Page 65 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Production and Operations Management

Notes Intangibility: A pure service is difficult to assess through any of the physical senses. It is a
bundle of abstraction, which cannot be assessed before it is owned. This explains intangibility of
services.
Perishability: Services cannot be separated from the source and hence they cannot be stored for
future consumption.

Producer Services: These are meant for organizations that buy them to deliver either a product
or service to the end customer.
Technical Quality: It relates to quantifiable aspects of service that is ‘what’ is being done. This
aspect can be accurately measured.
Variability: Services cannot be standardized and hence they are variable in nature.

3.8 Review Questions

1. Define service concept and explain its relevance in a modern society.

2. Is it important to separate services and products in modern day marketing? Support your
decision with suitable arguments.
3. What is a pure service? Explain the continuum of services.

4. Explain the characteristics of pure services.
5. Explain the role of intangibility in service marketing.
6. “Service Process Matrix can be helpful when investigating the strategic changes in service
operations.” Explain.
7. What are the key factors that can influence a customer’s expectations, which may help
customers in shaping their expectations of a service?

8. Why is quality an important factor in service marketing? How to measure dimensions of
service quality?
9. Explain the role of following dimensions in measuring and managing service quality:

(i) Reliability
(ii) Responsiveness
(iii) Empathy

(iv) Assurance
10. What are service quality gaps? What strategies should you follow to fill up service quality
gap? How many of these gaps are based on consumer perception and why?

Answers: Self Assessment

1. empathy 2. demand

3. production 4. intangible
5. distribution 6. strategic
7. Labor intensity 8. product-attributed
9. positive image 10. assurance

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