Question

The American Marketing Association defines services as - “Activities, benefits and satisfactions which are offered for sale or are provided in connection with the sale of goods.” It is the action of doing something for someone or something largely intangible tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased and cannot be owned. A person could go to a bank one day and have excellent service, and then return the next day and have a poor experience. This part discusses the special issues concerning the marketing of services. Explain the Four unique characteristics of services and give Four strategies to overcome each characteristic

Answer 1

There are different characteristics of the service and some of them are

1.Intangibility- It means that the service cannot be seen or touched but just can be felt. The feeling associated with a tangible component is much more than that of the component which cannot be touched.

2.Lack of ownership - In case of goods the items can be owned for a long period of time and can be used over and over again but in case of the services there is no policy of the consumption again and again instead it needs to be consumed at the same time it is generated

3.Heterogenity- The service has the basic characteristic of being associated with the human being who is providing the services and thus since different persons are associated both at the buyer and the seller end the homogenity cannot be expected from them.

4.User Participation- It is the utmost criteria related to the service because the presence of the person consuming the service is must for the service to be provided.

Strategies to overcome the basic characteristic of the services.

The basic thing is that different strategies can be designed to cover all the characteristics of the service

Some of them are

1. Understanding the customer - The one of the factor which makes the service heterogenious and the user participation is that there is the presence of the customer in the form of the human being who have different reaction at the different point of time. So through the extensive research the customer can be understood and the characteristic intrinsic defeciencies can be covered.

2. Defining the concept of the service- In Case of the goods the marketing strategies are beatifully defined by the form of the place, price, promotion and the product. Emphasis should be laid so that all the factor that are designed for the physical product are put into use for the service form of the marketing also.

3. Delivery Process- There should be goods supply chain in the form of the correct delivery process so that the user can get the repeated services in the sam e manner so tht the satisfaction from the services do not change agagin and again.

4. Engagement of the required personnel- Human is the biggest factor in the service industry so it is advisable that the employee associated with providing the services are sufficiently equipped with the rquired knowledge and the skill so that all the services can be provided in the best possible manner