MODULE-1

What is services marketing?

Services marketing is a form of marketing that businesses that provide a service to

their customers use to increase brand awareness and sales. Unlike product
marketing, services marketing focuses on advertising intangible transactions that
provide value to customers. Advertisers use effective services marketing strategies
to build trust with their customers and show them how their service can benefit
them. Businesses may base their services marketing strategies on the promotion
of ideas, benefits and promises to help them sell their services.

Characteristices of service marketing

1.. Service is a performance:
While products are produced, services are performed. In most cases, services are
totally unconnected to any physical product.
2. Services do not involve any ownership transfer:
Usually, a service does not result in the ownership of anything. In other words,
unlike in product marketing, there is no title/ ownership transfer. Another
outcome of simultaneous production and consumption is that service producers
find themselves playing a role as part of the product itself and as an essential
ingredient in the service experience for the consumer.
3. Intangibility:
Unlike physical products, services are intangible; they cannot be seen, touched, or
smelt. Also, the consumer cannot sample a service in advance. Accordingly, it
becomes difficult for the consumer to judge a service before it is bought; he
cannot know its exact outcome in advance
4. Inseparability:
Inseparability is the next unique feature of services. Services cannot be separated
from the service providers. A product when produced can be taken away from the
producer. However a service is produced at or near the point of purchase.
5. Variability: Services are also marked by variability or heterogeneity. This is so
because of three reasons- First, inseparability of the service from the provider
leads to some variability. Second, services are highly people sensitive. Third, in
services, the effect varies depending on when and where the service is provided.
6. Perishability: Services are perishable as well. They cannot be stored. This is so
because of the fact that services are produced and consumed simultaneously.
There is no inventory in case of a service. Services last a specific time and cannot
be stored like a product for later use. If traveling by train, coach or air the service
will only last the duration of the journey. The service is developed and used almost
simultaneously.

Classification of services
lassification of services can be done on the basis of two points. These two points
or factors, are further sub divided into 2 further variables. All in all, service
classification considers four types of people or objects.

1) Classification of service based on tangible action

Wherever people or products are involved directly, the service classification can be
done based on tangibility.

a) Services for people – Like Health care, restaurants and saloons, where the
service is delivered by people to people.

b) Services for goods – Like transportation, repair and maintenance and others.
Where services are given by people for objects or goods.
2) Classification of services based on intangibility

There are objects in this world which cannot be tangibly quantified. For example –
the number of algorithms it takes to execute your banking order correctly, or the
value of your life which is forecasted by insurance agents. These services are
classified on the basis of intangibility.

a) Services directed at people’s mind – Services sold through influencing the

creativity of humans are classified on the basis of intangibility.

b) Services directed at intangible assets – Banking, legal services, and insurance

services are some of the services most difficult to price and quantify.

The most intangible form of service output is represented by information

processing. The customer’s involvement in this type is service is not required.
Generally, customers have a personal desire to meet face to face but there is no
actual need in terms of the operational process. Consultancy services can be an
example of this type of services where the relationship can be built or sustained on
trust or telephone contact. However, it is more indicated to have a face-to-face
relationship in order to fully understand the needs of the customer.

A more general classification of services based on the type of function that is

provided through them can be as follows:

1. Business services. 4. Distribution services.

2. Communication services. 5. Educational services.
3. Construction and related 6. Environmental services.
engineering services. 7. Financial services.
8. Health-related and social services. 11. Transport services.
9. Tourism and travel-related services. 12. Other services not included
10. Recreational, cultural, and elsewhere
sporting services.

Goods vs Service Marketing

Goods Marketing

The entire process, right from the market analysis, to delivering goods to the
customer and receiving feedback, is called goods marketing. The process is aimed
at finding out the right market for its goods and its placement in such a way that it
gets good customer response. It entails promotion and sale of a goods to its target
audience, i.e. prospective and existing buyers.

Various activities involved in the goods marketing involves analysis of the market,
identification of consumer demand, designing and development of product,
pricing, pitching of a new product, communicating, advertising, positioning,
distributing, selling, review and feedback.

Service Marketing

When a person or business entity promotes services it offers to its customers or

clients, it is known as service marketing. It is aimed at providing solutions to the
problems or difficulties of the clients. It includes both business-to-business (B2B)
and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.

A service is an act of performing something for someone in exchange for adequate

consideration. It is intangible, consumed at the time of its production, can’t be
inventoried and resold. Each service offering is unique in itself because it cannot
be repeated exactly alike, even if the service is rendered by the same person.
 Goods Marketing Service Marketing
Service marketing implies
Goods marketing refers to the process
the marketing of economic
in which the marketing activities are
Meaning activities, offered by the
aligned to promote and sell a specific
business to its clients for
goods for a particular segment.
adequate consideration.
Marketing mix 4 P’s 7 P’s
Sells Value Relationship
Who comes to Customers come to
Products come to customers.
whom? service.
It is neither owned nor
It can be owned and resold to another
Transfer transferred to another
party.
party.
Services cannot be
Returnability Products can be returned. returned after they are
rendered.
They are tangible, so customer can see They are intangible, so it is
Tangibility and touch it, before coming to the difficult to promote
buying decision. services.
Service cannot be
Goods and the company producing it,
Separability separated from its
are separable.
provider.
Services vary from person
Products cannot be customized as per
Customization to person, they can be
requirements.
customized.
They are non-imagery and
They are imagery and hence, receive
Imagery do not receive quick
quick response from customers.
response from customers.
Comparison Quality of a goods can be Quality of service is not
Quality
easily measured. measurable.

Service Marketing Mix – 7 P’s of marketing

The service marketing mix is also known as an extended marketing mix and is an
integral part of a service blueprint design. The service marketing mix consists of 7
P’s as compared to the 4 P’s of a product marketing mix. Simply said, the service
marketing mix assumes the service as a product itself. However it adds 3 more P’s
which are required for optimum service delivery.
The extended service marketing mix places 3 further P’s which include People,
Process and Physical evidence. All of these factors are necessary for optimum
service delivery. Let us discuss the same in further detail.

1.Product
A product is something which satisfies the needs and wants of the customer. It is
the actual item which is held for sale in the market. Product mix constitutes the
combination of all the services for sale in the market.For example, the product mix
of a saloon will be the combination haircut service, manicure and pedicure service,
facial, shaving etc.The life cycle of services is same as that of a product as it starts
from the day it was first thought until the time it is finally removed from the
market.
2.Price
Price is the amount which the customer pays for the product. But unlike goods
pricing, pricing of services are a bit different and a bit difficult. Price of a service
include the actual costs of goods used (if any), process costs (labour costs +
overheads) and profits.
Just like goods, businesses can decide from one of these practices for pricing
 Penetration Pricing (low price kept to capture market share)
 Skimming Pricing (high price initially then lowering of price)
 Competition Pricing (pricing at par of competition)
Pricing decides the position of the product among the competition.
3.Place
Place mix is deciding where and how the services will be available to the
customers at the right time and at the right place to result in maximum advantage
to the business.Unlike goods, services cannot be separated from its provider and
are provided where its provider is. But the same services can be performed by
different providers. For example, a different franchise of the same salon provides
same services.
4.Promotion
A business has to convey about its offering and its USP to the customer. It is what
keeps it alive in this competitive environment. The promotion mix decides the
marketing communication techniques, strategies, and mediums used. The medium
includes:
 Advertising  Public Relations
 Branding  Direct Marketing, and
 Personal Selling  Social Media Outreach
 Sales Promotion
5.People
Services are inseparable from the provider. These providers form the people of the
service marketing mix. For example, the chef in the restaurant, a banker in the
bank, an air hostess in the flight, etc.Companies spend much time in selecting and
training their staff and every other person who represents the company to the
customer.
6.Physical Evidence
Services are intangible. But they are often provided along with many tangible
elements. Physical evidence includes the environment/place where the service is
provided and any tangible elements that facilitate the performance or
communication of the service. It’s the tangible part which is more or less
complementary to the service
7.ProcessThe actual mechanism involved in delivering a service is the process. It’s
the route of the actual product from the provider to the user. Since services are
diverse, processes involved in carrying out those services are also diverse. Process
can be involved in planning and/or in the execution. But it is always involved in
carrying out a service.Process results in uniformity. Hence process is an essential of
the services marketing mix
Services Marketing Triangle

The services marketing triangle was created to handle the complexity that service
marketers face when dealing with intangible products. The service marketing
triangle highlights three key players, these are;
 Company: The management of a company, including full-time marketers and
sales personnel. This is enabled through continuous development and internal
marketing with their employees.
 Employees: This includes anyone that is working within close contact of the
consumer. They play an integral role within the interactive marketing of service
marketing.
 Customers: Anyone that purchases the service of a company. They are also
heavily exposed to the external marketing of a firm.
For marketing to be successful, a marketer should ensure that there is positive
interaction between these three players. Furthermore, for this success to be
accomplished, three types of marketing must be conducted. These are
 External Marketing — Making Promises: Involves communication by a company
towards their consumer. This form of communication allows the company to
offer their services, and set the expectation of service quality that the client can
expect. In service marketing this pays particular attention to physical evidence,
such as the appearance of the place of business or appearance of staff.
 Interactive Marketing — Keeping Promises: Interactive marketing is revolved
around the communication that occurs between the client and the service
 delivery personnel. This is one of the most important parts of successfully
utilising the services marketing triangle, as it is the only time that the client will
have face-to-face experience with the company, via the providers.
 Internal Marketing — Enabling Promises: A more modern addition to the
services marketing triangle, internal marketing centres on training employees to
the highest standards so they can deliver exceptional service. Without internal
marketing, there is a high chance that the client will receive sub-standard
service.
For the service marketing triangle to be implemented successfully, all departments
of a company must work together to deliver the highest quality of service that is
possible. All members of an organisation must be conscious of their role in
delivering service quality, and understand what their marketing function is.
Furthermore, the advancements in technology are having a huge impact on service
quality and marketing frameworks. This is because the changes in technology are
allowing companies to communicate with customers in a non-physical
environment, such as through the internet. This is transforming the services
marketing triangle into a services marketing pyramid, as all three factors can be
bought together through the clever use of technology
One of the most significant downfalls to the service marketing triangle is that firms
often do not implement it as a triangle. Instead they will focus on one point of the
triangle, and neglect the others. This is particularly true to internal marketing, as
many organisations believe that if employees are treating correctly, then it will
naturally pass through into the external environment. However, the fact that all
three points are woven together, and influence by each other, does present
opportunities’ for organisations to conduct their marketing efficiently and at a
cheap cost.
Growth of service sector in indian economy
Some of the developments in the services sector in the recent past are as follows:

 In October 2021, India’s service exports increased by 23.52% to reach US$ 20.86
billion, while imports stood at US$ 12.71 billion.
 In June 2021, India's exports increased by 48.34% to US$ 32.5 billion, marking
the seventh consecutive month of growth.
 The Indian services sector was the largest recipient of FDI inflows worth US$
88.95 billion between April 2000 and June 2021. The services category ranked
1st in FDI inflow as per data released by the Department for Promotion of
Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
 In the first-half of 2021, private equity investments in India stood at US$ 11.82
billion, as compared with US$ 5.43 billion in the same period last year.
 In August 2021, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a letter of
intent (LoI) to OneWeb (backed by Bharti Group) for satellite communication
services licence.
 In July 2021, Tata Teleservices collaborated with Zoom Video Communications
to offer bundled communication services.
 In April 2021, the Ministry of Education (MoE) and University Grants
Commission (UGC) started a series of online interactions with stakeholders to
streamline forms and processes to reduce compliance burden in the higher
education sector, as a follow-up to the government’s focus on ease of doing
business to enable ease of living for stakeholders.
 By October 2021, the Health Ministry’s eSanjeevani telemedicine service,
crossed 14 million (1.4 crore) teleconsultations since its launch, enabling
patient-to-doctor consultations, from the confines of their home, and doctor-
to-doctor consultations.
 In April 2021, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has started accepting pre-orders for the beta
version of its Starlink satellite internet service in India for a fully refundable
deposit of US$ 99. Currently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is
screening the move and more developments will be unveiled soon.
 In December 2020, a cohort of six health-tech start-ups—AarogyaAI,
BrainSightAI, Fluid AI, InMed Prognostics, Wellthy Therapeutics, and Onward
Assist—have been selected by the India Edison Accelerator, fuelled by GE
Healthcare. India Edison Accelerator, the company's first start-up partnership
programme focused on Indian mentors, creates strategic partners to co-develop
healthcare solutions.
 The Indian healthcare industry is expected to shift digitally enabled remote
consultations via teleconsultation. The telemedicine market in India is expected
to increase at a CAGR of 31% from 2020 to 2025.
 In December 2020, Gamma Skills Automation Training introduced a unique
robotics & automation career launch programme for engineers, an ‘Industry 4.0
Hands-on Skill Learning Centre’ located at IMT Manesar, Gurgaon in Haryana.
 In December 2020, the 'IGnITE’ programme was initiated by Siemens, BMZ and
MSDE to encourage high-quality training and technical education. 'IGnITE' aims
to develop highly trained technicians, with an emphasis on getting them ready
for the industry and future, based on the German Dual Vocational Educational
Training (DVET) model. By 2024, this programme aims to upskill ~40,000
employees.
 In October 2020, Bharti Airtel entered cloud communications market with the
launch of business-centric ‘Airtel IQ’.

Characteristices of service sector industry

Some of the important characteristics of services are as follows: 1. Perishability 2.
Fluctuating Demand 3. Intangibility 4. Inseparability 5. Heterogeneity 6. Pricing of
Services 7. Service quality is not statistically measurable.
1. Perishability:-Service is highly perishable and time element has great
significance in service marketing.Service if not used in time is lost forever. Service
cannot stored.
2. Fluctuating Demand:-Service demand has high degree of fluctuations. The
changes in demand can be seasonal or by weeks, days or even hours. Most of the
services have peak demand in peak hours, normal demand and low demand on
off-period time.
3. Intangibility:-Unlike product, service cannot be touched or sensed, tested or felt
before they are availed. A service is an abstract phenomenon.
4. Inseparability:-Personal service cannot be separated from the individual and
some personalised services are created and consumed simultaneously.
5. Heterogeneity:
The features of service by a provider cannot be uniform or standardised. A Doctor
can charge much higher fee to a rich client and take much low from a poor patient.
6. Pricing of Services:-Pricing decision about services are influenced by
perishability, fluctuation in demand and inseparability. Quality of a service cannot
be carefully standardised. Pricing of services is dependent on demand and
competition where variable pricing may be used.
7. Service quality is not statistically measurable:-It is defined in form of reliability,
responsiveness, empathy and assurance all of which are in control of employee’s
direction interacting with customers. For service, customers satisfaction and
delight are very important. Employees directly interacting with customers are to
be very special and important. People include internal marketing, external
marketing and interactive marketing

10 Trends identified in the Service Sector in 21st Century

1. Personalization: The new service marketers are designing marketing strategies
that favors engagement of human in delivering a service in order to build
relationship factor. However, with increasing use of technology the human
factor is placed less importance. Marketers are promoting use of internet
transaction like online banking, online check in that reduced human
engagement and flavors standardization of service delivery process.
2. Understanding of Customer Expectation: With increasing use of research on
consumer behavior, marketers are able to measure customer expectation and
try designing services that will fulfill consumer perceived value. Also, with
increasing use of consumer database with tools like credits card, loyalty cards
 etc. Marketers are successfully able to analyse the buying behavior of
consumers and are able to design targeted campaigns based on the behavioral
study.
3. Credibility: Marketers are emphasizing on positioning themselves as
organisation that effectively deliver brand promise by focusing on creating
Emotional selling proposition rather than Unique Selling proposition.
Companies are employing combination of above the line and below the line
techniques. It’s been observed that modern are favor branding and public
relation opposed to pay advertising.
4. Simplification: Trends towards decreasing consumer complexity and increasing
consumer knowledge. New cyber channels are being used as info-mediaries to
provide consumer with quick and convenient information and access to service
provider. Most of the marketers are designing marketing tools like website
highly interactive and engaging that allows the consumer to consume services
in easy, comfortable and convenient way.
5. Internationalization: Trend towards the dominance of global service brands
operating in service sector. This is mainly because giant companies are able to
invest in advancing technology to serve burgeoning customer needs. They are
able employ advanced CRM tools that can help marketing and promoting their
brands to consumers.
6. Bundling: Trend towards aggregating a physical good or other service with basic
service offering. This strategy is commonly being adopted in order to develop
physical evidence. Also, it helps in reducing the impact of fundamental
characteristic of intangibility in marketing services consumer.
7. Rationing: Marketers are putting strong efforts to maximize per output in
provision of service to meet the challenge of high return on investment.
Marketers are challenged on presenting profit impact of marketing strategy
(PIMS). The marketing function has become more analytical opposed to
designing creative strategy.
8. Virtual experience: Marketers are commonly using technological tools like
virtual reality in provision of services or as a substitute for services. Marketers
are also developing platforms like fan-clubs; forums in order share their
experience to develop trust about the service offering.
9. Market spaces: The new cyber market has been able to successfully get more
and more number of service users for the companies. Currently, it is strongest
channel of distribution used by service providers. For example, Hotels,
Broadband Services, Airline Industry etc.
10.Multi-dimensional competition: Marketers are trying to appear as non-
traditional service providers in order to blur distinctions between markets.
Marketers are adapting niche and focused marketing approach in order position
their service as a customized package for the target market.

Challenges faced by Indian Service Sector

 Domestic laws and Services Trade Restrictiveness: ...
 Backlog effect from Demonetisation and GST. ...
 FDI relaxation and Disinvestment. ...
 Market Access Barriers. ...
 Employment in Services. ...
 Repercussions of being Perception Driven Industry. ...
 Individuals Centric and More helpless to the emergency.
 Quicker access to advances
 Unit 2

Consumer behaviour in services context

What is Customer Expectation?

Customer expectation can be defined as “Customers assumption of his / her
experience in fulfillment of a need with the available resources at his / her
disposal”. In simple terms, customer expectation is what the customer expects
from a product or service. This can be influenced by cultural background,
demographic factors, advertising, family lifestyle, personality, beliefs, reviews, and
experience with similar products. These influencing factors help the customer in
evaluating the quality, value and the ability of the product or service to meet the
need.

Customer expectation can be classified into two categories based on the

performance aspirations for attributes, features, and benefit of the product or
service. These are known as explicit and implicit expectation. Explicit
expectation is expressed by the customer and usually relates to product
performance such as the number of servings per bottle, free maintenance period,
electricity consumption per hour, etc. These are well-identified performance
standards and can be already explicitly mentioned in the package or technical data
sheets. The implicit expectation is tricky, and most organizations fail to address it,
resulting in poor customer satisfaction. Implicit expectations are things the
customer believes to be obvious and thinks the seller knows it. But, they are
unspoken assumptions of the customer. For example, the customer wants the
seller to remember their past orders, or they expect to be given priority as they
are regular customers. When the implicit expectation is ignored, the customer
treats it as an explicit expectation. They assume that the seller knew the implicit
expectation from the beginning, but did not attend to it.

Customer expectation was decoded by a research done by Parasuraman, et al

(1985). The research only referred to service level quality. But, few of their findings
were important and can be applied to both product and service. They indicated
that customers have a predetermined expectation before purchase. This affects
the buying decision. Furthermore, customer expectation is said to have two levels.
One is the desired level, and the other is sufficient level. The desired level is the
benefits customer hopes to get, and the sufficient level is the acceptable service or
benefit. Finally, their research indicated that a promise of the seller should not be
unrealistic. Under-promise is better, whereas the likelihood of exceeding customer
expectation is high.Businesses should always pay careful attention to setting
expectations, meeting expectations and resetting expectations, to be successful in
the marketplace.

What is Customer Perception?

Customer perception is the customer experience via consumption and interaction
with the seller. Customer perception is subjective and can differ from person to
person. Perception is a result of customer’s individual assessment of a product or
service quality based on consumption and interaction with the seller.

The perception may differ from what the seller intended to induce. This probability
of deviation possesses the greatest challenge to a marketer as customer
perception is very difficult to predict and manage. If an organization is unable to
get the attention or a favorable response from the customer, it can be a
catastrophe for the organization. A large number of options in the marketplace
and access to information from a customer point of view makes things more
difficult for marketers.

Customer perception is not static; it’s dynamic. So, customer perception is about
the present mindset of a customer. In future, the perception can shift from a
favorable to an unfavorable situation or vise-versa. Initially, the perception will be
judgmental, rational and fact-based. But, when the relationship grows between
seller and buyer, it can be based on emotional factors. In addition, competitor
actions, buyer circumstances, and buying power also can impact the perception.

Measuring customer perception is a difficult task, but it’s an essential task for an
organization to view its offering from the customer viewpoint. Market research
and surveys are the best tools for the measurement. The organization needs to
bridge the gap between customer expectation and perception to manage
customer perception. After measuring the perception, they can attempt to
manage the customer gap.
1. Gap Model:
Parasuraman et at., developed a conceptual model of service quality where they
identified five gaps that could impact the consumer’s evaluation of service quality
in four different industries-
i. Retail banking
ii. Credit card
iii. Securities brokerage
iv. Product repair and maintenance.

Gap 1- Consumer Expectation – Management Perception Gap:

Service firms may not always understand what features a service must have in
order to meet consumer needs and what levels of performance on those features
are needed to bring deliver high quality service. This results in affecting the way
consumers evaluate service quality.
Gap 2- Management Perception – Service Quality Specification Gap:
This gap arises when the company identifies what the consumers want but the
means to deliver to expectation does not exist. Some factors that affect this gap
could be resource constraints, market conditions and management indifference.
These could affect service quality perception of the consumer.
Gap 3- Service Quality Specifications – Service Delivery Gap:
Companies could have guidelines for performing service well and treating
consumers correctly but these do not mean high service quality performance is
assured. Employees play an important role in assuring good service quality
perception and their performance cannot be standardised. This affects the delivery
of service which has an impact on the way consumers perceive service quality.
Gap 4- Service Delivery – External Communications Gap:
External communications can affect not only consumer expectations of service but
also consumer perceptions of the delivered service. Companies can neglect to
inform consumers of special efforts to assure quality that are not visible to them
and this could influence service quality perceptions by consumers.
Gap 5- Expected Service – Perceived Service Gap:
From their study, it showed that the key to ensuring good service quality is
meeting or exceeding what consumers expect from the service and that
judgement of high and low service quality depends on how consumers perceive
the actual performance in the context of what they expected.
Parasuraman et al., later developed the SERVQUAL model which is a multi-item
scale developed to assess customer perceptions of service quality in service and
retail businesses.

Gap analysis
The SERVQUAL Model

The SERVQUAL Model is an empiric model by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry to

compare service quality performance with customer service quality needs. It is
used to do a gap analysis of an organization’s service quality performance against
the service quality needs of its customers.That’s why it’s also called the GAP
model.
It takes into account the perceptions of customers of the relative importance of
service attributes. This allows an organization to prioritize.
There are five core components of service quality:
1. Tangibles – physical facilities, equipment, staff appearance, etc.
2. Reliability – ability to perform service dependably and accurately.
3. Responsiveness – willingness to help and respond to customer need.
4. Assurance – ability of staff to inspire confidence and trust.
5. Empathy – the extent to which caring individualized service is given.

The four themes that were identified by the SERVQUAL developers were
numbered and labelled as:
1. Consumer expectation – management perception gap (Gap 1): Management
may have inaccurate perceptions of what consumers (actually) expect. The reason
for this gap is lack of proper market/customer focus. The presence of a marketing
department does not automatically guarantee market focus. It requires the
appropriate management processes, market analysis tools and attitude.

2. Service quality specification gap (Gap 2): There may be an inability on the part of
the management to translate customer expectations into service quality
specifications. This gap relates to aspects of service design.
3. Service delivery gap (Gap 3): Guidelines for service delivery do not guarantee
high-quality service delivery or performance. There are several reasons for this.
These include: lack of sufficient support for the frontline staff, process problems,
or frontline/contact staff performance variability.
4. External communication gap (Gap 4): Consumer expectations are fashioned by
the external communications of an organization. A realistic expectation will
normally promote a more positive perception of service quality. A service
organization must ensure that its marketing and promotion material accurately
describes the service offering and the way it is delivered
5. These four gaps cause a fifth gap (Gap 5), which is the difference between
customer expectations and perceptions of the service actually received Perceived
quality of service depends on the size and direction of Gap 5, which in
turn depends on the nature of the gaps associated with marketing, design and
delivery of services.So,Gap 5 is the product of gaps 1, 2, 3 and 4. If these four gaps,
all of which are located below the line that separates the customer from the
company, are closed then gap 5 will close.
Quality
Service quality is a term which describes a comparison of expectations from
service with its performance. The difference between what customers expect and
what they perceive themselves to be receiving.improve service quality may
increase economic competitiveness.
2 types internal and external

Dimensions of service quality

Reliability: perform promised service dependably and accuracy. Example: receive
mail at same time each day.
Responsiveness: willingness to help customers promptly. Example: avoid keeping
customers waiting for no apparent reason.
Assurance: ability to convey trust and confidence. Example:being polite and
showing respect for customer.
Empathy: ability to be approachable. Example: being a good listener
Tangles: physical facilities and facilitating goods. Example:cleanliness

Measuring the service quality

In order to rate or determine the extent to which a service or the company in
general is meeting customer expectations and conclude about the service quality,
the first step is to define a standard against which service performance can be
compared. This process of defining standards can begin with goal setting.These are
examples of quantitative standards put in place to measure what may be ‘difficult
to measure’.
1. Company-Defined Standards of Service Delivery:
In many instances, the companies themselves choose to set standards for the
services delivery. These are usually set within the parameters of the ability of the
company to execute them. According to the service provider, this is the standard
of delivery generally prevalent or acceptable in the market place.
2. Customer-Defined Standards:
It is necessary to set standards that meet the customers’ expectations. The process
of setting standards would involve conducting a survey of existing and potential
customers about their expectations. In the case of a retail bank that is trying to
evaluate its operating standards, it may conduct a survey of the existing customers
with the help of a questionnaire.
3. Benchmarking:
The word ‘benchmark’ originates from the land surveyors’ policy of taking
measurements of the surrounding land from a local reference or standard. Thus,
when absolute standards for quality measurement do not exist or when the
competition between various service providers demands that the service provider
conforms to the industry or competition norms in order to survive, benchmarking
is desired.
3. Complaints Solicitation and Analysis:
The customer perception of service failure and the company perception of service
failure may be quite different. Therefore, complaints solicitation and analysis on
an ongoing basis will enable the company to understand frequent and persistent
service failures better.
4. Lost Customer Analysis:
A customer who has used the service before but decided to shift or actually shifted
to another service provider in preference to the original, provider is said to be a
‘lost customer’. Thus, the customer could be lost temporarily or permanently.
5. Critical Incident Study:
The critical incident study technique is used to improve customer care. It is
relatively simple and cost-effective for implementation. A critical incident is a
defining, special, problematic, unpleasant, or even delicate incident which affects
the customer perception of the quality of a service.
Service Failure and Service Recovery
A service failure, simply defined, is service performance that fails to meet a
customer’s expectations. Typically, when a service failure occurs, a customer will
expect to be compensated for the inconvenience in the form of any combination
of refunds, credits, discounts, or apologies. Service failure is the opposite of
customer satisfaction. Service failure can range from bad quality to rude behavior
to late delivery. These examples all result in the customer not receiving the
 performance that they were promised. Everyone faces service failure now and
then.
The major reasons for service failures include strategy of the management,
leadership quality of managers, and natural instincts of employees.
 Strategy of the management: Management should be able to plan and strategize
company policies and operations so that every aspect of the business is well-
organized to reduce the chances of service failure.
 Leadership quality of managers: Managers should be able to apply their leadership
skills in motivating, supervising, and correcting the operations and actions in the
organization to ensure higher customer satisfaction and minimum service failure.
 Natural instincts of employees: A large part of service relies on the employees as
they are the one to provide service and interact with the customers.
The behavior of leadership and management towards employees is often
incongruent with the customer service initiative. Thus, employees must be well-
skilled and trained to work efficiently and effectively.
Service failure is a very common scenario, but recovering from such failures is one
of the most challenging tasks that management faces. There is always a hidden
opportunity in a service failure, it just depends on the management whether it
worsens or can set an example of recovery.
For every service failure there are 4 steps of service recovery, and they are:
Step 1: Apologize and Ask for Forgiveness: After a service failure, listen to the
customers and don’t interrupt. Apologize for the failure in a genuine and sincere
tone. Also, provide them with the full information regarding the cause of the
service failure.
Step 2: Go Over the Complaint with Your Customer: Always go through the
complaint as you might be missing something. This also helps us to actually
understand who’s at fault because sometimes the customers may also be wrong or
may give false complaint. We can also locate the expectations of the customers
after the failure has occurred.
Step 3: Fix the Problem and Then Follow Up: In the third step of service recovery,
try to fix the problem with the best alternative and follow-up with the customer. In
the case of Southwest Airlines, a man had paid $8 for the Wi-Fi services in the
flight but didn’t get the service. Later, the amount was refunded by the airline, and
this helped to develop a loyal customer for Southwest Airlines.
Step 4: Document the Problem in Detail: The last step of service recovery is
recording the complaints and problems and training the staff members for similar
 problems that may occur in the future. The only way to prevent serious problems
from recurring is to document the problem for careful analysis later.
Not every service failure can lead to greater service recovery. It is in the hands of a
management or a manager on how he or she can handle the situation. Quick
thinking and empathy will help to handle the failure and have a good connection
with the customers. In a service market, not receiving complaints doesn’t mean
that the service is great because most of the customers don’t complain, and that is
how you lose customers. But service failure and service recovery help to develop a
better customer relationship and increase customer loyalty as they feel they are
being heard.
7 Tips for Improving Service Quality Management
1. Encourage agent feedback. ...
2. Have agents listen to their calls. ...
3. Send post-contact surveys after every interaction. ...
4. Establish clear KPIs. ...
5. Evaluate regularly. ...
6. Give all agents clear and consistent standards. ...
7. Take a team approach to eliminate bias.
Total quality services marketing
Total Quality Service (TQS) is a comprehensive approach in which the various
critical factors of total quality management are integrated and implemented in a
service organization to achieve customer satisfaction. In the current industrial
scenario, more studies have been conducted on the quality management practices
in the manufacturing industries than the service industries. The critical dimensions
of quality management from the management's perspective have not yet been
addressed completely in the service organizations. Hence, to fill the void, the
present research work has been conducted in the service industries with specific
reference to the automobile service stations.

Service excellence
Service is for the people. It is meant to satisfy the demands of the customer.As the
term rightly suggests, service excellence means excellent treatment and
excellent service quality to your customers.Service excellence does not necessarily
mean increasing the expectations of the customer and then struggling to meet
them. It merely means delivering what you have promised. Before providing any
service, the problems, requirements, and expectations of the customer are
considered.The act of meeting these expectations and solving the challenges of
the customer effectively is service excellence.

1. Attract more customers

More the number of customers, who avail of your service, more will be your
profits. So, it is beneficial to have more customers. Service excellence helps you do
so. It enables you to create a good impact on your current customers. The
customers who are happy and satisfied with your service spread the word.
2. Less negative feedback
The success of the service provided depends on the input the consumers give.
Positive feedback adds a feather to the cap, whereas negative feedback drags the
service provider’s position down.Hence, the service should be excellent to
minimize negative feedback.

3. Lesser clashes with the customers

In the case of bad service, the customers get agitated and file complaints against
the same. It can cause substantial losses to the company. However, if you
consistently provide excellent service, there are far lesser chances of getting into
clashes with the customers.

4. Profitability
Apart from the benefits of having a good reputation and positive feedback, the
tangible benefit of service excellence is the profit the company gains.For a service
that is assured of excellent quality, consumers are ready to pay higher prices. Also,
the customer’s network continues increasing, which helps in getting more revenue
and, in turn, increases profits.

5. Branding
Branding is the process of establishing a brand in the market. We all know about
companies that have been providing the same services for over decades but have
still stood firm because of service excellence.It helps us understand that to get
name and fame; your services have to be of excellent quality.
 MODULE-3

Demand and Supply Management for service

Demand and supply management continues to be a challenge for service
managers. Despite the importance of this aspect of management and the impact it
can have on profits, little is understood about this sometimes ambiguous aspect of
service management. Indeed, interviews show that although services use many
demand and supply management options, managers do not think of this area as a
whole — rather working at individual pieces without necessarily recognizing how
these pieces fit together.
Is it possible for services such as banks, retail establishments, and restaurants to
influence when customers will desire their services? If so, how can services gain
the understanding necessary to accomplish this? What options are available? On a
broader scale, how should services approach the area of Demand and Supply
Management (DSM) and integrate the decisions between both domains?
DSM may be both the most troublesome management problem for services and
the single greatest determinant of success. Managers agree that if demand could
be smoothened (thereby allowing supply to be more closely matched to demand)
it would have a positive impact on profits.
This text defines, summarizes and categorizes a large number of DSM practices.
This is a more comprehensive treatment than found in current literature and
provides structure to this little understood area. Information from interviews with
service managers gives insight into the use and value of the various options.
Secondly, using empirical data from a bank, we show that it may indeed be
possible for services to impact the timing of their demand, sometimes with very
little cost.
Finally, decision making tools and suggestions for integrating DSM decisions are
given. It is important to note that although the discussion should apply to some
extent to all firms that provide services, it is primarily concerned with those
services that cannot schedule customers. This is currently the area of greatest
need, since firms that have the ability to schedule customers already have good
tools available (e.g., yield management for airlines and hotels, network and integer
programming formulations for trucking companies, scheduling heuristics for
outpatient clinics).
Also, note that some services such as emergency services and insurance claim
offices have virtually no ability to control demand. These types of firms are likely
not at benefit from the demand management (DM) discussion, although the
supply management (SM) presentation may be helpful.
Demand situations-demand pattern –TYPES
Demand pattern analysis is an emerging area in supply chain management (SCM)
that analyzes customer and demand data to better predict demand across multiple
time horizons in a demand-driven value network (DDVN).
1. Negative demand:
Negative demand occurs where most or all segments in a market possess negative
feelings towards a service, to the extent that they may even be prepared to pay to
avoid receiving that service. Many medical services are perceived as unpleasant
and are purchased only in distress, even though there may be benefit to
individuals from receiving regular preventive treatments.The task of marketing
management in this situation is to identify the cause of negative feelings and to
counter these with positive marketing programmes.
2. No demand:
No demand occurs where a product is perceived by certain segments as being of
no value. In the financial services sector, young people often see savings and
pensions policies as being of no value to themselves. The task of marketing
management seeking to create demand in such segments is to reformulate the
product offering and promotional methods used so that the product’s benefits are
more readily comprehended by the target segments.
3. Latent demand:
Latent demand occurs where an underlying need for a service exists but there is
no product that can satisfy this need at an affordable price to consumers. The task
of marketing manage-ment becomes one of identifying methods by which new
services either could be developed, or are made available at a price that would
allow latent demand to be turned into actual demand.
4. Faltering demand:
Faltering demand is characterised by a steady fall in sales which is more than a
temporary downturn. The task of management is to identify the causes of this
downturn and to develop a strategy for reviving demand. Corner shops have often
found themselves facing a faltering demand, which has sometimes been
successfully transformed by the introduction of longer opening hours and by
refocusing the range of goods sold.
5. Irregular demand:
Irregular demand is characterized by a very uneven distribution of demand
through time. The inability to store services from one period of low demand to
another of high demand means that this pattern of demand poses major problems
for many service industries. It can be over-come by a combination of demand
management designed to reduce the irregularity of demand and supply
management aimed at meeting demand as closely as practical.
6. Full demand:
Full demand exists where demand is currently at a desirable level and one which
allows the organization to meet its objectives. A hotel in a historic city with no
scope for further physical expansion may have an occupancy rate that is difficult or
impractical to improve. The management task moves away from increasing the
volume of demand to improving its quality- by concentrating on high-value
activities aimed at high-spending segments, for example.
7. Overfull demand:
Overfull demand occurs where there is excess demand for a service on a
permanent basis. A pop group may find that tickets for all its concerts are sold out
very quickly and could be sold many times over. The marketing management task
is to stifle demand in a manner which does not cause long-term harm (for
example, stifling demand by high prices alone may build up an exploitative image
which may be harmful in the future should demand need to be stimulated once
more). It also involves increasing supply where this is possible and substitutes for
con-certs, such as video recordings).
8. Unwholesome demand:
Unwholesome demand occurs where an organization receives demand for a
service which it would prefer not to have. It may be forced to meet the demand
because of legal requirements (for example, the Post Office cannot refuse to
deliver letters for customers who are very expensive to service) or because of
long-standing commitment to supply service to a customer (a medical insurance
company which agreed to automatically renew premiums each year regardless of
changes in the customer’s state of health will consider renewal requests from sick
customers to be a form of unwholesome demand). Marketing management’s task
here is to try to eliminate new demand through – among other things – reduced
promotional activity and higher prices.

Demand Forecasting
Demand forecasting is the art as well as the science of predicting the likely
demand for a product or service in the future. This prediction is based on past
behavior patterns and the continuing trends in the present. Hence, it is not simply
guessing the future demand but is estimating the demand scientifically and
objectively. Thus, there are various methods of demand forecasting which we will
discuss here.
Methods of Demand Forecasting
There is no easy or simple formula to forecast the demand. Proper judgment along
with the scientific formula is needed to correctly predict the future demand for a
product or service. Some methods of demand forecasting are discussed below:
1] Survey of Buyer’s Choice
When the demand needs to be forecasted in the short run, say a year, then the
most feasible method is to ask the customers directly that what are they intending
to buy in the forthcoming time period. Thus, under this method, potential
customers are directly interviewed. This survey can be done in any of the following
ways:
a. Complete Enumeration Method: Under this method, nearly all the potential
buyers are asked about their future purchase plans.
b. Sample Survey Method: Under this method, a sample of potential buyers are
chosen scientifically and only those chosen are interviewed.
 c. End-use Method: It is especially used for forecasting the demand of the
inputs. Under this method, the final users i.e. the consuming industries and
other sectors are identified. The desirable norms of consumption of the
product are fixed, the targeted output levels are estimated and these norms
are applied to forecast the future demand of the inputs.
2] Collective Opinion Method
Under this method, the salesperson of a firm predicts the estimated future sales in
their region. The individual estimates are aggregated to calculate the total
estimated future sales. These estimates are reviewed in the light of factors like
future changes in the selling price, product designs, changes in competition,
advertisement campaigns, the purchasing power of the consumers, employment
opportunities, population, etc.
The principle underlying this method is that as the salesmen are closest to the
consumers they are more likely to understand the changes in their needs and
demands. They can also easily find out the reasons behind the change in their
tastes.
Delphi method
The Delphi method, or Delphi technique, leverages expert opinions on your market
forecast. This method requires engaging outside experts and a skilled facilitator.

3] Barometric Method
This method is based on the past demands of the product and tries to project the
past into the future. The economic indicators are used to predict the future trends
of the business. Based on future trends, the demand for the product is forecasted.
An index of economic indicators is formed. There are three types of economic
indicators, viz. leading indicators, lagging indicators, and coincidental indicators.
The leading indicators are those that move up or down ahead of some other
series. The lagging indicators are those that follow a change after some time lag.
The coincidental indicators are those that move up and down simultaneously with
the level of economic activities.
4] Market Experiment Method
Another one of the methods of demand forecasting is the market experiment
method. Under this method, the demand is forecasted by conducting market
studies and experiments on consumer behavior under actual but controlled,
market conditions.Certain determinants of demand that can be varied are changed
and the experiments are done keeping other factors constant. However, this
method is very expensive and time-consuming.
5] Expert Opinion Method
Usually, market experts have explicit knowledge about the factors affecting
demand. Their opinion can help in demand forecasting. The Delphi technique,
developed by Olaf Helmer is one such method.
Under this method, experts are given a series of carefully designed questionnaires
and are asked to forecast the demand. They are also required to give the suitable
reasons. The opinions are shared with the experts to arrive at a conclusion. This is
a fast and cheap technique.

Distribution of services
A distribution channel consists of a sequence of firms distributing a service from a
producer to a consumer. There are two methods of distribution of services,
namely,
1. Direct sale and
2. Delivery of service through intermediaries.
Direct sale method of distribution of services
Many services are distributed directly from provider to customer. Direct sale is
chosen due to inseparability of service and provider. Services of doctors, dry
cleaners, beauticians, personal care services, consultancy services, entertainment
etc. are examples of direct selling. The direct sale of service takes place in two
ways: the consumer goes to the service firm e.g., restaurants, hospitals, etc.
Alternatively, the service provider goes to the customer in the case of domestic
services, interior design, building repairs, etc.
Factors governing the choice of direct sale method
A host of factors influences the service firms to sell directly to the customers.
These factors include resources of the firm, type of service geographic location,
customer preference and the level of technical skill.

1. Resources of the firm: The resources that a service firm has at its disposal will
influence the choice of distribution strategy. Generally, firms which have adequate
resources prefer direct marketing without involving intermediaries in the channel
of distribution.
2. Type of service: Provision of services involves interaction between the services
provider and customers. The interaction depends upon the channel decisions.
There are two types of services, namely, equipment-based services and people-
based services. Equipment-based services involve use of equipment in provision of
services..
3. Geographic location: Services of doctors, dry cleaners, beauticians etc., are local
services whose area of distribution is limited. Services of this type may be
rendered directly to customers
4. Customer preference: The tastes, requirements and buying habits of the
customers vary. So, the needs and wants of customers must be carefully
considered while selecting the channel of distribution. Customers who are loyal to
the service company will prefer to have all their dealings with that company only.
If customers lack confidence in the service company, they may switch over to
other competing service firms. Moreover, some customers like to deal directly
with the service provider whereas some others may want to deal with
intermediaries such as agents and brokers. In case of financial services, customers
prefer to deal through agents who are able to guide them properly.
5. Levels of technical skills: Delivery of some services require skill and expertise.
People involved in the delivery of services such as financial services require a
relatively high degree of technical skills. Direct distribution where services are
delivered directly to customers, only involves people with adequate skill.
Delivery of services through intermediaries
Nowadays, many services are delivered by intermediaries. Two service marketers
are involved in indirect distribution; the service principal and the service deliverer.
The service principal is the originator and the service deliverer is the intermediary.
The service principal is the entity which creates the service concept. The service
deliverer is the entity which deals with the customers during the execution of the
service. Thus, in the indirect channel, both the service supplier and the
intermediaries play an important role.
Role of service intermediaries in Indirect distribution
Service intermediaries discharge many important functions for the service
principal.
1. Service intermediaries co-produce the service and make the service available to
customers at a place and time of their choice, thus fulfilling the promises made by
the service firms to customers
2. The Franchisee uses the process developed by the service principal and renders
satisfying service to customers.
3. Service intermediaries also make service locally available.
4. Intermediaries act as multiple service principals. Intermediaries such as travel
agents and insurance agents provide retailing function to customers.
5. In many financial or professional services, intermediaries build a relationship
based on trust which is essential in a complex service offering.
6. Services are intangibles and perishables and inventories do not exist. Therefore,
service distribution focuses on identifying ways to bring the customer and principal
together. Service intermediaries such as franchisees agents, brokers, etc., act as a
connecting link between the service firm and customers.
7. Service intermediaries deliver services according to the specifications of the
principals.
8. Service intermediaries are in direct contact with the customers. So, they are in a
position to determine the way customers perceive the quality of the service.
9. Service intermediaries advise the customers on the choice of the service which
satisfies their needs.
Physical channels
1.Direct Sales Method
Some of the best examples of distribution channels in marketing are direct sales,
which enable you to contact customers and prospects, without using an
intermediary.
2.Virtual Service Distribution
One of the newest examples of distribution channels in marketing is offering
virtual service. For example, a sales consultant could offer his services through a
combination of phone, email, or video conferences that would make use of
software available on cloud platforms
3.Agents or Referrals
Using an agent or a referral is one of the best examples that channels of
distribution are different for different products. Let’s say that you make a living as
a marketing guru who attends conferences and training sessions.
4.Distribution Through Publication
Many service customers have become used to the proliferation of publications
that provides them with exactly what they need.

SERVICE LIFE CYCLE

SERVICE LIFE CYCLE
The service life cycle consists of the same four stages at the product life cycle:
introduction, growth, maturity and decline. The characteristics of each stage are
the same. The only difference lies in the strategies that can be used.
I INTRODUCTORY STAGE
A new service or a new form of a current service is said to be in the introductory
stage when it is first offered. As with goods, many new services never obtain
acceptance by customers and never get past the first stage of the service life cycle.
An advantage that services have over goods is that many new services can be
introduced on a small scale and expanded if acceptance grows. This small scale
introduction reduces the financial risk associated with the introduction, making
failure less costly.
II GROWTH STAGE
During the growth stage, the industry is growing rapidly. Most firms offering the
new service are seeing a positive cash flow.
For eg: a patient can learn about the incubation period for chicken pox by either
talking to a nurse or dialing into a vast library of prerecorded tapes. Second,
patients can seek advice about routine illnesses such as congestion or abdominal
pain.
III MATURITY STAGE
During the maturity stage, industry sales level off. Competition becomes very
intense since the only way a firm can gain the market share or increase sales is to
take them away from a competitor. The result of this increased competition is a
decrease in overall industry profits. Weaker firms will be shaken out of the
industry. At this stage in the service life cycle, consumers see very few
distinguishable characteristics among the various firms in a service industry.
IV DECLINE STAGE
During the decline stage, industry sales decline. This sales drop is often due to a
new technology that has been developed. For eg, typewriter repair services
declined bcoz typewriters were largely replaced by computers which resulted in a
need for a computer service technicians and computer programmers.
 Module-4
Flow charting customer Services process
Customer service process model flow charts, or workflows, are documents that
graphically represent the various activities done by customer service departments
when processing work. Most customer service processes tend to be simple to
capture visually, such as call processing, billing and returns, and issue resolution.
However, existing customer service processes, and those not yet visualized, can
benefit from process flow chart modeling and help to increase the speed to
complete automation projects.

Process Flow Chart Analysis Benefits in Customer Service

Companies that back up superior products with great customer service are in the
best position to succeed. The underlying solution to improving customer service is
a streamlined workflow, which can be achieved with detailed process
documentation. The result is improved departmental productivity and efficiency,
and process controls that benefit the company in terms of issue resolution,
outreach and engagement. Additional examples of successful flow chart use in
customer service departments are below:
 Faster Issue Resolutions: Resolving customer issues can be delayed due to
unclear or inefficient resolution workflows. Using customer service flow chart
analysis to develop standard processes allows service representatives to know
how to escalate or resolve issues faster. Less time on hold or waiting for a
manager leads to satisfied customers.
 Understand and Reduce Process Bottlenecks: Customer service processes can
run up against many types of bottlenecks, such as, inefficient forwarding
processes and duplicate processes that negatively affects service quality.
Documenting current process models can help identify these bottlenecks.

Steps of an Effective Customer Service Process Flow Chart

Customer service process models apply to different mediums such as chat, phone,
email – even social media. Often, team members will be managing all three or
four. If that wasn’t challenging enough, the nature of customer service means
service representatives are constantly disrupted from regular work by unplanned
 “meeting” with customers or management. A standardized workflow helps
mitigate these, and move from a reactive working environment to a proactive one.
Steps to follow when creating a structured customer service flow chart include:
 Use a Template: Don’t start a customer service flow chart before you have a
basic understanding of the entire process – you don’t want to reinvent the
wheel if you don’t have to.
 Plan Tasks: Create a list of day-to-day work that keeps customer
representatives busy, even as they’re pulled away by customer calls, emails, or
chat logs.
 Prioritize Communications Channels: Build channel priority into customer
service flow charts to avoid distracted customer representatives. If a
representative is chatting online while talking on the phone, they will not
perform at their best and service levels will fall.
 Assign Channels/Tasks: Large customer service teams can modify their process
flow to assign specific channels and tasks to specific team members. Smaller
teams will have to lean more toward prioritization.
Services blue prints
A service blueprint is a diagram that displays the entire process of service delivery,
by listing all the activities that happen at each stage, performed by the different
roles involved. The service blueprint is built by first listing all the actors involved in
the service process on a vertical axis, and all the steps required to deliver the
service on the horizontal axis. The resulting matrix allows to represent the flow of
actions that each role needs to perform along the process, highlighting the actions
that the user can see (above the line of visibility) and the ones that happen in the
back-office (below the line of visibility). Roles can be performed by human beings
or other types of entities (organizations, departments, artificial intelligences,
machines, etc.)
When to make a service blueprint

A service blueprint is a useful tool for teams to create together. But when should
you make one? Here are the most popular use cases for a service blueprint:

1. When many departments contribute to a single customer service experience.

2. When a company would like to check whether its key processes are sufficiently
human-centered.
3. When a service improvement is needed to improve the customer experience.
4. When a service is changing or needs to be re-designed.
Service blueprint benefits

Service blueprints can be a time-consuming and expensive process, but when

planned out, they can transform your relationship with your customers. It can also
act as a way to bring people and teams across your entire organization together.

“It's a strategic tool. It's also a collective empathy tool.”

“It’s a strategic tool. It’s also a collective empathy tool,” says Kimberly Richards, a
senior service designer in the Customer Service Department of the New South
Wales Government. “It's a tool that does a lot of things, not just mapping out an
organization or what technology is being used,” Richards adds. “I also use it to
create alignment and understanding.”

Even if you feel daunted by the task that lies ahead of you, service blueprints can
offer these key benefits to your team:

 Reminds employees how important it is to have a customer-focused point of view.

Connects the ‘this is what I do’ employee mindset to part of a much larger process
(‘how what I do impacts everyone around me’)
 Establishes opportunities for continuous improvement. Map-base diagrams can
point out weaknesses or failures that can be the basis of a process to be refined
 Informs your service design decisions. Creates points of shared interactions
between employees and customers, to show where the customer experiences
value
 Encourages a rational approach to service design. Visibility-based mapping means
common sense decisions can be made about what customers should see and how
employees will interact with customers
 Helps you assess how much the business has invested in each process or
touchpoint. By seeing which processes create duplicate services, teams can begin
to map out where revenue comes from, and suggest efficiencies and cost-saving
measures
 Offers a rationale to external or internal marketing teams you’ve hired. An
external ad agency or the organization’s in-house marketing team can use a
service map to identify what they key messages are to be communicated to
customers, and keep their language aligned for a consistent experience
 Enables managers and frontline workers to better communicate to improve the
customer experience. Improving the quality of service can be a shared
responsibility as employees communicate their experiences, and managers find
and support opportunities for improvement across channels

The elements of a service blueprint

Here are four puzzle pieces you need to have when creating a service blueprint.

1. The customer’s actions: If you’ve already made a customer journey map, you can
extract the steps, choices, activities and interactions a customer may go through to
reach their goals.
2. Frontstage actions: These actions happen in front of the customer. They are
usually either human-to-human (for example, a customer interacting with an
employee at a cash register) or human-to-computer (for example, a customer
dealing with an ATM transaction) interactions.
3. Backstage actions: Behind-the-scenes activities to support frontstage activities,
which can either be carried by a backstage employee (a head chef in the kitchen)
or a frontstage employee who completes a task not visible to the customer
(printing out a bill before bringing it to the table).
4. Support processes: These are a series of steps and interactions that support
employees in delivering a service to their customers.
5. Physical evidence: This is the proof that the interaction actually happened.
Examples can include the product itself, receipts as proof of purchase, physical
storefronts, or websites.
Service blueprints also tend to have three key lines:

1. The line of interaction: direct interactions between the customer and the
organization.
2. The line of visibility: separates what’s visible and invisible to the customer –
everything visible is above the line; everything backstage is below the line.
3. The line of internal interaction: separates employees who have direct customer
contact with those who don’t directly support customer interactions.
Depending on your context and business goals of the organization you’re
blueprinting for, you might also add:

 Timing: if you’re offering a time-based service, you should keep track of how long
each action takes
 Rules and regulations: this is anything that dictates – by law – what can and can’t
be changed, as teams look to optimize the customer experience
 Emotion: by understanding how employees and customers are feeling throughout
the process, you can start to identify pain points
 Metrics: if buy-in is your ultimate goal, you’ll need these. Collect any data and
visually represent how time and money is wasted due to miscommunications or
other operational inefficiencies.

It is easier to reach a shared understanding and achieve a smooth service process

when working in collaboration. Different departments can get to know each
other’s responsibilities and challenges and see how they influence each other’s
deliverables. Service blueprints made in collaboration can help the service
provider teams create not only a service roadmap, but also an aligned action plan
for each department involved in the service process.

Servicescapes

Servicescape is defined as the physical environment where a service can take

place. It helps to analyze and identify the impact of a good environment on the
service-based industry.

Servicescape deals in the settings where a service is consumed or delivered and

the place where both the company and customer interactions with each other. It
has a powerful impact on the assessment, perception, and response of the
customer.

Meaning of servicescape
Servicescape is a model that puts its onus on explaining the behavior of customers
and clients within the service environment. It is a popular concept from Booms
and Bitner that categorically states that ambiance has a direct impact on the
customers.When a consumer visits a place for a particular service or product, it is
the surroundings that encourage or discourages him from following a set course of
action.It is the first aspect of service perceived by the client or customer and the
impression that forms pave the way for further services.The founders of
Servicescape have explained the concept as a necessity if you are interested in
improving your relationship with customers to felicitate better sales figures and
larger revenues.

Aspects of servicescape
It is the role of a service provider to create an environment that will appeal to its
customer and ease any discomfort. The important aspects of servicescape are-

1. Spatial layout and functionality

Spatial layout is about the way you arrange the furnishings, equipment and
machinery, their shape and size and of course, the spatial relationship which exists
amongst them. Functionality is about the ability of those items to
accomplish customer satisfaction.

The aspect of spatial layout and functionality is much needed in self-service

settings where the customers themselves handle the services.

You will generally not find employees or workers helping you to deal with them.
Some important examples are the ATM, self-service restaurants, internet
shopping, etc.

2. Signs, symbols, and artifacts

The sign is one of the most explicit signals that can communicate directly with a
customer in a physical environment. These are prominently displayed on both
exterior and interior of a place and generally act as communicators.The signs can
be used as labels like the name of a department and company, for a directional
purpose like entrance and as rules for specific behavior like no smoking. Symbols
and artifacts are also effective in giving the implicit cue to the reader.Some
important examples are artwork, floor coverings, photographs on the wall, and
display of prominent artifacts that have symbolic meaning and manage to connect
and communicate with its reader.

3. Ambient conditions
The background conditions of an environment like color, noise, music, sound,
lighting, etc. are included in ambient conditions. These are important factors as
they affect one or other of our five senses and can change the mindset and
perception of a person.In some cases, we hear a soothing background score to
relieve stress. The effect of the strong scent, for instance of coffee or cookies,
act as great tempting force and can easily draw people in. Remember, the
ambient condition has proved itself as an influential aspect of servicescap.

Examples of servicescape
Impressions matter a great deal, and it is the ambiance that proves a deciding
factor for most customers. Do you want to conduct any type of service at a place
where you are not comfortable in the settings?Sometimes the product value of
two companies is the same, but what separates from others is its physical
environment. A person will feel comfortable in one place and not so in
another.This can be a deal-breaker for him. For example, if you have the option of
having dinner in a plain room with only basic amenities and the other place with
the soothing ambiance, you will always choose the latter instead of the former

Roles of servicescape
Facilitator
Servicescape acts as a facilitator to help people in their surroundings.A well-
designed place creates a pleasurable ambiance that relates to peace and harmony,
whereas an inefficient design can cause frustration and pessimistic attitude in the
minds of both employees and customers.

2. Socialiser
The servicescape design acts as a perfect socializer between both customers and
employees.It also helps to depict the expected behavior and roles like an
employee can understand his position in a team through his cubicle placement,
the quality of office furnishings and office assignments.The design also suggests to
customers where they are not allowed and where they are encouraged and
welcomed through servicescape.

3. Package
The servicescape helps to convey the internal image through its outward
appearance.Product packages are one of its primary examples where you can
easily know about the wrapped product by viewing and reading the matter. It acts
as a visual metaphor for building a specific image.

4. Differentiator
Servicescape acts as a differentiator by separating designs of a company from its
competitor. It helps to reposition a company and attract new segments.

Service product development

Product development, also called new product management, is a series of steps

that includes the conceptualization, design, development and marketing of newly
created or newly rebranded goods or services. The objective of product
development is to cultivate, maintain and increase a company's market share by
satisfying a consumer demand. Not every product will appeal to every customer or
client base, so defining the target market for a product is a critical component that
must take place early in the product development process. Quantitative market
research should be conducted at all phases of the design process, including before
the product or service is conceived, while the product is being designed and after
the product has been launched.

Product development frameworks

Although product development is creative, the discipline requires a systematic
approach to guide the processes that are required to get a new product to market.
Organizations such as the Product Development and Management Association
(PDMA) and the Product Development Institute (PDI) provide guidance about
selecting the best development framework for a new product or service.
A framework helps structure the actual product development.
Some frameworks, like the fuzzy front end (FFE) approach, define what steps
should be followed, but leave it up to the team to decide which order makes most
sense for the specific product that is being developed. The five elements of FFE
product development are:

Identification of design criteria -- involves brainstorming possible new products.

Once an idea has been identified as a prospective product, a more formal product
development strategy can be applied.

Idea analysis -- involves a closer evaluation of the product concept. Market

research and concept studies are undertaken to determine if the idea is feasible or
within a relevant business context to the company or to the consumer.

Concept genesis -- involves turning an identified product opportunity into a

tangible concept.

Prototyping -- involves creating a rapid prototype for a product concept that has
been determined to have business relevance and value. Prototyping in this front-
end context means a "quick-and-dirty" model is created, rather than the refined
product model that will be tested and marketed later on.

Product development -- involves ensuring the concept is viable and has been
determined to make business sense and have business value.

Other frameworks, like design thinking, have iterative steps that are designed to
be followed in a particular order to promote creativity and collaboration. The five
components of design thinking are:

Empathize -- Learn more about the problem from multiple perspectives.

Define -- Identify the scope and true nature of the problem.

Ideate -- Brainstorm solutions to the problem.

Prototype -- Weed out unworkable or impractical solutions.

Test -- Solicit feedback.

Eight stages of new product development
This composite new product development (NPD) framework for manufactured
goods has eight important components:

Idea generation is the continuous and systematic quest for new product
opportunities, including updating or changing an existing product. The goal is to
generate ideas for new products or services -- or, improvements to products or
services -- that address a gap in the market.

Idea screening takes the less attractive, infeasible and unwanted product ideas out
of the running. Unsuitable ideas should be determined through objective
consideration, including through early testing and feedback with consumers.

Concept development and testing is vital. The internal, objective analysis of step
two is replaced by customer opinion in this stage. The idea, or product concept at
this point, must be tested on a true customer base. The testers' reactions can then
be leveraged to adjust and further develop the concept according to the feedback.
One example of concept development is the concept cars developed by car
manufacturers. These prototypes are made of clay and shown at auto shows for
consumer feedback.

Market strategy/business analysis identifies the strategy of how to optimally

market and sell your product or service. It is comprised of four P's, which are
product, price, promotion and placement.

Product -- The service or good that's been designed to satisfy the demand of a
target audience.

Price -- Pricing decisions affect everything; profit margins, supply and demand, and
market strategy.

Promotion -- The goals of promotion are to present the product to the target
audience -- increasing demand by doing so -- and to illustrate the value of the
product. Promotion includes advertisements, public relations and marketing
campaigns.
Placement -- The transaction may not occur on the web, but in today's digital
economy, the customer is generally engaged and converted on the Internet.
Whether the product will be provided in bricks-and-mortar or clicks-and-mortar
shops, or available through an omnichannel approach, the optimal channel, or
channels, for placement must be determined if the targeted potential customers
are to become actual customers.

Feasibility analysis/study yields information that is critical to the product's

success. It entails organizing private groups that will test a beta version, or
prototype, of the product, then evaluate the experience in a test panel. This
feedback communicates the target market's level of interest and desired product
features, as well as determines whether the product in development has the
potential to be profitable, attainable and viable for the company, while satisfying a
real demand from the target market.

Questions to be answered during feasibility analysis include:

Do you have the labor and materials required?

What is the price of production, delivery and promotion?
Do you have access to the right distribution channels?

Product technical design/Product development integrates the results of the

feasibility analyses and feedback from beta tests from stage five into the product.
This stage consists of turning that prototype or concept into a workable market
offering; ironing out the technicalities of the product; and alerting and organizing
the departments involved with the product launch, such as research and
development, finance, marketing, production or operations.

Test marketing, or market testing, differs from concept or beta testing in that the
prototype product and whole proposed marketing plan, not individual segments,
are evaluated. The goal of this stage is to validate the entire concept -- from
marketing angle and message to packaging to advertising to distribution. Test
marketing is often performed by offering your product to a random sample of your
target market. By testing the entire package before launch, the company can
critically review the reception of the product before a full go-to-market investment
is made.
Market entry/commercialization is the stage in which the product is introduced to
the target market. All the data obtained throughout the previous seven stages of
this approach are used to produce, market and distribute the final product to and
through the appropriate channels. The product is now available to everyone and
the "product lifecycle" begins. The life of the product is shaped by the reception of
the target market, the competition and subsequent enhancements to the product
offering.

Product development is an always-evolving and fluid process, and just as some

steps will change, depending on the nature of the project, so will the person who
manages product development. In some organizations, there is a dedicated team
that researches and tests new products. Some smaller organizations may
outsource their new product development to a design team. In midsize
organizations, the product manager is often the person in charge of product
development, and he or she may be part of the marketing team, while tech shops
selling business-to-business (B2B) products and services that have very technical
requirements may have their product managers report to engineering. Regardless
of what framework is used and who is in charge of new product development, the
new part is just one aspect of the entire product lifecycle management (PLM).

Pricing of Services

According to one of the leading experts or pricing, most service organization use a
“naive and unsophisticated approach to pricing without regard to underlying shift
in demand, the rate that supply can be expanded, price of available substitute,
consideration of the price — volume relationship, or the availability of future
substitution”.

There are three key differences between customer evaluation of pricing service and
goods.

1. Customers often have inaccurate or limited reference price for services.

2. Monetary price is not the only price relevant to service customers.

3. Price is a key signal of quality in service.

These three differences can have profound impact on the strategies companies use
to set and administered price for services.

For every product, the company has to choose a price. But determining the price
can take many ways. Most importantly, it should follow a predetermined strategy.
3 major pricing strategies can be identified:

 Cost based pricing

 Competition based pricing

 Demand based pricing

Cost based pricing: While in customer value-based pricing, customers’

perceptions of value are key to setting prices, in cost-based pricing the seller’s
costs are the primary consideration. Costs set the floor for the price that the
company can charge. Therefore, cost-based pricing involves setting prices based
on the costs for producing, distributing and selling the product. In order to make
some profit, a fair rate of return is added to account for efforts and risks.

Some companies, such as Ryanair or Walmart, pursue a low-cost strategy and aim
to offer the lowest prices. This goes along with accepting smaller margins but
greater sales. Other companies, such as Apple or BMW, do not compete based on
low prices. By offering superior customer value, they can claim higher prices and
margins — they pursue a customer value-based pricing strategy. We can see that
choosing between the 3 major pricing strategies is closely related to the overall
marketing strategy — actually it is an integral part of it.

Competition based pricing: competition-based pricing involves setting prices

based on competitor’s strategies, costs, prices and market offerings. In highly
competitive markets, consumers will base their judgments of a product’s value on
the prices that competitors charge for similar products. For instance in the
gasoline industry, competition-based pricing is applied.

Demand based pricing: Demand Based Pricing is a pricing method based on

the customer’s demand and the perceived value of the product. In this method the
customer’s responsiveness to purchase the product at different prices is compared
and then an acceptable price is set.

One of the most appropriate ways that companies price their service is basing the
price on the perceived value of the service to customers. When consumers discuss
value, they use the term in many different ways and talk about myriad attributes
or ferent ways and talk about myriad attributes or components. What constitutes
value, even in a single service category, appears to be highly personal and
idiosyncratic, customers define value in four ways:

 Value is low price

 Value is whatever I want in a product or a service

 Value is the quality I get for the price I pay

 Value is what I get for what I give

2. Pricing strategies that link to the four value definition

2.1 pricing strategies when the customer means “value is low price”

When monetary price is the most important determined of value to a customer,

the company focuses mainly on price. This focus does not mean that the quality
level and intrinsic attributes are always irrelevant, just that monetary price
dominates in importance. Some of the specific pricing approaches appropriate
when customer define value as low price are:

 Discounting: Service providers offer discount to communicate to price-

sensitive buyers that are receiving value.

 Odd Pricing: It is the pricing service just below the exact dollar amount to
make buyers perceive that they are getting a lower price.

 Synchro-pricing: Ir is the use of price to manage demand for a service by

capitalizing on customer sensitivity price.

 Penetration pricing: It is a strategy in which new services are introduced at

low price to stimulate trial and widespread use

2.2 Pricing strategy when the customer means “value is everything I want
in a service”

When the customer is concerned principally with the “get” components of a

service, monetary price is not of primary concern. The more desirable intrinsic
attributes a given service possesses, the more highly valued service is likely to be
and higher the price the market can set

 Prestige Pricing: It is a special form of demand-based pricing by service

marketers who offer high-quality or status services. Marketing strategy where
prices are set higher than normal because lower prices will hurt instead of
helping sales, such as for high-end perfumes, jewelry, clothing, cars, etc. Also
called image pricing.

 Skimming Pricing: Price skimming is a pricing strategy in which a marketer

sets a relatively high initial price for a product or service at first, then lowers
the price over time. It is a temporal version of price discrimination/yield
management.
2.3 Pricing strategies when the customer means “value is the quality I get
for the price I pay”

Some customers primarily consider both quality and monetary price. The task of
the marketer is to understand what quality means to the customer and then to
match quality level with price level. Specific strategies are:

 Value pricing: Value-based pricing means setting a price customers are

willing to pay based on the perceived value to them of your product or service
— not on the cost of providing it. Pricing strategist Mark Striving of Pragmatic
Pricing explains. Value-based pricing (or value pricing) is the most highly
recommended pricing technique by consultants and academics. The basic idea
is to set a price that’s based on what your customers are willing to pay.

 Market segmentation pricing: A service marketer charges different prices

to groups of customers for what are perceived to be different quality levels of
service, even though there may not be corresponding differences in the costs of
providing the service to each of these groups. This form of pricing is based on
the premise that segments show different price elasticizes of demand and
desire different quality levels.

2.4 Pricing strategies when the customer means “Value is all that I get for
all that I give”

Some customers define value as including not just the benefits they receive but
also the time, money, and effort they put into a service.

 Price framing: Because many customers do not posses accurate reference

price for services, services marketers are more likely than good marketers to
organize price infiltration for customer so they know how to view it. Customer
naturally look for price anchor as well as familiar services against which to
judge focal services.

 Price building: Price building is one method of determining the value of

your company as you prepare to sell your business. Price building is a
 valuation method that simply looks at the hard facts: assets, leases, real estate,
and goodwill (i.e., the value of the business’s good name and reputation and
demonstrated ability to consistently turn a profit). It is the amount over and
above the market value of the tangible assets on the balance sheet that a buyer
should be expected to pay for the business.

 Complementary pricing: Method in which one of the complementary

products (shaving razor, for example) is priced to achieve maximum sales
volume, (without cost or profit considerations) to stimulate the demand for
the other product (razor blades). The objective is to generate a level of profit
that adequately covers losses sustained by the first product.

 Results-based pricing: In service industries in which outcome is very

important but uncertainty is high, the most relevant aspect of value is the
result of the service.

Branding of Services

A brand is a characteristic that differentiates one company from another. A brand

comprises a name, logo, tagline, symbol, brand voice, design, etc. It also refers to
the customer’s overall experience when communicating with a business: a
customer, shopper, social media follower, or mere passerby.

What is Branding?
Branding is the method of researching, producing, and implementing a unique
feature or set of features to your business so that customers can start to connect
your brand with your services or products.

Branding is a repetitive process and needs to get in touch with your customers’
feelings and business.

To help you make decisions that are required to build a marketable brand, we
have split down the significant kinds of branding out there.

 Corporate Branding: One of the more reliability focused branding kinds, corporate
branding, is all about creating a cultivated name for an entire corporation. The
 people will connect the company’s name with a word that they hold behind their
services they provide and have a provable, concrete performance record.
 Personal Branding: This usually applies to individual person branding, as compare
to branding an entire business. Personal branding is essential for politicians,
celebrities, or also digital marketers who want to keep a specific public image.

 Product Branding: This kind of branding makes customers prefer one product over
another based on the brand alone. For instance, how ”Kleenex” has come to be a
word synonymous with ”tissues.”
 Geographical Branding: Geographical branding implies the unusual features of a
particular place or region—for example, the selling point of a specific area and why
you should visit. You will usually see countries declaring a kind of food as their own
or claiming the region’s remarkable history.
 Online branding: This could apply to creating a website, building a social media
appearance, writing a blog – anything that appears on the web under your brand.
 Offline Branding: As the name recommends, this applies to branding that happens
off the web. From staging sit-down lunches to doling out business cards with
required clients or leads, offline branding involves a mix of immeasurable design
and outgoing spokespeople to signify your brand.
 Co-branding: Co-branding is when two or more company brands are united by the
same product. For instance, Uber and Spotify partnered on the “soundtrack for
your ride” campaign, giving users of both apps and a better ride-sharing
experience by enabling them to be the DJs of their tours.
 Service Branding: This kind of branding establishes healthy pressure on the
customer and on giving your customers excellent services. While all brand should
do their best not to distance their customers, service branding needs this one step
further; it concentrates mainly on adding perceived value to customer service and
practices this as their selling point

Importance of Branding:
Branding is very important to a business because of the impression it makes on
your business. Branding can improve how people see your brand, it can encourage
new business and grow brand awareness. Here are some of the importance of
branding you will discover below.
Branding Gets Recognition:
The fundamental reason branding is necessary to a business is because it gives
recognition to your company and becomes accepted by the consumers. The logo is
the most important part of the branding, especially it is considered as the face of
the company.

Branding Improves Business Value:

Branding is essential when striving to create a prospective business, and a firmly
rooted brand can develop a business’ value by giving the company more support in
the industry. This makes it a more attractive investment possibility because of its
strongly rooted position in the marketplace.

Branding Attracts New Customers:

A good brand will have no difficulty in attracting referral business. Effective
branding generally indicates there is a concrete impression of the company among
customers, and they are expected to do business with you because of the
experience and assumed dependability of using a name they can trust. Once a
brand has been well-grown, word of mouth will be the best and most powerful
advertising strategy of the company.

Increases Pride of Employee and Satisfaction:

When an employee works in a well-branded company and absolutely stands
behind the brand, they will be more content with their job and have a greater
degree of satisfaction in the work that they do. Working for a reputable brand and
help in high esteem among the public makes working for that company more
pleasant and fulfilling. Holding a branded office, which can often encourage
employees to work even harder and feel happier, and have a sense of associating
with the company, can be obtained through using some promotional goods for
your desktop.

Builds Trust Within the Marketplace:

A professional in attributes and well-strategized branding will support the
company to establish trust with customers, potential clients, and consumers.
People are more interested to do business with a company that has a bright and
professional description.
 Being properly branded gives the idea of being industry experts and makes the
people feel as though they can rely upon your company, the products and services
your company offers, and how you manage your business.

Advertising Support Advertising:

Advertising is another part of branding, and advertising tactics will directly show its
required portrayal. Advertising techniques such as promotional products from
trusted businesses such as Outstanding Branding make it uncomplicated to form
a cohesive and appealing advertising strategy that works well into your branding
objects.

Types of Branding Services:

1. Logo Design
As first impression is the last impression, a Logo is essential, and for many
potential customers, your logo will give the first impression of your brand. A
company logo is actually the face of the company, and it should tell potential
customers everything they require to comprehend about your company
right upfront.

A well-created logo helps marketing efforts in different kinds of ways:

 Brand Awareness: Think of practically any consumer brand – what instantly pops
into your mind? Most possible, it is their logo. For the best brands, logos, cross-
cultural barriers, and international borders, it is becoming easily recognizable
around the world.
Take the example of Pepsi, for instance. By all means, it is one of the most well-
known brands in the world. It does not matter that whether the logo is written in
English – or that it uses a cursive description that peaked in fame 150 years ago –
90% of people all around the world know it when they just see it.

That may be an obvious example, but it refers to how vital a good logo is to attract
the eye of customers in crowded markets.

 Brand Identity: Logos can show potential customers a great understanding of your
business without having to utter anything. Pepsi Script shows its long history and a
core product that has remained unchanged for more than 60 years. People choose
 Pepsi because it is a dependable product. They know what they are getting from
it.
Associating with an old-fashioned logo year after year benefits selling the message
that the product has withstood the test of time and that there is no need to fix
what is not broken.

2. Brand messaging
What can you give offers to customers? How do your brand experience or services
compare with the competition’s? What do customers receive from your business
that they cannot receive anywhere else? Your brand messaging should answer for
these questions and more. It specifies what your company is, permeating
everything from product descriptions to marketing materials to tag lines.

There a lot of other factors that are outlined in brand messaging, including:

 Key differentiators.
 Value proposition.
 Organizational culture.
 Brand principles.
 Product positioning.
 Target audience.
Everything your company tells should have significance, and that significance
3. Brand Positioning:
Brand positioning could easily be reflected a subset of brand messaging, but it is
quite enough to warrant its own discussion.

In short, brand positioning is how you put yourself apart from the competition.
What do you bring to the table that is entirely different from other brands in your
market? If you do not have a favorable answer to that question, it is going to be
hard to persuade potential customers to pick your business over another brand.

4. Brand Voice:
Brands are same as people: Each one has its own specific way of conveying itself.
Some are helpful, some are irreverent, some are unflaggingly professional and
some are aspirational. Building a brand voice and attaching to it across all touch
points, marketing campaigns and customer relation is highly crucial. Having a
strong brand voice stabilizes your company’s individuality, and any deviation could
negatively effect the understanding of your business.

Many companies require help specifying what exactly their brand voice should be,
and how to build it. Again, branding agencies thoroughly explore your industry,
customer base, and company culture to specify what the positive approach should
be. For example, a cheerful, conversational brand voice probably would not be
suitable for the financial services market where customers are searching for
professional assistance and guidance.

5. Style Guide:
Once you have specified your brand voice, you need to codify it, so every worker
and stakeholder understands how to pursue your branding guidelines. That is
where a style guide comes into being. Style guides can lay out your brand voice,
messaging, design principles, and more in explicit detail. They advise your staff
members and business partners on the specific language to use in various
scenarios. What color schemes to combine into design arrangements and how to
most efficiently communicate with your core audience.

Brand agencies will support to create precise style guides so there is never any
difficulty about how to best depict your business.

6. Social Media Branding:

Many companies do not understand the importance of social media branding and
struggling with it. On one hand, you want to have the same uniform branding
through all channels. On the other hand, social media platforms like Twitter often
shows more irreverent and playful content. Businesses require to discover a way
to stay real to their brand messaging, voice and values while still taking benefit
of social media’s inherent strengths. It is a tough balancing act, and many
companies wind up falling straight on their faces. That is why working with a
professional branding agency can be so beneficial. They have a deep
understanding of what content works on various social media networks and
effectively utilize those platforms without losing brand integrity.
Service environment
Service environments relate to the style and appearance of the physical
surroundings and other experiential elements encountered by customers at
service delivery sites. Crafting the Service Environment focuses on the key
dimensions of service environments in the services cape model and not much on
its other aspects.The service environment includes all aspects of the
organization’s physical facility (servicescape) as well as other tangible aspects of
tangible communication. The service environment is used as a criteria in
evaluating services by consumers.Designing the service environment is an art
that involves a lot of time and effort, and can be expensive to implement.
Service environments relate to the style and appearance of the physical
surroundings and other experiential elements encountered by customers at
service delivery sites.For many service firms, there are four main purposes of
servicescapes: (1) shape customers’ experiences and behaviors; (2) signal quality
and position, differentiate and strengthen the brand; (3) be a core component of
the value proposition; and (4) facilitate the service encounter and enhance both
service quality .One of the most important principles learned by the guest
service industry is to provide the setting customers expect. Another is to create
an environment that meets or exceeds customer needs for safety, security,
support, competence, physical comfort, and psychological comfort.framework
for the service environment, involving six dimensions: physical artifacts;
intangible artifacts; technology; customer placement; customer involvement;
interaction with eThe service environment plays a major role in shaping
customers’ Perception of a firm’s image and positioning. As service quality often
is Difficult to assess, customers frequently use the service environment as An
important quality signal. A well-designed service environment makes Customers
feel good and boosts their satisfaction, and allows the firm to Influence their
behavior (e.g., adhering to the service script and impulse .Purchasing) while
enhancing the productivity of the service ooperationThe physical service
environment customers experience plays a key role in shaping the service
experience and enhancing (or undermining) Customer satisfaction, especially in
high-contact, people-processing.Environments that make customers feel
comfortable and highly satisfied, and leave a long-lasting impression. In fact,
organizations such as Hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and offices of professional
service firms have Come to recognize that the service environment is an
important element Of their services marketing mix and overall value
proposition.Designing the service environment is an art that involves a lot of
time and effort, and can be expensive to implement. Service environments, Also
called servicescapes, relate to the style and appearance of the physical
Surroundings and other experiential elements encountered by customers Of
service environments in the servicescape model and not much on its other
aspects
Delivery of services through intermediaries
Nowadays, many services are delivered by intermediaries. Two service
marketers are involved in indirect distribution; the service principal and the
service deliverer. The service principal is the originator and the service deliverer
is the intermediary. The service principal is the entity which creates the service
concept. The service deliverer is the entity which deals with the customers
during the execution of the service. Thus, in the indirect channel, both the
service supplier and the intermediaries play an important role.
Role of service intermediaries in Indirect distribution
Service intermediaries discharge many important functions for the service
principal.

1. Service intermediaries co-produce the service and make the service

available to customers at a place and time of their choice, thus fulfilling the
promises made by the service firms to customers.

2. The Franchisee uses the process developed by the service principal and
renders satisfying service to customers.
3. Service intermediaries also make service locally available.
4. Intermediaries act as multiple service principals. Intermediaries such as travel
agents and insurance agents provide retailing function to customers.
5. In many financial or professional services, intermediaries build a relationship
based on trust which is essential in a complex service offering.
6. Services are intangibles and perishables and inventories do not exist.
Therefore, service distribution focuses on identifying ways to bring the
customer and principal together. Service intermediaries such as franchisees
agents, brokers, etc., act as a connecting link between the service firm and
customers.
7. Service intermediaries deliver services according to the specifications of
the principals.
8. Service intermediaries are in direct contact with the customers. So, they are
in a position to determine the way customers perceive the quality of the
service.
9. Service intermediaries advise the customers on the choice of the service
which satisfies their needs.
10. Intermediaries provide after sales support to the customers. For example,
an insurance agent guides the policy holder in making a claim and goes
through the procedural formalities in connection with that claim.
11. An intermediary, as a co-producer of a service shares the risks of providing
services by contributing their own capital to acquire the equipment needed for
the delivery of service.
12. A service provider sells only his own services. But consumers prefer to
buy service from an intermediary who offers a wide variety of services
including these offered by competing service principals. The advantage of
intermediaries is that they offer different services at one location.
13. Intermediaries relieve the service principal from the botheration of making
huge investment on his own. As intermediaries operate at different places, a
service principal can invest his funds in core services.
Complaince mgmt
 Compliance management is the ongoing process of monitoring and assessing
systems to ensure they comply with industry and security standards, as well as
corporate and regulatory policies and requirements.
Automate your compliance management
How to manage compliance
This involves infrastructure assessment to identify systems that are noncompliant
due to regulatory, policy, or standards changes, misconfiguration, or any other
reason.
Compliance management is important because noncompliance may result in fines,
security breaches, loss of certification, or other damage to your business. Staying
on top of compliance changes and updates prevents disruption of your business
processes and saves money.
To successfully monitor and manage compliance for your business’s infrastructure,
you’ll need to:
Assess: Identify systems that are noncompliant, vulnerable, or unpatched.
Organize: Prioritize remediation actions by effort, impact, and issue severity.
Remediate: Quickly and easily patch and reconfigure systems that require action.
Report: Validate that changes were applied and report change results.
Compliance management challenges
A few things that can make compliance management difficult are:
*Changing security and compliance landscapes: Security threats and compliance
changes evolve quickly, requiring rapid response to new threats and evolving
regulations.
*Distributed environments across multiple platforms: As infrastructures become
more distributed across on-site and cloud platforms, it becomes more difficult to
get a complete view of your environment and any risks and vulnerabilities that
might be present.
*Large environments and teams: Large, complex infrastructures and teams can
complicate coordination across your environment and organization. In fact, system
complexity can increase the cost of a data breach.
Compliance best practices and recommended tools
The best way to meet each of these challenges is with a multifaceted approach
that will monitor all environments, identify any regulatory inconsistencies, address
those inconsistencies and bring them up to date and into compliance, and keep a
record of these updates.These best practices can help you stay abreast of any
regulatory changes and keep your systems compliant:
*Regular system scans: Daily monitoring can help you identify compliance issues,
as well as security vulnerabilities, before they impact business operations or result
in fees or delays.
* automation: As the size of your infrastructure grows and changes, it becomes
more challenging to manage manually. Using automation can streamline common
tasks, improve consistency, and ensure regular monitoring and reporting, which
then frees you up to focus on other aspects of your business.
*Consistent patching and patch testing: Keeping systems up to date can boost
security, reliability, performance, and compliance. Patches should be applied once
a month to keep pace with important issues, and patching can be automated.
Patches for critical bugs and defects should be applied as soon as possible. Be sure
to test patched systems for acceptance before placing them back into production.
*Connect your tools: Distributed environments often contain different
management tools for each platform. Integrate these tools via application
programming interfaces (APIs). This allows you to use your preferred interfaces to
perform tasks in other tools. Using a smaller number of interfaces streamlines
operations and improves visibility into the security and compliance status of all
systems in your environment.
*some tools that can help are: Proactive scanning: Automated scanning can
ensure systems are monitored at regular intervals and alert you to issues without
expending much staff time and effort.
*Actionable insight: Information that is tailored to your environment can help you
more quickly identify which compliance issues and security vulnerabilities are
present, which systems are affected, and what potential impacts you can expect.
*Customizable results: Define business context to reduce false positives, manage
business risk and provide a more realistic view of your security and compliance
status are ideal.
*Prescriptive, prioritized remediation: Prescriptive remediation instructions
eliminate the need to research actions yourself, saving time and reducing the risk
of mistakes. Prioritization of actions based on potential impact and systems
affected help you make the most of limited patching windows.
*Intuitive reporting: Generating clear, intuitive reports about which systems are
patched, which need patching, and which are noncompliant with security and
regulatory policies increases auditability and helps you gain a better understanding
of the status of your environment.

SERVICE GUARANTEE
Service guarantee’ as defined, “an assurance of the quality of or length of use to
be expected from product offered for sale, often with a promise of
reimbursement.” A guarantee is a particular type of recovery tool. Although
guarantees are relatively common for manufactured products, they have only
recently been used for services.Traditionally, many people believed that services
simply could not be guaranteed given their intangible and variable nature. What
would be guaranteed? With a product, the customer is guaranteed that the
product will perform as promised and if doesn’t, that it can be returned. With
services, it is generally not possible to take returns or to “undo” what has been
performed. Again, this raised the question for many of what could be guaranteed,
and how.The skepticism about service guarantees is being dispelled; however, as
more and more companies find they can guarantee their services and that there
are tremendous benefits for doing so. Companies are finding that effective service
guarantees can complement the company’s service recovery strategy—serving as
one tool to help accomplish the service recovery strategies.
The benefits to the company of an effective service guarantee are as follows:
(i) Sets Clear Standards for the Organisation – It prompts the company to
clearly define what it expects of its employees and to communicate that to
them. The guarantee gives employees service-oriented goals that can
quickly align employee behaviours around customer strategies.
(ii) Forces the Company to Focus on its Customers – To develop a meaningful
guarantee, the company must know what is important to its customers —
what they expect and value. In many cases “satisfaction” is guaranteed,
but in order for the guarantee to work effectively, the company must
clearly understand what satisfaction means for its customers (what they
value and expect).
(iii) A Good Service Guarantee Studies the Impact on Employee Morale and
Loyalty – A Guarantee generates pride among employees. Through
feedback from the guarantee, improvements can be made in the service
that benefits customers, and indirectly employees.
(iv) Immediate and Relevant Feedback from Customers – It provides an
incentive for customers to complain and, thereby, provides more
representative feedback to the company than simply relying on the
relatively few customers who typically voice their concerns. The guarantee
communicates to customers that they have the right to complain.
(v) Reduces their Sense of Risk and Builds Confidence in the Organisation for
Customers – Because services are intangible and often highly personal or
ego involving, customers seek information and cues that will help reduce
their sense of uncertainty.

Types of service Guarantee

(i) A Specific Guarantee — Signals firm commitment on specific
attribute performance such as delivery time or price. Specific
guarantees allow customers to evaluate service by disconfirming
attribute performance expectations. From the firm’s perspective, a
specific guarantee can serve not only as a benchmark to guide
employee efforts and firm process design, but also as a performance
measure. However, the narrow focus on some attributes may not be
 highly valued or appreciated by a heterogeneous customer base,
although it may appeal to certain segments.
(ii) An Unconditional Guarantee — Promises performance on all aspects
of service, and “in its pure form, promises complete customer
satisfaction, and at a minimum, a full refund or complete, no cost
problem resolution for the payout.” Unconditional guarantees
require a slightly different firm approach since variables that
determine customer satisfaction such as effect and cognitive
evaluations of attribute performance (Oliver) are not within the
firm’s control.implementation of unconditional guarantees requires
firms to focus efforts on managing customer interactions instead of
specific service attributes. The distinction between specific or overall
(unconditional) performance is important as it defines the scope of
the marketing effort required to communicate and support the
guarantee, and has widely different implications for service
guarantee design and management.
(iii) Implicit Guarantee — As the term suggests, it is an unwritten,
unspoken guarantee that establishes an understanding between the
firm and its customers. Customers may infer that an implicit
guarantee is in place when a firm has an outstanding reputation for
service quality. The focus of an implicit guarantee is customer
satisfaction. Previous research suggests that customers are more
likely to rely on explicit firm promises instead of implicit cues to
make inferences about the firm.
(iv) An Internal Guarantee — Is “a promise or commitment by one part
of the organization to another to deliver its products or services in a
specified way or incur a meaningful penalty, monetary or
otherwise.” Since implicit guarantees are unconditional guarantees
(without formal expression of explicit commitment) and the focus of
internal guarantees is limited to coordinating functions and
employees, the subsequent discussion includes only specific and
unconditional guarantees.
 MODULE- 5

Tourism Marketing
Tourism marketing is a term which is used to refer to that business discipline by
which the visitors are attracted to a particular location which can be a state, a city,
a particular heritage site or tourist destination spot, a hotel or a convention center
anything.
The location can be anything which has the potential for attracting a tourist who
comes to visit a new place.
concept of Tourism Marketing
Tourism marketing is associated with marketing strategies in the field of
tourism. Today there are many countries in the world, where tourism plays a
major role in enhancing their GDP.
In such cases, tourism marketing becomes an important thing. Many of the places
are generally the hotspot for tourists like Taj Mahal in India. Now places like these
are considered the perfect areas where one can boost tourism marketing.
The places which are more likely to be the major spots for attracting tourists are
the places where tourism marketing flourishes the most. Now tourism marketing is
all about applying several marketing techniques and strategies to boost the
tourism industry of that place.
For a successful tourism marketing to take place, the thing that is required the
most is that the brands should speak for themselves in such a way that their voices
can be heard in the targeted markets. Tis way they will be able to generate
cleanest successfully. Also, they need to be really careful in providing services to
clients.
This is because if the customers are happy with the services chances they will
spread the word and this may bring them more customers. In the case of tourism
marketing, it becomes easy to find and draw the attention of the targeted
customers towards the website by providing encouraging contents. Thus strategic
planning and branding is the key to effective tourism marketing.
Marketing mix for Tourism
The marketing mix for any service industry is discussed as 8Ps. They are,
1. Product Elements 5. Promotion & Education
2. Process 6. People
3. Place and Time 7. Price & other user costs
4. Productivity and Quality 8. Physical Evidence

1. Product
Product in Tourism is basically the experience and hospitality provided by the
service provided. In general the experience has to be expressed in such a way that
the tourists see a value in them.
2. Process
The process in Tourism include, (a) trip planning and anticipation, (b) travel to the
site/area, (c) recollection, (d) trip planning packages. The trip planning packages
include, maps, attractions en route and on site, information regarding lodging,
food, quality souvenirs and mementoes
3. Place and Time – Location and Accessibility
The place and time in tourism is providing directions and maps, providing
estimates of travel time and distances from different market areas, recommending
direct and scenic travel routes, identifying attractions and support facilities along
different travel routes, and informing potential customers of alternative travel
methods to the area such as airlines and railroads.
4. Productivity and Quality
This is similar to other service industries. The quality is assessed by time taken for
a service, the promptness of the service, reliability and so on.
5. Promotion and Education
Like other services, the promotion should address, the accurate and timely
information helping to decide whether to visit target audience, the image to be
created for the organization, objectives, budget, timing of campaign, media to be
selected, and evaluation methods.
6. People
People is the centre for Tourism. It is more a human intensive sector. For
hospitality and guest relations it is very important to focus on people. It also plays
a vital role in quality control, personal selling, and employee morale.
7. Price and other user costs
The price of the tourism services depend on business and target market objectives,
cost of producing, delivering and promoting the product, willingness of the target,
prices charged by competitors offering similar product/service to the same target
markets, availability and prices of substitute products/services, and economic
climate. The possibility of stimulating high profit products/services by offering
related services at or below cost.
8. Physical Evidence
In Tourism the physical evidence is basically depends on travel experience, stay,
and comfort.
.
Marketing of financial service
Banking Industry
The bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits and lends that money to
its customers. As banks deal with their customers'finances, banking is a high-
involvement service. Therefore banks need to win the trust of their customers.
Based on the customer profiles, banks segment their market into retail banking,
corporate banking, personal banking etc.

Depending on customer needs for finance, the market can also be segmented into
trade finance, consumer finance, etc. For the banker to derive maximum returns
and enhance his market position the marketing mix has to be effectively managed.
The products offered by a bank may be in the core or augmented form. The core
products offered by a bank include a savings bank account or a housing loan.

The augmented product includes services like internet banking, ATMs, 24-hour
customer service etc. These augmented services help the banker differentiate his
service offering from those of his competitors. In the pricing of banking services,
determining the interest rates plays an important role, as these rates in turn
determine the revenues and profits of the bank.

The multiple sources of revenue for today's banks include annual charges for core
services and augmented services, penalties, commissions for cross selling and
charges for payment of utility bills, apart from the differential interest rate. The
basic pricing strategy in banks is based on risk-return pay-offs. However, the
competitor and customer reaction have to be taken into consideration while
initiating a price change.

The place element of the marketing mix refers to making the services available and
accessible to customers. Improvements in the availability and accessibility of
services have changed the process of banking. Technological innovations have
given rise to modern channels like the Internet, which have helped banks increase
business volumes and attract new customers.

ATMs and credit and debit cards offer convenience to customers and have also
improved the efficiency of banking operations. These changes have helped banks
tackle the challenges of services marketing. The promotion or communication mix
in banking refers to varied strategies like personal selling, advertising, discounts,
and publicity etc. used by present day banks to promote their service offerings.

People also play an important role, even though their role has been eclipsed by
technology in the recent past. Process determines the efficiency of banking
operations and thus the service quality in a bank. Physical evidence includes the
infrastructure and buildings not only in branch offices, but also the ATMs or other
places of interaction. Even the quality of cheque books and mailers to customers
forms physical evidence.

The banking industry has changed drastically over the past decade. The banking
reforms and the opening of the economy to foreign and private banks have
improved the working of the public sector banks. This has resulted in improved
service to the customers of the banking industry. Increased competition and
technology have enhanced the quality of service offered to the customers and also
improved the returns for bankers.
Insurance Industry
The insurance business is based on customers'trust and confidence as it deals with
the finances of the customer. The basis for a well-planned and well-executed
marketing strategy is effective market segmentation. Insurance is broadly
segmented into individuals, institutions, industry, and trade customers. Most
industry players offer specialized services to cater to the needs of these segments.

Some marketers target niche markets and offer customized services. The scope of
insurance has increased with more private and foreign players entering the
market. They have introduced many innovative services targeted at different
segments. Price plays an important role in marketing of insurance as it determines
the premium to be paid by the customer.

Pricing of insurance products is influenced by competitor strategy and the

prevailing interest rate, but is basically determined by the risk involved. The higher
the risk involved for the marketer, the higher the price. As insurance needs to be
‘pushed'in the market, the importance of interaction between the service deliverer
and the customer increases.

Therefore, agents, brokers and employees of the company become important

channels of distribution for the service. Though unconventional channels like
bancassurance, the Internet and tie-ups with automobile marketers have
emerged, the role of agents cannot be discounted. Insurance companies have
simplified their processes of service design and delivery to offer greater
convenience to customers and reduce their perceived costs.

Physical evidence can be provided to insurance customers in the form of policy

certificate and premium payment receipts. The office building, the ambience, the
service personnel etc. of the insurance company and their logo and brand name in
advertisements also add to the physical evidence. Private and foreign players
entered the Indian insurance market in 1999 after the reforms were initiated.
*Their entry ushered in new competition and improved the service quality offered
to the customer. With awareness increasing, customer expectations also
increased. New distribution channels and innovative promotional strategies also
evolved because of the increased competition. All these led to the development of
the insurance industry and expanded the market in India.
Mutual Fund Industry
A mutual fund pools the savings from numerous investors and invests them in
diversified securities in the capital market in order to optimize the returns, safety
and liquidity and offer the maximum benefits to investors. Mutual funds can be
divided into open-ended, closed-ended and interval schemes, based on their
structure.

The mutual funds market can be segmented into growth fund, income fund,
balanced fund and money-market fund, based on the customer's investment
objective. In purchasing mutual funds, investors look for capital appreciation,
liquidity and safety. Therefore, marketers are required to design the products
keeping those objectives in mind.

Products that are customized and designed to suit the risk profile of the customer
and his investment objective are offered in the market. The price of a fund chiefly
depends on the underlying stocks' performances and the stock market trends. The
company's performance allows it to charge a load on the purchase and
redemption prices.

The various channels of distribution used by mutual fund companies include their
own employees, distribution companies, agents, banks and post offices apart from
the Internet. The role of people becomes quite important in the mutual fund
industry for two reasons. The fund manager determines the success of a fund in
the market. As there is limited knowledge of mutual funds among investors, they
need to be convinced by the employees and agents to invest in mutual funds.

The mutual fund industry has evolved as a competitive industry in the financial
services sector with the introduction of reforms. The entry of global and private
players and the inventions of technology like the Internet have transformed the
business completely. The development of the equity market has made the mutual
fund an attractive investment option for consumers. The option to invest in
foreign equities is expected to change the mutual fund market in India further.
Marketing of professional services
Marketing Strategies for Healthcare
In healthcare, it’s not always easy to jump on the latest marketing bandwagon.
There are regulations around what you can and can’t say; you’re often talking
about sensitive subjects and the power of online means once something’s on the
'net, it’s there forever.
As a result, many healthcare companies we speak to are passionate about finding
and unpicking the latest marketing strategies. They’re desperate to find new ways
to market their healthcare organizations and want the best techniques to make
their ideas a success.

1. Use messaging apps. 6. Create content for niche

2. Set up digital signage. communities.
3. Test influencer marketing. 7. Engage with social media.
4. Create lead buckets. 8. Employ video marketing.
5. Increase internal marketing.

1. Use messaging apps

The world of your customers is noisy. There are TV and radio ads, email, social
media and a lot of it just gets blocked out. You know what doesn’t? Text messages.
Text messages are one message medium likely to be opened with minutes of being
received. That makes them a great way to communicate with patients on the really
important stuff
2. Set up digital signage
 To amplify social media using social media dashboards, tweet walls and
Instagram galleries in patient waiting rooms.
 YouTube video playlists with relevant health and medical information, led by
your organization or others
 Branded content and advertising displays from carefully selected partners,
which help to increase healthcare revenue
3. Test influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a huge trend in business-to-consumer brands who are
looking to increase validation for their products or services. Influencers are
traditionally those who have built up a community or audience based on their
personal brand.

4. Create lead buckets

Lead buckets are a type of exchange you can create with potential patients where
you swap something mutually beneficial for the chance to gain their details and be
in contact with them.
This could be the offer of:
 A free health consultation
 An invite to an event or workshop
 New research or information before anyone else
 A dedicated or niche patient group
 An eBook or whitepaper to read

5. Increase internal marketing

We’re often so focused on our external marketing strategy that we forget about
the communications going on inside. A study by McKinsey Global Institute
discovered that productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations where
employees feel connected.
Then you have employee advocacy. If you have 100 employees, all telling their
friends and family how great your healthcare plans are, you could easily reach
thousands of potential patients, for free.
6. Create content for niche communities
Healthcare is extremely personal. Unless an issue is affecting us personally, it’s
unlikely we’ll want to read information about it. The most effective marketing
strategies are the ones that focus on a specific issue within a niche community.
This could be creating an online landing page, a printed checklist of symptoms, a
short talk on condition management or even a podcast aimed at carers of those
suffering from dementia or cancer sufferers.
7. Engage with social media
Studies show that 41% of people would choose a healthcare provider based on
their social media reputation. That makes a social media strategy feel much more
important to your business aims doesn’t it? Channels such as Facebook, Twitter,
and LinkedIn give you a way to connect with customers outside of their
appointments alone. Creating and publishing regular content across these
channels keeps you front and mind of center, so that when you are needed
patients know where to turn.
8. Employ video marketing
Video is currently hugely underutilized in the world of healthcare marketing. As a
strategy, it’s proven at effectively being able to capture the attention of audiences.
In fact, according to studies, 90% of companies that use video content have a
chance of having an impact on audience decisions.
Video marketing can be used to create guides and information packs, to show an
insight or “behind the scenes” look at your healthcare environment and to share
patient stories and testimonials

Information technology
Essential IT Marketing Strategies
How do tech services firms address these threats and build competitive
advantage? We find there are six key strategies that can help firm win:
1. Research
By conducting research on your marketplace, you’ll know your clients’ needs and
expectations better — which puts you in a position to serve them more effectively.
Market research also gives you insight into how your processes are performing.
You can develop a more objective, thorough understanding of which aspects of
your firm are performing best, as well as insight into which services you should
offer.
This is a philosophy that should be familiar to many in the technology services
industry: with more data, you can make more effective decisions. Our own
research has shown that firms that conduct systematic research on their prospects
and clients grow three to ten times faster – and are up to two times more
profitable.
2. An Impressive WebsiteIn the past, many tech firms grew by word of mouth.
The technology almost sold itself, so they didn’t have to market much – which is
why many tech firms have poor websites with poor user experiences.
These days, though, particularly in the technology services industry, your
website must be impressive. For clients, it is a direct indicator of your credibility.
Our research on referral marketing shows that an unimpressive website is among
the top reasons that buyers rule out referrals.
But your website isn’t just a tool to help you avoid getting ruled out. It serves as
the hub for your online presence, joining expert content, explanation of your
services, social media platforms, and more. That’s why, according to our
research, 80% of buyers use your website to check you out – making your website
the most common source for information about your firm.
Remember, too, that your website has to look impressive however it is displayed,
whether on a phone or a tablet or a desktop. Mobile browsing has become so
important that Google is making mobile-friendliness a factor in search rankings.
For these reasons, you should ensure that your site leverages responsive design to
adapt to the form factor of a visitor’s device.
3. Cultivating Visible Experts®
Remember the importance of client education? In addition to satisfying an
audience demand, producing educational content helps build the profile of
individual experts within your firm. In fact, this process is essential for technology
firms. By building the profile of professionals within your firm, they can eventually
become Visible Experts – the sort of industry rock stars who headline conferences,
attract both business and talent, and come to define a firm.
Visible Experts are such a powerful asset because of the “Halo Effect.” When
audiences view one of your experts as authoritative, that glow transfers to the firm
as a whole. Your firm’s increased status transfers in turn to other individual
professionals within the organization, who can use the added credibility to
build their reputations as Visible Experts. It’s a positive feedback loop, and it’s a
powerful advantage for technology services firms.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Like the technology services marketplace as a whole, SEO is constantly evolving –
and it’s crucial to keep up. Yesterday’s best practices can become today’s cause for
penalty. But in a hypercompetitive environment where visibility is critical, effective
use of SEO is mandatory.
What do firms need to know about SEO? The key is this: “on-site” SEO (in a
nutshell) increases your site’s relevance through strategic use of targeted keyword
phrases associated with your services and expertise, in combination with a strong
technical SEO foundation on your website.
Download the 2018 High Growth Study: Technology Services Edition
“Off-site” SEO increases your site’s perceived authority through earned links, social
media, brand mentions, and external thought leadership pieces like guest articles.
For a more detailed plan of action, we’ve developed an SEO strategy for B2B firms.
5. Content Marketing
Again and again, we return to educational content – and that’s because it is the
engine behind your entire IT marketing strategy. In fact, the “content funnel” is
key for IT services marketing, attracting relevant audiences and working to drive
closer and closer engagements that qualify leads and ultimately generate new
business.
Content marketing encompasses a variety of content types across a variety of
channels, including your own web properties – your website, blog, and social
media presences – as well as other web properties. Through media, professional
partners, content syndication, and guest blogging, you can spread your expertise
to a range of new audiences.
And this is the core goal of content marketing. By educating target audiences and
addressing their challenges through content, you will build credibility and visibility
that will ultimately lead to new business and to growth.
6. Social Media
It’s a fact: social media is a key factor in the growth of B2B firms. It’s an essential
channel for not only networking with people in the marketplace and participating
in industry conversation, but also sharing your content and driving engagement
with your audience.
Marketing mix of educational service
1.Product
 product delivered by the education Institutions are various certificate that are
issued by Institutions or university after successful completion of course
 The intangible product delivered by the education Institutions are knowledge,
skill and experience to candidate
 for example from that can be MBA course engineering degree extra
2.Price
 price is determined by a number of factors including reputation of the
institution, competition, service quality, placement ,private or public ownership,
infrastructure facilities provided, location of the institution, mode of education,
brand name of the education institution etc.
 Here price reflects the quality of the service provided to the students
 for example price of Engineering is around 50000 to 5 lakh per year.
3.Place
 place represents the location where and educational institute is established. it is
often referred to as the service centre .
 If the institution is located at a metro city. It will provide much more
competitive edge than if it is located in rural place .
 location also reflect the price and the promotion activities of the institution
 for eg education Institutions from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, etc are more
prestigious than other institutions
4.Promotion
 positive word to mouth communication has been found the best tool for
promotion of educational industry
 outdoor advertising in form of print media like a hoarding, banner etc are used.
 Now-a-days Institutions are using digital marketing techniques like SMS, email,
social media etc for promotion
5.People
 people means teaching fraternity and non-teaching community directly and
indirectly associated with service rendered to students.
 Satisfaction and retention of students soleLY depends on the way the
teachers are in the position to deliver the best services to students
 for example -professor, guest lecture , lab assistant ,librarian, security guard
etc
6.Process
 The wat service providers Render services to the students play a vital role in
gaining competitive advantage
 If the service process is hassle-free, simple, understandable, students friendly
and technology based. It will definitely make the instuation with differences
 for eg- process of teaching, process of practical learning, process of placement
7.Physical Evidence
 it is the direct sensory experience of a service that allow a student to measure
whether he or she has receive adequate facilities by the education institution
 It might include state-of-the-art Technology, building, parking facility,
playground, swimming pool, Indoor Stadium, transportation facility, hostel
,classroom computer laboratory, canteen etc.

Best Education Marketing Strategies

The best education marketing strategies in 2020—regardless of whether they’re
used in marketing for schools or in marketing for educational apps—take
advantage of the tremendous opportunities created by the internet.
That’s not to say that traditional advertising strategies, such as billboards, flyers
and brochures, print ads, and face to face meetings, have no place in the digital
era, but their return on investment makes them far less attractive than modern
digital marketing strategies.
Let’s take a look at these seven strategies for marketing education in 2021.
1. Use Social Media Platforms to Connect with Your Audience
2. Include Digital Advertising in Your Marketing Budget
3. Create a Mobile-Friendly Website with an Optimized Landing Page
4. Encourage Students to Leave Online Reviews
5. Create Engaging Video Content
6. Promote Safety
7. Create Educational Apps