1

SERVICE SECTOR MANAGEMENT

WHAT IS SERVICES Services include all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, is generally consumed at the time it is produced and provides added value in forms (such as convenience, timeliness, comfort or health). That is essentially intangible concerns of its first purchaser. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SERVICES AND CUSTOMER SERVICES A company like IBM offers repair and maintenance service of equipment, consultancy, training services etc. These services may include a tangible product like a report or train manual. Customer Services , however is the service provided in support of a companys core product ike answering question , taking orders ,dealing with billing issue , handling complaints etc Typically there is no charge for customer service is essential for building customer relationship . Customer services are hence different from services provided for sale by a company. Federal Express market and delivers services. It also provides a high level of customer services. Its services are overnight package delivery, and logistics services. Its customer services include well trained staff who can answer all question on telephone, on line tracking of parcels etc. CONCEPT OF SERVICE MARKETING The perception of service marketing focuses on selling the services in the best interest of users/customers. Marketing a service is meant marketing something intangible. It is marketing a promise. It is more selling yourself. In the marketing of services, we go through a number of problems directly or indirectly influencing the business index. The problems like market segmentation, marketing information system, behavioural management are studied minutely which simplify the task of formulating a sound mix for marketing, such as Product mix, Promotion mix, Price mix and the Place mix. It is important to mention that we find People an important mix of marketing services. If we market the services in a right direction, the available opportunities can be capitalized on optimally and also it contributes substantially to the process of development. In view of the above, we observe the following key points regarding the concept or perception of services marketing: It is a managerial process of managing the services. It is an organized effort for providing a sound foundation for the development of an organization. It is a social process helping an organization to understand the emerging social problem and to take part in the social transformation process to justify its existence in the society.

SERVICE MANAGEMENT Service Management is : 1) To understand the utility the customers rceicve by consuming or using the service offering of the organization 2) To understand how the organization (personnel, technology, physical resources, systems and customers)will b able to produce and deliver this utility 3) To understand how the organization should be developed and managed so that the intended quality can be achieved 4) To make the organization function so that this quality can be delivered on a continuous basis GOODS SERVICE CONTINUUM As per Theodore Levit There is no such things as service industries. There are some service industries whose service component are greater (or less) than those of other industries. Everybody is in service. The point that Leavitt was trying to put across is that with almost every tangible physical product an intangible servicecomponent is associated. Therefore every body is in service.He has further put that goods can be put into two categories

Philip kotler suggests 4 categories 1) Pure tangible (salt) 2) Major tangible with minor intangibles (soap) 3) Minor tangible with major intangibles (consultancy) 4) Pure service (teaching)

The above diagram shows the Service goods continuum some goods being tangible dominant others being service dominant. The fast food outlets has almost 50/50 of tangible and intangible parts i.e. in this case both tangible factors such (food) and intangible such as (services) is important. That is the reason it come in the middle. In case of other products like salt there services wont play any important role so it is more towards tangible and in case of teaching profession it is purely service dominated. We never known about service with out experiencing and in this manner various goods fall in place according to its category i.e. less service oriented or more service oriented.

** American Marketing association has defined services as activities, benefits or satisfactions, which are offered for sale or provided in connection with sale o goods. This definition took a limited view of services as it proposed that services are offered only in connection with sale of goods. ** Robert Judd defined services as a market transaction by an enterprise or entrepreneur, where the object of market transaction is other than the transfer of ownership of a tangible commodity This recognised three broad areas of services The right to possess and use a product (rented goods service) The customs creation, repair, or improvement of a product (owned goods service) No product elements but rather experience or what might be termed as experiential possession (nongoods service) ** Blois defines services, as a service is an activity offered for sale which yields benefits and satisfactions without leading to physical change in the form of a good ** Kotler and Bloom defines services as an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and dos not result in the ownership of any thing. Its production may not my not be tied up to a physical product. ** Gummesson says, Services is something which can be bought and sold but which you cannot drop on your foot. ** According Gronross a service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible in nature that normally, not necessarily, take place in interactions between the customer and the service employees and/or physical resources or goods and/or system of the service provider, hich are provided as solution to customer problems. From this it follows that Services are by and large activities, or a series of activities rather than things As a result they are intangible They take place in interaction between the customer and service provider which means that services are produced and consumed simultaneously Customer has a role to play in the production process as services are provided in response to the problems of customers as a solution. 1.8 Characteristics of Services and its Marketing Implications The main Characteristics of Services are : Intangibility Inseparability Heterogeneity Perishability Intangibility

Services are actions and hence they are intangible. Due to this it is not possible to stock services and hence fluctuations in demand becomes difficult to manage. Hotels have same number of rooms all through the year but the customers requiring the room are always varying with some months seeing very few customers while other months seeing a rush of customers. Further services cannot be patented and any new concept can be easily copied by competitors. These cannot be readily displayed or easily communicated, and hence it will be difficult for the consumers to assess the quality. This also creates a problem for what to include in advertisements and promotional materials. Further the actual cost of unit service is difficult to determine and hence pricing becomes difficult. Inseparability Services are generally created or supplied simultaneously. They are inseparable. For e.g., the entertainment industry, health experts and other professionals create and offer their service at the same given time. Services and their providers are associated closely and thus, not separable. Donald Cowell states Goods are produced, sold and then consumed whereas the services are sold and then produced and then consumed. A service is produced when it is consumed eg. a dinning experience. Thus the customers are present when the service is produced thus other customer play an important role in satisfaction. The service producer also plays an important role in quality. Thus mass production is impossible, it is not possible to get economy of scale by centralisation, operations has to be decentralised to deliver to the consumer directly at convenient locations. A problem customer can result in disruption of service production process creating a dissatisfaction forhimself, other customers and also to the service producer. Heterogeneity As services are produced by humans, hence no two services can be identical. Further no two customers are precisely alike and hence their experiences of the same service are different. Even the same customer can be with different frame of mind at different times which results in differing satisfactions from the same service at different times. Eg. A tax consultant may provide different a service experience to two different customers on the same day depending upon their needs and on whether the consultant is meeting the customer when he is fresh in the morning or tired at the end of the day. Because of this ensuring a consistent quality becomes a challenging job. The quality depends upon a number of factors like the customer, service provides, other customers (their presence or even absence) etc., hence the service provider cannot know if the service is delivered in a manner which has been originally planned and promoted. Sometimes services are provided by a third party further increasing the heterogeneity. Perishability

Services cannot be stored, saved, resold or returned. A bad haircut cannot be returned or resold to another customer. Hence demand forecasting and creative planning to meet the demand is a problem. Further one has to be right the first time or if things go wrong one should have strong recovery strategies to retain the customer goodwill. Due to these characteristics of services the marketeers face a major challenge in marketing of Services.

REASONS FOR THE GROWTH OF SERVICE INDUSTRY

It is obvious that the growth in the services sector has been substantive. The reasons for this growth are quite a few, some of which are summarized as follows. Affluence: - The increase in per capita income from Rupees 238.8 in 1950 to Rupees 11,934.5 in 1998 is an indicator of he increase in general affluence has given rise to service like pest-control, personal security, interior designer, etc. Leisure time: - People do get some time to travel and holiday and therefore there is a need for travel agencies, resorts, hotels, and entertainment. There are others who would like to utilize this time to improve their career prospects and therefore there is a need for adult education/distance learning/part time courses. Life expectancy: - The health programmed have significantly contributed to an increase in life expectancy given rise to services like old age homes, nursing homes, health care, etc. Working wives: - As more and more women have started working, the need for day care for children has increased, and so is the care with packed food and home delivery. Product complexity: - A large no. of products are now being purchased in households which can be serviced only by specialized persons like water purifies, micro wave ovens, home computers, etc. giving rise to the need for services like after sales service agents for durables, maintenance service providers, etc. Life complexity: - As the daily routine gets busier, individuals find it difficult to manage things on their own. Their leads to an obvious need for tax consultants, legal advisors, property advisers, etc. Resource scarcity and ecology: - As the natural resources are depleting and need for conservation is increasing, we have seen the coming up of service providers like pollution control agencies, car, pools, water management, etc. New products: - the development in information technology has given rise to services like PCOs, Pager service providers, Web Shoppe, etc

CONTRIBUTION OF SERVICE INDUSTRY TO INDIAN ECONOMY AND WORLD ECONOMY WORLD SCENARIO as economy shifts from developing to developed stage, they will show more and more shift toward services today, the fastest growing segments of the US economy is services in 1948 54% of the GDP of US was generated by services which is 80% now employment in this sector which was 55% in 1950 is now 83% the US balance of trade in goods has remained in the red for many years, but there has been a trade surplus in services today service sector dominates the economics of many developed nations. As countries develop the role of agriculture in the economy declines and that of services increase.(china has 50% GDP from service, 35% from industry, and 15%from agriculture) during recession it has been seen that service output declines less than industrial output the service employment is less sensitive to business cycle fluctuation globalisation as strategy for service firm is becoming more important INDIAN SCENARIO The service sector now accounts for more than half of India's GDP: 51.16 per cent in 1998-99. This sector has gained at the expense of both the agricultural and industrial sectors through the 1990s. The rise in the service sector's share in GDP marks a structural shift in the Indian economy and takes it closer to the fundamentals of a developed economy (in the developed economies, the industrial and service sectors contribute a major share in GDP while agriculture accounts for a relatively lower share). The service sector's share has grown from 43.69 per cent in 1990-91 to 51.16 per cent in 1998-99. In contrast, the industrial sector's share in GDP has declined from 25.38 per cent to 22.01 per cent in 1990-91 and 1998-99 respectively. The agricultural sector's share has fallen from 30.93 per cent to 26.83 per cent in the respective years. Some economists caution that if the service sector bypasses the industrial sector, economic growth can be distorted. They say that service sector growth must be supported by proportionate growth of the industrial sector, otherwise the service sector grown will not be sustainable. It is true that, in India, the service sector's contribution in GDP has sharply risen and that of industry has fallen (as shown above). But, it is equally true that the industrial sector too has grown, and grown quite impressively through the 1990s (except in 1998-99). Three times between 1993-94 and 1998-99, industry surpassed the growth rate of GDP. Thus, the service sector has grown at a higher rate than industry

which too has grown more or less in tandem. The rise of the service sector therefore does not distort the economy. the share of agriculture sector to GDP has come down from 50% in 1960 to 24% service sector contribution to GDP is around 54% with an annual growth of 8% employment in this sector is around 50% the response to liberation has been more in service sector, partly because lower fixed investment requirements, example:- todays concept of banking technological advances have made it possible for India to compete on global basis in areas like SOFTWARE, IT, HEALTH, EDUCATION, etc., in addition lower wage structure has helped to develop CALL CENTREs, MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION, etc., from 1996 BSE has given a prominent place to service industry in its 30 share index since no tax is imposed on agriculture sector, most of the tax came from manufacturing sector. now services are being taxed service tax collection is to the tune of 5000 crore. 83% of this is contributed by service sectors. 51% - Telecom, others are Insurance, AD agencies, Courier and stock brokers. many export benefits like EPCG is now extended to the service sector. in last 25 years the increase in employment in the organized sector is 57% while if only service sector is considered it is 70%(other than service sector it 41%) Indias service exports in1997 were 9.3 billion $ against its merchandized exports of $32.2 billion. It is expected that service exports could a third of merchandize exports now this will be well above the global average of . It implies that India which has failed to catch the bus in the exports of manufactures is among the early leaders of the developing world in the race for service exports. Within the services sector, the share of trade, hotels and restaurants increased from 12.52 per cent in 1990-91 to 15.68 per cent in 1998-99. The share of transport, storage and communications has grown from 5.26 per cent to 7.61 per cent in the years under reference. The share of construction has remained nearly the same during the period while that of financing, insurance, real estate and business services has risen from 10.22 per cent to 11.44 per cent. The fact that the service sector now accounts for more than half the GDP probably marks a watershed in the evolution of the Indian economy.

10

UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER 1 KNOWLEDGE OF THE BUYER In buying decisions many times other people also influence the decision. In services these roles are played by many persons. In purchase of any service six distinct roles are played Initiator : The person who has a specific need and proposes to buy a service Influencer : The person or group of persons whom the decision maker refers to or who advice the decision maker. Gate Keeper : The person or organization or promotional material, which act as filter on the range of services which enter the decision choice Decider : The person who makes the buying decision Buyer : The person makes the actual purchaser User : The actual user. For example if a sales executive wants to do a market tour .

His boss may be the initiator The travel agency may act as a Gatekeeper The finance department may be the influencer The administrative department the buyer The executive the user. In this case the user may have no role in the buying process. Hence while targeting a customer the service provider may have to influence other persons. CONSUMER DECISION MAKING. The consumers decision to purchase or reject a product or service is the moment of final truth for the marketer. It signifies the marketing strategy has been wise, insightful and effective, whether it was poorly planned and missed the mark. Marketer are, therefore, interested in the consumer decision-making

11

process by which a consumer selects an alternative amongst the lot available. The decision not to buy is also an alternative. A simple consumer decision-making model, ties together the psychological, social and cultural concepts into an easily understood framework. The decision model has three distinct sets of variables: 1. Input Variables, 2. Process Variables, 3. Output Variables. Input Variables:Input variables are those variables which affect the decision making process and include commercial marketing efforts as well as non-commercial influences from the consumers socio-cultural environment. Decision Variables:The decision process variables are influenced by consumers own psychological fields, which affect their recognition of a need, their prepurchase search for information and their evaluation of alternatives. Output Variables:The output phase of the model includes the actual purchase (either trial or repeat purchase) and post purchase evaluation. Both pre-purchase and postpurchase evaluation feed back in the form of experience into the consumers psychological field and serves to influence future decision processing. (On a holiday a customer may change hotels in between his stay). Factors Influencing The Buying Behaviour Situational Factors : Time, Stores atmosphere, Marketing Stimuli (the occasion) Personal Factors : Personality, life style, Other demographic factors like age, gender, occupation etc. Social Factors : Culture, reference group, family Psychological Factors : Perception, attitude, motivation

TEN SUCH QUALITIES WHICH INFLUENCE THE CONSUMERS EVALUATION OF SERVICES (Quality Dimensions of Services) Consistency: - it involves consistency and reliability of performances and dependability. It means that the firm performs the service right the first time. It also means that the firm honours its promises especially in terms of

12

accuracy in billing, record keeping and performing the service at the designated time. Concern:-it is the willingness or responsiveness of employees to provide the service. It involves timeliness of service or giving prompt service, calling the customer back quickly or mailing the transaction slip immediately. Competence: - it means having the required skills and knowledge to perform the service. It involves knowledge and skill of the contact personnel, knowledge and skill of operating support personnel and research capability of the organization. E.g. securities brokerage firm. Contact:- it involves approachability, access and ease of contact. It means that the service is easily accessible by telephone; waiting time to receive the services is not extensive, convenient hours of operation and convenient location of service facility. Courtesy:- it involves politeness, report, consideration and friendliness of contact personnel. It includes consideration for the consumers property. Clean and neat appearance of public contact personnel. E.g. no muddy shoes on the carpet, proper telephone operators etc. Communication:- it means keeping consumers informed in a language that they can understand and listen to them. It may mean that the company has to adjust its language for different consumers increasing the level of sophistication with a well educated consumer and speaking simply and plainly with a novice. It involves explaining the service itself and how much the service will cost explaining the trade-off between service and cost and assuring the customer that a problem will be handled. Credibility: - it involves trustworthiness, believability, honesty. It involves having the customers best interest at heart thus contributing to credibility, company name and reputation, personal characteristics of the contact personnel and degree of hard sell involved in interaction with the customer. Confidentiality: - the security and the freedom from risk or doubt, involving physical safety, financial security or confidentiality. Customer knowledge: - it involves making the effort to understand the customers needs, i.e. learning the customers specific requirements, providing individualized attention and recognizing the regular customer. Tangibles: - it includes physical evidence of the service, physical facilities, and appearance of personnel tools or equipments used to provide the service, physical representations of the service such as a plastic credit card or a bank statement and other customers in the service facility. THE SERVICE ENCOUNTERS (MOMENT OF TRUTH.) MOMENTS OF TRUTH From the customers point of view, the most vivid impression of service occurs in the service encounter or Moment Of Truth, when the customer interacts with the service firm. This is the foundation to Satisfaction of

13

Service Quality it is where the promises are kept or broken. This concept was put forth by Richard Norman, taking the metaphor from Bull Fighting. Most services are results of social acts, which take place in direct contact between the customer and the service provider. At this stage the Customer realises the perceived service quality. ENCOUNTER CASCADE Every Moment of Truth is Important according to Scandinavian Airlines, each one of their 10 million customers come in contact with 5 employees. Thus the airlines say there 50 million moments of truth each one is managed well and They prove they are the BEST. However some encounters are more critical. The encounter cascade refers to a series of encounters right from the time a customer comes to take the service. The encounter cascade can be important as any encounter can be critical, as it determines customer satisfaction and loyalty. If its the first interaction of the customer then the initial interaction will be the first impression. So, these interactions have to be given importance, as they are critical and influences customers perception of the organization. Example: A customer calling for the repair service may switch to some other company if he is put on hold for a long time or even treated rudely. Even if the technical quality of that firm is superior, the firm may not get a chance to prove themselves in front of the customer. When the customer has had many interactions with firm, each encounter will be important as it will create a combined image of that firm. Many positive experiences will give an image of High Quality and many negative experiences will represent a bad image. Combination of positive and negative interactions will leave the customer confused about the Quality. It is suggested that not all encounters are equally important in building longterm relations. For every organization, certain encounters can act as a key to customer satisfaction. For example: for MARRIOT hotels, it is the early encounters that are important. In a hospital context, a study of patients revealed that encounters with the nursing staff were more important in predicting the customer satisfaction. As it is rightly said one bad apple can ruin the whole basket of apples. The same applies in this too; one negative encounter can drive the customer away, no matter how many encounters had taken place in the past. So a firm has to give a lot of importance to such encounters. A customer who has been using a bank for nearly 15 years is quite happy with the service. He has a huge deposit and many accounts. One fine morning, when he comes out of the bank the watch man asks Rs. 10 for parking charges of his car. He goes inside the bank and informs the clerk at the counter, who directs him to the officer. The officer directs him to the Manager, who says he is helpless as this is a new policy of the bank. The customer who was so happy with the bank services decides to close all his accounts Some encounters can be very Critical.

14

Among the service encounters a hotel customer experiences are checking in, being taken to the room by a bell person, eating a restaurant meal etc as shown in the figure. It is in these encounters that the customer receives an overall view of the organizations service quality and encounter contributes to customer satisfaction and willingness to do business with the organization again. As for the company, each encounter represents an opportunity to prove its potential as a quality service provider and to increase customer loyalty. Some services have few service encounters and others have many. Mistakes or problems that occur in the early levels of the service cascade can e critical because failure at one point results in greater risk of dissatisfaction in the long run. MARRIOT Hotels learned this through their extensive customer survey to determine what service element contributes to customer loyalty. They found that 4 out of 5 factors came into play in the first 10 minutes of the guests stay. TYPES OF ENCOUNTERS A service encounter occurs every time a customer interacts with the service organization. There are three general types of encounters - remote encounters, phone encounters, and face to face encounters. A customer may experience any of these types of encounters, or a combination of all three in his or her relations with a service firm.

15

Remote Encounter:Encounter can occur without any direct human contact is called as Remote Encounters. Such as, when a customer interacts with a bank through the ATM system, or with Ticketron through an automated ticketing machine, or with a mail-order service through automated dial-in ordering. Remote encounters also occur when the firm sends its billing statements or communicates others types of information to customers by mail. Although there is no direct human contact in these remote encounters, each represents an opportunity for a firm to reinforce or establish perceptions in the customer. In remote encounter the tangible evidence of the service and the quality of the technical process and system become the primary bases for judging quality. EXAMPLE:Services are being delivered through technology, particularly with the advent of Internet applications. Retail purchases, airline ticketing, repair and maintenance troubleshooting, and package and shipment tracking are just a few examples of services available via the Internet. All of these types of service encounters can be considered remote encounters. Phone Encounters:In many organizations, the most frequent type of encounter between a customer and the firm occurs over the telephone is called as phone encounter. Almost all firms (whether goods manufacturers or service businesses) rely on phone encounters in the form of customer-service, general inquiry, or ordertaking functions. The judgment of quality in phone encounters is different from remote encounters because there is greater potential variability in the interaction. Tone of voice, employee knowledge, and effectiveness/efficiency inhandling customer issues become important criteria for judging quality in these encounters. Face-to Face Encounters:A third type of encounter is the one that occurs between an employee and a customer in direct contact is called as Face-to-Face Encounter. In a hotel, face to face encounters occurs between customers and maintenance personnel, receptionist, bellboy, food and beverage servers and others. Determining and understanding service equality issues in face to face context is the most complex of all. Both verbal and non-verbal behaviours are important determinants of quality, as are tangible cues such as employee dress and other symbols of service (equipments, informational brochures, physical settings). In face to face encounters the customer also play an important

16

role in creating quality service for herself through her own behaviour during the interaction. At Disney theme parks, face-to-face encounters occur between customer and ticket-takers, maintenance personnel, actors in Disney character costumes, ride personnel, food and beverage servers, and others. For a company such as, IBM, in a business-to-business setting direct encounters occur between the business customers and salespeople, delivery personnel, maintenance representatives, and professional consultants. Of all determining and understanding service quality issues in face-to-face context is the most complex. Both verbal and non-verbal behaviours are important determinants of quality, as are tangible cues such as employee dress and other symbols of service (e.g., equipment, informational brochures, and physical settings). In face to- face encounters the customer also plays a role in creating quality service for herself through her own behaviour during the interaction. SERVICE FAILURES AND RECOVERY SERVICE FAILURES Even with the Best organizations failures can just happen they may be due to the service not available when promised, it may be delivered late or too slowly (some times too fast ??), the outcome may be incorrect or poorly executed, or employees may be rude or uncaring. All these types of failures bring about negative experiences. If left unfixed they can result in customers leaving, telling others about the negative experiences or even challenging through consumer courts. Research has shown that resolving the problems effectively has a strong impact on the customer satisfaction, loyalty, and bottom-line performance. Customers who experience service failures, but are ultimately satisfied based on recovery efforts by the firm, will be more loyal. THE RECOVERY PARADOX. It is suggested that customers who are dissatisfied, but experience a high level of excellent service recovery, may be more satisfied and more likely to repurchase than are those who are satisfied at the first place. For example:A hotel customer who arrives & finds there is no room available. In an effort to recover, the front-desk person immediately upgrades this guest to a better room at the same price. The customer is so thrilled with this compensation that he is extremely satisfied with this experience, is even more impressed with the hotel than he was never before, and vows to be loyal into future. The logical, but not very rational, conclusion is that companies should plan to disappoint customers so they can recover &gain even greater loyalty from them as a result. This idea is known to be as Recovery Paradox. The recovery paradox is more complex than it seem. First of all it is expensive to fix mistakes and would appear ridiculous to encourage service failure-as reliability is the most important aspect of service quality. According to a research it is observed that a customer weight their recent experiences

17

heavily in their decision to buy again. If the experience is negative, overall feelings about the company will decrease and repurchase intentions will also reduce. If the recovery effort is absolutely superlative then the negative impression can be overcome. Then there is a recent study which shows no support to recovery paradox. It shows the overall satisfaction was consistently lower for those customers who had experienced a service failure than for those who had experienced no failure, no matter what the recovery effort is. The explanation for why no recovery paradox is suggested by the magnitude of the service failure in this study it is-a three hour airplane flight delay. This type of failure may be too much to be overcome by any recovery effort. Considering mixed opinions on if recovery paradox exists it is safe to say doing it right the first time is the best and safest strategy. When a failure does occur then every effort at superior recovery should be made. In cases where the failure can be fully overcome the failure is less critical, or the recovery effort is clearly superlative, it may be possible to observe evidence of the recovery paradox. HOW CUSTOMERS RESPOND TO SERVICE FALIURE If customers initiate action following service failure, the action can be various types. A dissatisfied customer can choose complaint on the spot to the service provider, giving the company the opportunity to respond immediately. Thos is often the best-case scenario for the company it has the second chance right at that movement to satisfy the customer, keep his or her business in the future, and potentially avoids any negative word of mouth. Some customer chooses not to complaint directly to the provider but rather spread negative word of the mouth about the company to friend, relatives, and coworkers. This negative word of mouth can be extremely detrimental because it can reinforce the customers feeling of negativism and spread that negative impression to other as well. Further, the company has no chance to recover unless the negative word of mouth is accompanied by a complaint directly to the company. When there is a failure, customer can respond in a variety of ways as illustrated in the figure. It is assumed that following are the failure, dissatisfaction at some levels will occur for the customer. In fact, research suggest that variety of negative emotion can occur following service failure, including such feeling as anger, discontent, disappointment, self- pity and anxiety. Many customers are very passive about their dissatisfaction, simply saying or doing nothing, take action or not, at some point the customer will decide weather to stay with that provider or switch to a competitor.

18

When the company fails to stand for its promises made to the customer on the basis they build expectation, its to be said that there is service failure. When the service failure occurs, there can be again severe ramification. Customer is considered to be the bread and butter, hence retaining them is the biggest challenge, and however service failure acts as an obstacle to it. In such failures, 1) 2) 3) 4) The customer wants what they were promised. Customer wants personal attention Customer wants a decent apology Customers want that they should not be made to feel that they are the cause of the problem. (Though in many cases they are responsible for nuisance)

There are again five steps involved in order to deal with service failure. They are mentioned as below 1st step: Acknowledgement and apology for the fact. 2nd step: Listening to the customers. 3rd step: Avoid defending the company and offer a rational explanation. 4th step: Offer some extra benefits 5th step: Have a proper follow up and make sure no mistakes this time, so that he can easily forget about the service failure and is retained. A customer expects 3 shorts of fairness in case of service recovery. They are mentioned as below.

19

1. Interaction fairness: - when there is service failure, first the company is supposed to acknowledge the customer. Due to this the customer might turn erate, but he still expects fairness and courtesy in the language and tone used by the addresser 2. Procedure fairness: - to know in detail about the incidence of service failure or to avail the compensation. There should be simplicity in procedure, which is involved. Service failure and complexity in procedure both together might result in a disaster as far as customer is concern. 3. Outcome fairness: - now when the company realizes that there is service failure they should end up compensating, arranging for some alternative mode of transporting or complies with the customer condition. The outcome should be taken by considering the customer, his needs and the companys policy. ACTION PLAN TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM : Handling complaints is a big challenge for every company today. Before understanding how to handle, let us see what are the factors, which can result in customers complaints. There are ten steps involved in handling such airline flights delayed departure complaints effectively. They are mentioned below. 1) The frontline employee handling complaints should stay calm under any circumstances. 2) Let the customer get the story off their chest- do not interrupt, this will only cause irritation. In this case listening skills comes into picture. 3) Avoid admitting any liability at this stage. The officer just need to show concern like, Im sorry for the inconvenience, let me see what I can do. Give attention to the customer, make him feel important. 4) Get facts by using question and try to find out the real and whole story behind it. 5) After listening and collecting data, just identify appropriate action considering companys policy and customers expectation. 6) Take action if you have authority or involve manager or concerned person. 7) If corrective action cannot be taken immediately, tell the customer. Its better to give bad news rather giving false news. 8) Record the action to be taken and inform anyone else in the organization involved. 9) Look into the matter, provide a proper follow-up. This ten approaches if followed effectively, complaints can be handled properly and possibly a customer can be retained. (Solution is only for the taken example. i.e. delayed departures of flights).

20

OTHER SOLUTIONS Control costs, reduce waste Set productive capacity to match average demand Automate labor tasks Upgrade equipment and systems Train employees Leverage less-skilled employees through expert systems Change timing of customer demand Develop customer trust Understand customers habits and expectations Pretest new procedures and equipment Publicize the benefits Teach customers to use innovations and promote trial Monitor performance, continue to seek improvements EIGHT COMPONENTS OF INTEGRATED SERVICE MANAGEMENT The Marketing Mix (THE 5 Ps OF SERVICES MARKETING) In order for your business to sell its products and services as successfully as possible, you need to look at what products you are selling in detail to ensure they will be attractive and needed; the price to ensure it is not too cheap or too expensive; where you are best distributing your product; and finally, how you can create interest and awareness for your products. All these elements need to be targeted at the right people at the right time. In order for your business to tackle this correctly, you need to get the right type of mix (marketing mix), the mix should include four main elements: Product, Price, Place and Promotion, by examining each and carefully and adapting them to your customer's needs, you will continue to produce and needed products and services 1) Product element: Managers must select the feature of both the core product (either a good or service) and the bundle of supplementary service elements surrounding it, with reference to the benefit desired by customers and how well competing products perform. In short, they must be attentive to all aspects of the service performance that have the potential to create value for customers 2) Price and other user costs: - This components addresses management of the expenditures and other outlays incurred by customers in obtaining benefits from the service product. It is not only related to traditional pricing tasks of establishing selling price to customers, setting trade margins and getting credit terms but also, how to minimize other burdens of customers while purchasing such as time, mental and physical efforts and unpleasant sensory experiences such as noises and smells. 3) Place , cyberspace and Time:- Delivering product elements to customers involves decisions on the place and time of delivery as well as on

21

the methods and channels employed. Delivery may involve physical or electronics distribution channels or both),depending on the nature of the service being provided. 4) Promotion and education:- No marketing program can succeed without effective communications. This component plays three vital roles: a)Providing needed information and advice (awareness). b)Persuading target customers of the merits of a specific product. (Concentrating on a particular segment of the market). c)Encouraging to take action at a specific time (purchase). Communication is educational in nature for new customers. Communication can be delivered by individuals such as sales people and trainers, media such as TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, postures, websites etc. This promotion is usually used as incentives to catch customers attention and to motivate them to act. The above four are the traditional marketing mix. The EXTENDED marketing mix for services marketing isas follows : 5) People: - Many services depend on the direct, personal interaction between customers and a firms employees (such as getting a haircut or eating at a restaurant). This interaction strongly influences the customer perception of service quality. So, successful service firm devote significant effort to recruitment, training and motivating their personnel. 6) Physical evidence:- The appearance of buildings, landscaping, vehicle, interior furnishing, equipment, staff members, signs, printed materials, and other visible cues all provide tangible evidence of the firms service quality. The service firms need to manage physical evidence carefully because it can have a profound impact on customers impression as the service itself is intangible. A tangible element such as insurance and advertising is often employed to create meaningful symbols. E.g.: - umbrella may symbolize protection and a fortress, security. 7) Process: - It is the method and sequence of actions in which service operating system works. Badly designed process: - annoys customers which leads to likelihood of service Failures. 8) Productivity and quality: - Productivity relates to how inputs are transformed into outputs that are valued by customers. Improving productivity keeps costs under control Quality refers to the degree to which a service satisfies customers by meeting their needs, wants and expectations. Service quality helps in product differentiation and building customer loyalty. Invest in quality profitably i.e. by considering incremental cost and incremental revenue. Thus, these are the 8ps of service management, which are the essence of it. The integration of each ps is necessary for the successful service management Collectively these are the tools organizations uses to develop offerings to satisfy their target market(s) ... the only tools at their disposal. Remember: If your

22

marketing mix doesn't meet their needs they will not be satisfied - and if they aren't satisfied you are unlikely to meet your objectives. The marketing mix should be viewed as an integrated and coordinated package of benefits that reflect the characteristics of customers and various targeted publics and satisfy their needs, wants, and expectations. Note that the elements of the marketing mix should be integrated because each element of the mix usually has some impact, direct or indirect, on the other three. For example, if you improve the product or service you probably have to change the price because it costs more to produce. Although you may not have to change where the product is delivered to the customer, you will almost certainly have to change the promotion or communication with the customer because you need to tell the customer about the changes you have made in the product and how the changes will make it more desirable and satisfying. One problem in many organizations is that different divisions may be responsible for different elements of the marketing mix. This happens even in well-managed organizations. The result is that the offering is confusing to the target market. Lack of communication among divisions makes this problem worse. And if they don't share the same view of organizational objectives, the problem is worse still. PRODUCT MIX Introduction Product includes name, design, features, quality, operational case, packaging, warranties, appearance, range and size. It also includes pre-sale and post-sale services like training, repairs, maintenance and replacements. According to Philip Kotler a product is anything that can be offered to market for attention, acquisition use or consumption that satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects (TV), service (banking), person (political person), place (holiday resort), organization (red cross) and idea (aid awareness). Conventionally, a product is an object, which is delivered and consumed. However, in services there is no or very little tangible elements. Hence, what is offered for sale is benefits. Service is a bundle of benefits and has relevance for a specific target market. Hence, the package of benefits should have a customers perspective. Levels of product: Kotler has identified 5 levels of a product 1) Core product 2) Basic product 3) Expected product 4) Augmented product 5) Potential product Kotler suggested that a product should be viewed in three levels.

23 1. Level 1: Core Product. What is the core benefit your product offers? This

is the fundamental benefit or service that the customer is buying. For eg. A customer going to a Hotel is buying rest, sleep etc. 2. Level 2 Basic Product: Basic functional attributes. All Hotels provide rest and sleep. The aim is to ensure that your potential customers purchase your one service. Thus the functional attributes like Room, Bed, Bath are important. 3. Level 3 : Expected product : Set of attributes that the buyer expects (Clean room, large towels, quietness) 4. Level 4: Augmented product: What additional non-tangible benefits can you offer? This meets the customers desires beyond his expectations (Prompt room service, music, aroma etc) 5. Level 5 : Potential product : The possible evolutions that can be made to make the product a distinguishedoffer (all suite room) In a Bank these can be Core Product (Safety of deposits, Interest, Easy loans Basic product : Savings deposit, FD, Recurring deposit Expected product : Correct transaction records, timely service, convenient timing Augmented product : Congenial waiting room, Water cooler Potential product : Greetings for New Year, 24 hour banking The PACKAGE CONCEPT of Service product suggests that what you offer to the market si a bundle of different services tangible and intangible. There is a core service and around it are built the auxiliary or facilitator service. Without this the service would collapse (a bell boy in a Hotel). Yet another service is the supporting service it is used to increase the product value (a car rental in a hotel). The basic product is not equivalent to the service product which the customer perceives, which is in fact based on customers experience and evaluation. Therefore there is a need for an augmented product like Accessibility (number and skills of personnel, convenient timing, location, infrastructure etc.,) Interaction with service organization (Between employees and customer, with physical and technical resources, with other customers) Consumer participation.(how well the customer is aware about the process of service delivery, his willingness to share information and use service equipments) The package should also include the management of service image through encouraged word of mouth and market communication. Product Decisions When placing a product within a market many factors and decisions have to be taken into consideration. These include: Consumer benefits assess what benefits the consumer looks for

24

Service concept To translate it to suitable service offer Develop augmented offer BRANDING: One of the most important decisions a marketing manager can make is about branding. The value of brands in odays environment is phenomenal. Brands have the power of instant sales; they convey a message of confidence, quality and reliability to their target market. Brands have to be managed well, as some brands can be cash cows for organizations. In many organizations they are represented by brand managers, who have huge resources to ensure their success within the market. A brand is a tool, which is used by an organization to differentiate itself from competitors. Ask yourself what is the value of a pair of Nike trainers without the brand or the logo? How does your perception change? Increasingly brand managers are becoming annoyed by copycat strategies being employed by supermarket food retail stores particular within the UK. Coca-Cola threatened legal action against UK retailer Simsbury after introducing their Classic Cola, which displayed similar designs and fonts on their cans. Internet branding is now becoming an essential part of the branding strategy game. Generic names like Bank.com and Business.com have been sold for ms. (Recently within the UK banking industry we have seen the introduction of Internet banks such as cahoot.com and marbles.com the task by brand managers is to insure that consumers understand that these brands are banks!

Branding of Services and its Importance Philip Kotlar defines a brand as a name, a term, a symbol, or a designed or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. Brand decision is important for tangible goods. But in the case of service offering branding is still in its infancy, there importance is expected to rise due to the following reason. 1. Service market is getting more competitive and there is as increasing proliferation of brands in the service sector. 2. It is five times cheaper to retain customer than to attract new ones. 3. As a new service development assumes greater importance, the risk of product launch is reducing in the context of umbrella branding. 4. As service itself does not offer unique tangible benefits, brand development tangibilises the service. Customer gives more significance to the service provider than the individual service products that the provideroffers. Therefore, this leads to branding the service providers cooperate image. Banks especially have recognized the importance of corporate image and identity and have used slogans, logos and other means to brand themselves. Ones the corporate brand is developed it is found that service firms move with relative easy to other service product categories. Primarily companies resorts to corporate brand building with a goal of maximizing market capitalization and

25

creating shareholders wealth. In case of service firms corporate branding reflects the service itself. Airlines, fast-food restaurants, banks, professional firm are usually differentiated on the basis of their corporate name and reputation rather than the specific service they offer. The service organization brand name is reinforce by courteous employees, professional looking uniform, advertising etc. However no matter how good the corporate brands may be the quality of service determines the success of the image. There are instance where the service itself is branded. Example Suvidha Account of Citibank, the various schemes of LIC like Jeevan Kishore, Jeevan Mitra etc. Advantages of branding services 1. To tangibilise the intangible. 2. To support the positioning strategy. 3. Offers a powerful tool for relationship building. 4. To create an image of quality and consistency. 5. To reduce price comparison. 6. Keeps current customers satisfied by developing and sustaining a unique service advantage. 7. Encourages repeat usage using sales promotions. PRICE MIX Introduction: This element of the marketing mix is related to the decision influencing the fee structure, rate of interest, commission charged and paid by the service generating organizations. It is considered to be the most critical component of the marketing mix. Both from economic and social standpoint, the management of pricing is important but at the same time more critical and challenging. We find pricing decisions important because the pricing decisions are to influence the maintenance, development and expansion plans of an organization. Guidelines for service pricing: 1) Pricing strategy should enable handling demand fluctuations successfully. As services cannot be inventoried, pricing should encourage customers to use the service during period of low demand. 2) As services need to have some tangible element attached to it, service pricing should be based on costs so as to take into account the tangible clues. 3) Service price as an indicator of quality: Services not having specific brand names to indicate quality, customers use price as an indicator of quality. This in particular in some cases, where the price variation is too much with in a particular class of service (e.g. Tour operators). Also, where the risk associated with the service is high (e.g. Heart surgery). Price is taken as an indicator of quality. Thus pricing too low can give wrong signals and pricing too high can set expectations that the firm may find it difficult to match in service delivery.

26

Because goods are dominated by search qualities. Price is normally not used to judge quality. 4) Pricing strategy should cope-up with the degree of competition operation with in certain geographic and time zone. E.g. Bus operators will have to consider prices of train. It also includes the stage ofstrategic low pricing to attract first time customers. Approaches to pricing services: The 3 approaches to pricing services are: 1) Cost-based pricing 2) Competition-based pricing. 3) Demandbased pricing. 1) Cost-based pricing: In cost-based pricing, a company determines expenses from raw materials and labor, adds amounts or percentages for overhead and profit, and thereby arrives at the price. This method is widely used by industries such as utilities, contracting, wholesaling and advertising. The basic formula for cost-based pricing is Price = Direct costs + Overhead costs + Profit margin Direct costs involve materials and labor that are associated with the service, overhead costs are a share of fixed costs, and the profit margin is a percentage of full costs (direct + overhead) Problems in cost-based pricing services: a) It is difficult to define the units in which a service is purchased. Thus the concept of price or unit is vague. Thus many services are sold in terms of input units rather than units of measured output. E.g. consultant, teacher etc. b) Where a firm provides multiple services. The costs being a major component of employee time are difficult to allocate. c) Service cost may not represent true value. For e.g. a darner charging same price for a expensive suit and an ordinary pant. 2) Competition-based pricing: This approach focuses on the prices charged by other firms in the same industry or market. Competition-based pricing does not always imply charging the identical rate others charge but rather using others prices as an anchor for the firms price. This approach is used predominantly in two situations: (a) When services are standard across providers, such as in the dry cleaning industry. (b) In oligopolies where there are a few large service providers, such as in the airline. Problems in competition-based pricing: (a) Small firms may charge too little and not make margins high enough to remain in business. (b) Heterogeneity of services across and within providers makes this approach complicated. E.g. Banks charge different rates of commission for drafts and other services. 3) Demand-based pricing:

27

The first two approaches of pricing are based on the company and its competitors rather than on customers. Neither approach takes into consideration that customers may lack reference price, may be sensitive to nonmonetary prices and may judge quality on the basis of price. All of these factors can and should be accounted for in a companys pricing decisions. The third major approach to pricing, demand-based pricing, involves setting prices consistent with customer perceptions of value: prices are based on what customers will pay for the services provided. Problems in demand-based pricing: (a) There is an element of non-monetary costs and benefits which must be considered while calculating perceived value. E.g. services requiring time, inconvenience, psychological and search costs should be riced lower. It is difficult to convert this non-monetary cost into monetary cost. (b) Information on service may be less available to customer, making it difficult to assess the price. THE PLACE MIX. INTRODUCTION Another important element of the marketing mix is place mix, which focuses our attention on the offering of services by the providers to the ultimate users and the place of location for the service generating organizations. In some of the cases we find that providers have no option but to locate the units/branches as per the instructions of the apex body. Some of the essential features are taken into consideration such as easy and convenient accessibility, safety or protection availability of the infrastructural facilities, attractive and healthy surroundings or so. Due to the intangibility, services cannot be stored, transported and inventoried. Hence the traditional channels of product marketing like wholesalers cannot be used. Eevn retailing cannot be an independent activity. Similarly because of inseparability they have t be produced and sold simultaneously. Due to this tehe channels of distribution are made very short. At the most there can be one agent like in the case of insurance, travel agency, courier eye. The better thing is direct selling. Agents when employed can have two types of functions either they market the services lke travel agents, insurance agents etc, who market the tangible part of the service offering OR there can be agents who are trained to provide the service Like a Shahnaz Hussain Beauty parlour. Further as there is no actual transfer of ownership, the creation of time and place utility is very important. Hence proper location to cover maximum cuxtomers becomes important. Banks often have extension counters or use money collectors. Capacity Planning. It is not sufficient that we are interested only in managing our present. It is much more significant that we keep our eyes open, minds active to know

28

about the future and continue to enrich our potentials to manage the future. The organizations not managing the future fail in managing the demand and supply position, make it difficult to optimize the development of marketing resources to cope with the changing requirements, make possible a contraction in their resistance power and both on quantitative and qualitative fronts, we find them moving backward. By capacity planning, our emphasis is on the management of strength. Capacity planning is known as planning the capacity in the face of future. This throws light on both the aspects-first, the organizations are supposed to know the demand position so that the potentials are enriched to increase the quantity or capacity of generating the services and second, the organizations are also required to know about the likes and dislikes, preferences, expectations, attitudes which make an advocacy in favor of technologies to fulfill their expectations and this is not possible unless we think in favor capacity planning. The strategic plan would make the ways for the mobilization of financial resources to cater to their increasing requirements. We cant deny the fact that if an organization succeeds in maintaining the process of profit generation, the financial health of that organization becomes so sound that the task of satisfying the employees and investors is simplified considerably. If an organization is strong, the task of facing the challenges and threats in the markets is simplified considerably. It is against this background that strategic planning assumes a place of outstanding significance. When we talk about capacity planning, our prime focus is on strategic planning since the process of enriching strength cant be made possible within a couple of days. Capacity Scheduling. How much of what (service) will be needed to achieve its pre-determined goals is an important consideration that makes an advocacy in favor of capacity planning and scheduling. There are a number of critical variables requiring due consideration in the process such as, goals of the service firm, availability of capital and the quality of human resources, market segments served and the level of service quality aimed at. A detailed scheduling of man, materials, money and machines (four Ms) is essential for each element of the service mix. PROMOTION MIX INTRODUCTION: The promotion mix is found instrumental in informing, sensing and persuading the prospects or customers. The marketers bear the responsibility of using the different components of promotion in such a way that the measures adopted for promoting the goods or services are found productive. The promotion communicates to customers information on the other elements of marketing mix, such as product, pricing and place. The advantage of product itself, details on the place through which it is sold and details on the pricing are transmitted through promotion. COMPONENTS OF THE PROMOTION MIX: 1) Advertising:

29

Advertising is paid form of persuasive promotion since it plays an effective role in informing and sensing the customers. The creativity is found to be an essential aspect of advertising, which increases the importance of professional excellence in making the advertising processes productive. 2) Publicity/public relations: All the organizations need to develop and strengthen the public relation activities to promote their business. This component of promotion is found effective though the organization dont make any payment for publicity. The most important thing in the context of public relations is the instrumentality of executives in projecting a positive image of the services offered. They should have the potentials to throw a positive imprint on the prospects. It is also significant that they know the art of developing rapport with the media people. 3) Personal selling: The personal selling is found instrumental in promoting the business of service generating organizations. Personal selling is a process of informing the customers besides persuading them to purchase products being influenced by personal communication. It is just a process of communication in which an individual exercises his or her personal potentials, tact, skill and ability to influence the impulse of prospects and to transform them into customers. Personal selling is basically a method of communication. It involves not only individual but the social behavior too; each of the person in face-to-face contact, salesman and prospect influence the other. Thus we find personal selling a personal communication, seller-buyer interaction, inter-personal communication and more so direct selling. The following facts are observed regarding the personal selling: a) It is a direct personal relation between the buyer and seller. b) It is an oral presentation in conservation. c) It is two-way communication. d) It is personal and social behavior. e) It is an exercise for selling the goods and services. f) It is found more effective in the service generating organizations. g) It is based on the professional excellence of an individual. h) It is an important element of the promotion mix. 4) Sales promotion: Marketing activities other than personal selling, advertising and publicity that stimulate customers and dealers effectively, such as display shows, exhibitions, demonstrations and various non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine are the sales promotion measures. Sales promotional activities are devices aimed at reaching the consumer at home or in his business establishment. The tools are generally in the form of samples, contest, demonstrations and coupons. Sales promotion directed at consumers may be done with a view to increase the products rate of use among existing customers or to attract new customers to the companys product. Tools of sales promotion: a) Gift

30

b) Contest c) Discount and commission d) Entertainment e) Travel and tours f) Additional allowance g) Fairs and shows These are some of the tools of sales promotion offered to both, the providers as well as the users. The motivesare increasing the selling activities, touching the target, excelling the competition, increasing the market share, clearing the old products to be declared absolute in the near future. 5) Word-of-mouth promotion: Much communication about the performance of the service generating organizations actually takes place by word-of-mouth information, which is also as word-of-mouth promotion. The word-of-mouth recommendations the hidden sales force make the process of communication effective. The growing sensitivity of the words and experiences of hidden sales force simplify the task of promoting the business. The advertisements, sales promotion measures, the personal selling may of course be effective but the word-of mouth recommendations are found acceptable in all the conditions by almost all the prospects. 6) Telemarketing: Telemarketing is found instrumental in promoting the business. The telemarketing helps in activating the process of advertisement in addition to its instrumentality in increasing the sale. The service generating organizations in general and the banking, insurance, transport, hotel, tourism organizations in particular have been found using telemarketing with the two-fold objectives of selling and advertising. The instrumentality of telephones and televisions are found effective in the process of promoting the business. The instrumentality of telemarketing in persuading the users is substantially influenced by the quality of personnel supposed to discharge the responsibility. The telemarketing minimizes the dependence of service generating organizations on the sales people since just a counter or a center listed in the call numbers serves multi-dimensional purposes. PROMOTION OBJECTIVES 1) Develop personal relation with client 2) Make a strong impression of competency, honesty and sincerity 3) Should be able to use indirect selling techniques (create a derived demand mobile companies give free sim card) 4) Manage to maintain a fine image by positive word of mouth 5) Packing and customization of service offering TARGET AUDIENCE 1) Buyer (or user/influencer/gatekeeper) 2) Employees (discussed in detail under people) PLANNING THE PROMOTION MIX

31

1) Advertisement should have positive effects on contact personnel 2) It should be able to capitalise on word of mouth 3) It should provide tangible clues to the customers 4) It should make the service offering easily understandable 5) It should promise only what is possible to deliver 6) It should contribute to the continuity CONSUMER PROMOTION IN SERVICE MARKETING 1) Sampling is less frequently used compared to Goods (Sampling gives consumer a free trial though now becoming popular) 2) Gift premiums are frequently used to give an element of tangibility 3) Price/quantity promotions can be used to get long term commitments from consumer (frequent flyer programme or group booking in Hotels) 4) Use of coupons are less frequent (coupon with straight price cut OR discount or fees waiver for one or more purchases with original purchase OR Discounts on augmented products like a free wax polish with car wash) 5) Future discounts are less frequent 6) Prize promotions are frequently used (prize for mobile bank use etc) GUIDELINES FOR SELLING SERVICES 1) It is personal relationship rather than the service itself that results in satisfaction 2) Buyers confidence in the sellers ability to deliver the results is important hence make a strong impression of competency, sincerity, and honesty. 3) As what is sold is intangible indirect selling techniques have to be adopted (Hotels selling tour programmes) 4) As word of mouth is important building up a favourable is image is essential. 5) A service provider sells services and not just a single service hence ability to customise the service offering is important (Jain food in Air-lines Hotels etc) 6) Public relations becomes important particularly in industries where advertisement cannot be used as a promotional tool like Hospital industry. PEOPLE MIX INTRODUCTION The employees of an organization represent the organization in the eyes of the customers. If they are not give proper training in representing the organization and its goals the service efforts will fail. Hence the most important marketing strategy is to market the service first to the organizations employees. There are two types of contact personnel HIGH CONTACT PERSONNEL and LOW CONTACT PERSONNEL (eg .in a hospital a nurse is a high contact personnel and ward boy may be a low contact personnel) In addition there can be a NON CONTACT PERSONNEL

SERVICE TRIANGLE

32

When company makes efforts to do external marketing, it should have strategies of Internal marketing. External marketing is nothing but promises made,which needs to be fulfilled this needs internal marketing enabling the comapany to keep up the promises made. Unless the employees are able and willing to deliver, the servicepromises will fail. This will result in proper interaction of thecustomers with the service providers which helps the organization to keep the promises (Interactive marketing) EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, AND PROFITS There is concrete evidence that satisfied employees make more satisfied customers (and satisfied customers can, in turn, reinforce employees sense of satisfaction in their jobs). Some have even gone so far as to suggest that unless service employees are happy in their jobs, customer satisfaction will be difficult to achieve. The underlying logic connecting employee satisfaction and loyalty to customer satisfaction and loyalty and ultimately profits is illustrated by the service profit chain shown in the figure. The service profit chain suggest that there are critical linkages among internal service quality; employee satisfaction; productivity; the value of services provided to the customers; and ultimately customer satisfaction; retention and profits. Service profit chain researchers are careful to point out that the model does not cause customer satisfaction; rather the two are interrelated and feed ff each other. The model does imply that companies that exhibit high levels of success on the elements of the model will be more successful and profitable than those who do not.

33

HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES: Human resources decisions and strategies primary goal is to motivate and enable employees to deliver customer-oriented promises successfully. The strategies presented here are organized around four basic themes. To build a customer-oriented, service-minded workforce, an organization must: 1) Hire the right people 2) Develop people to deliver service quality 3) Provide the needed support systems 4) Retain the best people 1) Hire the right people: One of the best ways to close gap 3 is to start with the right service delivery people from the beginning. This implies that considerable attention should be focused on hiring and recruiting service personnel. a) Compete for the best people: To get the best people, an organization needs to identify them and compete with other organizations to hire them. The firm act as marketers in their pursuit of the best employees, just as they use their marketing expertise to compete for customers. Thinking of recruiting as a marketing activity results in addressing issues of market (employee) segmentation, product (job) design, and promotion of job availability in ways that attract potential long-term employees. b) Hire for service competencies and service inclination: Once potential have been identified, organizations need to be conscientious in interviewing and screening to truly identify the best people from the pool of candidates. It has been suggested that service employees need two complementary capacities: they need both service competencies and service inclination. Service competencies are the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job. Achieving particular degrees and certifications validates competencies, such as attaining a doctor of law degree and passing the relevant state bar examinations for lawyers. Service competencies may not be degree related, but may instead relate to basic intelligence or physical requirements. c) Be the preferred employer:

34

One way to attract the best people is to be known as the preferred employer in a particular industry or in a particular location. Other strategies that support a goal of being the preferred employer include providing extensive training, career and advancement opportunities, excellent internal support and attractive incentives and offering quality goods and services that employees a proud to be associated with. 2) Develop people to deliver service quality: To grow and maintain a workforce that is customer oriented and focused on delivering quality, an organization must develop its employees to deliver service quality. That is, once it has hired the right employees, the organization must train and work with these individuals to ensure service performance. a)Train for technical and interactive skills: To provide quality service, employees need ongoing training in the necessary technical skills and knowledge and in process or interactive skills. Examples of technical skills and knowledge are working with accountingsystems in hotels, cash machine procedures in a retail store, underwriting procedures in an insurance company, and any operational rules the company has for running its business. Most service organizations are quite conscious of and relatively effective at training employees in technical skills. Companies are increasing their use of information technology to train employees in the technical skills and knowledge needed on the job. Service employees also need training in interactive skills that allow them to provide courteous, caring, responsive, and empathetic service. b) Empower employees: Empowerment means giving employees the desire, skills, tools, and authority to serve the customer. While the key to empowerment is giving employees authority to make decisions on the customers behalf, authority alone is not enough. Employees need the knowledge and tools to be able to make these decisions and theyneed incentives that encourage them to make the right decisions. Organizations are well suited to empowerment strategies to ones in which (1) the business strategy is one of differentiation and customization, 2) customers are long-term relationship customers, (3) technology is nonroutine or complex, (4) the business environment is unpredictable, and (5) managers and employees have high growth and social needs and strong interpersonal skills. c) Promote teamwork: The nature of many service jobs suggests that customer satisfaction will be enhanced when employees work as teams. Because service jobs are frequently frustrating, demanding and challenging, a teamwork environment will help to alleviate some of the stresses and strains. Employees who supported and that they have a team backing them up will be better able to maintain enthusiasm and provide quality service. By promoting teamwork an organization can enhance the employees abilities to deliver excellent service while the camaraderie and support enhance their inclination to be excellent service providers.

35

3) Provide need support systems: To be efficient and effective in their jobs, service workers require internal support systems that are aligned with their need to be customer focused. Without customer-focused internal support and customer-oriented systems, it is nearly impossible for employees to deliver quality service no matter how much they want to. In examining customer service outcomes researchers found that internal support from supervisors, teammates, and other departments as well as evaluations of technology used on the job were all strongly related to employee satisfaction and ability to serve customers. a) Measure internal service quality: One way to encourage supportive internal service relationships is to measure and reward internal service. By first acknowledging that everyone in the organization has a customer and then measuring customer perceptions of internal service quality, an organization can begin to develop an internal quality culture. Internal customer service audits and internal service guarantees are two strategies used to implement a culture of internal service quality. Through the audit, internal organizations identify their customers, determine their needs, measure how well they are doing, and make improvements. b) Provide supportive technology and equipment: When employees dont have the right equipment, or their equipment fails, they can be easily frustrated in their desire to deliver quality service. To do their jobs effectively and efficiently, service employees need the right equipment and technology. having the right technology and equipment can extend into strategies regarding workplace and workstation design. c) Develop service-oriented internal processes: To best support service personnel in their delivery of quality service on the front line, an organizations internal processes should be designed with customer value and customer satisfaction in mind. In other words, internal procedures must support quality service performance. In many companies internal processes are driven by bureaucratic rules, tradition, cost efficiencies, or the needs of internal employees. Providing service and customer oriented internal processes can therefore imply a need for total redesign of systems. This kind of wholesale redesign of systems and processes has become known as process reengineering. 4) Retain the best people: An organization that hires the right people, trains and develops them to deliver service quality, and provides the needed support must also work to retain the best ones. Employee turnover, especially when the best service employees are the ones leaving, can be very detrimental to customer satisfaction, employee morale, and overall service quality. Some firms spend lot of time attracting employees but then tend to take them for granted, causing these good employees to search for job alternatives. a) Include employees in the company vision: For employees to remain motivated and interested in sticking with the organization and supporting its goals, they need to share an understanding of

36

the organizations vision. People who deliver service day in and day out need to understand how their work fits into the big picture of the organization and its goals. b) Treat employees as customers: If employees feel valued and their needs are taken care of, they are more likely to stay with the organization. Many companies have adopted the idea that employees are also customers of the organization, and thus basic marketing strategies can be directed at them. The products that the organization has to offer its employees are a job and quality of work life. To determine whether the job and work life needs of employees are being met, organizations conduct periodic internal marketing research to assess employee satisfaction and needs. c) Measure and reward strong service performers: If a company wants the strongest service performers to stay with the organization, it must reward and promote them. Often the reward systems in organizations are not set up to reward service excellence. Reward systems may value productivity, sales or some other dimension that can potentially work against good service. Reward systems need to be linked to the organizations vision and to outcomes that are truly important. 6.6.5 IMPORTANCE OF EMPOWERING PEOPLE IN SERVICES An organization that emphasizes customer service needs people at the frontline to do the service, to use discretions be concerned about the customer, to take initiative to provide satisfaction through exceptional service. The person at the front must fell empowered to do in the circumstances. Empowering cannot be done through a formal delegation of authority. A person with authority may not exercise that authority, if he does not feel empowered. Example A peon who takes responsibility to direct the fireman in a burning office to areas housing the most important documents is acting without formal authority. He feels empowered to do so, meaning that feels a sense of dedication to the organization, that he feels it is his duty to save the organization as much as possible , that he is doing the right thing . Following are the importance of empowering the people in services:1) An empowered employee focuses on results. He is not inhabitant by formalities of position , authorityor function . 2) He does not consider himself bound by rules and procedure. 3) He believes that the organization expects him to be aware of the ends to be achieved and to act in furtherance thereof. He sees constraints but not does not feel prevented thereby , from what is to be done , instead he tries to overcome the constraints. 4) He believes that the organization will not find fault with him for having one something new and nusual. On the contrary, he believes that the organisation will applaud him for having done something that had to be done.

37

5) He believes that he is expected to take the initiative and ensure that the customer needs are met and thereby maintain and enhance the reputation of the organization. 6) He feels that he is dedicating to satisfy the customer to upgrade organization reputation 7) An empowered employee may be willing to challenge company policies at meetings with sensors. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE MIX THE EVIDENCE OF SERVICE As services are intangible, the customers are searching for evidence of service in every interaction they have with an organization. The figure depicts the three major categories of evidence as experienced by the customer: people, process, and physical evidence. These categories together represent the service and provide the evidence that tangibilizes the offering. The new mix elements essentially are evidence of service in each moment of truth.

All of these evidence elements, or a subset of them are present in every service encounter a customer has with a service firm and are critically important in managing service encounter quality and creating customer satisfaction. When a guest enters the hotel for a stay the first encounter of the guest is the door attendant and frequently with receptionists at the reception. The quality

38

of that encounter will be judged by how the registration process works (How long is to wait? Is the registration system computerized and accurate?) The actions and attitudes of the people (Is the receptionist courteous, helpful, knowledgeable? Does she handle the enquiries fairly and efficiently?) and the physical evidence of the service (is the awaiting area clean and comfortable). The three types of evidence may be differentially important depending on the type of service encounter (remote, phone, face to face). All these types will operate in face to- face service encounters as in the one just described. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE It is the environment in which the service is delivered and where the firm and customer interact, and any tangible components that facilitate performance or communication of service. It includes all tangible representations of the service-such as brouchers, letter head, equipment etc. in somecases the physical facilities where service is offered is important e.g., in a hotel the parking lot, surroundings are important. In other services such as telecommunication the physical facilities may be irrelevant. In this case other tangibles like billing statements become important. Physical evidence includes (A) Physical facilities (essentials and peripherals) (B) Physical setting (appearance of premises) (C) Social setting (appearance of staff) The decision on the physical evidence will differ in terms of customeremployee interaction. At one end is self-service of customer without any interaction with employee (ATM) where physical facilities must be to attract customer and user friendly. At other end employee performs without any interaction (mail order business) here physical evidence is designed to promote operational efficiency. Between the two extremes is a situation where both customer and employee interact. In this case physical evidence must be planned to facilitate the activities of both. (E.g., Banks, Airlines). Certain service environments are simple requiring very little space or equipment (ATM, Vending machine). They are called lean environment. Others like hospitals, hotels are elaborate environment where proper planning is needed. (a) Physical facilities: The potential customers form impression about the service organization on the basis of physical evidence like building, furniture etc., Essential Evidence: They are dominant features like building area, parking space, signboards. Peripheral Evidence: They are less dominant like admission card, medical reports, etc. (b) Consist of service environment Ambient factors (light, colour, temperature) Space (spatial layout and functionality- i.e., ability of equipment and furniture to accomplish interactions)

39

Decor and artefacts (c) Social setting: Employee uniform, appearance etc. of service scape can influence customer expectation,satisfaction and other behavior. In shopping mall soft music is played/crossroads had hired separate parking space.

Bitner identifies Physical Facilities and Environment as SERVICE SCAPES However too much decor may make customers feel that they are paying for the expensive dcor. Employees however feel that an investment in environments is an indication of managements concern for their job satisfaction. Hence the challenge is to strike a balance. MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY To compete successfully a firm must define how the customers perceive the service quality and in what way the service quality is influenced. The quality can be of seen from two angles (1) Technical quality (What is delivered) (2) Functional quality (How it is delivered). When a customer comes to the service provider he comes with some expected quality. When he takes the service he experiences a service quality this is his perceived quality. PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY Customer service is about perception. Perceptions are judgment of the consumers about the actual service performance or delivery by a company. Since service are intangible, customers search for the evidence of quality in every interaction they have with a service firm. The evidence of service that are experience by the customer are people, process and physical evidence. People contact employees, other customers or the customer himself. Dimensions reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness. Process operational flow of activities. Dimensions reliability and promptness of service. Physical evidence tangible aspect of service. Apart from these the corporate image of the service provider as well as the service can also influence the perceived quality. While comparing the expected and perceived service quality the following may be the outcome. 1). Perceive quality > expected quality. Result = delighted customer. 2). Perceive quality = expected quality. Result = satisfied customer. 3). Perceive quality < expected quality. Dissatisfied customer. A very important factor in important service quality is to always keep promises and not guarantee which the firm cannot deliver

40

ZONE OF TOLERANCE The services provided are varying between organizations, between employees and even with in employees at different times. The extent to which the customers recognize and are willing to accept this variation is called as zone of tolerance. If the service levels fall below this level, customers will be frustrated. Different customers possess different zones of tolerance Zones of tolerance vary for different dimensions fo service Zones of tolerance vary for first time and recovery service QUALITY GAPS To manage the perceived quality of a service one has to match the expected service and perceived service to each other so that consumer satisfaction is achieved. To keep the gap between expected service minimal, two things are critical: The promises about how the service will perform given by traditional marketing activities and communicated by word-of-mouth, must not be unrealistic when compared to service received by the customer. Managers have to understand how the technical and functional quality of a service is influenced and how the customers perceive these quality dimensions. In order to develop greater understanding of the nature of service quality and how it is achieved in an organization, A Gap Model Of Service Quality was developed. The model clearly indicated that the

41

consumers quality perceptions are influenced by a series of five distinct gaps occurring in the organizations, which are as follows: Gap1 (Marketing Information Gap) : Difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions of consumer expectations arising due to inadequate or inaccurate management understanding of customers service expectations Gap2 (Standard gaps) : Difference between management perceptions of consumer expectations and service quality specifications arising due to Managements failure to develop performance specifications reflecting customers expectations. Gap3 (Service Performance Gap) : Difference between service quality specifications and the service actually delivered. Gap4 (Communication Gap) : Difference between service delivery and what is communicated about the service to consumers resulting in discrepancy between communications to customers describing the service and the service actually delivered. Gap5: Difference between the perceived service and expected service. This gap depends on the size and direction of the first four gaps associated with the delivery of service quality. These Gaps develop due to the following reasons GAP 1 : Lack of adequate market research Lack of upward communication between front line staff and Management Lack of interaction with the customers Lack of segmentation to identify specific needs of the customers GAP 2 : Lack of commitment from Management (they may perceive that customer expectations are unreasonable) Lack of Goal setting Lack of resources GAP 3 : Ineffective recruitment Role ambiguity Lack of training/incentives to perform to the staff Lack of training to customer on use of service and their roles Lack of pre-testing when new procedures are introduced Lack of understanding of customer habits how they prefer to consume a service (a customer may prefer a slow delivery of food in an exclusive restaurant compared to an Udipi restaurant) GAP 4 : Exaggerated promises Ineffective communication Lack of Horizontal communications with in the organization

42

GAP 5 Too much of Gaps (1 to 4) To close the gaps the following things should be implemented: 1. Develop customer trust through long-term strategy rather than a snip-shot superficial programme. 2. Understand customers habits on how they prefer to consume a service. eg., a customer wouldprefer extended hours for a meal in a exclusive restaurant. 3. Pre-test new procedures and equipments before introducing them. The failure of a productivity improvement programme is more damaging than otherwise, e.g., when Indian Airlines introduced computerized reservation system to improve its service, it found that at most places the system remained down most of the time. It created more confusion, both among customers and employees, and proved to be countered productive. 4. Understand the determinants of consumer behaviour in terms of their choice; by force or by any other external forces, e.g., shopping behaviour is not even throughout the month. It changes between the first weeks to the fourth week of the month; it changes between weekdays and weekends. 5. Teach consumers how to use service innovationsmost people dont know how to go about treatment in government hospitalsthere is a need to make people aware of how to go about from registration to appointment to checkup and treatment, in the same way as traffic routes at India Gate or Connaught Place are notified through press and television before introducing them. 6. Promote the benefits and stimulate trial. The success in innovation lies in encouraging trial by making the benefit obvious. 7. Monitor and evaluate performance. One can learn from experiencegood or bad. As one goes along introducing changes, corrective measures should also be taken simultaneously. These measures should be restricted to redesign of facilities and procedures or extending to educating, communicating and promoting the efforts.

43

THE 5 DIMENSIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY ARE AS FOLLOWS On Which Customers Judge The Service Quality Reliability: means the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. In other words reliability means that the company delivers on its promises promises about delivery, service provisions, problem resolution, and pricing. For example, FedEx, this company effectively communicates and delivers on the reliability dimension. Responsiveness: is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. This dimension emphasizes on attentiveness and promptness in dealing with customers request, questions, complaints and problems. Responsiveness also captures the notion of flexibility and ability to customize the service to the customers needs. Assurance: is defined as employees knowledge and courtesy and the ability of the firm and its employees to inspire trust and confidence. This dimension is likely to be particularly important for service for services that the customer perceives as involving high risk and / or about which they feel uncertain about their ability to evaluate outcomes. For examples, banking, insurance, brokerage, etc. Empathy: is defined as carrying individualized attention the firm provides its customers. The essence of empathy is conveying through personalized or customized service, the customers are unique and special. Customers want to feel understood by and important to that provide service to them. For example, personnel at small firm know customers by name and build relationships that reflect their personal knowledge of customers requirements

44

and preferences. When such a small firm competes with large firms, the ability to be empathetic may give the small firm a clear advantage. Tangible: tangibles are defined as the appearance of physical facilities, equipments, personnel and communication materials. All of these provide physical representations or images of the service that customers particularly new customers, will use to evaluate quality. Although tangibles are used by Service Companys to enhance their image, provide continuity, and signal quality to consumers, most company combine tangibles with another dimension to create a service quality strategy for the firm. Examples of how customers judge the 5 dimensions of service quality: Car repair (consumers): 1. Reliability: problem fixed the 1st time and ready when promised. 2. Responsiveness: accessible, no waiting, respond to request. 3. Assurance: knowledgeable mechanics. 4. Empathy: acknowledges customers by name, remembers previous problem and preferences. 5. Tangibles: repair facility, waiting areas, uniform, and equipments. Airlines (consumers): 1. Reliability: flights to promise destination, depart and arrives on time. 2. Responsiveness: prompt and speedy system of ticketing, in flight baggage handling. 3. Assurance: trusted name, good safety records & competent employees. 4. Empathy: understanding of special individual needs, anticipates consumer needs. 5. Tangibles: aircraft, ticketing counters, uniforms, and baggage areas. Medical care (consumer): 1. Reliability: appointments are kept on schedule diagnoses prove accurate. 2. Responsiveness: accessible, no waiting, willingness to listen. 3. Assurance: knowledge, skills, credentials, and reputation. 4. Empathy: acknowledges patients as a person, remembers previous problems, good listening, and patients. 5. Tangibles: waiting room, exam rooms, and equipment, written materials. Architecture (business): 1. Reliability: delivers plans when promised and within budget. 2. Responsiveness: returns, phone calls, adapt to change. 3. Assurance: credential, reputation, and name of the community, knowledge and skills. 4. Empathy: understanding clients industry acknowledges and adapts to specific clients needs, gets to know the client. 5. Tangibles: office areas, report, plan themselves, billing statement, dress of the employees. Information processing (internal): 1. Reliability: provides needed information whenever requested. 2. Responsiveness: prompt response to request not bureaucratic deals with problems promptly.

45

3. Assurance: knowledgeable staff, well trained, credentials. 4. Empathy: knows internal customers as individuals and departmental needs. 5. Tangibles: internal reports, office areas, and dress of employees. Internal brokerage (consumer and business): 1. Reliability: provides correct information and executes customers requests accurately. 2. Responsiveness: quick website with easy access and no down time. 3. Assurance: credible information sources on the site, brand recognition credential apparent on site. 4. Empathy: ability to respond with human interaction as needed. 5. Tangibles: appearance of the website and collateral.

BENCHMARKING OF SERVICES Benchmarking means measuring the performance of a business against that of the competitors in order to establish best practice. Benchmarking is a part of process of continuous improvement. Benchmarking can be applied at three levels: 1. Internal Benchmarking. 2. Competitive Benchmarking. 3. Functional or Generic Benchmarking. Internal Benchmarking: Internal Benchmarking is normally carried by large organization by way of comparison between operation units. For e.g.. Super market chain might benchmark operations across stores, financial across branches, different colleges under the same authority. But important thing is how performance is measured &this is clear link to the strategy of organization. Competitive Benchmarking: At a second level competitive Benchmarking can be used. This is probably the most frequently use where comparisons are made with directly competitive organization. Customer participation is necessary because of which it will be easy to achieve in some service environments. For e.g: As a hotel owner, it is possible to sample the service to competitor simply by posing the guest. Often however, this is done in informal manner. A comparative impression gained of the service without examining the different facets in a structured way & attempting to measure them. Functional or Generic Benchmarking: The third approach is Functional or Generic Benchmarking, which compares specific functions such as distribution and after sale service. The advantage here is that information is sometime easier to obtain than when comparison are being made with competitors. Care has to be taken in selecting the dimension & sales to be used for performance measuring and ensuring that due account is taken of all relevant factors.