Services Marketing Syllabus

SERVICE AS A BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT : Service is basically a different business as compared to the product business

• The P&L structure is different
• How the business expands is different
• Core competencies are different
• Ways of differentiation are different and ways of sustaining this differentiation is different
• Levers of top line and bottom line improvements are different
• Consumer behavior is different.
• Marketing Process , Techniques, Mix  are different
• How service quality is measured
• Classification and type of services
• How service business grows

HIGH AND LOW CONTACT SERVICE MODELS

• The value creation in "High contact" is highly subjective and happens during "service encounters" driven interactively by customers having complex needs and scripts. Thus "High Contact" services need service providers who need to respond to them in real time and undertake complex problem solving using DDDD loops. High contact business is crucially dependent on your being able to bring the right customers in front of right service providers within the right service scape - selecting the customers and managing their expectations is very important and so is training the service providers extensively and intensively. High contact business requires the presence of the customer who is a part of the process
• The value creation in "Low contact" services is driven, only to a limited extent, by the customers whose needs have been "pre-productized" ( First 3 Ds already known) and built into the system and only the last D (Deployment and Delivery) remains. Low contact business is dependent on having a good supply of people and space and a layout which promotes the right process which can be carried out efficiently. In fact it helps if the customer is not on the premises to interfere.

IMPROVING EXISTING SERVICE BUSINESS : Customer satisfaction can be improved by

• "The Gap Model" is essentially a way of developing operating procedures to increase customer satisfaction by "managing expectations" and then delivering according to those expectations by reducing the 4 gaps
• "Service Profit Chain Model" is a way of focusing on employees and treating them as being "the first market" that should be addressed by the company and indicates the leadership practices of recruiting, training, motivating and building the service providers
• "The service iceberg model" gives tips regarding how the front line supervisors can contribute to the service improvement.
• A good "Service recovery" process adds a lot of value to improving the business 

CREATING NEW SERVICE BUSINESS : This section focuses on

• Positioning of a service business
• Translating positioning into marketing mix
• Creating a service-scape for the intended business using the "3 Logics" model
• Creating a service blue print for planning and review and to identify touch points and hot spots