Service Marketing

Post-Purchase Stage

Customers evaluate the service performance they have experienced during service encounter and compare it with their prior expectations. Marketers can influence expectations and set expectations appropriately - by giving information Under promise and over deliver. - Exceed the expectations. Set expectations so you can exceed every time.

High Contact Service

Dealing with a service staff member - Hair Dresser, car salesman - visit the service provider - communication

Dimensions of service quality Reliability

Dependable, accurate performance - builds trust and thus customer loyalty

The Mehrabian-Russell Stimulus-Response Model Affective Response

Feelings, rather than perceptions/thoughts, drive behavior Make customers feel something

Dimensions of service environment - Spatial Layout and Functionality

Floorplan; Size and shape of furnishings, counters, machinery, equipment, and how they are arranged Functionality: ability of those items to make the performance of the service easier

QUALITY

Focuses on the benefit for the customer - Quality is different for every person. What is high quality for one person may not be for another Quality - helpful & friendly staff

Internal Gap

Gap occurring between various functions and departments within the organization

The Mehrabian-Russell Stimulus-Response Model

How people respond to environments Think - feel - do There are 3 main components. 1. Cognitive Process 2. Affective Response 3. Behavioural outcomes:

Servuction System

Invisible VS Visible- Not only visible parts that are important but the invisible part as well.

Attention-creating medium

Make servicescape stand out from competition and attract customers from target segments

Evaluation of alternatives

- Price - Quality - Convenience

Dimensions of service quality Empathy

- customer wants to know they are understood, easy access, good communication

Dimensions of service quality

1. Tangibles 2. reliability 3. responsiveness 4. assurance 5. Empathy

Pre purchase stage

1. needs awareness 2. info search 3. evaluation of alternatives 4. Perceived risks

How many gaps in the gaps model

6

The GAP model

A Conceptual Tool to Identify and Correct Service Quality Problems - Two sections - consumer and service firm

Dimensions of service environment - Ambient conditions & spatial layout

Ambient conditions are perceived both separately and holistically, and include: - Sounds such as noise and music - Scents - Lighting and color schemes - Size and shapes - Air quality and temperature

Service Environments - Value proposition

An innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers. Physical surroundings help shape appropriate feelings and reactions in customers and employees Servicescapes form a core part of the value proposition

Dimensions of service quality - Tangibles

Appearance of physical elements - Consider at every part. Representative of the high quality service. Like uniforms, shop space. High quality - high price (Most important)

The element of service quality known as assurance is concerned with

Credibility, security, competence, courtesy

Needs Awareness

Needs may be driven by: unconscious mind (Personal identity) physical conditions (Hunger) external sources (Marketing activities)

Extended marketing mix

Physical evidence process people

SERVQUAL

Qualifies service gaps identifies service gaps measures customer experience

Servuction system - Invisible components

Rules, regulations and processes upon which the organization is based - have a very profound effect on customer experience

Which service gap is most important to close

Service quality gap

Purpose of Service Environments

Shape customers' experience and their behavior... The physical service environment that customers experience plays a key role in shaping the service experience and enhancing, especially so in high-contact people-processing services.

The Model of service consumption

Stage One: Pre - Purchasing stage (Decision making process) Stage Two: Service and counter stage Stage Three: Post Purchase stage

Message-creating medium

Symbolic cues to communicate the distinctive nature and quality of the service experience

Service quality is concerned with

Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy

Gap two - policy gap

The difference between management's understanding of customers' expectations and the service standards they set for service delivery - policy decision not to deliver what customers expect - Internal gap -

Gap Three - Delivery gap

The difference between service standards and the service delivery teams' actual performance on these standards. Internal gap. e.g. when a a pizza is required to be delivered in 30 mins, but is actually delivered in 40 mins

Gap six - The service gap

The difference between what customers expect to receive and their perception of the service that is actually delivered.

Gap one - The knowledge gap

The difference between what senior management believes customers expect and what customers actually need and expect. - external gap

Extended marketing mix - Physical evidence

The elements of marketing mix which customers can actually see or experience when they use a service, and which contribute to the perceived quality of the service e.g. music, design, smell, colours

Cognitive process

The environment, its conscious and unconscious perceptions and interpretation influence how people feel in that environment Make someone think something

Extended marketing mix - People

The people who run them from front line Sales staff to the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part of your business offering as the products/services you are offering. Who are the staff? What key skills are required of the staff to effectively service customers?

Service Encounter Stage

The service encounter stage is when the customer interacts directly with the service firm. Deliver the service:

Dimensions of the service environment

Trigger of cognitive process 1. Ambient conditions & spatial layout 2. Spatial Layout and Functionality

The Mehrabian-Russell Stimulus-Response Model Behavioural outcomes

Typical outcome variable is 'approach' or 'avoidance' of an environment, but other possible outcomes can be added to model Make customers do something

Perceived Risks

Uncertainty increases perceived risks in purchasing and using services The harder it is to evaluate a service, the higher is the perceived risk associated with that decision.

Effect-creating medium:

Use colors, textures, sounds, scents and spatial design to enhance desired service experience

Information search

When a need is recognized, people are likely to be motivated to take action to resolve it. - Marketers should give as much info as possible as services are risky

productivity

addresses the financial costs incurred by the firm - employees work fast to reduce wait time

Extended marketing mix- process

customer service strategy: This may include service quality and/or service recovery strategies. For example, a customer made a complaint on TripAdvisor about a frontline employee who was very rude and slow.

External gap

gaps between the customer and the organization.

Servuction system - visible components

physical evidence (Design), employees, primary service provider and other customers that impact the experience

Dimensions of service quality Responsiveness

promptness, helpful - speed of service - acknowledge customer, how quickly can you respond.

Dimensions of service quality Assurance

reassure that you know what you're doing - credibility

Gap Five - The perceptions gap

the difference between what is actually delivered and what customers feel they have received because they are unable to accurately judge service quality accurately - external gap

Gap four - communications gap

the difference between what the company communicates, and what the customer understands and subsequently experiences (e.g., overpromise). - internal gap

The service gap is the difference between

what customers expect and what they perceive

Low Contact Service

• No human contact- • helps cutting down cost, • usually electronic • Makes more efficient and standardised service. • E.g. ATM, Posting a letter,