Characteristics of services
The main four characteristics of service business are: Intangibility, perishability, inseparability and variability. Intangibility of services is prior to their purchase. Products have tangible characteristics that enable the customer to have their taste before purchase Services on the other hand a Lovelock, Wirtz & Chew (2009)re intangible. Services cannot be consumed or had a taste until they are purchased and used. With services customers may have a feeling that they are having a purchase decision without having all the information about the purchase. The customers’ referrals and testimonies are the best way to reduce the intangibility of services. Secondly, services Lovelock et al. (2009) are inseparable from the providers. Services are unique in their nature because they are provided and consumed as the same place and the same time. Wirtz, (2012). The inseparability of services means that customers and consumers of service have high expectations on how the services are provided. This can lead to either satisfaction or disappointment on the side of the buyer of the service. Better provision and solid service process is the best way to solve this challenge. Bateson & Hoffman (2011)
Services are highly perishable. They cannot be stored and sold for the same time in the future. The best way to solve this challenge is by managing the supply and demand of services. This allows the service provider to maintain the same level of customer service at different demands and the same time improve productivity. Hair, Celsi, Ortinau, & Bush (2008)
Finally, the provision and the quality of a service vary with many factors. The qualities of a service depend with the person providing the service, the place the service is being provided and the time the service is being provided. Hair et al. (2008)
The service business must to build a great market for their service. The Business manager must employ the main core element to make sure that the service being provided maintains a market.
The service business must improve their offering to improve its market. Blythe (2008).The service market cannot last long provide its offering is badly flawed. The offering of the service must meet the desired level of customers. The provider of the service must meet the standards of surpass their standard to remain relevant in the market. Kotler & Armstrong (2010). Customers usually compare the offering to the competitor in term of extended hours of offering, accessibility of the service and the prices of the service.
The Managements of service businesses must discover better ways to enhance the experiences of customers to make sure that they create a win-win situation between the operational savings and value added services. Kotler et al (2010). Service customers love responsiveness and give the services high marks. The progressive offers to customers of services give the services the advantage over the competitors. Kotler et al (2010).
To increase the market of a service, the service offering business need to offer the customers the self service. The main goal of this is service excellence though they must create a situation that the customers will be willing to do it themselves. Indeed if the self-services is for the benefit of the customers, the customers will be more than ready to take on the work and even pay more for the services. Wilson et al (2012).
Marketing of Services
Service business is the employee intensive industry. This brings the need to improve the employee management systems to improve the market of the products. Top management should give careful attention on the work force in training and performance management of the employment.The management should improve the customer and employee relationship to improve the company’s service market. McColl-Kennedy et al (2015).
Relationship marketing has the ability to increase superiority value to customers that helps in maintaining long term customer relationship. The relationship marketing has the ability of attracting customers to activities that concern and enable them take care of them. Hoffman & Bateson (2001). The main importance of the relationship marketing is maintaining the relations, relations between the business and customers and business and its micro-environments including the advertisers and intermediaries. Hoffman & Bateson(2001).
Value is considered to the main aim of relationship marketing and its ability to provide superiority value to its customers. It is used as the main competitive advantage of service businesses over their competitors. The ability has become a means of differentiation and key to the riddle of how to find s a sustainable market for services to the customers. Lovelock, Wirtz & Chew (2009). Customer satisfaction is the main way to make sure that the customers remain loyal to the business and relationship marketing is the best way to achieve this. A satisfied customer is supposed not to defect but to stay loyal to the company for a long period of time and to buy more and more often than other, not so loyal, customers do. Lovelock et al.(2009).
In marketing terms, service marketing uses fully focused marketing strategy. A service business provides a very limited range of services to specific, market segment Scarborough, (2016). A narrow market focused business dwells in a narrow market segments bus large and wide market range services. Business focuses on large geographical markets. Lovelock & Patterson, P.(2015).
Secondly, service focused strategy also is another marketing strategy used by the service businesses. Service focused markets focuses on narrow range of services but deals with broad markets. The business reaches small and narrow fields of discount but reach large geographical areas. Many service providing business try to reach a large an broad markets and provide large v variety of services. Large variety of business should group customers to a way that results to similarity and reach large geographical areas. Bateson, & Hoffman,(2011).
Many services businesses are small scaled businesses and use large marketing strategies and techniques. Since services are provided by the people, The employees also play a very big role in marketing. The training, motivation and helping them in satisfying the customers is a very important strategy of marketing by services businesses. Hair, Celsi, Ortinau, & Bush,(2008)
Physical evidence is also a very good marketing strategy for service businesses. A service company needs to demonstrate it services to the customers physically since the customers and consumers need physical evidence and presentations. In addition, service marketers need to differentiate their product to the consumers by developing, delivering and quality to the consumers. Hair et al. (2008)
Service marketing marketers make sure that the service has blogs. Blog posts solve the customers’ problems. The customers reading the blogs about the quality of the service help advertising the service and this helps injecting the service to the market. Secondly the customer service can be another principle for service marketing. Blythe, (2008). Service business that focuses to better customer services positively affects the market of the services. It gives the business the competitive edge as the customers are reached and the advertising costs are reduced. When the customer care of the business is better that the competitors it bring the trust of customers to the business. Hair et al,(2008).
Conclusion
Service Marketing has increased to be important to the recent global economies. Most companies nowadays use services marketing in the intangible services to create solutions that are required to increase and expand marketing of products and services. Service marketing required considerations of marketing elements. Service marketing requires Physical evidence and Employees considerations to increase its marketing. Services are economic activities whose outputs are is not tangible. They are consumed when they are provided there and then. Service marketing has grown exponentially in a few years and has greatly benefited the the service producing companies.
References
Lovelock, C. H., Wirtz, J., & Chew, P. (2009). Essentials of services marketing.
Wirtz, J. (2012). Essentials of services marketing. FT Press.
Bateson, J. E., & Hoffman, K. D. (2011). Services marketing. South-Western.
Hair, J. F., Celsi, M., Ortinau, D. J., & Bush, R. P. (2008). Essentials of marketing research. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Higher Education perspectives. Journal of the Academy of marketing science, 23(4), 236-245.
Blythe, J. (2008). Essentials of marketing. Pearson Education.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing. Pearson education.
Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V. A., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2012). Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm (No. 2nd Eu). McGraw Hill.
Lovelock, C., & Patterson, P. (2015). Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Lovelock, C. H., Wirtz, J., & Chew, P. (2009). Essentials of services marketing.
Scarborough, N. M. (2016). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management.
McColl-Kennedy, J. R., Gustafsson, A., Jaakkola, E., Klaus,e P., Radnor, Z. J., Perks, H., & Friman, M. (2015). Fresh perspectives on customer experience. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(6/7), 430-435.
Bateson, J. E., & Hoffman, K. D. (2011). Services marketing. South-Western.
Hair, J. F., Celsi, M., Ortinau, D. J., & Bush, R. P. (2008). Essentials of marketing research. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Higher Education.
Blythe, J. (2008). Essentials of marketing. Pearson Education.
Fisk, R. P., Grove, S. J., & John, J. (2008). Interactive services marketing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Gummesson, E. (2007). Exit services marketing-enter service marketing. Journal of customer behaviour, 6(2), 113-141.
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