the organization form the
basis for segmentation? Such applications situations as technology needs, product usage, or
service requirements are examples. To illustrate, an institutional food service provider may have
different service configurations for the large manufacturer segment that requires full service
executive dening facilities and large volume cafeterias than it would have for the hospital market
segment that uses a centralized kitchen facility to disperse a wide variety of dietary
configurations.
2. Develop profiles of Resulting Segments: Once the segments have been indentified, it is
critical to develop profiles of the in consumer markets, these profiles usually involve
demographic characterizations of psychographic or usage segments. Of most importance in this
stage is clearly understanding how and whether the segments differ from each other in terms of
their profiles. If they are not different from each other, the benefits to be derived from
segmentation, that is, from more precisely identifying sets of customers will not be realized.
3. Develop Measures of segment Attractiveness: The fact that segments of customers
exist does not justify a firm‘s choice of them as targets. Segments must be evaluated in terms of
their attractiveness. The size and purchasing power of the segments must be measurable so that
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the company can determine if the segments are worth the investment in marketing and
relationship costs associated with the group. They must be profitable in the long term in terms of
revenues generated, and they also should not place a disproportionate drain on the firm‘s time
and /or human energy. These costs are not always easy to determine in advance.
The chosen segments also must be accessible, meaning that advertising or marketing
vehicles must exist to allow the company to reach the customers in the segments.
4. Select the Target Segments: Based upon the evaluation criteria in step 3, the services
marketer will select the target segment or segments for the service. The service firm must decide
if the segment is large enough and trending toward growth. Market size will be estimated and
demand forecasts completed to determine whether the segment provides strong potential.
Competitive analysis, including an evaluation of current and potential. Competitive analysis,
including an evaluation of current and potential competitors, substitute products and services and
relative power of buyers and relative power of suppliers, will also help in the final selection of
target segments. Finally, the firm must decide whether serving the segment is consistent with
company objectives and resources.
5. Ensure that the target segments are compatible: This step, of all the steps in
segmentation strategy, is arguably more critical for service companies than for goods companies.
Because services are often performed in the presence of the customer, the services marketer must
be certain that the customers are compatible with each other for example, families who are
attracted by the discounted prices and college students on their fees it may find that the two
groups do not merge well. It may be possible to manage the segments in this example so that
they do not directly interact with each other but if not, they may negatively influence each others
experiences, hurting the hotel‖ future business. In identifying segments it is thus important to
think through how they will use the service and whether segments will be compatible.
Retention Strategies:
1. Monitor Relationships: A basic strategy for customer retention is to implement a through
means of monitoring and evaluating relationship quality over time. Current customers should be
surveyed to determine their perceptions of value received, quality, satisfaction with services and
satisfaction with the provider relative to competitors. The organizations will also regularly
communicate with its customers in person or over the telephone. In a competitive market, it is
difficult to retain customers unless they are receiving a base level of quality and value.
A well designed customer data has is also a foundation for customer retention strategies.
Knowing who the organization‘s current customers are (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.,)
what their buying behavior is, the revenue they generate, the related costs to serve them, their
preferences, and relevant segmentation information (ie., demographics, life style, usage patterns)
forms the foundation of a customer data base. In cases of customers leaving the organization,
information on termination would also existing the data base.
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about the airline industry and related travel service industries like hotels and car rental
companies ―Frequent flyer‖ programs provide financial incentives and rewards for
travelers who bring more of their business to a particular airline. Hotels and car rental
companies do the same. One reason these financial incentive programs proliferate is that
they are not difficult to initiate and frequently result in at least short term advantages to a
firm since, unless combined with an other relationship strategy, they don‘t serve to
differentiate the firm from its competitors in the long run. Many travelers belong to
several frequent flyer programs and don‘t hesitate to trade off among them. And there is
considerable customer switching every month among the major telecommunication
suppliers. While price and other financial incentives are important to customers, they are
generally not difficult for competitors to imitate since the only customized element of the
marketing mix is price. Eg. Swiss air, Luftansa offer big gifts and discounts for fliers
exceeding certain Kilometers in a year.
Level 2: Level 2 strategies bind customers to the firm through more than pricing incentives.
While price is still assumed to be important, level 2 retention marketers build long-term
relationships through social as well as financial bonds. Customers are viewed as ―clients‖
not nameless faces and become individuals whose needs and wants the firm seeks to
understand. Services are customized to fit individual needs and marketers find ways of
staying in touch with their customers, thereby developing social bonds with them. For
example in a study of customer firm relationships in the insurance industry, it was found
that behaviours such as staying in touch with clients to assess their changing needs,
providing personal touches like cards and gifts and sharing personal information with
clients all served to increase the likelihood that the client would stay with the firm.
Personal relationship becomes very important.
―Social bonds‖ are common among professional service provides (eg. Lawyers,
accountants, teachers and their clients as well as among personal care providers (hair
dressers, counselors, health care providers) and their clients.
A dentist who takes a few minutes to review her patient‘s file before coming in to the exam room
is able to jog her memory on personal facts about the patient (occupation, family details,
interest, dental health history). By bringing these personal details into the conversation,
the dentist reveals her genuine interest in the patient as an individual and builds social
bonds. Eg: Car garage empathy plays a vital role.
Sometimes relationships are formed with the organization due to the social bonds that develop
among customers rather than between customers and the provider of the service. This is
frequently the case in health clubs, country clubs, educational settings and other service
environments where customers interact with each other. Over time the social
relationships they have with other customers are important factors that keep them not be
change the organization from switching to another organization. Women who exercise
together regularly at a health club may develop social ties and friendships that bind them
to each other and to the particular fitness center where they work out. People who
vacation at the same place during the same weeks every year build bonds with others who
vacation there at the same time. Social tie up acts as a motivator.
Level 3: Level 3 strategies are the most difficult to imitate and involve (1)
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Structural as well as (2) financial and (3) social bonds between the customer and the firm.
Structural bonds are created by providing services to the client that are highly customized
and frequently designed right into the service delivery system for that client. Structural
bonds often are created by providing customized services to the client that are technology
based and serve to make the customer more productive. Some concrete examples will
help to demonstrate the effectiveness of structural bonds in building relationships.
By working closely with its hospital customer will improve hospital supply ordering,
delivery and billing that have greatly enhanced their value as a supplier.
For Example ―hospital specific pallet architecture‖ that meant all items arriving at a particular
hospital were shrink wrapped with labels visible for easy identification. Separate pallets were
assembled to reflect the individual hospital‘s storage system, so that instead of miscellaneous
supplies arriving in boxes they arrived on ―client friendly‖ pallets designed to suit the
distribution needs of the particular hospital. Eg: Supply of items from wholesaler to retailer with
proper identification.
II Retaining Customers when things go wrong: As we have seen, reliability and ―doing it
right the first time‖ are extremely important factors in Customers judgment of service quality.
Yet for even the best of firms, service failures and mistakes are inevitable and because service is
often performed in the presence of the customer errors and failures are difficult to hide or
disguise. It is usually not possible to ‗start over‖ as it might be with a manufactured product.
When things go wrong, the consumer is presented with a good reason to switch providers and to
tell others not to use the service. Effective recovery is thus essential to save and even build the
relationship. If the organization fails in recovery, it has failed the customer twice a double
deviation from customer expectations.
III Track and Anticipate recovery opportunities: ―The customer who complains is your
friend‖ customers who don‘t complain are likely not to come back, and further they may
influence other customers to not try the service. Building on this notion, organizations need
systems to track and identify failures, viewing them as opportunities to save and retain customer
relationships.
An effective service recovery strategy requires identification of failure points in the
system through listening to customers. This means not only monitoring complaints, but really
listening and being active in searching out potential failure points. Take complaint as a
compliment for corrective action.
IV Take Care of Customer problems on the Front Line: Form the customer‘s point of view,
the most effective recovery is accomplished, when a front line worker can take the initiative to
solve the problem on the spot. Acknowledgement of the problem, an apology, an explanation
when appropriate and a solution to the problems are often all the customer wants. Sometimes the
solution may be a refund retailers with liberal, return policies build customer loyalty through
refunding or trading in defective merchandise, no questions asked.
V Solve Problems Quickly: Once the failure points are identified, employees must act
quickly to solve problems as they occur. A problem not solved can quickly escalate. Sometimes
employees can even anticipate problems before they arise and surprise customers with a solution.
For Eg: flight attendants on a flight severely delayed due to weather anticipated everyone‘s
hunger, particularly the young children‘s. Once in flight they announced to the harried travelers.
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―Thank you for your extreme patience in waiting with us. Now that we‘re on our way, we‘d like
to offer you complementary beverages and dinner. Because we have a number of very hungry
children on board, we‘d like to serve them first, if that‘s OK with all of you‖. The passengers
nodded and applauded their efforts, knowing that hungry, crying children could children could
make the situation even worse. The flight attendants has anticipated a problem and solved it
before it escalated.
IV Empower the front line to solve problems: For service employees, there is a specific and
real need for recovery training. Because customers demand that service recovery take place on
the spot and quickly, front line employees need the skills, authority and incentives to engage in
effective recovery. Effective recovery skills include hearing the customer‘s problems,
identifying solutions, improving and perhaps bending the rules from time to time. Recovery
skills are invoked when exceptions to the normal routine occur. Thus to be effective at recovery
front – line service employees have to be versatile, since they must typically follow rules, stick to
a routine and treat all customers alike.
They must also be empowered to employ their skills; they must have the authority, usually
within certain defined limits, to solve the customer‘s immediate problem. Further, they should
not be punished for taking action. In fact, incentives should exist that encourage employees to
exercise their recovery authority.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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MODULE-IV
o Company - defined standards are establish to reach internal company goals for
is the key to customer defined hard standards “Do it right first time”, this
customer satisfaction.
As Einstein said, ―Not everything that counts can be counted, and not
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5. Develop feedback mechanisms Measure by audits or operating data Hard Soft Measure
by transaction- based surveys
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Step1: Customer defined standards is what customer expects, it is a link between customer
expressed expectations and company‘s action to deliver these expectation...To do these identify
the existing service encounter sequence.
Step3:
a) Which behavior or action of the employer is most important to the Customers Company and
offered products and services? Customer defined standard tells the company what is most
important to the customers. This is what company should concentrate on.
b) There may be attributes in which company needs to improve. This should be focused and
company should make every effort to improve it.
Step5: Feedback should be developed once standards are implemented. For eg: Soft standards
need employee monitoring, I‘e., Employee monitoring is done by superior listening in when the
employee is attending to customers call. The purpose of this monitoring is to prove feedback to
employee on their performance superior monitoring an employee‘s handling of a customer
service call, for example, should focus not so much on how quickly the employee gets the
customer off the phone but how adequately he/she handles customer request.
Step6:
Establish a Standard and set target level
Without setting a target level, the company lacks a way to qualify whether the standards have
been met or not, this method adopted is as follows. Each time a complaint was made to the
company and each time problem was resolved, employee should log the time.
They should also ask the customer his/her satisfaction with the performance in resolving the
complaint. The company will then plot this information for each complaint on the chart to
determine how well the company was performing and where the company wished to be in the
future.
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The reason for GAP-2 is inadequate leadership. Service leadership does not mean meeting
companies‘ efficiency standards or productivity standard of the company. Service leadership
means trying to achieve “excellence” in the area of customer wants.
When mangers are not committed to service quality, fromthepoint of view of the customers, they
do not realize that the organization is not working towards customer satisfaction. Sometimes
managers think that the service quality adds to the cost and they do not contribute towards
profitability.
This is because; it is very difficult to find a link between quality and financial return. This is
similar to the link between quality and financial return. This is similar to the link between
advertising and sales, because, a sale does not go up due to advertising. There are many factors
such as, Pricing, Image, etc.
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Service Leadership:
Service leadership can be discussed w.r.to, to the model as shown:
Vision
Vision Statement
*Promoting Commitment
Implementation of Vision
Structuring
Motivating
Managing Information
Team Building
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Considering both of the above, the leader‘s vision defines ‗what the organization should strive?
II.Clearly Articulating the vision. (Nothing but vision statement)
Service visions may be simple or complex, the best vision statement should be:
*Brief
*Clear
Eg: 1) To become the best nursing care system in the world
2) Any time, anywhere communication.
III.Promoting Commitment.
One of the examples for a service leader to create commitment is to travel to all the outlets and
supervise personally to find out ‗how service is going on and what is a satisfaction level of the
customers‘. This follows the principle that ‗if you are a leader, you better lead‘.Therefore, a
leader should lead by example.
This is one of the ways to motivate the other employees and let them know that you want to see
what they are doing and what they can do.
Implementation of Vision:
A leader implements the service vision. During the process of implementing the vision, the
leader should not only be involved fully, he should also engage in other actions such as
restructuring the organization, selecting and training the employees,motivating,team building and
promoting the change in addition to risk taking.
I. Structuring the organization
While formulating the organization structure, the leader must make sure that there are,
*Rigid Functional Boundaries
*Too many layers of management
*Rigid hierarchy and bureaucracy
This organizational structure should be process oriented, so that it satisfies the customer needs
instead of each function in the organization feeling satisfied about their own departmental
function. To do this,
The Following steps have to be followed:
a) Organize the structure based on the process and not on a task of the department. Assign
the owner for each process.
b) Flatten and eliminate all those work which does not add value.
c) Use teams to manage everything, give the teams a common purpose.
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cooperative goals that can be reached only by working together use teams and task forces for
implementing the service and reward the same.
Costs
Defensive Volume of
Marketing purchases Margins
Price
Customer
Premium Profits
Service Retention
Quality
Word of
Mouth
Market Sales
Share
Offensive
Marketing
Reputation
Price
Premium
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Defensive Marketing:
In this method the emphasis is on customer retention. This is because; we know that lost
customer must be replaced by a new customer when the replacement comes at the high cost
because of high advertising and promotion expenses. New customers may not be profitable in the
short term.
Eg: In cell phone industry, capturing the customer from other company is very expensive. A
greater degree of service improvement is necessary who make a customer switch from
competitor than to retain a current customer. In general, longer a customer remains with the
company, it is both profitable and companies‘ relationship with the customer will improve.
If the customer is served properly he generates more profits every year and stay with the
company. Longer the company keeps the customer, the more money it makes.
The Money a company makes from retention comes from four sources: as shown in the above
diagram
*Cost
*Volume
*Price Premium
*Word of Mouth
Lower Cost: If a company can lower the customer defection, it saves money. It has been found
that attracting a new customer is five times as costly as retaining a existing customer. Also it has
been by market research that customer defections have greater impact on the company‘s profit
compared to market share. It is also true that by retaining 5% more customers, company can
increase his profit varying between 25% to 50%.
Volume of Purchase: Customers who are satisfied with the company‘s services are likely to
increase the amount of money they spend with that company or the type of services produced. If
the person is satisfied with a bank, he will not only open a SB A/c, but he will also avail loan
facility from the same bank. Thus he will use more than one service from a service provider.
Price Premium: Customer who notices that the service provided by the company is excellent and
without any fault, he will have no hesitation to pay a price premium for the services.
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Word of Mouth: Word of mouth communication is considered more creditable than any other
source of information. This is the best type of promotion for the service industry, where
experienced customers words carry lot of weight.
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(e.g, A marketing persons, an operations person, or a finance person) are likely to describe the
service very differently as well, biased by their own functional blinders.
IV.The Final risk is Biased interpretation, No two people will define responsive, quick, and
flexible in exactly the same way. for e.g., a supervisor or manager may suggest to a front line
service employee, that the employee should try to be more flexible or responsive in providing
service to the customer.
Unless flexibility is further defined, the employee is likely to interpret the work differently from
the managers.
The above mentioned risks become very apparent in the new service development process, when
organizations may be attempting to design services never before experienced by customers. It is
critical that all involved (managers, frontline employees and behind the scenes support staff) be
working with the same concepts of the new service based on customer needs and expectations.
For a service that already exists any attempt to improve it will also suffer unless everyone has the
same vision of the service and associated issues
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Intrafirm devises--brain storming, incentives and rewards for ideas. Hewlett Packards lab is open
24 hrs. day. Analyzing existing products, reading trade publications.
Brainstorming for your group project. Ideas should not be criticized, no matter how off-beat they
are.
Concept Development and Evaluation: After clear definition of the concept, it is important to
produce a description of the service that represents its specific features and characteristics and
then to determine initial customer and employee responses to the concept. The service design
document would describe the problem addressed by the service, discuss the reasons for offering
the new service, itemize the service process and its benefits, and provide a rationale for
purchasing the service, the role of customers and employees in the delivery process would also
be described. The new service concept would then be would then be evaluated by asking
employees and customers whether they are favorable to the concept and whether they feel it
satisfies an unmet need.
Business Analysis: Assuming the service concept is favorably evaluated by customers and
employees the concept development stage the next step is to determine its feasibility and
potential profit implications. Demand analysis, revenue projections, cost analysis, and
operational feasibility are assessed at this stage .
Because the development of service concepts is so closely tied to the operational system of the
organization, this stage will involve preliminary assumptions about the costs of hiring and
training personnel, delivery system enchancements,facility changes and any other projected
operations costs.
Service Development and Testing: In the development of new tangible products, this stage
involves construction of products prototypes and testing for consumer acceptance. Again because
services are intangible and largely produced and consumed simultaneously, this step is difficult.
To address the challenge this stage of service development should involve all who have stake in
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the new service. Customers and contact employees as well as functional representatives from
marketing, operations and human resources. During this phase, the concept is refined to the point
where detailed service blue print representing the implementation plan for the service can be
produced. The blueprint is likely to evolve or a series of interactions on the basis of input from
all of the parties listed.
Market Testing: In this stage of the development process that a tangible product might be test
marketed in a limited number of trading areas to determine marketplace acceptance of the
product as well as other marketing mix variables such as promotion, pricing, and distribution
vehicles.Again, the standard approach for a new manufactured product is typically not possible
for a new service due to its inherent characteristics. The new service might be offered to
employees of the organization and their families for a time to assess their responses to variations
in the marketing mix. Or the organization might decided to test variations in pricing and
promotion in less realistic contexts by presenting customers with hypothetical mixes and getting
their responses in terms of try the service under varying circumstances. While this approach
certainly has limitations compared with an actual market test, it is better than not assessing
market response at all.
It is also extremely important at this stage in the development process to pilot run service to be
sure that the operational details are functioning smoothly. Frequently this purpose is overlooked
and the actual market introduction may be the first test of whether the service system functions
as planned. By this point, mistakes in design are harder to correct. As one noted service expert
says. There simply no substitute for a proper rehearsals when introducing new service. In the
case of the discount brokerage service described earlier, a pilot test was run by offering
employees a special price for one month. The offer was marketed internally, and allowed the
bank to observe the service process in action before it was actually introduced to the external
market.
Commercialization: At this stage in the process, the service goes live and is introduced to the
market place. This stage has two primary objectives. The first is to build and maintain
acceptance of the new service among large numbers of service delivery personnel who will be
responsible day to day for service quality. This task is made easier if acceptance has been built in
by involving key groups in the design and development process all long.
The second objective is to carry out monitoring of all the service during introduction and through
the complete service cycle. If the customer needs six months to experience the entire service then
careful monitoring must be maintained through at least six months.
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4.Service line extensions: represent augmentations of the existing service line, such as a
restaurant adding new menu items an airline offering new routes, a law firm offering additional
legal services, a university adding new courses or degrees.
5. Service Improvements: represent perhaps the most common type of service innovation.
Changes in features of services that are already offered might involve faster execution of an
existing service process, extended hours of service, or augmentations such as added amenities in
a hotel room.
6. Service changes: represent the most modest service innovations. Changing the color scheme
of a restaurant, revising the logo for an organization, or painting aircraft a different color all
represent style changes. These do not fundamentally change the service, only its appearance,
similar to how packaging changes are used for consumer products.
Process
Service
Evidence
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They are:
1. Customer Actionsline of interaction
2. Onstage contact employee actionline of visibility
3. Back stage employee actionline of internal interaction
4. Support Process
Customer action
1. Line of interactions
Onstage contact employee action
2. Line of Visibility
Backstage contact employee action
3. Line of internal Interaction
Support processes
Customer Action: Customer action includes his choices, activities and interactions that the
customer has during the process of purchasing and consuming.
For e.g.: If a customer wants the service of lawyer, he has his choice,
1. To select the lawyer
2. To telephone him for an appointment
3. Have face to face meeting with the lawyer
4. Handover the documents if any
5. Recieved documents from the lawyer
6. Recieve the bill from lawyer for the service rendered and pay.
Onstage Employee Action: In legal service as above, the action of the lawyer that is visible to
the client are.
1. The face to face contact with the lawyer
2. Handling over of document to the lawyer
3. Receiving documents from the lawyer.
The Four key action areas are separated by the horizontal lines,
First is the line of interaction, represents direct interaction between the customer and the
organization. Any time a vertical line crosses the horizontal line of interaction a direct contact
between the customer and the organization is taking place.
The next horizontal line is critically important i.e., line of visibility. This line separates all
service activities that are visible to the customer from those that are not visible. By looking at the
blueprint, it is immediately obvious whether the customer is provided with much visible
evidence of service simply by analyzing how much the service occurs above the line of visibility
v/s activities carried out below the line. This line also separates‘ what contact employees do on
stage from what they do backstage.
The third line is the line of internal interaction represents internal service encounters. For eg.
When you hire a musician to perform at a function, 75% of this activity will be backstage and
25% will be onstage. But this is not the case of a hotel service. For e.g., the following are the
activities of onstage,
1. Welcoming you 2.Lead you to the seat 3.Turn the glass 4.Fill the glass with water
5.Give you menu card and provide an ashtray if required 6.Move the cutlery into the right
position if not done earlier 7.Switch on the music if not done earlier 8.Take the order
9.Service the food as ordered 10.Enquiry regarding the quality of food 11.Provide you
cheque 12.Help you to depart13.Wish you good day or good night and lead you to the
exit.
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Service Positioning:
Basic Positioning Steps:
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Competitive Analysis:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Current positioning
2. Tangible
3 Responsiveness
4 Assurances
5. Empathy.
1. Reliability: Reliability means, ability to perform the promise to service dependably and
accurately. Reliability means that the company delivers as per the promises. Customers want to
do business with a company which keeps up the promise.
Eg, Medical Care-Appointments are kept on schedule, diagnosis prove to be accurate
Airline-Flights as promised-arrival and departure on time
2. Tangible: Tangible means, appearance of physical facilities, equipments personnel and written
materials. All of these provide physical image of the service. This is very important particularly
to the new customers who will use this as criteria to evaluate quality. A Service industry
emphasizes tangibles in their strategy which includes hospitability in services when the
customers visit the establishment to receive services. While tangibles are used by service
companies to enhance their image, provide continuity and signal quality to the customers.
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Eg. Lawyer in black dress, Doctor in a white coat are the indication of their service.
2. Physical Evidence: Physical evidence is similar to tangible elements. While tangibles may be
rated high by consumers in terms of their influence on quality physical evidence for positioning
places in a role.
Eg., All forms of communication such as brochures, advertising, business cards, billing
statements etc.,Let us take the example of an educational institution where all the details
regarding the courses offered, fees structure, study program content, food facility and hostel
facilty,library facility available etc,So the above are examples of physical evidence.
3. Process: Process can be used for position strategy.
Process are divided into,
a. Based on Complexity
b. Based on Divergence
Whether a service is high or low in complexity refers to the number of steps involved in
delivering the service. Divergence refers to variation in these steps,
Eg, A physician service is high both in complexity and divergence, and A Hotel services are high
in complexity, i.e. lots of steps in service delivery process, but low in divergence i.e. they have
standardized their services from room cleaning to check out. These are services which are low in
complexity but high in divergence.
House of Quality:
Which links customer requirements to design characteristics of the product or service
They linked to internal process such as:
*Product Planning,
*Process Planning,
*Production Planning &
*Parts Deployment.
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MODULEV
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The triangle shows the three interlinked groups that work together to develop, promote and
deliver services. These key players are labeled on the points of triangle: the company (or SBU or
Department or Management): the customers: and the providers. Providers can be the firm‘s
employees, subcontractors or outsourced entities who actually deliver the company‘s services.
Between these points on the triangle, three types of marketing must be successfully carried out
for a service to succeed: External Marketing, Interactive Marketing & Internal Marketing.
On the right side of the triangle are the ―external marketing ―efforts that the firm engages in to
set up its customers expectations & make promises to customers regarding what is to be
delivered. But external marketing is just the beginning for services marketers. Promise made
must be kept.
Interactive Marketing or Real time marketing. Here is where promises are kept or broken by the
firm‘s employees, subcontractors or agents. People are critical at this juncture. If promises are
not kept, customers become dissatisfied and eventually leave.Recruiting, training, motivating,
rewarding & providing equipment and technology. Unless service employees are able & willing
to deliver on the promises made, the firm will not be successful, and the services triangle will
collapse.
– How is the service organization doing on all three sides of the triangle?
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customers visit the establishment to receive services. While tangibles are used by service
companies to enhance their image, provide continuity and signal quality to the customers.
3. Responsiveness: Responsiveness means willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service. This deals with attentiveness and promptness in dealing with customer request questions,
complaints and problems. Responsiveness is communicated to the customers in an indirect way
as follows,
4. Assurances: Assurance means, employee‘s knowledge and courtesy and their ability to inspire
trust and confidence. This dimension is likely to be particularly important for services that
customer perceives as having high risk and feel uncertain about their ability to evaluate
outcomes.e.g. Medical, Banking and Legal Services
5. Empathy: Empathy means caring and individualized attention to the customers. The essence of
empathy is to convey the message that the customers are unique and special. Customers want to
feel that he is important to the company and to the service provider. Personnel at small service
firms often know the customers by name and build relationship with them and meet their
requirements and preferences. Such a small firm competes with large firms; the ability to
empathetic may give the small firm a clear advantage.
• Service Employees: Who are they?
Boundary Spanners -Frontline service employees because they operate at the organization’s
boundary.
• What are these jobs like?
Emotional labor-That goes beyond the physical or mental skills needed to deliver quality
service. Means delivering smiles, making eye contact, showing interest, and engaging friendly
conversation with clients.
• Person/Role
• Organization/Client
• Interclient
Quality/Productivity Tradeoffs:
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As indicated in the figure Boundary Spanners provide a link between the external customers
and environment and the internal operations of the organization. They serve as critical
function in understanding, filtering and interpreting information and resources to and from the
organization and its external constituencies.
In industries such as fast food, hotels, telecommunication & retail, the boundary spanners are the
least skilled and lowest paid employees in the organization. They are order takers, front desk
employees, telephone operators, store clerks, truck drivers and delivery people.
In other industries boundary spanners are paid well, highly educated professionals. For example:
doctors, lawyers, accountants, consultants, architects and teachers.
Emotional Labor: Refers to the labor that goes beyond the physical or mental skills needs to
deliver quality service. It means delivering smiles, making eye contact, showing sincere interest
and engaging in friendly conversation with people who are essentially strangers and who may or
may not ever seen again,Friendlyness,empathy and responsiveness direct towards customers all
require huge amount of emotional labor frontline employees who shoulder this responsibility for
the organization.
Emotional labor draws on people‘s feelings (often requiring them to suppress their true feelings)
to be effective in their jobs.
Source of Conflict: Frontline employees often face interpersonal and interorganizational
conflicts on the job. Their frustrations and confusion can, if left unattended, lead to stress, job
dissatisfaction, a diminished ability to serve customers and burnout.
Sources of Conflict:
*Person/role conflicts
*organizational/Client conflicts
*Interclient conflicts
Person/Role Conflicts: Arises when employees are required to wear specific clothing or change
some aspect of their appearance to confirm to the job requirements. A young lawyer, just out of
school, may feel an internal conflict with his new role when his employer requires him to cut his
long hair & trade his casual clothes for a three-piece suit.
Organizational/Client conflicts: A common type of conflict for front line service employees is
the conflict between their two bosses, the organization and the individual customer.
Service employees are rewarded for following certain standards, rules, & procedures. Ideally
these rules and standards are customer based.
For Eg, employees who depend on tips or commission are likely to face greater levels of
organization/client conflict because they have greater incentives to identify with the customer.
Interclient Conflict: Sometimes conflict occurs for boundary spanners when incompatible
expectations and requirements arise from two or more customers. This situation occurs most
often when the service provider is serving customers in turn (a bank teller, a ticketing agent, a
doctor) or is serving many customers simultaneously (teachers, entertainers).
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Empowerment:
• Benefits:
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• Drawbacks:
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How Customers Widen the Service Performance Gap: Lack of understanding of their roles,
not being willing or able to perform their roles, No rewards for ―good performance‖, interfering
with other customers Incompatible market segments.
Importance of Other (“Fellow”) Customers in Service Delivery:
– excessive crowding
– incompatible needs
– mere presence
– socialization/friendships
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• by asking questions
– Resources capacity
– Time capacity
– Economic rewards
– Psychic rewards
– Trust
– Control
Strategies for Enhancing Customer Participation: The overall goals of customer participation
will typically be to increase organizational productivity & customer satisfaction while
simultaneously decreasing uncertainty due to unpredictable customer actions.
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Once the desired level of participation is clear the organization can define more
specifically what the customer‘s job entails. The customers‖ job description‖ will
vary with the type of service & the organizations desired position within its industry.
The job might entail.,
1. Helping oneself
2. Helping others
3. Promoting the company
II. Recruit, Educate and Reward Customers: Once the customer role is clearly
defined the organization can think in terms of facilitating that role.
In a sense the customer becomes a ―partial employee‖ of the organization at the same level. As
with the employees customer participation in service production & delivery will be facilitated
when.,
1. Recruit the right customers
2. Educate and train customers to perform effectively
3. Reward customers for their contributions
4. Avoid negative outcomes of inappropriate customer participation
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II. Manage the customer mix:Eg:Single college students who want to party &
families with small children who want quiet-it may find two groups do not merge.
The process of managing multiple & sometimes conflicting segments is known as
compatibility management (C.M).
Compatibility management will be critically important for some businesses (such as
Public transportation, hospitals & clubs)
Delivering Service through Intermediaries: Identify the primary channels through which
services are delivered to end customers.
Provide examples of each of the key service intermediaries.
View delivery of service from two perspectives—the service provider and the service deliverer.
Discuss the benefits and challenges of each method of service delivery.
Outline the strategies that are used to manage service delivery through intermediaries.
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(Like a manufacturer)
• service deliverer (intermediary)
– entity that interacts with the customer in the execution of the service
(Like a distributor/wholesaler)
Services Intermediaries:
Franchisees: Service outlets licensed by a principal to deliver a unique service concept it has
created.
e.g., KFC, McDonald‘s,
Franchising
The other recent trend in distribution of services is that of franchising.
Franchising is the granting of rights to another person or institution to exploit a trade name, trade
mark or product in return for a lump-sum payment or a royalty.
1. There are usually training materials already developed, for both franchisees and their workers.
2. Expansion through franchsing can proceed quickly.
3. The franchiser need apply only minimal controls; it does not have to develop as large a
bureaucracy to govern the business.
4. A franchiser's overhead is lower because the franchisee does hiring, collections, local
promotions, etc.
5. There are economies of scale to advertising and promotion.
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Agents and Brokers: Representatives who distribute and sell the services of one or more service
suppliers
e.g., Travel agents, Independent insurance agents.
Agent: An agent is an independent intermediary, who may act in the name of, or for a principal.
His contract will define these provisions along with territorial rights, exclusivity and sales
commissions.
Broker: A broker is an independent intermediary between buyer and seller who bring parties
together to facilitate the conclusion of sales contract. A broker may have continuing relationship
for his client under a contract period;
For which he may charge fee for assistance. Alternately, a broker may be for a special job to be
undertaken.
There are obvious benefits in distributing services through Agents and Brokers.
Firstly, they help in reducing the selling and distribution costs besides a wider representation in
the market. Secondly, such intermediary's possess special skills and expertise and also the
knowledge of local markets.
However these agents and brokers also pose some challenges also. For example representation of
multiple service principals may lead to poaching in territories of others resulting in loss of
control over pricing and other aspects of marketing.
The major function of these agents and brokers is, like any other intermediary, to bring the
producer of service and the user or consumer together.
For certain services, agents can be identified and deployed with selling as the chief function to be
performed by them. These agents can be compared with the agents for goods and they are
classified as brokers or sales agents. The
example of this kind of channel is transportation (travel agents) and office or factory workers
(employment agencies). However in some cases the agents may be trained in the creation and
production of service and then franchised to ell it (eg, Shahnaz Hussain Beauty Parlors).
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– Consistency in outlets
• Challenges:
– Inconsistent quality
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– Encroachment
– High fees
– Wide representation
– Customer choice.
• Challenges:
• Benefits:
– Low cost
– Customer convenience
– Wide distribution
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• Challenges:
– Price competition
– Security concerns
– Measurement
– Review
• Partnering Strategies:
– Alignment of goals
• Empowerment Strategies:
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Module VI
Considering the following Eg. During the tourist season i.e., from April to June the
demand for Hotel rooms is high in all tourist spots such as Hill station and sometimes the
demand exceeds the available space in the hotel. On the contrary, during the rainy season the
demand for the rooms are less, thus there is a fluctuation in demand in the hotel business. The
same is true of a hospital or a nursing home or a bank. In a bank there could be long queues at a
certain hour and empty counters at certain other hours. Therefore there is need to smoothen the
peaks and valleys of demand for various facilities. Further continuing our eg., we can think of
tax consultants, air conditioning maintenance service people, who also face seasonal demand
fluctuation. Services like train, bus also face this kind of demand fluctuation every hour.
Over use or under use of a service can cause GAP 3 to increase i.e. failure to deliver what
was designed and specified. For eg. When demand for service exceeds maximum capacity, the
quality of service may drop because staff and facilities are over taxed. Some customers may have
to go back, not receiving the service at all. During periods of slow demand it may be necessary to
reduce the price or to cut service facilities or change the nature of service to avoid the risk of not
facilities.
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demand.
3. To study the benefits and risk of yield management strategies in bringing a balance in
4. Provide strategies for managing waiting lines, when capacity and demand cannot be
aligned.
The main issue here is, ―Lack of Inventory capability‖. The basic issue is lack of
inventory capability of both supply and demand. Like manufacturing firms, service firms
cannot build inventories during period of slow demand and to use later when the demand
increases. This lack of inventory capabilities is due to perishibility of services and also
sold on a given flight cannot be resold the following day. The productive capacity of that
seat has perished. Similarly a day loss of rent in a hotel cannot recovered the next day.
This lack of inventory capability leads to 4 possible scenarios at any given time.
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1. Excess demand; in this case, the level of demand exceeds maximum capacity. In this
situation, some customers will have to be sent back resulting in loss of business. For
customers who do not receive any service, the quality of service is quiet immaterial.
2. Demand exceeds optimum capacity: No one is sent back without service but the service
may still suffer due to overuse, crowding or the service staff being too much strained
3. Demand and supply are balanced at the level of optimum capacity: Here staff and
facilities are occupied at an ideal level. No one is over worked, strained and facilities can
4. Excess Capacity: Demand is below optimum capacity. Resources in the form of labour,
equipment and facilities are under utilized resulting in loss of productivity and loss of
profits. Customers may receive excellent quality and also individual attention because
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they can used the facilities fully and there is no waiting time and complete attention is
Not all firms will be challenged equally in terms of managing supply and demand. The
seriousness of the problem will depend on the extent the demand fluctuation over time, and
extend to which supply is constrained” some type of organizations will experienced wide
fluctuations in the demand. Eg. Telephone service, hospitals, nursing homes, public transport,
while others will have narrow fluctuation. Eg. Laundry, Insurance, Banking. For some, peak
demand can be met even when the demand fluctuates eg., Electricity, while for others peak
organization need to understand clearly the constraints on its capacity and also the demand.
Discuss the 4 common types of Constraints facing services business and give examples of
each.
a. Time: For some services, primary constraint is time. For eg., a lawyer, a consultant, a
hair dresser a counselors, all these people sell time. If their time is not used productively profits
are lost. If there is excess demand, time cannot be created to satisfy it. From the point of view of
b. Labor : For some other firms labor may be a constrained. Eg., A service provider of air-
conditioner, computer or a fax machine, may face a demand situation where they are unable to
provide service due to shortage of labor. This is because the existing staff is already working at
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peak capacity also it is not advisable to hire extra people because the demand is not constant all
the times.
c. Equipment : For some firms, equipment may be a constraint. For eg. a travel service
may be unable to send a taxi due to shortage of it. Similarly telephone companies face equipment
constraint since everyone wants to use the telephone line during peak hours.
How does Optimal capacity utilization differs from Maximal capacity Utilization? Give an
example of a case when the two might be the same and an example of where they are
different?
We should understand the difference between maximum and optimal capacity. Optimal and
maximum capacity are not the same. Using capacity at an optimum level means that resources
are fully employed but not overused, and the customers are receiving quality service in a timely
manner. Maximum capacity represents the absolute limit of service availability. For eg., In a
class room it is usually not desirable for students or faculty to have every seat filled. In this case,
On the other hand in a football game it is desirable to have every seat filled in the stadium to get
most profit. In this case the optimum and maximal capacity are the same. In some cases,
maximal use of capacity may result in excessive waiting time by customers as in the case of a
restaurant. From the point of view of customer satisfaction, optimum use of restaurant capacity
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In the case of equipment of facility constraints, the maximal capacity at any given time
is obvious. This is because; there are a certain number of seats in the aeroplane or a limited
In case of limitations in labor, the maximal capacity is different to specify, since people
are more flexible than facilities and equipment. When an individual service provider exceeds this
maximal capacity, the result is decreased service in quality. Customer dissatisfaction and
employee turnover. These outcomes are immediately observable even to the employee himself.
Therefore it is necessary to know which is maximal and which optimal capacity is.
business, it is necessary to understand the demand pattern. i.e.. Why they vary, which market
a. Record the demand pattern: First, the organization need to record the demand pattern
Eg: A tax consultant will be busy during the end of the financial year. This is because most of his
client would like to file their income tax returns. Therefore tax consultant can predict the demand
based on when the tax is due from the clients. Similarly services catering to children can predict
Transports can predict the demand based on the opening and closing of most offices.
b. Random demand fluctuation; Sometimes the pattern demand is random. The demand
cannot be predicted. Eg. is Hospital or a Nursing home. This is because accidents, ill health,
heart attacks etc., cannot be predicted in advance. Therefore the level of demand for a hospital
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service cannot be determined in advance. Similarly natural disasters such as flood, earth quake,
can change the service requirements of insurance and health care dramatically.
2. Which market segment is varying: Take the examples of Bank. Here the visit by its
current account holders may be daily at a predictable time, whereas SB A/c holders may visit the
bank at random intervals. Similarly those who want to have regular or routine checkup of their
health may visit the clinic once a month say, the first Monday of every month. Whereas those
who falls sick will visit the clinic as and when required.
Describe the two basic strategies for matching supply and demand and give alteast two
Once the capacity constraints and demand pattern is known to the organization. It is very
easy to develop strategies for matching supply and demand. There are 2 approaches to do this. 1.
Shift the demand to match the supply 2. Adjust the capacity to match the fluctuations in demand.
1. Shifting demand to match capacity: In this strategy, to organization seeks to shift the
customers aware from periods in which demand exceeds capacity. This can be done by
convincing them to use the service during the period when the demand is slow. This may be
possible for some customers but not for others. This can be done in a number of ways.
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1. Varying the service offering: One approach is to change the nature of service depending
upon the season of the year, day of the week or time of the day.
Eg. An airline can change the configuration of their seating to match the demand for different
market segments.
Eg. In some planes they may not be any first class section at all. On routes with a large demand
for first class seating, a significant proportion of seats may be placed in first class. While
changing the service offering, all other aspects of marketing mix variable such as promotion,
Demand Too High: Offer incentives to customers to use during non peak times, take
times benefits of nonpeak use, charge full price for the service no
discounts.
Demand Too Low: Modify the service offering to appeal to new market segment,
that we can choose to use the service at alternative times and avoid
For eg. Signs in bank and post offices that let customers know their busiest hours and busiest
days of the week can serve as a warning, allowing customers to shift their demand to another
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time impossible. Forewarning customers about busy times and possible wait can have added
Examples are
2. Introduction of extra show hours in a movie theatre. Another strategy may involve
moving the services to a new location to meet customer demand are even bringing
During periods of slow demand discount is offered. However all segments of the market
may not be price sensitive. Eg. A business traveler may not be price sensitive. Whereas an
individual with his family travelling may be price sensitive. Heavy use of price differentiation to
smoothen the demand can be a very risky strategy. This over reliance on price can result in a
price war in the industry where all competitors will suffer. Price wares are well known in the
airline industry where total industry profits have suffered. As a result of airlines simultaneously
trying to attract customer through price discount. Another risk of relying on price is that,
customers get accustomed to the lower price and expect to get the same deal the next time they
use service. If communication with customer is not clear, customer may not understand the
reason for discounts and will expect to pay the same during peak demand period. Therefore
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capacity. The fundamental idea here is to adjust, stretch and align capacity to match customer
demand. During period of peak demand, the organization will seek to stretch or expand its
capacity as much as possible. During period of slow demand it will try to shrink capacity. There
are 4 factors which come under stretching or shrinking (Time, People, Equipment, and Facility.
Stretching existing capacity: The existing capacity can often the expanded temporarily
to match the demand. In such a case no new resources or added but rather people, facilities and
equipment are asked to work harder and longer to meet the demand.
a. Stretch time: Extend the hours of working temporarily to accommodate the demand. Eg.
b. Stretch labor: In some organizations, employees are asked to work longer and harder
stretched beyond what would be considered the maximum capacity for a short period to
accommodate to meet demand. In using this type of stretch strategies, the organizations
Sufficient time is to be given to maintain the equipment in good condition. And also to
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employees.
Subcontract or outsource
activities.
This basic strategy is sometimes called as chase demand strategy. By adjusting service
resources like time, labour, facilities and equipments it is possible to align the capacity with the
In this case, the organization‘s labour resource is being aligned with demand. Part time
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For some organizations, it is best to rent additional equipment or facilities during the
peak period. For eg., Transport sector can run extra buses to meet the peak demand by hiring the
bus from the private operators. Similarly schools can hire buildings to accommodate students.
If people, equipment and facilities are used at maximum capacity during peak periods,
then it is necessary to schedule repair, maintenance, renovation during off peak periods. This will
ensure that resources are in top condition when they are needed. Similarly for employees
If employees are cross trained, they can be shifted from one task to another when most
needed. This will increase efficiency of the whole system and avoids under utilization of
manpower. Cross training means training in more than one area. Eg: some Airline employees can
be used for ticketing. They can be moved from here to Airport for public relations.
demand fluctuations. The Airline industry typically use this approach known as demand driven
dispatch.
For eg. In the new Boeing 777 aircraft it is possible to reconfigure the seating arrangement
within an hour. So that more number of seats could be allotted based on the demand. A second
eg: is to partition the class room as required depending upon the demand
What is yield management? Discuss the benefits and the risks in adopting yield
management strategy:
Yield Management: The goal of the yield management is to produce the best financial return
from a limited available capacity. Specifically, yield management has been defined as ‗The
process of allocating the right type of capacity to the right kind of customer at the right price
Benefits: By adopting yield management principle, revenue or yield can be maximized since this
is the ultimate goal of any organization. Yield management is nothing but the ratio of actual
This equation indicates that yield in the function of price and capacity. We know that
capacity constraints can be in the form of time, labour, equipment or facilities. Yield is a
measure of ―to what extent organization‘s resources of utilized for generating maximum
revenue‖. Yield can be raised by increasing capacity used or by increasing the price.
Take the examples of a hotel which has 200 rooms that it can rent at the rate of Rs. 100/-
per night. This means that the potential revenue is Rs. 20,000/-. One night if it rents all the rooms
at a reduced rate of Rs. 50/- per night, the revenue is Rs. 10,000/- Although capacity was used to
the maximum level than night, yield was only 50%. (10,000 / 20,000). If on the other hand, the
hotel has charged its full rate, it might of sold only 40% of its rooms due to customer price
sensitivity.
The yield under these circumstances would have been 40% (8000/20000) At Rs. 100/- rate, the
hotel may thus be maximizing the per – Room price but not the potential yield – or revenue
generation for the entire hotel. A combination of the two factors would be the best solution. If
the hotel fills 40% of the rooms at Rs. 100/- per night and the remaining 60% at Rs. 50/-, the
Yield management makes attempt to manage demand to meet capacity (fixed number of
rooms) by deciding what amount of capacity to offer at what price to what market segment in
order to maximize its revenue over a particular period. To implement, yield management system,
Allocation of capacity for specific segment can then be communicated to sales representatives or
counter sales people for selling rooms, seats or other limited resources. Sometimes the
allocations, once made remains fixed. At other times allocation may change weekly or even daily
in response to new information received from the customers. Airlines used this strategy vary
often. Decisions are made daily on how many seats to allocate to discount travelers, how many to
the groups, and how many for last minute full fare customers. Also n
III B. Risks or challenges in using yield management: There is no doubt that yield
management will improve revenues. However there are number of risks associated with the
b. Customer alienation: If customers learn that they are paid hire price for service than
someone else, they may perceive that the organization is unfair, particularly if they do not
c. Employee morale problems: While some employees may agree to implement as per
guideline given by the management, others might resent the rules and restrictions placed
d. Incentive and reward system: Employees may be unhappy with yield management
system, if it does not match with incentive structure. For eg. Many managers are
rewarded on the basis of capacity utilization or on the average rate charged, whereas
e. Lack of employee training: Employee need to understand the purpose, how it works,
how he should make decisions and how the system will affect their jobs.
organization must have a centralized reservation. While airlines and large hotel chains
have this other small organizations do not have this. They have decentralized reservation
system and thus find it difficult to operate yield management system effectively.
Describe the 4 basic waiting line strategies, and given an example of each one preferably
Sometimes it is not possible to manage capacity to match demand. It may be too costly
for a health clinic to add additional facilities or hire additional doctors to handle peak demand
during the winter season when the flu is common and many patients have to wait for the doctor.
These are instances where demand is unpredictable and the service capacity is very inflexible (it
cannot be easily stretched to meet the demand) Some times waiting may occur for eg., even
through patients are scheduled by appointments in the physicians office, frequently there is wait.
This is because some patients take longer to serve than the time allotted to them. For most
service organization, waiting customers are a fact of life at some point. Waiting can occur on the
telephone – customers are put on hold when they call in to ask for information, order something,
and make complaint. The waiting can occur at a bank or a post office or doctors clinic. Waiting
In today‘s fast life, waiting is not something which most people tolerate well. As people
work longer hours, individuals have less leisure, and families have fewer hours together, the
pressure on people‘s time is greater than before. In this environment customers are looking for
To deal with the waiting line problem several strategies are adopted by the organization
1. Employ operational logic: If customer wait is common, then the first step for the
possible to redesign the system so that the queue can move faster Eg. Additional counters
at bank, post office during all hours or technological improvements to be made (use of
computers or ATM) when queue is inevitable, the organization should take a decision on
―What kind of queuing system to used or how to configure the queue‖. Queue
configuration refers to the number of queues, their location, space requirement etc., There
are several possibilities. In a multiple queue, the customer arrives at the service facility
and must decide which queue to join, and customer arrives at the services facility and
must decide which queue to join, and whether to switch later if the wait appears to be
shorter in the other line. In the single queue alternative, since first – come, first o served
principle is followed. However customer may leave if there perceive, that the line too
long, and there is no opportunity to meet the service provider. Another option is to take a
This number will indicate their position in the line and also avoids line jumping. The
disadvantage is that the customer must be alert to hear the number when it is called.
can help to spread the demand. Hotels, transport companies. Theatres and many other
service providers use reservation system to avoid long waits. The idea behind reservation
system is that the service should be available positively when the customer arrives. In
addition to the reduction in the waiting time, the reservation system has the added benefit
The danger this system is that if the customer does not turn up then and alternative
arrangement has to be made. Eg. a customer ―who books a room in a hotel, does not turn
up then the hotel staff will be in a dilemma as to how long should they wait‖.
3. Differentiate the waiting customer: Not all customers need to wait the same length of
time for service. One the basis of need or customer priority organizations differentiate
among customers, allowing some to have shorter waits for service than others. This is
whom to select next for service. The most popular discipline is first come and first
with the organizations can be given priority in service by providing them with a special
b. Urgency of the Job: Those customers with most urgent need or served first. This is
followed in medical emergency case. It is also used by service people such as air-
conditioning repair, who give priority to customers whose airconditoners are not working
c. Duration of the service transaction: In many situations express lanes are created when
the service provider knows that the transaction is going to take extra time, and then the
customer is referred to a designated provider who deals only with these special need
4. Making waiting fun, or at least tolerable: Even when they to wait, customers can more
or less satisfied depending on how the wait is handled by the organization. But it is not
just the actual time spent waiting that has been impact on customer satisfaction – it is
how customer feels about the wait and their perception during that time. The subject of
which has implication on ―How organizations can make waiting a pleasure or at least
tolerable‖.
Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time: When customers are not occupies, they are
likely to be bored and will notice that passage of time is more than when they have something to
do. Providing something for the waiting customer to do can improve the customer‘s experience
Eg. providing some interesting magazines at a clinic, playing some music over the phone then
Pre-process wait feel longer than in Process wait: If wait time is occupied with activities that
relate to the upcoming service, customer may perceive that the service has shorted and they are
no longer actually waiting. This in – process activity make length of the wait seem shorted and
will also benefit the service provider by making the customer better prepared when the service
actually does begin. Filling out medical information while waiting for a doctor or reading a menu
while waiting on a seat in a restaurant on all activities that can at the same time educate the
Anxiety makes wait seem longer: when customers fear that they have been forgotten or don‘t
know how long they will have to wait, they become anxious, and this anxiety can increase the
negative impact of waiting. Anxiety also results when customers are forced to choose a multiple
line situation and when they discover that they have chosen the ―wrong line‘ To combat waiting
line anxiety, organizations can provide information on the length of the wait. Using a single line
strategy also alleviates customer anxiety over having chosen the wrong line. Explanations and
reassurances that no one has forgotten them alleviate customer anxiety by taking away their
Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits: Anxiety is intensified when customers
don‘t know how long they will have to wait. Health care provider‘s combat this by letting
customers knows when they check in, how far behind the physician is that day. Some patients
resolve this uncertainty themselves by calling ahead to ask. Customers who arrive early for an
appointment will wait patiently until the scheduled time, even if they arrive very early. However,
once the expected appointment time has passed, customers grow increasingly anxiour. Before the
appointment time the wait time is known, after that, the length of the wait is nit known.
Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits: When people understand the causes for
waiting, they frequently have greater patience and are less anxious, particularly when the wait is
justifiable. Being provided with an explanation can reduce customer uncertainly and may help
customers to make at least a ballpark estimate of how long they will be delayed. Customers, who
don‘t know the reason for a wait, begin to feel powerless and irritated.
Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits; When customers perceive that they are waiting
while others who arrived after them have already been served, the apparent inequity will make
the wait seem even longer. This can easily occur when there is no apparent order in the waiting
area and many customers are trying to be served. Queuing systems that work on a first-come,
first served rule are best at overcoming perceived unfairness; But there can be some expectation
to the above. For eg. In an emergency medical care situation, the most seriously ill or injured
The more valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait: Higher the value of service
the more tolerant the person is who is receives the service. For eg. In a super market, a customer
who has to dull cart of groceries to be purchased will generally wait longer than customers who
have only a few items to buy. Similarly the wait time is more in an expensive restaurant than in a
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Module VII
Role of Marketing Communication
Key Reasons for GAP 4 Involving communication:
Inadequate Management of Service Promises:
A discrepancy between service delivery and promises occurs when companies fail to manage
service promises the promises made by sales people, advertising, and service personnel. One of
the primary reasons for this discrepancy is that the company lacks the information to fulfill the
promises. Sales people often sell services particularly new business services, before their actual
availability and without having an exact date when they will be ready for market. Demand and
supply variations also contribute to the problem of fulfilling service promises. They make service
provision possible at sometimes improbable at others and difficult to predict GAP 4 can also
occur when companies neglect to inform customers of special offers to ensure quality that are not
visible to customers. Customers are not always aware of everything done behind the scenes to
serve them all or to fulfill what they expect.
Reset Customer
Expectation
Improve customer
Education
Above fig shows four categories of strategies to match or exceed service delivery with promises
1. Manage Service promises
2. Reset customer expectations
3. Improve customer education
4. Manage Horizontal communications
1. Manage Service promises involves coordinating the promises made by all employees in
the company t ensure that they are consistent and feasible.
2. Reset customer expectations, a more dramatic strategy that tells customers, that the firm
can no longer provide the level of service that it has provided in the past and the customer
expectation must be lowered due to significant changes in the environment.
3. Educating customers means providing customers with information about the service or
evaluate criteria that inform them about aspects of service.
4. Finally, managing horizontal communication means transmitting information across
functional boundaries-between marketing and operations, human resources and finance to
align all functions with customer expectations.
a. Make Realistic Promises: The expectations of customers about the service affect
their evaluations of its quality, the higher the expectation, the higher the delivered
service must be to be perceived as high quality.Therefore,promising reliability in
advertising is appropriate only when reliability is actually delivered. Promising no
knowledgeable about and empathetic toward external customers, they also experience
intrinsic rewards for satisfying customers.
Back office or support personnel, who typically do not interact directly with
externalcustomers, miss out on this bonding and as a consequence, fail to gain the skills
and rewards associated with it.
Interaction: Companies are creating ways to facilitate the interaction between back
office and support personnel and external customers.
Xerox for Example, created a program called ―Adopt a district‖ to allow employees to
meet and build relationships with particular customers. When actual interaction is
difficult or impossible some companies have videotaped customers in their service
facilities during the purchase and consumption process to vividly portray needs and
requirements of customers and to show personnel the support front line people need to
deliver.
PRICING OF SERVICES
Pricing of Services-Role of price and Value in Provider GAP4, Role of non Monitory cost, Price
as an indicator of service quality, Approaches to pricing services, Pricing Strategies
I. REFERENCE PRICE
A reference price is a price point in memory for goods or services, and can consist of the
price last paid, the price most frequently paid, or the average of all prices customers have paid
for similar offerings.
1. To see how accurate your reference prices for services are, you can compare them with
the actual price of these services from the providers in your home town.
Because services are intangible and are not created on a factory assembly line, service
firms have great flexibility in the configurations of services they offer. Firms can conceivably
offer an infinite variety of combinations and permutations leading to complex and complicated
pricing structures. As an example, consider how difficult it is to get comparable price quotes
when buying life insurance. With the multitude of types (e.g., whole life versus term), features
(different deductibles), variations associated with customers (age, health risk, smoking or non
smoking), few insurance companies offer exactly the same features and the same prices, only an
expert customer, one who knows enough about insurance to completely specify the options
across providers, is likely to find prices that are directly comparable.
2. Another reason customers lack accurate reference prices for services is that many
providers are unable or unwilling to estimate price in advance. Consider most medical or legal
services. Rarely are legal or medical service providers willing – or even able – to estimate a price
in advance. The fundamentals reason in many cases is that they do not know themselves what the
services will involve until have fully examined the patient or the client‘s situation or until the
process of service delivery (such as an operation in a hospital or a trial) unfolds. In a business –
to – business context, companies will obtain bids or estimates for complex services such as
consulting or construction, but this type of price estimation is typically not undertaken with end-
consumers; therefore, they often buy without advance knowledge about the final price of the
service.
Another factor that results in the inaccuracy of reference prices is that individual customer needs
vary. A service as simple as a hotel room will have prices that vary greatly : by size of room,
time of year, type of room availability, and individual versus group rate. These two examples are
for very simple services.
Still another reason customers lack accurate reference prices for services is that , with
most goods, retail stores display the products by category to allow customers to compare and
contrast the prices of different brands and sizes. Rarely is there a similar display of services in a
single outlet. If customers want to compare prices (for example, for dry cleaning), they must
drive to or call individual outlets.
It has been recognized that monetary price is not the only sacrifice consumers make to
obtain products and services. Demand, therefore, is not just a function of monetary price but is
influenced by other costs as well. Non monetary costs represent other sources of sacrifice
perceived by consumers when buying and using a service. Time costs, search costs, often enter
into the evaluation of whether to buy or rebury a service, and may at times be more important
concerns than monetary price.
Most services require direct participation of the consumer and thus consume real time;
time waiting as well as time when the customer interacts with the service provider. Consider the
investment you make to exercise, see a physician, or get through the crowds to watch a concert
or game. Not only are you paying money to receive these services : you‘re also expending time.
Time becomes a sacrifice made to receive service is multiple ways. First because service
providers cannot completely control the number of customer to be serviced, service customers
are likely to expend time waiting to receive the service.
Waiting time for a service is virtually always longer and less predictable than waiting
time to buy goods.
Search costs the effort invested to identify and select among services you desire are also
higher for services than for physical goods. Price for services are rarely displayed on shelves of
service establishments for customers to examine as they shop, so these prices are often known
only when a customer has dedicated to experience the service.
There are also convenience costs of services. If customers have to travel to a service, they
incur a cost, and the cost becomes greater when travel is difficult, as it is for elderly persons.
Further, if service hours do not coincide with the customer‘s available time, she must arrange her
schedule to correspond to the company‘s schedule.
Often the most painful nonmonetary costs are the psychic costs incurred in receiving
some services fear of not understanding (insurance), fear of rejection (bank loans), fear of
uncertainty (including fear of high cost) – all of these constitute psychic costs that customers
experience as sacrifices when purchasing and using services. All change, even positive change,
brings about psychic costs that customers factor into the purchase of services. When banks first
introduced ATMs, customer resistance was significant, particularly to the idea of putting money
into a machine : customers felt uncomfortable with the idea of lettings go of their checks and
bank cards.
When service cues to quality are readily accessible, when brand names provide evidence
of a company‘s reputation, or when level of advertising communicates the company‘s belief in
the brand, customers may prefer to use those cues instead of price. In other situations, however,
such as when quality is hard to detect or when quality or price varies a great deal within a class
of services, consumers may believe that price is the best indicator of quality.
Many of these conditions typify situations that face consumers when purchasing services.
Another factor that increases the dependence on price as a quality indicator is the risk associated
with the services purchase. In high – risk situations, many of which involved credence services
such as medical treatment or management consulting, the customer will look to price as a
indicator for quality.
Because customers depend on price as a cue to quality and because price sets
expectations of quality, service prices must be determined carefully. In addition to being chosen
to cover costs or match competitors, prices must be chosen to convey the appropriate quality
signal. Pricing too low can lead to inaccurate inferences about the quality of the service. Pricing
too high can set expectations that may be difficult to match in service delivery.
1. Cost Based 2. Competition based 3. Demand based companies need to consider each of the
three to some extant in setting prices.
In cost – based pricing, a company determines expenses from raw materials and labor
adds amount or percentages for overhead and profit and thereby arrives at the price. This method
is widely used by industries such as utilities, contracting, wholesaling and advertising. The basic
for cost – based pricing is
One of the major difficulties in cost based pricing involves defining the units in which a
service is purchased. Thus the price per unit – a well – understood concept in pricing of
manufactured goods is a vague entity. For this reason many services are sold in term of input
units rather than units of measured output. For example, most professional service (such as
consulting, engineering, architecture, psychotherapy and tutoring) are sold by the hour.
What is unique about services, when using cost – based approaches to pricing? First, costs are
difficult to trace or calculate in services business, particularly where multiple services are
provided by the firm. Consider how difficult it must be for a bank to allocate teller time
accurately across its checking, saving, and money market accounts in order to decide what to
charge for the services. Second, a major component of cost is employee time rather than
materials and the value of people‘s time, particularly non professional time, is not easy to
calculate or estimate.
Cost – plus pricing is a commonly used approach in which component costs are calculated and
markup added. In product pricing this approach is quite simple, in service industries, however, it
is complicated because the tracking and identification of costs are difficult. The approach is
typically used in industries where cost must be estimated in advance, such as construction
engineering and advertising. In construction or engineering, bids are solicited by clients on the
basis of the description of the service desired. Using their knowledge of the costs of the
components of the service (including both professional and unskilled) and margin, the company
estimated and present to the client a price for the finished service.
Fee for service is the pricing strategy used by professionals; it represents the cost of the
time involved in providing the service. Consultants, psychologists, accounts and lawyers, among
other professionals, charge for their services on an hourly basis.
This approach focuses on the prices changed by other firms in the same industry or
market. Competition – based pricing does not always imply changing the identical rate others
changes but rather using others prices as an anchor for the firms price. This approach is used
predominantly in two situations.
1. When services are standard across providers, such as in the dry cleaning industry.
2. In oligopolies where there is a small number of large service providers, such as in the airline
or rental car industry.
Small firms may charge too little and not make margins high enough to remain in
business.
Further, the heterogeneity of services across and within providers makes this approach
complicated. Bank services illustrate the wide disparity in service prices. Customers buying
checking accounts, money orders, or foreign currency, to name a few services, will find prices
are rarely similar across providers.
In this type of market, any price offered by one company will be matched by competitors
to avoid giving a low – cost seller a distinct advantage. The airline industry exemplifies price
signaling in services.
The two approaches to pricing just described are based on the company and its
competitors rather than on customers. Neither approach takes into consideration that customers
may lack reference prices, may be sensitive to no monetary prices, and may judge quality on the
basis of price. All of these factors can and should be accounted for in a company‘s pricing
decisions. The third major approach to pricing, demand – based pricing involves setting prices
consistent with customer perceptions of value; prices are based on what customers will pay for
the services provided.
One of the major ways that pricing of services differs from of goods in demand – based is
that, no monetary cost and benefits must be factored into the calculation of perceived value to the
customers. When services require time, inconvenience, and psychic and search costs, the
monetary price must be adjusted to compensate. And when services save time, inconvenience,
and psychic and search costs, the customer is likely to be willing to pay a higher monetary price.
Another way services and goods differ with respect to this from of pricing is that
information on services costs may be less available to customers.
One of the most appropriate ways that companies price their services is basing the price
on the perceived value of the service to customers. Among the questions a services marketer
needs to ask are the following. What do consumers mean by value? How can we quantify
perceived value in rupees that we can set appropriate prices for our services? Is the meaning of
value similar across consumers and services? How can value perceptions be influenced? To fully
understand demands- based pricing approaches, we must fully understand what value means to
customers.
Rather than focusing on the money given up, some consumers emphasize the benefits
they receive from a service or products as the most important component of value. In this value
definition, price is far less important than the quality or features that match what the consumer
wants. In the telephone industry, for example, business customer strongly value the reliability of
the systems and are very willing to pay for the safety and confidentiality of the telephone lines.
Service customer describe this definition of value as follows for an MBA degree : ―Value is the
best education I can get‖.
Other consumers see value as trade off between the money they give up and the quality
they receive.
For a hotel for vacation: ―Value is price first and quality second‖.
For a housekeeping service: ―Value is how many rooms I can get cleaned for what the
price is‖.
For executive education : ―Value is getting a good educational experience value is the customer‘s
overall assessment of the utility of a service based on perceptions of what is received and what is
given. While what is received varies across consumers (eg. some may want volume, other high
quality, still others convenience, some are concerned only with money expended, other with time
and effort). Value represents a trade – off between give and get components. Customers will
make a purchase decision on the basis of perceived value, not solely to minimize the price paid.
This is the price the customer perceives the service to be, whereas objective price is the
actual price. As we discussed earlier, many consumers do not attend to, know, and remember
actual prices of services. Instead they reframe prices in ways that are meaningful to them. Some
consumers may notice that the price of dry cleaning a shirt is Rs.12. others may perceive and
remember the price only as ―expensive‖ or ―cheap.‖ Still others may not pay any attention to the
price at all.
This price represents the others costs we discussed earlier in this chapter that are
perceived by consumer when buying and using a service : time costs, search costs and psychic
costs.
PERCEIVED SACRIFICE:
Perceived sacrifice includes all that the customer perceives has to be given up to obtain a
service. All form of price monetary and no monetary feed into this perceptual concept.
PERCEIVED QUALITY:
PERCEIVED VALUE:
Perceived value is defined as the consumer‘s overall assessment of the utility of a service
based on perceptions of what is received.
It is the buyer‘s perception of total value that prompts the willingness to pay a particular
price for a service. To translate the customer‘s value perceptions into an appropriate price for a
specific service offering, the marketer must answer a number of question.
The most important thing a company must do and often a difficult thing- is to estimate the
value of the company‘s services to the customers. Value may be perceived differently by
consumers because of tastes, knowledge about the service, buying power, and ability to pay. In
this type of pricing, what the consumer values is important for pricing and not what he pays.
Therefore its effectiveness rests solely on accurately determining what the market perceives the
service to be worth.
1. PRICING STRATEGIES:
Some of the specific pricing approaches appropriate when customers define value as low
price include discounting, odd pricing, synchro pricing, and penetration pricing.
DISCOUNTING
Service providers offer discounts or price cuts to communicate to price sensitive buyers that
are receiving value.
Odd PRICING
This is the practice of pricing services just below the exact Rupee amount to make buyers
perceive that they are getting a lower price Rs.199.90
SYNCRO – PRICING
Synchro –pricing is the use of price to manage demand for a service by using customer
sensitivity to prices. Certain services, such as tax preparation, passenger transportation, long –
distance telephone, hotels, and theaters have demand that fluctuates over time as well as
constrained supply at peak times. For companies in these and other industries, setting a price that
provides a profit over time can be difficult. Pricing can however, play a role in smoothing
demand and synchronizing demand and supply.
Place differentials are used for services where customers have a sensitivity to location. The
front row at concerts, the 50 – yard line in foot ball, center court in tennis or basketball, ocean –
side rooms in resort hotels – all these represent place differentials that are meaningful to
customers and that therefore command higher prices.
Time differentials involve price variations that depend on when the service in consumed.
Telephone service after 11 p.m., hospital rooms on weekends, airline tickets that include a
Saturday night stay, are time differentials that reflect slow periods of service. By offering lower
prices for under used time periods, a service company can smoothen demand and also gain
incremental revenue.
PENETRATION PRICING:
Penetration pricing is a strategy in which new services are introduced at low prices to
stimulate trial and widespread use. The strategy is appropriate when (1) sales volume of the
service is very sensitive to price, even in early stages of introduction (2) a service faces threats of
strong potential competition very soon after introduction; and (3) there is no class of buying
willing to pay a higher price to obtain the service.
PRESTIGE PRICING
This is a special from demand – based pricing by service marketers who offer high –
quality or status services. For certain services – restaurants, health clubs, airlines, and hotels – a
higher price is charged for the luxury end of the business. Some customers of service companies
who use this approach may actually value the high price because it represents prestige or a
quality images. Others prefer purchasing at the high end because they are given preference in
seating or accommodations and are entitled to other special benefits. In prestige pricing, demand
may actually increase as price increases because the costlier service has more value in reflecting
quality or prestige.
SKIMMING PRICING
This is a strategy in which new services are introduced at high prices with large
promotional expenditures. In this situation many customers are mor concerned about obtaining
the service than about the cost of the service allowing service providers to skim the customers
most willing to pay the highest prices.
The task of the marketer is to understand what quality means to the customers (or
segments of customers and then to match quality level with price level.
“VALUE PRICING”
This widely used term has come to mean ―giving more for less‖ in current usage it
involves assembling a bundle of services that are desirable to a wide group of customers and then
pricing them lower than they would cost alone.
In this from of pricing, service marketer charges different prices to groups of customers
for what are perceived to be different quality levels of services, even though there may not be
corresponding differences in the costs of providing the service to each of these groups. This
pricing is based on the premise that different segments show different price elastic ties of
demand and desire different quality levels.
Companies also use market segmentation by service version, recognizing that not all
segments want the basic level of service at lowest price. When they can identify a bundle of
attributes that are desirable enough for another segment of customers, they can charge a higher
price and service points appealing to different groups in the market. Hotels, for example,
Offer standard rooms at a basic rate but then combine amenities and tangibles related to the room
to attract customers willing to pay more.
(4) PRICING STRATEGIES WHEN THE CUSTOMER MEANS ―VALUE IS ALL THAT I
GET FOR ALL THAT I GIVE‖
PRICE FRAMING:
Because many customers do not possess accurate prices for services, services marketers
are more likely than product marketers to organize the price information for customers, so that
they know how to view it customers naturally look for price anchors, as well as familiar services
against which to judge focal services. If they accept the anchors, they will view the price and
service package favorably.
PRICE BUNDLING
Some services are consumed more effectively in conjunction with other services; other
services accompany the products they support (e.g. extended service warranties, training, and
expedited delivery). When customers find value in a package of services that are interrelated,
price bundling is an appropriate strategy. Bundling, this means pricing and selling services as a
group rather than individually, has benefits to both customers and service companies. Customers
find that bundling simplifies their purchase and payment, and companies find that the approach
stimulates demand for the firm‘s service line, there by achieving cost economics for the
operations as a whole while increasing net contributions. Bundling also allows the customers to
pay less than she would in purchasing each of the services individually, which contributes to
perceptions of value.
Approaches to bundling include mixed bundling, mixed – leader bundling, and mixed –
joint bundling. In mixed bundling, the customer can purchase the services individually or as a
package. But a price incentive is offered for purchasing the package. An example, a health club
customer may be able to contract for aerobics classes at 25 per month. Weight machines at
Rs.15, and pool privileges at Rs.15 or the group of three services for Rs.27 (a price incentive of
Rs.5 per month.). in mixed – leader bundling, the price of one service is discounted if the first
service is purchased at full price. For example, if cable TV customers buy one channel at full
price for first T.V., they can acquire a second T.V. channel at a reduced monthly rate. In mixed –
joint bundling, a single price is formed for the combined set of services with the objective to
increase demand for both services by packing them together.
COMPLEMENTARY PRICING
This pricing includes three related strategies captive pricing, two – part pricing, and loss
leadership. Services that are highly interrelated can be leveraged by using one of these forms of
pricing. In captive pricing, the firm offers a base service or product and then provides peripheral
services needed to continue using the service. In this situation the company could off – load
some part of the price for the basic service to the peripherals. For example, cable services often
drop the price for installation to a very low level, then compensate by charging enough for the
peripheral services to make up for the loss in revenue. With services firms, this strategy is often
called ―two – part pricing‖ because the service price is broken into a fixed fee plus variable
usage fee (also found in telephone services). Loss leadership is the term typically used in retail
stores when providers place a familiar service on special largely to draw the customer to the
stores and then reveal other levels of service available at higher prices.
CONTINGENCY PRICING
The most commonly known form of results – based pricing (used when uncertainty is
high) is a practice called contingency pricing used by lawyers. In this approach, lawyers do not
receive fees or payment until the case is settled, when they are paid it is a percentage of the
pricing makes sense in part because most clients in these cases are unfamiliar with the outcomes.
Their biggest fears are high fees for a case that may take years to settle. By using contingency
pricing, clients are assured that they pay no fees until they receive a settlement.
MODULE-VIII
Roles of Service Scapes:
Package
conveys expectations
influences perceptions
Facilitator
facilitates the flow of the service delivery process
Provides information (how am I to act?)
Facilitates the ordering process (how does this work?)
Facilitates service delivery
Socializer
facilitates interaction between:
customers and employees
customers and fellow customers
Differentiator
sets provider apart from competition in the mind of the consumer
Physical Evidence
What is Physical Evidence?
Physical Evidence is the environment in which service is delivered. It is the environment
in which customers and firm interact. Physical evidence is any tangible commodity which
facilitates communication.
Physical evidence includes all aspects of the organizational physical facility physical
facility is also called as servicescape. There are 2 elements of service scape. 1. Exterior 2.
Interior . Exterior refers to parking, signboard, landscape etc., Interior refers to layout, decor and
equipment. Some service communicate heavily through physical evidence eg., hospital, resorts.
Some other services provide limited service evidence eg., Insurance.
Service Scape :
Servicescape can influence, customer choice, expectation, satisfaction and other behavior
Eg., Retailers (shopper stop, food world) know that customers are influenced by smell, décor,
music, store layout. Because services generally are purchased and consumed simultaneously
employees and customers will interact with each other in the servicescape. Thus, the same
physical evidence setting that communicates with the customer and influences him to buy the
service will also affect the employees of the firm, i.e., affect the employee by way of motivation,
productivity, satisfaction. Therefore service setting is to be designed (stay physical layout) in
such a way that is meets the need of the customer and employee.
Uses of servicescape:
The organizations must first find out “who is going to come into the service
facility”?
Is it customer, or employee or both groups. The design of servicescape depends on this
factor. There could be a self service environment where the customer performs must of the
activities and no employee is involved.
1. ATM 2. Vending machine.
At the other extreme, we have remote service, where there is no customer involvement,
i.e., customer does not see the physical facility or service scape E.g., Mail order, Telemarketing,
utilities, (KEB. Water supply). In these remote services, the service scape should be designed, to
meet only employee‘s needs, and preferences. The place should be so designed so as to keep the
employees motivated, facilitate increase in productivity improve team work and efficiency. In
this case the consideration for designing service-scape is to achieve only organizational goal
since customers do not see the servicecape.
Interpersonal service are inbetween the 2 extremes and in this case both customers and
employee must be present in the servicesape. Eg., Hotels, Hospitals, Educational Institute etc., In
this case servicescape must be planned to attract, satisfy both customers and employees
simultaneously.
Organization must ask the following 3 questions.
1. Who should be consulted in making services scape and other evidence decisions. The
answer to this is ―Who is involved in service scape‖
2. What organizational goal might be targeted through servicescape design?
For self service firm : Marketing goals such as customer attraction and customer
satisfaction.
For remote service : Priority is given to employee motivation, productivity while
designing servicescape.
3. How complex is the service scape
1. Is it lean or 2. Is it elaborate
Lean means simple service environment with few elements, few space, few pieces of
equipment. Eg., Pushcart Kitchen, small travel agent for hiring a car .
Elaborate means – complex service environment like hospital with many floors. How
servicescape plays each of the following role. a. Packing b. Facilitator c. Socializer d.
differentiator.
Packing: Servicecape act as a package in tangible goods. Physical evidence wrap the
service and convey an external image of what is ―inside‖ the service organization for customers.
Just as product package given image of the product servicescape gives the image of service.
Facilitator : How the setting is designed can enhance or inhibit the flow of activities in
service settings, making it easier or harder for customers and employees to accomplish their
goals. A well designed, functional facility can make the service a pleasure to experience from the
customers point of view. Eg., III designed bank layout, where token issue clerk and manager
passing the cheque sitting quite apart or ill designed airport where there is no ventilation or no
sign boards.
Socializer: The design of servicesape helps in socializing. It helps both employees and
customer to play their roles, behavior properly. For eg., a new employee in a professional service
would come to understand his/her position in the hierarchy partially by noticing the quality of
his/her office furnishing and her physical locations; (non cabin staff) servicesape if properly
designed tells the customers. ‗In which part of the servicesape customers are welcome, and
‗which are for employees only. How they should interact, and what type of interaction is
allowed.
Differentiator: Design of physical facility can differentiate a firm from its competitors.
Make changes in the physical environment can be used to reposition a firm or to attract new
market segments. This is common in hotel industry where there 2 dining halls. Eg. A/C and non
A/C price differentiation is also often achieved through variations in physical setting. Eg., first
class in a train will cost more than economy class.
What is stimulus – organism response? How it connects effects of service scape on
customers and employees?
Environment acts as a stimulus. Customers and employees are the organisms who
respond to the stimulus. The behavior of the customers / employees directed towards the
environment are the response.
Imagine, that you are in a college, there is a short break from the class and you are
strolling in the campus and you see a pushcart and aroma of your favourate dish will have impact
on you. Assume you are a hungry student.
The aroma attracts you. You are attracted and decide to buy that dish and eat quickly
since you may have another class to attend before you can break for lunch. Here the aroma is the
stimulus, you are the organism and purchase of that dish is the behavior directed towards
servicescape.
S.R.Model
Environment --------- Internal ---------------- Behaviour
Responses
What type of behavior are influenced by the service scape?
Individual behavior : It is observed that when individuals react to places. The behavior takes 2
forms. 1. Approach 2. Avoidance.
Approach behaviours include all positive behaviours that might be directed at a particular
place such as desire to stay. Avoidance behavior reflect the opposite, a desire not to stay. This
behavior is influenced by the environment.
The environment, in addition to attracting or determining entry can also influence the
customers, and employees in executing their plan once inside the servicescape. Each individual
comes to a particular service organization with a goal or purpose that may be aided or hindered
by setting. Take a hotel situation when a customer enters. He needs easy access to parking, clear
sign boards, directing him to reception, efficient food service, clean rooms etc., The ability of an
employee to do their hobs is also influenced by the servicescape. Adequate space, proper
equipment, comfortable temperature all these contribute to employee‘s comfort and job
satisfaction.
Social Interaction: In addition to the effect of servicessape on individual behavior,
servicescaoe influence the nature and quality of employee interactions, most directly in
interpersonal service. The social interaction is affected by the physical container in which it
occurs. The ‗physical container‘ can affect the nature of social interaction in terms of the
duration of interaction and progression of events. In some service situation, the firm may want to
limit the duration of service. Environmental variables such as seating arrangements, size, time
limit the social interaction occurring between customers and other customers (Cinema) or in a
train. The close physical proximity of passengers on the train will in itself prescribe certain
patterns of behavior.
The physical setting decides the nature of social interaction. Friendship formation,
participation, helping others have are been influenced by environment conditions. It is also found
that proper physical setting will also help employees in developing friendship, group work etc.,
One of the challenges in designing environments is to enhance individual approach
behaviours and encourage the appropriate social interactions is that the best design from one
person or group may not be best design for others. It has been fund that, when customers are in
the bank, they have different needs and desires for their physical surroundings compared to an
employee whose physical surrounding requirement are quire different.
What are the various managerial issue regarding various type of behaviours:
1. Self service firms want to predict and manage customer behavior.
Main concern for manager would be
1. Customer attraction
2. Customer satisfaction
3. Customer retention
2. Remote service firms Managerial problem will be
1. Productivity
2. Increase in efficiency
3. Team work
3. Interaction service a. Behaviour of customers and employees
Environment and behavior
People respond to environment in different ways i.e., they 1. Respond 2. Cognitively 3.
Emotionally. 4. Psychologically
The response of the customers will not be the same for every individual every time. The same
individual responds to the same servicescape differently from other individuals, This is called
―Intutal response moderators‖. Personality differences temporarily conditions such as mood of
the consumers cum and cause variations in ―How people respond to a services cape‖. Let us take
the example of one personality trait. Some people prefer ―arousal seeking‖. Arousal seekers
enjoy and look for high level of stimulation, whereas arousal avoiders prefer lower level of
stimulation. Thus, all arousal avoiders, who find himself in a loud bright disco with flashing
noon light show strong dislike for the environment, whereas an arousal seeker would be very
happy. A person who is on an airplane for a one hour flight will likely be less affected by the
atmosphere on the plane than another traveler who is embarking on a 10 hour overseas flight. A
patient who is the hospital for a day is likely to be less sensitive and less demanding than a
person who is spending to weeks in the hospital.
A person who is feeling frustrated and tired after a long days work is likely to be affected
differently than a person would be after relaxing three day weekend. Similarly people who are in
a hurry are likely to be more sensitive to elements of the environment such as crowding than they
would be on a different day when they are not ‗under time pressure‖
The important thing to remember is that, not every person will respond in the same way
to the environment. Individual moods, purpose and expectation may influence the response.
All environmental factors are classified into 3 dimensions.
1. Ambient condition
2. Spatial layout and functionality
3. Signs, Symbols.
Ambient conditions also have great effect when the customer or employee spends considerable
time in the services cape.
In the hall where music program is going on, quality of air and noise level is more important than
in dry cleaning where most customers spend only very little time. Since employees spend more
hours in the services cape than the customers, ambient conditions are very important in creating a
satisfying work environment.
2. Spatial layout and functioning : Because service environment exists to fulfill specific
purpose or needs of the customer, spatial layout of the surroundings are very important. Spatial
layout refers to the way in which equipment, furnishing are arranged. The size, and shape of
those items, and spatial relationships among them functionality refers to the ability of the same
item to facilitate the accomplishment of customer and employee goal.
Examples : The seat arrangement in the theatre is an example of spatial and functional
arrangement. The spatial layout and functionality of the environment are particularly important
for customers in self service environment, where they must perform the service on their own and
cannot depend on employees to assist them. Therefore function of ATM machine, self operate
petrol pump, vending machine are examples of spatial layout and functionality.
Layout and functionality are very important, when the task to be completed are complex and
when customers are under time pressure. Think of an airport, where people come and go, often
under extreme time pressure to make a connecting flight. If the airport layout is such that, it is
difficult to identify the gates and facilitate easy movements, then we can say that the spatial
layout is poor. Similarly if the connecting gates are located great distance apart, and the sign
board is poor and there are no side walks to move quickly through the airport, the travelers will
be frustrated.
3.Signs and Symbols : Signs displayed on the exterior and interior of a structure are examples of
explicit communications. They can be used as labels (eg., Name of the company, Name of Dept,
Entrance, exit) and to communicate rules of behavior (Eg., No. smoking, children not allowed)
Sings, symbols are particularly important informing first impressions of customers and for
communicating services. Art work, photograph on the wall can all communicate symbolic
meaning and create an overall aesthetic impression. For eg., Hotel manager for example know
that white table cloth with subdued lighting symbolically convey full services.
Various approaches used to understand and learn about users reaction and preference for
different types of environment.
1. Environmental survey,
2. Direct observation,
3. Experiment,
Environment Surveys : A questionnaire is prepared and both customers and employee are
asked to answer the same. The only disadvantage of this method is that, the answers to the
survey questions may not truly reflect ―how people will behave‖.
Direct observation : This method calls for observing and recording the behavior of customers
and employees in a services cape. This method requires highly trained people and skill is
required.
The disadvantage of this method is that, it takes time, it costs lot of money. Also these
specialists who observe the services cape must be allowed to observe for a long period of time. It
is labour intensive, since results cannot be entered on to the computer.
The advantage of this method is that, if experiment were done properly, the results are
valid.
Photo blue prints : Blueprints provides a visualization of the service at each customer action
step. Visual can be slide or a video tape. Blue print given a clear picture of physical evidence.
Before changes are made, the current state of physical evidence should be made clear to all
concerned.