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

                                    A service is referred to as any activity that is intended to help or assist the needy in an organized sector or in a society. It is a non-measurable quantity which always plays a major role in a framework. As rightly said by the American Marketing Association, they may activities, benefits and satisfaction that accompanies the sale of a good. As per the definition and analysis given, there are many characteristics that are unique to services of which the major four characteristics are discussed below

1) Lack of ownership: A service is non-measurable and hence it refers to an outcome that cannot be owned by someone. It is observed that a service is assumed to be consumed at the same time it is being purchased. Hence lack of ownership is a unique feature of services.

2) Variability: As discusses in the analysis given, it is a unique feature which means that a service varies according to various surrounding factors and a service obtained on some day may not be received on another day. This in turn affects the reliability of a service.

3) Intangible: A service cannot be touched or felt, it can only be experienced. Since there are no exact measurements to servicing, the only way it can be analysed is based on the experience one has with servicing at a particular time

4) Pricing mechanism: A service cannot be priced on a standard scale. It depends on the above factors like variability, fluctuations, heterogeneity, separability etc. Hence it is difficult to set a pricing mechanism for servicing.

The following major measures could be implemented so as to overcome the ill-effects caused by the unique features of services,

1) Ownership issues: As discussed, a service cannot be owned. This means that the purchase and consumption take place simultaneously. It has a reverse characteristic of goods which means that a product is purchased at first and then services are received. In order to obtain ownership over servicing, it is essential that this simultaneous mix of purchase and consumption patterns are separated. Thus, by proper separation of these factors, servicing can be owned by a consumer in short run.

2) Variations: This is a unique feature that has varying effects on a consumer base and hence affect the reliability of services. In order to overcome this issue, it is necessary to set some standards for each services and certain protocols to be followed by each service so that the consumer is assured of a standard response to servicing.

3) Tangibility issues: A service cannot be touched or felt. In order to make sure that a service is done, it should be felt to a consumer. Thus, a service should be able to make visible changes to the existing pattern and thus this problem could be resolved.

4) Pricing mechanism: It is known that it is difficult to price every service. Thus, a standardization of servicing may be able to overcome this unique feature.