Posts Selected From the Category "Services Marketing"

Service Failure and Recovery

Posted by Abey Francis on February 27, 2012 in Services Marketing / No Comments

Service Failures

Even with the best service organizations, failures can just happen – they may be due to the service not available when promised, it may be delivered late or too slowly (some times too fast??), the outcome may be incorrect or poorly executed, or employees may be rude or uncaring. All these types of service failures bring about negative experiences. If left unfixed they can result in customers leaving, telling others about the negative experiences or even challenging through consumer courts. Research has shown that resolving the problems effectively has a strong impact on the customer satisfaction, loyalty, and bottom-line performance. Customers who experience service failures, but are ultimately satisfied based on recovery efforts by the firm, will be more loyal.

The Recovery Paradox.

It is suggested that customers who are dissatisfied, but experience a high level of excellent service recovery, may be more satisfied and more likely to repurchase than are those who are satisfied at the first place. For example, a hotel customer who arrives & finds there is no room available. In an effort to recover, the front-desk person immediately upgrades this guest to a better room at the same price. The customer is so thrilled with this compensation that he is extremely satisfied with this experience, is even more impressed with the hotel than he was never before, and vows to be loyal into future.…

Service Encounters

Posted by Abey Francis on February 27, 2012 in Services Marketing / No Comments

From the customer’s point of view, the most vivid impression of service occurs in the service encounter or “Moment Of Truth,” when the customer interacts with the service firm. This is the foundation to “Satisfaction of Service Quality” – it is where the promises are kept or broken. The concept of service encounter was put forth by Richard Norman, taking the metaphor from Bull Fighting. Most services are results of social acts, which take place in direct contact between the customer and the service provider. At this stage the customer realizes the perceived service quality.

Every “Moment of Truth” is Important – according to Scandinavian Airlines, each one of their 10 million customers come in contact with 5 employees. Thus the airlines say there 50 million moments of truth – each one is managed well and “They prove they are the BEST”.

Encounter Cascade

The encounter cascade refers to a series of encounters right from the time a customer comes to take the service. The encounter cascade can be important as any encounter can be critical, as it determines customer satisfaction and loyalty. If it’s the first interaction of the customer then the initial interaction will be the first impression.…

Consumer and Services Marketing

Posted by Abey Francis on February 27, 2012 in Marketing Management, Services Marketing / No Comments

Knowledge of the Buyer

In buying decisions many times other people also influence the decision. In services these roles are played by many persons. In purchase of any service six distinct roles are played

Initiator : The person who has a specific need and proposes to buy a service
Influencer : The person or group of persons whom the decision maker refers to or who advice the decision maker
Gate Keeper : The person or organization or promotional material, which act as filter on the range of services which enter the decision choice
Decider : The person who makes the buying decision
Buyer : The person makes the actual purchaser
User : The actual user.

Consumer Decision Making

The consumer’s decision to purchase or reject a product or service is the moment of final truth for the marketer. It signifies the marketing strategy has been wise, insightful and effective, whether it was poorly planned and missed the mark. Marketer are, therefore, interested in the consumer decision-making process by which a consumer selects an alternative amongst the lot available. The decision not to buy is also an alternative.

A simple consumer decision-making model, ties together the psychological, social and cultural concepts into an easily understood framework.…

Service Quality

Posted by Abey Francis on February 26, 2012 in Marketing Management, Services Marketing / No Comments

There are a number of different “definitions” as to what is meant by services quality. In its simplest form service quality is a product of the effort that every member of the organization invests in satisfying customers. In its broadest sense service quality is defined as superiority or excellence as perceived by the customer. More especially service quality has been defined as:

The delivery of excellent or superior service relative to customer expectations.

Quality is behavior – an attitude – that says you will never settle for anything less community, your stockholders or colleagues with whom you work every day.

When we want to be effective – delivering good quality to the customer – we must produce services that meet “as much as possible” the needs of the consumer.

Quality is providing a better service than the customer expects.

One that is commonly us defines services quality as the extent to which a service meets customer’s needs or expectations. Today the most popular model of service quality in use is service quality gap model, perceived service quality as the difference between consumer expectations and their perceptions.

Service Quality Assessment

Service quality a critical component of customer’s perception will be the dominant element in customer evaluation.…

Service Organization

Posted by Abey Francis on February 26, 2012 in Marketing Management, Services Marketing / No Comments

An organization providing intangible services rather than tangible goods is termed as Service organization. In the standard industrial classification, service organizations include hotels, restaurants and other lodging and eating establishments, barber shops, beauty parlors and other personal services, repair services, motion picture, television and other amusement and recreational services, legal services and accounting, engineering, research/development, architecture and other professional organization. Service organizations also includes educational organizations, banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions. Also government agencies and most other non-profit organizations are service organizations.

Characteristics of Service Organizations

Quantity Measurement: It is easy to keep track of the quantity of tangible goods, both during the production process and when the goods are sold, but it is not easy to measure the quantity of many services. We can measure the number of patients that a physician treats in a day, for example, and even classify these visits by type of complaint, but this is by no means equivalent to measuring the amount of service that the physician provides to each of these patients. For many services the amount rendered can be measured only in a crude terms, if at all.

Absence of inventory: Goods can be held in inventory and this inventory is a buffer that dampens the impact on production activity of fluctuations in sales volume.…