Chapter 12: The Marketing of Services Flashcards
Client Relationship
Relationship in which the buyer of services views the seller as someone who has knowledge that is of value; may be of an ongoing nature.
Customer Effort
For many services, the involvement of customers to some degree in the production of the service (e.g., some restaurants, airline baggage).
Inseparability
An important characteristic of services, the impossibility of separating a service from the person of the seller. In other words, services must often be produced and consumed simultaneously.
Intangibility
An important difference between goods and services is the intangibility of services which means that most services cannot appeal to a buyer’s sense of touch, taste, smell, sight, or hearing before purchase, intangibility places a burden on the marketing organization.
Internal Marketing
The continual process by which manages actively encourage, stimulate, and support employee commitment to the organization and its customers.
Off-Peak Pricing
The different prices service marketers charge during different times or days in order to stimulate demand during slow periods and hopefully, smooth out demand for the service.
Perishability and Fluctuating Demand
Services are perishable which means that unused capacity represents business that is lost forever. The demand for many services also fluctuates by season, day of the week, or time of the day.
Quality Service
Customers’ perception of quality as a function of (1) ‘tangibles’ which include physical evidence of the service; (2) ‘reliability’ which involves the consistency and dependability of the service performance; (3) ‘responsiveness’ which is the willingness or readiness of employees or professionals to provide service; (4) ‘assurance’ which refers to the knowledge and competence of service providers and the ability to convey trust and confidence; (5) ‘empathy’ which is the service provider’s efforts to understand the customer’s needs.
Services
Activities performed by sellers and others that accompany the sale of a product and that aid in its exchange or its utilization (e.g., financing, an 800 number).
Service Products
Products that are intangible, or at least substantially so. If totally intangible, they are exchanged directly from producer to user (e.g., hair cut, medical services), cannot be transported or stored, and are almost instantly perishable. Service products are often difficult to identify since they come into existence at the same time they are bought and consumed.
Uniformity
An important characteristic of services is that their quality can vary more than the quality of goods. Because they are often human performances and often customized to the needs of the buyer (e.g., haircut), uniformity is difficult to achieve and quality can vary.
