Mktg Ch. 12, 13, 14

Intangibility InseparabilityHeterogeneityPerishability

Cannot be touched, seen, tasted, heard, or felt in the same manner that goods can be sensed.

A characteristic that can be easily assessed before purchase—for instance, the color of an appliance or automobile.

A characteristic that can be assessed only after use, such as the quality of a meal in a restaurant.

A characteristic that consumers may have difficulty assessing even after purchase because they do not have the necessary knowledge or experience. Medical and consulting services are examples of services that exhibit credence qualities.

Consumers must be present during the production of services like haircuts or surgery, they are actually involved in the production of the services they buy

Services have variability of inputs and outputs, they tend to be less standardized and uniform than goods.
i.e Getting a haircut or physicians in a group practice or barbers in a barber shop differ within each group in their technical and interpersonal skills.

Services cannot be stored, warehoused, or inventoried. An empty hotel room or airplane seat produces no revenue that day. The revenue is lost. Yet service organizations are often forced to turn away full-price customers during peak periods.

Five gaps that can cause problems in service delivery and influence customer evaluations of service quality

Gap between what customers want and what management thinks customers want.
- Lack of understanding or misinterpretation of customer's needs, wants, or desires

Gap between what management thinks customers want and the quality specifications that management develops to provide the service.
-management's inability to translate customers' needs into delivery systems within the firm.

Gap between the service quality specifications and the service that is actually provided.
-inability of management and employees to do what should be done.

Gap between what the company provides and what the customer is told it provides.
- It may include misleading or deceptive advertising campaigns promising more than the firm can deliver or doing “whatever it takes” to get the business.

Gap between the service that customers receive and the service they want.
-If a patient expects to wait 20 minutes in the physician's office before seeing the physician but actually waits only 10 minutes, the patient's evaluation of service quality will be high. However, a 40-minute wait would result in a lower evaluation.

Mass customization uses technology to deliver customized services on a mass basis, which results in giving each customer whatever she or he asks for.
i.e customized voicemails to fit he/she wants