Major Concepts of Service Marketing - Essay Example

THE MAJOR CONCEPTS OF SERVICE MARKETING by Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Introduction Services can be described as intangible products (Bateson & Hoffman 2012). These differ from the physical tangible products in a number of ways. Unlike the tangible products the services are inseparable from the people that offer them. They cannot be stored as they do not occupy space. Marketing the services can be quite different from the way goods are marketed. This can be explained in a number of ways. Fundamentally, the difference between the marketing of services and the goods is that, unlike product marketing which embraces the four P’s, service marketing is based on the four plus three more P’s. We therefore speak of the 7P’s of service marketing. While product marketing is based on Places, Price, Promotion and product; service marketing is based on Places, Price, Promotion, product, people, physical evidences and processes (Clarke 2000). This means that the quality of a product will be rated according to the way the service providers handle the 7P’s. Service marketing can therefore be said to be the deliberate efforts by the players in the service industry to differentiate their services through efficiency and effectiveness in delivery. This paper seeks to explain good service delivery as well as poor service delivery in light of real examples of individual encounters. THE BAD SERVICE MARKETING COMPANY ENCOUNTER- AVI It is worth noting that an organization is not rated or judged by the quality of the physically tangible product but rather by the quality of the service delivery (Halder et al 2011). From my experience, indicated in index 4- service encounter journal, the root cause of the poor service marketing in the AVI car rental firm is the communication gap. This is a serious discord between the ideas being conveyed from the seller to the customer and the reverse. This amounts to distortion of the accurate information. In this case, the particular problem was a substantial difference in the amount of money charged for the services as stated on the company website and the actual price given to customers at the points of hire. The price I saw on the website was not the price the agents gave me at the hiring station. This made me lose confidence in the company. The other gap that is portrayed here is the listening gap. This one is characterized by poor and unreliable communication between the company and its clients (Douglas et al 2010). The listening gap in service marketing denotes the difference between the anticipations of the consumer and the entity’s interpretation of such anticipations. Communication can be said to be poor when the information being conveyed is inaccurate and involves many inconsistencies. The fact that the firm communicated two different prices to the same customer through different communication channels means that there exists a consumer gap in the service marketing function of the firm. A consumer gap is said to exist where the customer has absolutely no confidence in the firm and its services. Lack of trust comes as a result of inaccurate communications. The agents of a company come out as unreliable people. They are perceived as being the kind of businessmen that the consumer cannot depend upon. This in turn lowers the quality of their service. Poor quality services interfere negatively with the corporate Image of the company. The corporate image of a company is the first step towards effective marketing (Douglas et al 2010). Giving false information means that the employee is not really caring to the individual consumer. It also implies that such an employee does not have the organizational interest at heart. This makes the service marketing of an organization very poor and weak. Recommendations There are quite a number of recommendations that can be made with regard to the position of the service marketing function but the most important recommendations revolve around the root cause of the unreliability of the service. The three recommendations that will be given prominence are: sealing the customer gap, mending the communication gap and filling the performance gap. Filling the customer gap The customer gap can only be filled where and when the firm’s management is ready and willing to continuously meet and exceed the anticipations of a consumer. This can be referred to as service quality. This can be achieved through various ways and one of this ways is ensuring that the personnel give the customer a reasonable degree of assurance to the customers (Halder et al 2011). Assurance is based on the principles of trust and reliability. For the employees of a company to get the customers to trust them, they must be consistent and trustworthy. They must convey reliable information to the consumer at all times. The second way in which the customer gap can be filled is through ensuring reliability and responsiveness among the employees of a firm. Reliability can be said to be a quality that makes the people involved dependable. Again this calls for accuracy and consistency in the communication links between the company and the customers. The personnel and the product must meet and exceed industry standards. Filling the performance gap Performance in any organizations refers to the actions and achievements of the employees within the system. Restructuring the design of the company’s customer service is one major step towards filling this gap (Halder et al 2011). This goes hand in hand with service delivery. The way in which the services are delivered is one of the greatest determinants of the quality of service marketing in the organization. Fundamentally, filling this gap calls for a well structured human resource function. Talking of human resource and performance, motivation comes into the picture. For better performance in the service delivery and marketing departments, motivation of the employees must be given priority. The employees must feel appreciated for them to subordinate individual interests to the organizational interest. The use of technology in improving the efficiency of the staff is highly recommended. AVI car Rental Company should improve their use of technology so as to update their websites daily. This is because, for instance, the inconsistency in the information we received in index 4, could have been because the site had not been adjusted to reflect the changes. Filling the communication gap This refers to all the deliberate efforts by the management of a company to improve and maintain strong links between the company and the customer. In the case of AVI, I would recommend that they improve communication through constantly updating the website. They can as well have the contacts of all customers that they have served and keep sending updates to them on all new products and any new changes. This method has been practiced and found to work in many companies in the service industry. It ensures customer loyalty as well new customer bases. Together with filling the communication gap, the company is also advised to try and seal the listening gap. The listening gap occurs where poor communication results in substantial differences between the anticipations of clients and the actual interpretation of the company. THE GOOD SERVICE MARKETING ENCOUNTER This encounter that portrayed good mastery of the concepts of service marketing was with the Coo Restaurant. The quality of services offered by its employees is above reproach as far as filling the consumer gap is concerned. The specific encounter involved the courteous attention of the waitress. We had ordered our meals and drinks when suddenly my chopsticks fell to the floor. Rationally, it is hygienically wrong to use the dirty chopsticks. The waitress acted promptly in getting me a new and clean pair of chopsticks. The particular waitress immediately picked up the dirty chopsticks put them aside. The waitresses served us in a very jovial mood. The smiling faces made me feel at ease and relaxed. The environment of the restaurant is very convenient in the sense that it is has soft music in the background as well as interesting nutritional videos. Fundamentally, in implementing the concepts of service marketing, what the management of Coo Restaurant doe is applying and understanding the 7P’s well. Effective application of the 7P’s Talking of the actual marketing, the restaurant has gone a long way in embracing e-marketing. Through the websites, social media and online applications the restaurant manages to reach many clients and potential customers. The extent to which the restaurant observes the 7P’s of service marketing gives it a competitive advantage in the industry. The seven P’s will be evaluated one by one starting with people. Talking of people as an element of the extended marketing mix refers to the human resource function. It refers to the manner in which the people are used as a vehicle to achieving continuous improvement in the quality of the services (Halder et al 2011). The people at the restaurant are very efficient in as far as responding to the customers’ orders and requests is concerned. The waitresses for instance are capable of perfectly filling the consumer gap through the application of such principles as: assertion, dependability and compassion. The people, as a component of the marketing mix determine the presence or otherwise of the performance gap. Price and promotions The price, which is the second P, is well dealt with at the restaurant. Price has been defined as the monetary value assigned to a good or a service by the selling entity (Bateson & Hoffman 2012). The prices are very reasonable and most consumables are within the reach of the average client. Unlike the other restaurants that tend to exorbitantly value their products, Coo responds to the changes in the dynamic forces of the market. Related to the price is the third P in the extended marketing mix. Price and promotion are said to be related since they both have some influence on the volume of sales. Additionally, price can be used in effecting promotions. Such things as abnormal price reduction and price cuts are among the most effective forms of promotions. The Coo restaurant carries out two types of promotions. The first type is the point of sale promotions which involve discounts and price reductions. The second type is the remote type of promotions. This takes the form of online marketing in the organization. The product and the place The other P is the place. This P means that for a business to effectively get its products and services moving, it has to understand its target market and consequently plan its location (Bateson & Hoffman 2012). For a restaurant, being located in a place where the targeted groups can easily access it is a vital step. According to the Coo restaurant’s management, the target market is the working populace. The people going about their duties rarely have enough time to rush home for midday and even evening meals and drinks. As such, they opt for hotels and restaurants. The Coo is a popular option among the working and elite groups in the city. It is located at a strategic area around town where many people can access. This goes an extra mile in trying to seal the communication gaps. In the service industry, the product is the service itself. The service is intangible and its quality may not be easily measured for value. The service industry has therefore established a way of evaluating the quality of services. This means that once the quality of services is high, the standards and design gap is filled. This gap is concerned with the way in which the service providing entity understands the anticipations of the consumer (Cottam & Madie 1999). The service itself is given paramount consideration as it is the rationale behind the existence of the organization. This means that the most important thing in a restaurant for instance, is the manner in which the waiters attend to the customers. The way in which a customer is treated is more important that whatever he is being served with. The physical evidences and processes The physical evidences and the processes are as well important when setting up strategies for service marketing. Physical evidence may refer to the way in which the resources and products of the business are presented (Bateson & Hoffman 2012). For instance, the way in which the people who directly interact with customers are dressed and their hygienic standards are examples of physical evidences. At the restaurant where the good service marketing encounter took place, the waiters and other staff members are provided with clean uniform attire. This helps the customers easily identify the people that are supposed to be serving them. Processes are the ways and procedures observed in the execution of various activities within the organization. The processes in the service industry should not involve serious bureaucratic procedures. These discourage effective communication between the employees and the consumers. Discussion of lessons learned The above discussion of the various concepts of service marketing in light of the two companies that have been rated on the extremes, has highlighted very many lessons that any student thinking about venturing into entrepreneurship may find necessary and helpful. As one of such students and entrepreneurs to be, I have learnt that for an effective service marketing system, all the gaps should be sealed. These gaps are actually hindrances that may make the achievement of the company objective quite difficult. The communication gap can lead to loss of customers due to lack of trust. Similarly, the efficiency of the employees should be enhanced in a bid to seal the performance gap. It is worth noting also that the seven P’s of service marketing should be carefully applied and understood. I have learnt that these are the pillars of any service marketing system. Understanding the 7P’s of service marketing and incorporating them into the process of filing the gaps, will make a business gain a lot of customer loyalty. References Bateson, J & Hoffman, K. 2012. Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies and Cases. Cengage Learning. New York Clarke, G. 2000. Marketing a Service for Profit: A Practical Guide to Key Service Marketing Concepts. Kogan Page Ltd. London Cottam, A & Madie, P. 1999. The Management and Marketing of Services (2nd Edition). Butterworth-Heinemann. Oxford Douglas Hoffman, John E.G. Bateson, Greg Elliott, Dawn Birch. 2010. Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies and Cases. Asia Pacific Edition, 1st Edition, Cengage Learning, NSW Halder, B Paul, J & Kapoor, R. 2011. Services Marketing: Concepts and Practices. Tata Mcgraw-Hill Read More