The Marketing of Services - Assignment Example

THE MARKETING OF SERVICES By The Marketing of Services Service Situation A service refers to any action, or effort, or any kind of effort undertaken in order to satisfy the need of customers, or to fulfil a certain demand within the market. As such, a service is an economic activity that gives support to businesses but does not produce a tangible commodity. All services are intangible in nature, thereby making it impossible for consumers to touch them, but rather feel them only. Consequently, producers of services sell their services to different consumers within the market in order to satisfy their particular demands. Examples of common commercial services include nursing, teaching, transportation, medical treatment, insurance, banking and accounting, consultancy, and cleaning. The producer of these services offers them to a potential client at a market cost for the required service Air transport is the service I cherish most in service sector. This is because air transport supports the bulk of international business, which forms the core of my calling as a multinational corporate advisor. As such, I have to travel from one country to another and from one continent to another, as and when I am needed. Air transport makes this a seamless task for me, thereby enabling me to reach where I am required within the right time and attend to my clients. The airline that I prefer to use is the Virgin Atlantic Airlines, a British based airline with Sir Richard Branson as the majority shareholder. I use the airline to travel to various destinations across the world, especially those covered as flight destinations of the airline, such as the united kingdom, Africa, the Caribbean, North America, Asia, Middle East, as well as, Australia, from its hub based at Gatwick (Parasuraman & Grewal 2000, p.174). Service Challenges Delivering of quality services to clients is always the main goal of every service provider. As such, these service providers strive to satisfy the needs of their customers completely through adoption of various quality service models in order to create trust, loyalty, and confidence in the service and in the company. However, provision of quality services to customers is not an easy fete for most companies, especially those operating in an airline industry as the Virgin Atlantic Airlines. These challenges mainly arise from the characteristics of services, which sometimes corrupts the offering of services, hence poor service delivery systems. Intangibility of services refers to the inability of a customer to hold or touch a service that he or she purchases from a service provider (Grewal 2006, p.45). For instance, Virgin Atlantic Airlines provides air transport service, which in intangible, thereby making it impossible for a passenger or cargo to feel. This may lead to delay challenges, especially in the event the customer feels undecided, and cheated in his or her bargain for services. Inseparability of a service makes it impossible for the company to the production process from the consumption process, like a good, hence no room for perfection of services through specialization. Perishability of services leads to underutilization of resources, especially in an airline industry whereby a flight may have to go half-empty in case most of the passengers report late for their departure at the airport. The variability of services makes it impossible to standardize them appropriately in line with the customers’ demands and preferences. Rental or access of services denies customers full satisfaction from these services because they only posses but not won a service for a given period, such as the length of their flight. Service Classification Servqual Model refers to a certain design of a scale measuring the perceptions of customers on the quality of services using five key dimensions, which are reliability, assurance, tangible, responsiveness, and empathy. The Virgin Atlantic Airlines is reliable because it keeps its flight schedules as previously planned unless under unavoidable circumstances, such as storm and bad weather. In such a case, the company tries to find the best alternative solution for its customers. The staffs of the airline are responsible and attentive to customers, thus giving them the assurance and trust to build confidence and loyalty to the airline. The airplanes used for flight have a touch of class that relaxes and satisfies the customers bidding. The company always listens to the opinions, complains and suggestions of their customers in order to improve and customize its services to their best satisfaction. On the other hand, the company exhibits empathy through provision of exceptional care to each individual passenger and cargo using their flights Lovelock Model classifies services in line with the actions of a person or an item that may be either tangible or intangible. The tangible acts of a person, in the airlines perspective being the staff, exhibits the airline as having the best attention levels to the need of its customer, on before boarding the planes, on board, as well as, after their arrival at their destinations to ensure satisfaction, which may lead to repeated flights with the airline. The intangible acts of the airline include the support services provided alongside the flight one takes with the airline, such as food and drinks, entertainment, and chauffer services (Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml 1988, p.25). Tangible acts of a thing include the airlines crisp and airy ambience that the passengers enjoy while on board the plane, whilst the intangible acts of a thing include the payment services, e-ticketing services, and visa application support from the airline to some of its customers. The Lovelock classification puts the airline at a covetable level in the service delivery chain. Services Marketing Triangle has three main components, which are customers, providers, and organizations. These components interlink in a triangular manner to provide quality service delivery systems to the customer. The linkage between the airline and its cargo and passenger planes is internal marketing, which is an enabling process for the facilitation of the company’s goals and objectives. The linkage between the airline and the customers is external marketing whereby the airline makes promises to its customers to deliver them with the highest quality services. The linkage between the company’s planes and the passengers is interactive marketing, which entails keeping the promises made by the airline to the customers, by fulfilling their bids satisfactorily while maintaining the highest quality standards (Cottam & Mudie 1999, p.64). The Interaction Matrix Involving Technology The interaction matrix evaluates the manner in which a company interacts with its customers with its customer, and the effect of this interaction on the service delivery of the company. Communication interactivity of a company with its customers has three main phases. One-way phase is the first one, which involves communication from the company to the customer alone. Partially interactive is the second phase, which involves communication from the company to the customer, and back again to the company. Fully interactive is the third phase, which involves communication between the company to the customer, from the customer to the company, and from the customer to another customer using the same services, provides by the company. As for the case of the airline, this third phase also involves communication of different passengers flying on the plane (Bitner & Zeithaml 2006, p.52). This interaction matrix improves significantly with the incorporation of technology into the communication process. For one, technology provides complexity in the interaction process by defining the numbers and intricacy of steps that are necessary for the airline to undertake in the different phases of interaction, such as backstage steps and front stage steps. Technology also introduces divergence in the interaction matrix by defining the degree of allowable freedom within the sequence or steps of communication, such as the options for built-in customizations. Technology also enables the airline to introduce new services, create an online platform to ease communication, such as the company’s website, as well as, develop a number of internet-based services in order to revolutionize its service delivery systems. Introduction of technology into the interactivity matrix improves the customer experience while using the airline because the airline becomes more customer-focused, more flexible, more attentive to customer needs, and more adaptive to trends and changes in the airline industry (Berry 1988). Appropriate Measures of Service Quality The quality of services provided by the Virgin Atlantic Airlines is phenomenal owing to their inclusion of technology in the delivery of its services. The airline is on the Leaps level of technology uptake, which is the third level after the lags and the lulls, which take first and second position respectively of technology uptake. The lags have numerous people-intensive services that are hard to standardize, while the lulls take considerable time to absorb technology thereby making the change qualitative rather than quantitative. However, the leaps provide room for possible organizational transformation through technology by giving room for nurturing intellectual resources. The measurement of the interaction between the company and its customers provides good results for all appropriate levels of measurement, such as the gaps between customers, delivery of services as promised by the company, management of expectations of the customer, as well as, empowering the frontline employees through flexibility and authority. This measurement process also involves exposure of managers to frontline, whilst at the same time exposing frontline to backstage. Customer service, service recovery, and service guarantees, as well as, exposing managers is part of the measurement analysis, which provides good results for the Virgin Atlantic Airline. In addition, the incorporation of technology within its interactivity mechanisms improves the company’s performance phenomenally, especially about the quality of services it offers to its customer (Bateson, Eiglier, Langeard & Lovelock 1981, p.99). This enables the company to meet some of the grotesque challenges that a company in the service industry suffers. These include customer needs, whereby the company has to be more sensitive to the needs of the customer, demand whereby the airline has to structure its systems to make its services meet the market demand, and performance, which should incorporate techniques such as dramatization, scripting, and blueprinting. Technology also enables the airline to measure and improve its quality of service delivery, check the settings of its business environment such as the tangible representation of its quality of services, as well as, undertaking proper internal communications. This involves the employees and staff of the company through process such as recruitment, training and development, compensation, and policies on motivation. Customer participation is also vital in this measurement process, especially their feedback on the service delivery systems of the airline. Recommendations to Improve Service Delivery The airline stands to improve its service delivery through the incorporation of a variety of marketing mix elements such as differences in various aspects of its customers, such as gender, age, experience or knowledge, socio-economic backgrounds, as well as, ethnicity and ethical foundations. By targeting to satisfy the unique demand in each client that uses the airline for cargo and flight, the airline strands to develop more followers and customers through improved loyalty, confidence and trust among its customers (Bateson & Hoffman 2010, p.440). Reference List Bateson, J. & Hoffman, K., 2010, Services Marketing Concepts, Strategies, & Cases, Cengage Learning, Stanford, Connecticut. Bateson, J., Eiglier, P., Langeard, E. & Lovelock, C., 1981, Service Marketing New Insights from Consumers and Managers, Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute, Report No. 81-104 Berry, L., 1988, “How to Improve the Quality of Service” (Audiotape Presentation), Teach ‘Em, Inc., Chicago. Bitner, M. & Zeithaml, V., 2006, Service Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 52, New York. Cottam, A. & Mudie, P., 1999, The Management and Marketing of Services, Routledge, London. Grewal, D., 2006, The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, and Directions, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., New York. Parasuraman, A. & Grewal, D., 2000, “The Impact of Technology on the Quality-Value-Loyalty Chain: A Research Agenda,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28 (1), 168-174. Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. & Zeithaml, V., 1988, “Servqual: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions on Service Quality,” Journal of Retailing, 64 (Spring), 12-37. Read More