Moreover, services are complementary and decisional part of marketing. The service are much needful to develop and make safeguards of customers interest. Services are the major component and somehow influenced by the service motives of any business. The buyer-provider relationship in service marketing as the knowledge, skill, communication and customer-friendly attitude of buyer and provider determine the quality of service and the degree of customer satisfaction.
Many services are process rather than discrete transactions and the talents and attitudes of the person or team providing the service can dramatically alter the outcome and the level of customer delight. However, there are some services that have standardized deliveries like ATM services of banks. The interior consultants, tailors, restaurants and the like render the customized services. The services are largely delivered as per the customer’s prescription unlike products which are often standardized. In view of the difficulty of quality assessment of the services it is always risky for the customer to purchase the same. The quality of the services can be assessed largely on the behavioral dimensions of the customers and service providers. This makes it difficult for the customer to evaluate the quality and for employers to measure and control the quality. Since a large number of services are highly intangible, it is difficult to measure and control the quality and they cannot be standardized like products. The example may be cited of an insurance company who serves the client till he or his life insurance is alive without looking for instant or short-run benefits. Some of the services are provided to cover the risk irrespective of its immediate need. The doctor’s services are required when there are patients. The services are largely need-based and called for immediate attention or delivery to the customer. The services are also time-sensitive as they cannot be back ordered. The services cannot be stored, warehoused or otherwise kept on hand for sometime when the demand is high.
The inseparability of the buyer and service provider may be seen on many occasions while designing and delivery of the services. The example may be cited of the service rendered by the Attorney in preparing the will document of his client as the tangibility may be seen as the physical evidence in preparing the document while the brain work done to prepare the same may be intangible.
In some cases the physical evidence will be there of transaction that took place but the work done to execute the transaction will be tangible. Some of the service offerings also have the product component like the buying of contact lenses also requires proper eye examination and evaluation of the vision parameters are the offerings of the service in the process. Some offerings are clearly services like enjoyment of movie, art exhibition or an athletic event. The spectrum of services range between the degree of intangibility and tangibility of the offerings delivered to the user. Services are created through a direct interaction between the service provider and the customers. In marketing, services marketing essentially deals with the products, which are intangible in nature.
Although according to Philip Kotler, besides goods and services, a marketer also markets eight other entities like Events, Experiences, Persons, Places, Properties, Organizations, Information and Ideas yet it is generally clubbed together and is widely known as goods and services. Marketing, on the whole, can be divided into goods marketing and services marketing. Service: Definitions, Concept, Characteristics, Importance, Classification and the Customer Service Gap Model Service – Meaning and Definitions Some of the tangible services where both the goods and services are provided to the customer, like restaurants and supermarkets, also come under the purview of the services marketing. This includes the business of all intangible services delivered to the customer. ‘Services are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for customers at specific times and places as a result of bringing about a desired change in – or on behalf of – the recipient of the service.’ – Christopher LovelockĪ service business is one in which the perceived value of the offering to the buyer is determined largely by the services provided to him than the products offered. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product.’ – Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders and Wong ‘A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another, which is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.
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