SERVICES MARKETING

Managing People
In providing services to customers, three basic assumptions are;
a. Customer expectations are well understood by the service
providers (GAP 1)
b. The services are well studied and are designed and specified to
confirm to the expectations of the customers (GAP 2)
c. When the service is not delivered as specified in terms of
quality as explained by the provider or understood by the
customer (GAP 3)
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
These all could be due to either the employees not
understanding the requirements of the customers, not
explained properly by the service provider or variations in the
performance of the employees.
The various factors may be due to;
1. Improper recruitment of the employees
2. Roles and responsibility not clear to the employees
3. Conflicts between the employees and the contact person
4. Poor training of the employees
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
5. Poor technology at the time of providing the services
6. Poor compensation to the employees of the service
provider
7. Lack of team work between the employees providing
services
8. Poor empowerment to the employees to settle the issues
at the time of dispute
SERVICES MARKETING
The Services Marketing triangle
















Company (Mngt)
Employees
Customers
Internal
Marketing

Enabling
promises
External
Marketing

Setting
promises
Interactive Marketing

Delivering promises
Managing People
SERVICES MARKETING
Use of Service Marketing Triangle










Overall Strategic Assessment

How is the service
organization doing on all
three sides of the
triangle?
Where are the
weaknesses?
What are the strengths?
Specific Service Implementation

What is being promoted and by
whom?
How will it be delivered and by
whom?
Are the supporting systems in
place to deliver the promised
service?

Managing People
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
All three sides of the triangle are essential to complete the
process successfully, since what is promised through external
marketing should be the same as what is being delivered.
The internal marketing are the activities inside the organisation
aligned with the expectations and preparation (training
strategies) of the suppliers.
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
Role of Employees in Service Industry
Employees satisfaction, Customer satisfaction and Profits
In service marketing therefore the basic criteria would be the
satisfaction of the employees providing the services which in turn
will satisfy or rather delight the customers to increase profitability of
the organisation
Internal
Service
Quality
Employees

Satisfaction
Employee
Retention
Employee
Productivity
External
Service
Value
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Loyalty
Revenue Growth
Profitability
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
Service Quality driven by Employee Behaviours
The five dimensions of service quality are;
1. Reliability
2. Responsiveness
3. Assurance
4. Empathy and
5. Tangibles
All these dimensions can be influenced by the service
employees
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
Boundary Spanning Roles
Are the roles played by the front line employees e.g. front desk
employees in hotels/receptionist, telephone operators, vehicle
drivers, delivery people and in many cases the security staff
These people must be well trained as also they are educated
enough to deal with the customers specifically when an odd
situation happens to be faced by these fellows
They should essentially be smiling, make eye contact with the
customers, show sincere efforts and must talk friendly with the
customers
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
Conflicts
Though companies providing services give training to
employees to avoid conflicts, but it is very difficult to avoid
it totally. The conflicts could be;
1. Person/Role conflict
2. Organisation Vs customer
3. Customer Vs customer
4. Quality Vs productivity
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
Gap 3
Let us now talk of GAP 3, which says When the service is not
delivered as specified in terms of quality as explained by the
provider or understood by the customer and the role of
employee and the employer is very important
To avoid such situation the organisation should;
1. Hire right people
o Hire only good, educated and competent people. The
organisation should thrive to become a Preferred
Employer
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
2. Develop people to deliver quality service
o Give good and continuous training, empower them to
take decisions on the spot so that conflicts do not
arise
3. Provide needed support systems
o Continuously measure performance of service levels
and provide, whenever or wherever, additional or new
system is required. This will help employees gain
confidence and provide a better service
SERVICES MARKETING
Managing People
4. Retain best people
o Treat employees as customers
o Include them into management/decision making
teams. They will accept decisions made by them and
not just imposed on them
o Reward better/best people, let those who under-
perform know that they are not upto the expectations
5. Develop an organisational culture
o It takes time to develop an organisational culture
o Start with a strong service and customer focus
o These will vary from state to state