Process &

Service

Dr. Javed Mahmud

December 2020
 • The service marketing mix element, process refers to how a service
is provided to a customer.
• It involves the procedures, tasks, schedules, mechanisms, activities
and routines by which a service is delivered.
• Though service operation includes the entire service process, the
major concern is the service delivery.
• Customers tend to perceive the service delivery system as part of
the service itself.
• For example, the teaching methods, of a professor of marketing in a
business school (which can include lectures, group works,
assignments, case analysis, quiz, etc.) is perceived by the students
(customers) to be apart of the service itself.
Process in Service Marketing
• An efficient service will foster consumer loyalty and confidence in
the company.
 Planning, organizing, controlling

Materials
Labour
Resource
Machine Products
conversion
Power Services
process
Information
Technology

Service Operations
• Conversion of inputs into goods or services is essentially an
operations management function. Then why should a student of
service marketing study it?
• Process is considered to be a service marketing mix element
because a particular characteristic of service, inseparability.
• Services often cannot be separated from the person of the seller or
the buyer.
• Customers often have to be present at the ‘factory’ when the
service is produced and as they sometimes act as ‘co-producer’ of
services
• The process by which service is produced and delivered is
important in service marketing.

Why Marketers Study Process

Service processes may be classified in a number of ways. The
two considered here are according to:

a. the type of process

b. the degree of contact

Classification of Service Processes

Line Operations
• In a line operation an arranged sequence of operations or activities
take place.
• The service is produced by following this sequence.
• In manufacturing, a TV assembly line is an example of this type of
process. In service, a self-service restaurant demonstrates this
process.

Job-shop Operation
• A job-shop operation produces a variety of services using different
combinations and sequences of activities.
• The service can be customized to satisfy the diverse needs of
customers.
• Most restaurants practice job shop operations.
Type of process
 Self-service Restaurant
Restaurant with numerous food counters where customers can put together a meal of their choosing
Intermittent Operation
• Intermittent operations are used for totally customised services or
for services that are required after long intervals.
• An example of this type may be the catering service for a marriage
program where, the service provider delivers exactly what the client
orders.
• From the managerial viewpoint intermittent operations are much
more complex than line operation or job-shop operation.

Type of process
Low Level of Contact
• In some services minimum presence of the customer is required as
the service provider does all the work. In a laundry, customers just
deliver and pick up the cloths. They are not involved in the service
production process.

High Level of Contact

• In some services customers are present during the production
process and make take part by providing information, advice,
suggestions and even physical or mental labour. For example, a
lawyer’s clients will have to provide accurate and timely information
if they desire satisfactory service.
Degree of Contact
The service process has to take into consideration the following
components among others:

The type of technology and its adaptation

• These days numerous types of technology are available and
selecting the technology that best suits an organization is a vital
management decision.
• The technology selected has to serve the purpose of the firm, and
fit its image.

The equipment to use

• Just like technology, equipment and its proper adaptation has an
important role to plan in service process. For example, a bus
company that wants to provide excellent service cannot possibly
hope to do so with old, unreliable buses that break down often.
Planning a Service Process
The process user
• The service process may be operated by the customer, the
employees or it may be interactive where both the service provider
and buyer are involved. The process should thus be developed
keeping the user in perspective.

• The location, layout and design of the place of operation

• Location, layout and design also play important roles in service
delivery.
• A bank where a customer has to stand in three different queues in
different floors to collect payment against a fund sent from abroad,
needs to redesign its process.
• Similarly, operations where customers may have to wait for some
time, like a doctor’s chamber or hair dressing parlour should include
a awaiting
Planning Service Process room in its design.
Setting Objectives
• The common objectives of manufacturing organization like profit or
return on investment (ROI) often cannot be used in service
organizations.
• This is because a large number of service organizations are non-
profit in nature or for social welfare.

Matching Capacity and Demand

• Matching capacity and demand is much more difficult in a service
organization then it is in a manufacturing organization as services
are perishable

Conflict Between Marketing and Operations Management

• Due to different viewpoints there are often conflicts between
marketing and operation management units concerning process in
a service organization.
• For example, to increase profit marketing people will try to increase
sales, while operations managers will attempt to decrease costs.
Problems with Services Process
Quality Control
• Because of its heterogeneous nature, it is very difficult to control
the quality of the service product.

Application of the Resource Conversion Process

• The resource conversion process, shown at the beginning of the
chapter, implies that same process applied on identical inputs will
result in similar products.
• This may be true for goods manufacturing but this concept is often
not applicable in the case of service production.

Problems with Services Process

 Service blueprint is a map that demonstrates the service process, the points of

interaction between customers and employees and the tangibles used in service

delivery. It is basically a flowchart of the service process that clearly shows what

is expected of all players (customers, employees and managers) and the order of

events or activities in delivering a service.

Service Blueprint
 • Blueprint maps the entire service delivery process.
• As service evolved from very simple steps to complex processes, and there arose a
need for the marketer to get a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the whole process.
• Blueprinting is flowcharting of a service operation.
• It helps out service firms in mapping the sequences before the beginning of service
delivery or any encounter.
• This would help the service manager in identifying areas of potential failures, and
weak service delivery points — and identify solutions to overcome them.
• This would prevent the manager from learning by costly trial and error.

Role of Blueprints
 One-sided Blueprint:
• These are unbalanced blueprints based on management’s
perception of how a sequence of events should occur.
• This is the beginning of marketing myopia.
Two-sided Blueprint:
• This considers both employee and customer perceptions of
how events occur.

Types of Blueprints
 Tangibles
Customer Action
• Line of Interaction
‘Onstage’ Contact Employee Actions
• Line of Visibility
‘Backstage’ Contact Actions
• Line of Internal Actions
Invisible Support Actions

Service Blueprint Components

Service Blueprint
Service Blueprint for Fast Food Service
Any Questions???
Role of
Employees
and
Customers in
Service
Delivery

Dr. Javed Mahmud

December 2020
 Internal
External
customers
customers
(employees)

Service
delivery.

People in Services
 • Intangibility • Perishibility

Cannot be
seen, tasted, Cannot be
felt, heard, stored for
or smelled a later sale
before they or use
are bought.

Quality depends Cannot be

on who provides
them as well as separated
when, where from their
and how
providers
• Variability • Inseparability

Characteristics of Services
 • Based on the frequency of contact that employees
have with customers and the involvement of the staff
with conventional marketing activities four categories
of roles played by employees of a service firm can be
identified
• Analysis of the four groups and the consequent roles
also reveal the importance of the people factor to the
following:
• The efficiency and effectiveness of the service firm
• Customer responsiveness
• Image and positioning of the firm,
Roles• Played by Internal
Opportunity Customers
to create additional value
 Frequency of
periodic customer CONTACTORS MODIFIERS
contact

Infrequent or no INFLUENCERS ISOLATEDS

customer contact

Involved with Not directly involved

conventional with
marketing marketing mix
mix

Roles Played by Internal Customers

 They possess above above average customer intuition, having very
frequent contact with customers
They are very involved with all front line marketing activities like
sales, promotions, handling customer enquiries and also
complaints.
They are often involved in the strategy aspects of marketing but
are definitely deeply involved in the executions of these strategies.
They make the maximum impression on the customers and
are wholly responsible for Moments of Truth.
They are the ones who are to be trained to deal with customers,
and situations - and require being highly motivated on a continuous
basis.
Selection of these personnel should be based on the parameter of
Role of Employees
their - Contactors
customer intuition, attitudinal characteristics and
responsiveness
 These role players have regular encounters with
customers and also go on to build the Moments
of Truth of a service firm.
Nevertheless, they occupy lowly points of
interaction with the marketing activities. They
constitute receptionists, switchboard and call
centre personnel, and direct sales agents of
banks, and insurance companies.
Most faux pas occur in this role, when the
service personnel end up interacting with
customers without being fully aware of the
management objectives and strategic goals.

Role of Employees - Modifiers

 These role players are typically senior personnel who have
planned and devised strategies but have very infrequent
contact with customers.
It is in their involvement with different marketing activities
like marketing research, strategy, product development,
and marketing communication that they influence the
service firm.
A competent influencer is one who has the potential to
develop customer responsiveness amongst his peers and
subordinates.
The entire objective and goal of infuencers should revolve
around developing customer orientation amongst the work
groups and the organisation.
Role of Employees – Influencers
 These role players perform
support functions like data
processing, back office
operations, maintenance,
purchasing, etc.
They do not interact with
customers, nor are they
deeply involved with the
usual marketing activities.
Nevertheless, their
functions are critical to the
effectiveness of the service
firm.

Role of Employees – Isolated

 • Front line employees who interact directly with customers
• Boundary Spanners operate at the organization’s boundary
• Link between external customer & environment and the internal
operations of the organization
• Their function is to understand, filter & interpret information to
and from the organization and the external stakeholders

Least-paid, lowest
skilled employees or
well paid, highly-
educated professionals

Boundary Spanning
 • High stress jobs
• Requires high level of emotional labor
• Draws of people’s feelings (sometimes requiring them to suppress their
true emotions
• Involves talking to strangers, smiling constantly, being courteous, etc.
• Sources of conflict
• Person/role conflict – against own personality/values
• Organization/client -
• Interclient

Boundary Spanning
 • Service customers are often present in the ‘factory’
• Gap 3 widens or narrows due to due to action or inaction of
customers
• Other customers are also a factor

Customers receiving the service

• Low consumer presence required during service delivery –
Laundry
• Moderate consumer inputs required for service creation –
Restaurant
• Customer creates the service product – Gym

Other customers
Customers inorService
• Enhance detractDelivery
 Productive resources
Act as ‘partial employees’ to increase productivity by providing
clear and timely information
Bring uncertainty into production process
Contributors to quality and satisfaction
Participating customers are more satisfied by service received
They blame themselves for service failure
Intrinsically attractive
Competitors
Expertise, resource and time capacity, economic and psychic
rewards, trust, control
Customers’ Role
 Effective
Define Recruit, educate &
customer
customer jobs reward customers
participation

Manage
customer
mix

Customer Participation Enhancing Strategies

 • Define customer jobs
• Partially predetermined by nature of service
• Helping oneself
• Helping others
• Promoting the company
• Individual differences

• Recruit, educate and reward customers

• Negative outcomes

Customer Participation Enhancing Strategies

 • Manage the customer mix
• Compatibility management
• Separate sections / different timings
• Positioning and segmentation
• Code of conduct

Customer Participation Enhancing Strategies

Any Questions???
Physical
Evidence &
the
Servicescape
Dr. Javed Mahmud

December 2020
 Physical Evidence: The environment in which the service is
delivered and where the firm and customers interact and any
tangible commodities that facilitates performance of the service.

Servicescape: The physical facility of a firm is its servicescape.

Facility exterior Facility interior Other Tangibles

Exterior design Interior design Business
cards
Parking Equipment Stationeries
Landscape Layout Dresses
Noise/ Uniforms
Temperature
Brochures
Definitions
 • Servicescape use
– Self-service environment
• Customer performs most of the activities - ATM
– Remote service
• Little or no customer involvement – Cable TV
– Interpersonal services
• Both customer & employee are present & active - Bank

• Complexity of the servicescape

– Lean
• Very simple, few elements, space and equipment – City service ticket counter
– Elaborate
• Very complicated, many elements & forms – Hospital emergency room

Types of Servicescape
 • Package
• ‘Wraps’ service and conveys to consumers an image of what is
inside
• Critical in forming initial impressions
• Visible representation of intangible service
• Facilitator
• Makes it easier or harder for customers and employees to
perform their tasks

Roles of the Servicescape

 • Socializer
• Helps convey expected roles, behaviours & relationships
• Highlights hierarchies
• Encourages socializing, allows for privacy or creates
particular environment
• Differentiator
• Differentiates firms from competitors
• Signals which market segment the service is for
• Differentiates different areas of the firm
Roles of the Servicescape
The underlying framework
Stimulus-organism-
response

– Holistic environment Pavlov’s

– Internal responses Experiment
– Behavior

Understanding Servicescape Effects

 Holistic Environment
• Ambient conditions
o Temperature, lighting, noise, music, color
• Spatial layout & functionality
o Arrangement of equipment and their ability to facilitate goal
accomplishment
• Signs, symbols & artifacts

Understanding Servicescape Effects

 Internal Responses
• Cognition
o Nonverbal communication
• Emotion
o Exciting / relaxing / distressing / gloomy
• Physiology
o Noise / light / temperature
• Variations in individual responses

Behavior
o desire to stay, explore, work

Understanding Servicescape Effects

 • Recognize strategic impact
– Organizations have to acknowledge that physical evidence can play a
prominent role in the producing quality service
• Map physical evidence of service
– Service should be mapped so that everyone can see the service
process and existing elements
• Clarify roles of servicescape
– It has to be decided which role(s) servicescape is to play in a
particular organization

Physical Evidence Strategy

 • Assess and identify opportunities
– Missed opportunities, possible changes & improvements can be
identified
– Does the current servicescape suit the needs and preferences of the
target market
• Update and modernize
– Requires frequent or at least periodic adaptations & adjustments
• Work cross-functionally
– Decisions are made by various functions within an organization, like
HR, marketing and operations

Physical Evidence Strategy

Any Questions???