Service marketing

Service marketing

1. The gap model

   • When there is a gap between reality and expectation there is a zone of tolerance
     • Above leads to delight (loyalty) and below is dissatisfaction
     • Expectations come from friends, word of mouth, past experiences, implicit/explicit promises, perceived alternatives

2. Service- an activity that can be offered which is intangible that does not result in the ownership of anything

   • Not complicated enough
   • People are more time poor, making things easier helps
   • Customer buy value, not things, solutions to problems

3. Myths of servicing marketing

   • Services are intangiable
     • Often have tangiable results
   • Variability- services cannot be standardised, places have tried e.g. McDonalds
   • Inseparability
     • Simultaneously produced and consumer
       • Physical goods can also require customer involvement
   • Perishability
     • services cannot be produced ahead of time- isn't this the case for physical goods

4. 7 P's to 7 C's

   • Price to cost
   • Place to convenience
   • Process to connection
   • Physical evidence to credibility
   • Promotion to communication
   • Product to customer
     • Don't focus on the product, but customer needs
       • Marketing myopia- Levitt, focusing on products and not needs
   • People to customer service

5. SERVQUAL

   • Measures consumer perceptions of quality
     • Dimensions of service quality
       • Reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangiables
     • Where things go wrong...
       • Managers may make incorrect assumptions about customer expectations
       • Unforseen problems or human error
       • Poor comms- heightened expectations
   • Gaps
     • Knowledge- learn what customers expect
     • Standards- set goals
     • Delivery- ensure performance meets standards
     • Internal communications- educate managers, be consistent, seek input from employees
     • Perceptions gap- consistent environment, inform customers
     • Interpretation- manage customers and be specific with promises