Marketing of servicesA service is the action of doing something for someone or something. It is largely intangible (i.e. non-material). A product is tangible (i.e. material) because you can touch and own it. A service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the moment it is purchased, and cannot be owned because it quickly perishes. A person could go to a coffee shop one day and get great service, then come back the next day and have a bad experience. Very often, marketers talk about the nature of a service as follows: Inseparable – the point where it is consumed and the provider of the service. For example, you cannot take a theater performance home to consume it (a DVD of the same performance would be a product, not a service). Intangible – and cannot have a real, physical presence like a product does. For example, car insurance may have a certificate, but the financial service itself cannot be touched, that is, it is intangible. Perishable, in the sense that once it has happened, it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way. For example, once an Olympic 100 meter final is run, there won't be another one for 4 years, and even then it will be in a different location with many different finalists. Variability – since human involvement in service delivery means that no two services are completely identical. For example, returning to the same garage again and again for service on your car can result in different levels of customer satisfaction or speed of work. Ownership does not apply to the service, as you simply experience it. For example, an engineer may service your air conditioning system, but you do not own the service, the engineer, or their equipment. You cannot resell it once it has been consumed and not own it. Western economies have seen a deterioration in their traditional manufacturing industries and growth in their service economies. Therefore, the marketing mix has seen an expansion and adaptation into the extended marketing mix for services, also known as the 7Ps – physical evidence, processes and people. Physical evidence is the physical part of a service. Strictly speaking, a service has no physical attributes, so the consumer tends to rely on material cues. There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the following: · Packaging · ...... middle of paper ...... Service Many products, services and experiences are supported by service teams customer. Customer services provide expertise (e.g. on the selection of financial services), technical support (e.g. offering advice on IT and software) and coordinate the customer interface (e.g. controlling service engineers or by contacting a seller). The disposition and attitude of these people are vitally important to a business. How a complaint is handled can mean the difference between keeping or losing a customer, or improving or ruining a company's reputation. Today, customer service can be done face-to-face, by telephone or via the Internet. People tend to buy from people they like, which is why effective customer service is essential. Customer services can add value by providing customers with technical support, expertise, and advice. Service Characteristics – the characteristics of services that distinguish them from tangible products; these are.