Marketing Services - Case Study Example

Marketing Services Student Name Course Tutor Institution Date Marketing Services Introduction Service marketing involves provision of services by a business or an institution as opposed to the tangible goods or products. There exist three key aspects that play a significant role in service marketing. These aspects include the inseparability of a service and its purchase, the intangibility quality of services and the inherent use of services. These aspects reveal that services and consumption happen simultaneously and that every customer has a different and unique experience about a service. Since service and consumption occur simultaneously, businesses came up with the service marketing theories to increase their chances of maximizing on sales. Service marketing theories dispense rough guidelines that enable the businesses better position their services in the marketplace; thereby increasing their sales. Successful organizations dealing in the service industry emphasize on the 7 P’s matrix model in ensuring quality service. The service marketing paradigm not only involves the service but the investment in people, employees, delivery systems, the physical environment and the nature of services. All the above aspects have an immense influence on the quality of service and eventually, the customers’ satisfaction. Hence, the consumer satisfaction theory has taken lead in service marketing with more attention being given to the service matrix 7 P’s; versus the traditional matix-4 P’s (Van Vliet, 2011 p.1). This study discusses the consumer satisfaction theory in reference to the service matrix mix- 7P’s in Emmy’s and Maddy’s first service encounter case study. The service mix goes beyond the usual four principles that relate to product marketing. Services have unique characteristics that make the addition of the physical evidence, process, and people extremely important factors in determining customers’ satisfaction. In the case study concerning Emmy’s and Maddy’s first service encounter, the characteristics of services stand out right from Mr. Hoffman’s wife admission to discharge. Mr. Hoffman and the wife went to buy an intangible service; healthcare during the birth of their daughters. They experienced mixed up attention from the hospital care and staff which explains the quality of service of that particular hospital. We see them wait to see a doctor on call for an hour, the poor service in the admission ward and the grower’s room and finally the staff's attitude leaves nothing much to desire. Importance of People/Employees and Customers Consumer satisfaction in service marketing is evaluated based on the outcome of the perceived consumption experience. The efficiency of the theory captures the human versus the environmental interactions and the social interactions during service delivery. Focusing on social interactions and how they affect consumer satisfaction in service marketing, the first important service marketing principle, people comes into question. ‘People’ refers to the individuals who are involved directly or indirectly with the service and in this case study these people would be the nurses, doctors, the security personnel, and the junior assistant. ‘People’ or customer contact employees represent the face of the institution or organization and translate the quality of the service because they first deliver the physical service for visible results (Booms & Bitner, 1981 p. 48). In this case, study the people responsible for service marketing the services offered by Mr. Hoffman and the wife did an extremely unsatisfactory job. Right from the arrival at the hospital the first customer contact representative, the security guard failed to sell the service expected of him. He casually attends to Mr. Hoffman while he talks to another gentleman, leaves him running back and forth to pick a wheelchair; when he could have assisted. People or employees are the first customer contact representatives who sell the service, determine the quality, and, therefore, the consumers’ perceived experienced. In this case, upon his arrival at the hospital Mr. Hoffman would term his experience as undesirable couple with poor service. He did not receive any first customer-client relationship attention, and then the security guard did not seem to have time to spare and attend to customers. In service marketing, employees’ first impression matters significantly as an additional vital tool of marketing the service. The security guard gave the worst first impression of the service being marketed in the hospital and so one would expect nothing good from the customers’ experience inside the hospital as well (Booms & Bitner, 1981 p. 51). Organizations and institutions marketing services to customers understand the importance of managing customer contact employees; in order to ensure the best quality of service of behavior and attitudes. Effective management of the customer contact employees might become a key variable in relation to the quality of services offered and the results of the outcome as well. For instance, it seemed like the doctors managed themselves, and so Mr. Hoffman and his wife had no choice but to wait. They waited for a whole hour to see a doctor while his wife remained in the care of a nervous, inexperienced junior assistant. The nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit(NICU) were friendlier and gave the best care to the twins and the couple; compared to the Grower’s room nurses. The reason the quality of service in the two room differed by a large margin related to scheduling problems as the nurses confessed to the couple. As a result the grower’s room nurses seem to do more work than the other departments, they were understaffed with little time left for rest and break period; to ensure their efficiency at work. Additionally, the attitude and behavior can negatively or positively influence the customers ’experience and therefore satisfaction due to the lack of homogeneity in services. The only way to service marketers can breach this gap is through interaction that happens during service delivery. In this case the Grower’s room nurses had the worst attitude compared to the NICU nurses; they had the least desire to care for more small babies. Their behavior had to do with inadequate supply of equipment that meant that the customers’ did not get the best care or interaction with them. Therefore, it is right to conclude that Mr. Hoffman and the wife had the worst consumer experience and felt most dissatisfied of the service in this department than the rest of the hospital. Importance of the Physical Evidence Physical evidence in the matrix of service marketing theory refers to the physical environment influencing the service encounter; made up of the customer-employee interaction. This evidence may include the design, furnishing, space, light, hygiene as well as the attitude of the employees too (Fisk, Brown & Bitner, 1993 p.61). The environment surrounding Mr. Hoffman and his wife had mixed evidences, right from the employee’s interactions to the physical appearance of the hospital rooms. Considering the intangibility of services, consumers always look for meaningful things in their environment that would explain the nature of service offered by the institution. The environment surrounding the patients lacked tangible meaning and left little to their desire or satisfaction. For example, Mrs. Hoffman’s room on the fourth floor next to the twins was unsanitary and small, and the interactions with the nurses were rather cold too. From their comments, they seemed not willing to socialize or even care for the patient and voiced out their concerns openly to the patient. According to the ethics of service marketing, such actions are wrongly placed, and they negatively influenced the consumers’ experience; as well as their satisfaction. Physical evidence is a metaphorical view or outlook of what a company represents facilitated services and the customer-employee relations. Therefore the better the quality of the physical evidence the customer experiences, the more publicity the company will get from that particular customer. Satisfied customers remain the best publicity for services offered in the service marketing industry (Fisk, Brown & Bitner, 1993 p. 61). In this case, it is right to say that Mr. Hoffman and his wife would not dream of publicizing or marketing the hospitals services to any of their friends. Their physical evidence experience; the dirty room, small grower’s room, and bad attitude from some of the nurses painted such a dissatisfying image of poor customer care and quality service; to undergo publication. Importance of Process The element of process in service marketing and consumer satisfaction theory, describes the procedures, protocols, activities and the manner in which the service gets delivered to the consumer (Van Vliet, 2011 p.1). Since services are the actual results of actions targeting consumers, process, therefore, involves the subsequent steps and activities undertaken to achieve such results. This element is quite significant in the mix of service marketing as the activities and services of people involved influence the process; as so the customers’ satisfaction. Services constitute of chains of activities, therefore, the time waiting time spent between those activities impacts significantly on consumer’s satisfaction and experience. The shorter the waiting period, the better the service delivery and the more satisfied the customer. For example, when Hoffman and his wife arrived at the hospital, the husband had to waste time attending to himself at the entrance when the security guard could have helped. After which, they waited in the maternity ward for an hour for a real doctor to see his wife. Even after he came, they had to change shifts again wasting time when they knew she had a high-risk pregnancy. Although the doctor apologized for his lateness nothing can make up for delays and longer waiting periods between activities in the element of process. Delays and longer waiting periods in service marketing insinuate unpreparedness and incompetency, the two aspects that negatively impact on customers’ experience, perception of the company and the result; satisfaction. Due to the perishability characteristic of services; services undergo development and utilization almost immediately; therefore providing the precise evidence to the customer and giving them a customized approach is crucial. The process experience that the customer got in this case study qualifies as exemplary as doctor Arthur ensured he cleared up any doubts and relayed all possible information and progress to the couple. Also during the twins stay in the NICU the nurses kept Mr. Hoffman updated and the mother calm as they assured them of the baby's well-being (Hoffman, 1996 p. 17). This customized approach to service marketing not only ensures quality service to consumers but also promotes company-service publicity. Protocols constitute of set out standards that people have to observe to ensure quality and efficiency (Van Vliet, 2011 p.1). For instance, in Emmy’s and Maddy’s first encounter the hospital failed on executing protocol. This failure is in reference to who should handle high-risk patients, what nurses are allowed to disclose to customers and the change in staff shifts. A junior staff attending to a high-risk patient is against protocol as it brings down the quality of service; the nurse's remarks harm the customer-client relationship as well as the physical evidence. All these factors are detrimental to customer’s satisfaction. Lastly, the delivery system coupled with employee's flexibility build up dynamic, experiential and successful services. A properly managed delivery system ensures the maximum interaction of the internal and external service matrix factors to generate positive consumer experience. The twins experienced a bumpy delivery system as the admission was rough and unattended to, the intensive care went well as compared to the recovery stage and then the discharge. Recommendations to management improve service quality and satisfaction for patients in future service encounters. Since satisfaction is the key function of increased response to service consumption, there is the need to ensure the closing of some of the existing gaps in enhancing quality service. The following recommendations need urgent attention in ensuring future patients satisfaction: The hospital management needs to manage their employees effectively in relation to their ethics, their well-being (better work schedules), delegate duties, and provide enough working equipment and a safe working environment. This move will equally work on their attitude, behavior and quality of services offered. The management should enact systems in check to oversee the enhancement of physical evidence; try to make the intangible services tangible. For example, have separate departments that deal with sanitation, infrastructure equipment, and supplies. Hospital management needs to set protocols and standards that the nurses and hospital staff need to follow, to ensure work ethics and accountability. For instance, no junior staff should handle high-risk patient cases. There is also need for re-organization of the service delivery systems to ensure all customers get customized service and spend less time waiting for attention. For example, add more doctors on shifts and develop a computerized system to store customers’ information. Services are dynamic, experiential, heterogeneous, intangible and inseparable depending on the case. Therefore, the hospital needs to foster a working culture that merges all the elements of process for customized service and experience. The Hospital should also have a separate department that overseas patients’ welfare and conflict management to ensure the nurses and patients grievances are met and solved promptly. A satisfied employee equals a satisfied consumer. Process-based method of service marketing and management is the most effective way to improve the interaction of all the service matrix principles, therefore, incorporate this into healthcare practice for better patients’ experience. Conclusion In conclusion, the unique 3 P’s of the service marketing matrix determine the quality of service and consumers’ experience on services offered. Therefore to ensure satisfied consumers and exemplary consumer experience, service marketing ought to balance people, physical evidence, and processes. This study has successfully discussed the consumer satisfaction theory in reference to the service matrix mix- 7P’s in Emmy’s and Maddy’s first service encounter case study. List of References Adapted from: Hoffman, K.D 1996, Rude awakening. Journal of Health Care Marketing, 16 (2), 14-20. Booms, B. & Bitner, M. J 1981, Marketing Strategies and Organizational Structures for Service Firms. Marketing of Services, James H. Donnelly and William R. George, eds. Chicago, American Marketing Association, 47-51. Fisk, R., Brown, S. W., Bitner, M. J 1993, Tracking the evolution of the services marketing literature. Journal of Retailing, Spring 1993; 69, 1; ABI/INFORM Globalpg. 61. Van Vliet, V 2011, Service Marketing mix – 7 P’s. Retrieved [Accesed March 9, 2015] from ToolsHero: http://www.toolshero.com/service-marketing-mix-7ps Read More