Services

The 4 characteristics of services:

Intangibility - need to make the service tangible in the mind of the customer. This can be done in branding, testimonials, previous relationships.

Heterogeneity - performance consistency is an issue. It depends on the interaction between the service provider and the customer - eg employee having good day gives better service. Therefore things can go wrong and need to have a recovery mechanism in place eg. service guarantee - money back if does not arrive in 30 mintues.. Technology has had an impact on this as it allows consistency - when you log on it is always the same computers do not "BHD" (bad hair day).

Inseparability - simultaneous production/consumption. The service is conducted face to face. Technology had a great impact on this as you do not have to line up on the internet to do banking.

Perishability - there is no shelf life for services. This means that there will be discrimination in price. Will sell plane tickets for lower price at last minute to fill the seat because the flight will be made whether all seats are sold or not and it is better to have "BIS" (bums in seats).

Services Marketing Triangle

If one side of the triangle is changed it means that all the sides of the triangle will need to be changed.

Blueprinting

These can show you how each step is making a contribution to the whole service. If there is a step that is not adding value it may be removed. It can be used to diagnose problem areas, therefore recovery strategies can be created for these eventualities. May be used as a learning tool as well as a chance to initiate "clues/scripts" that front-line staff can use. It can also be used for resource requirement analysis. It allows management to know exactly