Service_Marketing

SERVICE MARKETING Question 1 how service would provide competitive advantage' Best Answer – Many firms strive for a competitive advantage, but few truly understand what it is or how to achieve and keep it. A competitive advantage can be gained by offering the consumer a greater value than the competitors, such as by offering lower prices or providing quality services or other benefits that justify a higher price. The strongest competitive advantage is a strategy that that cannot be imitated by other companies. SERVICE DIFFERENTIATION Companies can also differentiate the services that accompany the physical product. Two companies can offer a similar physical product, but the company that offers additional services can charge a premium for the product. Mary Kay cosmetics offers skin-care and glamour cosmetics that are very similar to those offered by many other cosmetic companies; but these products are usually accompanied with an informational, instructional training session provided by the consultant. This additional service allows Mary Kay to charge more for their product than if they sold the product through more traditional channels What can a commercial organization sell without a buying customer' What keeps a customer loyal to your business, rather than buying from your competitors' Customer service, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty go hand in hand. The competitive advantage excellent customer service creates is just that -- excellent service. Imagine if you were horrible at providing the product your competitors and you provide (bad customer service). Your competitors would be thrilled. Now imagine, with proper training ;), providing that product in the best context possible... making your customer feel great (and ready to tell hundreds of people about their experience through the most effective type of marketing -- word-of-mouth)! Question 4 Service design – costumer encounter how to get costumer into Answer A Definition of Service Design by Bernhard Schindlholzer, follow me on Twitter The Copenhagen Institute of Design has a nice definition of Service Design: Service Design is an emerging field focused on the creation of well thought through experiences using a combination of intangible and tangible mediums. It provides numerous benefits to the end user experience when applied to sectors such as retail, banking, transportation, & healthcare. Service design as a practice generally results in the design of systems and processes aimed at providing a holistic service to the user. This cross-disciplinary practice combines numerous skills in design, management and process engineering. Services have existed and have been organised in various forms since time immemorial. However, consciously designed services that incorporate new business models are empathetic to user needs and attempt to create new socio-economic value in society. Service design is essential in an knowledge driven economy What is Design for Service' Service Design is about managing the components of a service and its interaction – the varying touchpoints – with the customer. It involves the following:  What is the purpose of the service'  Who are the actors involved in the service'  What does “perfect” service look like' Feel like'  What is the process path and customer journey of a “perfect” service' Describe each touchpoint.  What are the failure-mode scenarios' What are the appropriate service or system response for each of those failure-mode scenarios' Describe each touchpoint. The above are just some items that need to be considered when designing for service. Service Design: Difference in Customer Experience True, my experience doesn’t involve a touchpoint with a human or with a service. But, my interaction with a product (the trampoline) exposes some principles that clearly apply to service. Here are some key takeaways: 1. Design with fewest parts as possible: without the safety enclosure, there was almost a 1:3 difference in parts. Analogous to service, service design needs to be architected with the fewest steps, parts, and touchpoints as possible. 2. Design with simple structures: our old trampoline was a circle shape and I found that the legs were very hard to put on because a circle, while simple, is sometimes not molded to specifications perfectly. While the new trampoline was designed as a hexagon – straight lines – and that was very easy to put together. 3. Design with purpose: I wanted to spend the least amount of time putting a trampoline together and more of my time playing on it with my kids. Service Design should be viewed from the same perspective – what does the customer hope to accomplish' If the customer were designing the service, how would she do it' If you think about, the above points are almost common sense. But experience tells us that it’s clearly not common practice. This means there’s great opportunity for who wish to improve both products and service. Question 5 Costumer retention ----- loyalty Customer Retention and Loyalty: Find Out What Your Customers Want Before Your Competitors Do Customer Service, Retention and Loyalty By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE Satisfy your customers... or someone else will. Your prospects and customers can give you important feedback, both directly and indirectly. After addressing a group of sales contest winners in Hawaii, I was on the shuttle bus headed for the airport. My usual custom is to ask questions, so I said to the driver, "I bet your passengers tell you what they really think about their stays at these fancy resorts because they know you don't work for any of them." "Oh, yes," he replied. "In fact, once a month, the general manager of the hotel where you stayed comes to the depot with a big box of donuts and has coffee with the drivers. While we eat his donuts, we tell him everything we've overheard about his hotel -- and about his competitors' hotels." That is what I call Box-of-Donuts consulting. The hotel manager could have paid large fees to a research firm that would phone 1,000 guests and ask what they liked and didn't like. But that information couldn't possibly be as up-to-date or as honest as these drivers' feedback, nor would it give him valuable information about his competition. Do you get, keep, and deserve your customers by finding out what they really want from you' The most frequently overlooked low- tech method is to talk to someone who talks to your customers and has no vested interest in their opinions. But this doesn't mean you don't also interview them formally. The Ritz-Carlton Hotels, famous for customer service, do regular formal surveys with cards in the rooms and mailings. Someone asked their president, Horst Schulze, "Why don't you offer a 'frequent guest' program'" (Such programs are a major investment of organizational time and philosophical strategy.) Schulze replied, "We don't because only two percent of our customers have asked for them. What our customers do want is to have a bowl of fresh fruit in the room when they check in." So that's what the Ritz- Carlton Hotels provide. When you know what people really want, it is rarely difficult or expensive to make them feel special. Schulze was doing exactly right. My friend David Garfinkel, author of The Money-Making Copywriting Course, says there are five important answers you need to get from your customers, directly or indirectly: 1. What do you like about buying from us' 2. Why did you buy from us in the first place' 3. What problems did you have before you bought from us' 4. How did we help you solve those problems' 5. How are things better for you now' "That last answer," says David, "is very important. It's what a positive result looks like to a real customer, and it's going to look the same to your other customers and prospects when you tell them about it." Start some creative brainstorming. Consider who else might know what your customers are thinking. Is there some comfortable and ethical way you can talk with these people' One- on-one questioning' Maybe invite a group for a breakfast' Think about who in your business knows what your customers want. Is there a service that can provide you with an effective, economical market sample' Finding out what your customers want may seem obvious, but too often it's overlooked. After my morning program for a Fortune 100 company, I found the attendees were spending the afternoon seated at round tables, brainstorming the topic, "How can we give our customers better service'" Very innocently, I asked my client, "Oh, and where are the customers you've invited to sit in with your salespeople'" There weren't any. (This was like doing a survey of what hospital patients want by asking the doctors.) Research your competition so you know what they're offering, then research your prospects' wants and needs so you can do more for them as customers than your competition. For example, a Federal Express executive, Gurn Freeman, told me how, early in his career, he decided he wanted to go into the moving business. First, he opened the Yellow Pages and saw 128 movers listed. He phoned the first twenty-five and made an appointment for someone to come and talk to him, saying he was moving to Phoenix. At the end of every interview, he took notes on what they had done right, how they could have done better, and anything they did wrong. Next, he put together his own sales strategy. Gurn quickly became a top mover's representative. "My secret was to do something none of those other reps had done for me. If I had an appointment with someone who was moving to Phoenix, I would call the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and get all their free information and brochures for my prospective customer. I made it obvious that I had done my research before the sales appointment so I deserved their business. And I nearly always got it." Of course, you will come up with great ideas for serving your customers, but there is nothing like asking them what they need, want, and appreciate. (The Ritz-Carlton Hotels changed the style of their room locks three times in eleven years to address the changing preferences and security concerns of their guests.) Asking shows your customers how important they are to you. It's how you satisfy them and keep them from going elsewhere. Why should you try so hard to find out what your customers really want' Because your best customers are also the hottest prospects for your competitors. Satisfy them before someone else does! If other salespeople win over one of your loyal customers by offering more ideas and more service, maybe they have more right to the business than you do. When you lose a customer, you lose two ways: 1. You don't get their money. 2. Your competitors do. Question 6 Human resource people aspect on service quality Employees’ Commitment for Service Quality: Superior for achieving quality objectives of the organization. It services strongly depend on the organizational culture is concluded that quality in service sectors strongly that facilitates their human resource by implementing and depends on employees’ commitment with the practicing those policies that cause employees’ organization, training and development to enhance motivation, satisfaction with the job, commitment with employees’ skills, leaning abilities to perform their tasks the organization and customers as well. Commitment efficiently and effectively and the employees’ role for represents a strong association and loyalty with the providing superior services to the customers to enhance organization. Commitment is defined as attachment and customer satisfaction. loyalty [26]. Purcell et al. [27] stated that HR best Literature Review: In this competitive environment leadership role of the mangers, challenging jobs, organizations believe that they have to maintain the compensation and reward system are the key factors quality of products or services to sustain, survive, leading that influence commitment. Commeiras and Fournier the market and achieving the competitive advantages [28] pointed out that the concept of organizational which depend on organizations’ valuable asset i.e. commitment that is relationship between an individual and employees. The quality of the services or products can be organization is a key factor and this concept was emerged judged by its customers’ perception and expectation between 1970’s and 1980’s. Delivering superior quality about that services or products [14]. External Customer services to the customers, is strongly dependent on it loyalty and satisfaction strongly depends upon he highly motivated and committed human resource. Most of internal customers i.e. employees. Employees’ satisfaction the theorists in the field of motivation, agree that there is directly related to superior services. According to exist a strong association between motivation, job Schneider and Bowen [15], the strong relationship satisfaction and employees’ commitment with the between an organization and employee leads to a organization [29,30,31,32]. Meyer and Smith [33] explored real improvement in the services provided to the that employees’ organizational commitment is strongly customers. associated with their HR policies and practices. The quality of service is shaped up through valuable human Methodology: This research was conducted in the major resource by utilizing their abilities through empowerment, service sector of Pakistan economy. The target population motivation and the best use of their talent through was the employees working at managerial cadre in the organizational practices. Empowerment enhances national and multinational banks of Pakistan. Due to employees’ abilities, motivation and constructive use of limited resources, data was collected from local level their expertise [34,35]. HR practices strongly affect through questionnaire from the target organizations in the service quality in three different channels, firstly this sector. A simple random sampling technique was control based channel is used to enhance productivity used to select the organizations for the responses. This and efficiency, secondly knowledge base channel to study was based on survey technique and the survey was accustomed service delivery process and thirdly conducted on the well established organizations from the motivational based to increase employees’ satisfaction local level. One hundred and seventy-five questionnaires and well being through best HR and organizational were sent to these organizations. Only eighty nine policies and practices [7]. HRM practices related to questionnaires were received and response rate is fifty employees’ well being such as job security, compensation one percent. Questionnaire contained twenty factors and reward system, employees’ recognition create regarding employees’ loyalty with the organization, employees’ commitment for better services with the employees’ commitment with customer for superior customers [36]. A climate developed by organization for service quality, training and development and other employees’ well being creates an environment for superior factors effecting service quality. The results of the services as its output and empirically there exists a questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 and Chirelationship between HR practices and service climate square test was used to verify our hypothesis. Chi-square [16], [36]. The competency models in human resource test is a statistical tool that is commonly used in most of development literature suggest that HR best practices the empirical studies to analyze the qualitative data. This regarding recruitment and selection, training and study was three folded comprised of employees’ loyalty development, compensation and rewards system is the with the organization, employees’ commitment with the important ingredient for effective service quality [37].