Question

Describe a service culture and identify characteristics of service marketing. 

Answer 1

A service culture focuses on serving the customer and satisfying their needs. The service culture must begin with top management and flow down. Present to your class different hospitality companies that exemplify a service culture (Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, etc.)

 

The four service characteristics that affect the marketing of a hospitality or travel product.

• Intangibility: Purchasers of hospitality and tourism product usually have nothing physical to show at the end of their experience. Because the product is intangible it is difficult to evaluate the product before purchase. Discuss with your class that most products are a mix of tangible products and intangible products.

1. In a restaurant, the meal is tangible. In a fast food restaurant, it is a large portion of the overall product. In an upscale restaurant, the service of the food or intangible portion of the service becomes more important.

• Inseparability means all customer-contact employees become part of the product. It also means customers become part of the product and we have to manage our customer. You can ask students to give examples of when customers influenced the satisfaction of other customers.

1. For example, drunken conventioneers in a romantic restaurant, or someone smoking next to a nonsmoker, influence the satisfaction of other guests.

• Variability: Lack of consistency. Ask students how many think McDonald’s makes an excellent hamburger. Then ask them how many have been to McDonald’s in the last year. More students will answer affirmatively on the second question.

1. One of the reasons for McDonald’s success is that they have been able to master variability. When you stop at McDonald’s, you know what you will receive.

 

• Perishability: A restaurant which has a capacity of serving 400 customers and only serves 100 on Monday night has lost the ability to serve those customers. They cannot place the unserved 300 covers in inventory and sell them the next night. A manufacturing company producing tangible goods can inventory goods, thus they do not have to match capacity and demand in the short term.

1. Most students understand perishability in a hotel or airplane, but some do not understand it in a restaurant. Therefore, this is a good example to bring up in class.