Service is any act, performance or experience that one party can offer to another and that is essentially intangible, and does not result in ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tie to a physical product (lovelock,Patterson & Wirtz, 2011). Services are processes that provide time, place, form, problem solving or experiential value to receiver (lovelock,Patterson et. Al, 2011). No matter how good a service is, it will always vary not only in terms of variability but also in terms of consumer’s expectation. The better the quality of a firm and its product, the more expectation will be there for its service.
As a part of this application, the service example I can closely look myself providing is Retail customer service. In this service, one needs to develop customer friendly policies and learn how to personalize the shop’s customer service as to alter it according to customer’s expectations. Being able to provide customer with a solution to what product will suit them according to their needs, providing them after sales services is the main essence in this particular service.
Tangibility is the degree to which a product or a service can provide a clear and a concrete Image (McDougall, G. H. G., & Snetsinger, D. W., 1990). As services are actions, performance or experiences rather than objects, they cannot be seen, felt, tasted or touched the way we can see tan goods which makes them intangible in nature.
As a consumer, it would be more difficult for me to gasp the idea that is physically intangible, such as a service, than a product that has a physical presence. Because of its intangibility, There would be more uncertainty in my mind of what is been offered which can create anxiety in a customer’s mind (Charlen...
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... marketing: An Asia Pacific and Australian perspective. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Australia.
McDougall, G. H. G., & Snetsinger, D. W. (1990). The intangibility of services: Measurement and competitive perspectives. The Journal of Services Marketing, 4(4), 27. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.waikato.ac.nz/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/212682084?accountid=17287
Charlene Pleger Bebko. (2000). Service intangibility and its impact on consumer expectations of service quality. Journal of Services Marketing, 14(1), 9-26.
Jeremy J. Sierra, & Shaun McQuitty. (2005). Service providers and customers: Social exchange theory and service loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing, 19(6), 392-400
Inseparability - Services versus Products. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/marketing/services-marketing/services-versus-products/inseparability/
The characteristics of a service are intangible, inseparable, perishable, heterogeneous and lack ownership. The marketing mix of a service is not perceptible and as the features of a service is distinctive to the features of a product, it has additional elements which are process, people and physical evidence.
Zeithaml, Valarie A, Berry, Leonard L, & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60(2), 31. Retrieved April 1, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 9401886).
Spense, Charles. "Managing Sensory Expectations concerning Products and Brands: Capitalizing on the Potential of Sound and Shape Symbolism." Science Direct. N.p., 2012. Web.
Sudharshan - Mastering Marketing Financial Times - The Essence of Services Marketing Adrian Payne - Value Based Marketing Doyle - Marketing Plans Malcom Macdonald - Marketing Principles and Practice Adcock, Bradfield, Halborg, Ross - Marketing Communications Websites - www.knowthis.com - www.cim.co.uk - www.dti.gov.uk - www.mintel.co.uk - www.wmrc.com - worldmarketsresearch centre - www.magrathesolutions.com -
A service is something that cannot be touched. This means that it is harder to market, than a physical Product. Its quality cannot be perceived before it is used. This can complicate convincing a potential tourist to acquire the service and to choose one service offering over any other.
One of the characteristics of service offered by AirAsia is intangibility. Services intangibility is inevitable and sometimes could be a challenge for every service provider. According to Pride & Ferrell (2011) intangibility of services can be defined as the characteristic that the service is not physical and cannot be perceived by the senses. For instance like AirAsia which provides flight services, it is impossible for the customers to touch the flight as it is a journey to specific destinations. They might be able to touch the plane, but in the context of services, the customers do not own the physical tools or equipment used to deliver the service but are only entitled to get the service which is the flight service.
“Excellent customer service is the process by which your organization delivers its services or products in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible”, (Jack Speer, 2005).
In other words, these five senses including visual, auditory, olfactory, gustative and tactile that originate from anatomical features drive consumer perception and judgment towards a product or a store to some degree, which is seen as an influencer of consumption experience (Peck and Childers, 2008). Hirschmann and Holbrook (1982) initiated the notion of consumption experience and concluded that all products should offer service including environmental stimulus, in-store communication and customer contacts as much as possible to create satisfactory experience. In this sense, sensory marketing acts as an irreplaceable role in the creation of consumer experience. In the context of retail, substantial organizations have implemented sensory marketing to enhance customer experience, distinguish from their competitors and build interactive relationship with consumers. A typical example is Abercrombie and Fitch’s application of multi-sensory branding, which manages to penetrate deeply into the hearts of consumers. Abercrombie and Fitch intends to make consumer perceive it as nightclub by surrounding with loud background music, strong ambient fragrance, dim lighting and half-naked male
A good is a product or an object that is manufactured and sold. On the other hand, a service is the performance of individual(s). The biggest difference between the two is that a good is tangible and a service is intangible. In addition, the ownership of a good and the ownership of a service are different. For example, if one buys an air conditioner, he/she owns it. But if he/she pays for the service for the air conditioner to be installed, the ownership of this service is ambiguous.
According to Booms and Bitner (1990), “the servicescape is an environment in which the service is assembled and in which the seller and customer interact, combined with tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service.” A servicescape is considered to encompass design factors (e.g., layout, furnishings and décor), ambient conditions (e.g., lighting, and temperature) and social interaction among and between the customers and employees (Baker, 1987; Bitner, 1992; Sherry,
According to (Lennan, 2008) service delivery is the provision of public goods or social , economic or infrastructural services to those who need them .The Education and Training Unit (2009 internet source) defines this as the supply or ability to provide basic services to the public and these have a “direct and immediate” consequence and impact on the...
A service encounter is defined as a moment when a customer interacts with a service or product for the first time. It is the customer’s actual interaction with a service company. It is identified as a key component of the current agenda for service marketers. More than half of the world’s multinational corporations employ in providing services, thus the scrutiny of service encounters is becoming increasingly significant. Research evidence indicates that customers generally compare their expectations with the performance of service industries and they are influenced by the quality of service they receive. The scope of this essay is to discuss about the view that customers don’t buy products they focus on solutions and also about the consumer’s behaviour pattern regarding services provided. Further, it will be noted how businesses are trying to improve the service quality to attract customers leading to an increase in the economic competitiveness.
(1) efforts to improve the quality of their services, and (2) efforts to market themselves more effectively. Both service quality and services marketing have received considerable attention from researchers over the years and the application of these concepts in the service settings is therefore not surprising (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Rust and Oliver 1994; Zeithaml et al., 1990). One evidence of the importance of service quality and service
The Service Management Excellence is not a short term phenomenon. It provides principles and techniques that will endure in the long run. Excellent service is not a yoke; it is imbedded in the way exceptional organizations ...
Customer Service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. The perception of success of such connections is subject to workers "who can modify themselves to the identity of the visitor". Customer service concerns the need an association relegates to customer service in respect to segments, for example, item development and valuing. In this sense, an association that esteems good customer service may spend more cash in preparing representatives than the normal association or may proactively interview customers for feedback.