The Key Characteristics of Providing Services - Research Paper Example

One of the key characteristics of providing services is the interaction between two parties as services are offered by one party to another party. The intangibility of the services as well as the physical presence of a person to deliver the services there are some of the key differences between selling a service and selling a physical good. As such delivering effective services not only requires a greater degree of skills in delivering the services but also to make new customers. Delivering services requires that the firms offering such services must continuously evolve and develop cost effective ways of delivering the services. As discussed in the case study that APM grew due to its franchising strategy which not only involved direct franchising but also through Master Franchising. Thus the overall expansion strategy for the business has remained focused on the development of regional franchisees who can deliver the services according to the demand from a particular geographical area in which they can deliver them effectively. APM tend to advertise the franchising opportunities in the local newspapers and other media to attract the potential franchisee. This was achieved through advertisements as well as the word of mouth also. One of the key criteria used by APM to recruit new franchisee was to observe the behavior and attitude of the person willing to apply for the franchise. One of the tasks involved was to assess the willingness of the person to show closer association with dogs. Since APM was mobile services provider for dog washing therefore it was considered as essential that the persons must have some degree of association with pets and specially dogs. This was also important because the PEOPLE element is considered as one of the key variables in the overall integrated services marketing mix. While recruiting the new franchisee, APM therefore gave a lot of weightage to the people element besides ensuring that processes are performed in accordance with the laid down criteria. This was also duly supported by the subsequent training and development of the franchisees in order to ensure that those who are hired have the requisite degree of knowledge and expertise in delivering the services. Having a relative degree of education, up to 10th grade, was another task involved in ensuring that the franchisee actually can handle the business aspects of delivering the services too. This task again can be considered as a focused approach to offer the franchise only to those individuals who can successfully carry out the task of business management also. One of the key similarities between recruiting new franchisee as well as attracting new customers was the use of advertisement. As discussed above that APM used word of mouth as well as the advertisement to attract the new franchisee therefore relatively same procedure was also applied to attract new customers. The use of colorful mobile vans served as strong advertisement vehicles also attracting the attention of the potential customers. This therefore not only provided APM and its franchisee a cost effective way to reach to new customers but also improve its overall image in the areas where they work. Another important similarity between the two is the use of word of mouth and incentives for attracting the new customers. The use of discounted services as well as the additional care tips provided to the customers ensured that the service providers develop a long term relationship with their customers. As discussed in the case that one of the strategies applied by the franchisees were to advise the dog owners to increase the frequency of dog washing so that they can save costs on other issues such health related issues with the dogs. The use of recommendations by the satisfied customers was another important task involved in retaining and attracting customers. This was however, not the case for recruiting the franchisee as they had to meet strict criteria before their applications can be accepted. One of the key contradictions between the two however, was the extensive use of the customer services for the potential customers. APM used nation wide telephone services to collect the customer orders which were subsequently forwarded to the relevant franchisee in the region. This service was not offered to the potential franchisee therefore creating an important difference in the way firm tend to treat its customers and the franchisee. What is however, important to note that the overall process of training and development of franchisee was more professional and advanced since it directly affected the way service was delivered by these franchisees to their customers across different markets. 2) Successful franchises are always considered as successful business systems with a record of delivering excellent products and services over the period of time. Few of the largest businesses in the world spread due to the successful franchising under which Franchisor actually expanded its operations to those markets where traditionally it could not enter. As such it is critically important for a potential franchisee is to associate himself or herself with only proven and successful business systems. APM has successfully developed its business and brand image necessary to carry out the business which is competitive. The expansion of the business over the period of time therefore has allowed APM to develop an effective service oriented organization to deliver top of the line services. APM has also been able to implement an effective training and development program to offer cost effective solutions to its franchisees. One of the key benefits therefore of belonging to APM is having access to a tried and tested business system which can also guarantee a certain level of weekly income after some period of time. Though the actual success of a person largely depends upon different other factors however, the use of an effective service oriented organization is one of the key benefits which franchisee of APM can enjoy over the period of time. Another important benefit of association with APM is having access to a large market base to provide services. Over the period of time, due to increase in family income, the demand for outsourcing services for home has increased. This increase in demand therefore has further resulted into an expanded market size which needs to be catered considering the large area of Australia and low population levels. Another important benefit of being associated with APM is an element of continuous support for training and development. Over the period of time, APM has been able to develop an effective program and strategy to train and develop franchisee so that they can better handle the increasing complexities of the work. Training on become more efficient in providing services, better customer handling and delivery of services as well as the mentoring from experienced and successful franchisees therefore serve as one of the key motivating factors for the new franchisees to associate themselves with APM. As discussed in the case that the overall profitability of APM increased due to expansion of the business through franchising therefore it is critically more important for APM to ensure that it retains its most profitable and experienced franchisees. One of the key benefits of retaining experienced franchisees is based on the assumption that there will be low training and development cost to be incurred on such experienced entrepreneurs therefore APM can actually focus on its core competencies and bring in more efficiency as well as innovativeness in its overall service offering. It is also important to understand that experienced franchisee can offer better returns and therefore improved profitability for the firm due to their established market position and goodwill created in the market. One of the key challenges being faced by the APM to retain its experienced franchisee would be to offer low priced services. Pricing would be an important variable in overall integrated services market offering of the firm as competitors such as Jim’s Group are offering services at relatively lower prices. As such lower priced services may be able to attract more demand therefore those franchisee which are well aware of the overall market dynamics may shift towards the competitors in search for higher profitability. Another important challenge is the offering of limited services as APM has just restricted itself to provide dog washing services only. Though APM consider it as its core competency however, as the market expand and overall number of products and services offered increase too, franchisee may look for more variety and better sources of income rather than just relying on one source of income. APM therefore in order to retain its experienced franchisee, APM has to increase its overall product offering to expand its services. Expansion into international markets is another important challenge for APM to ensure that it can encourage experienced and mature entrepreneurs to look for more markets to do the business. However, in order to achieve this, APM may have to improve its overall marketing mix and increase its focus on innovative advertising as well as publicity. More exposure to the target market therefore may allow APM to tap into larger base of customers and hence offer its experienced franchisees an opportunity to serve new markets. Read More