Page 141 - DMGT408DMGT203_Marketing Management

Marketing Management/Essentials of Marketing

Notes Customer Contact

This refers to those services where interaction between service provider and the consumer is
necessary for service delivery. In these situations, service delivery employees become the source
of creating satisfied customers. One of the major principles of customer contact is that satisfied
employees lead to satisfied customers, and vice versa. Research studies indicate that employee
satisfaction is the single most important factor in delivering high service quality. Thus, paying
attention to training and motivating employees for customer-centered performances can help
minimise customer contact problems. Service companies are trying to minimise customer contact
problems by shifting high-contact services to low-contact ones by taking help of modern
technological advances. This often creates the problem that service becomes more impersonal
and the nature of human beings is such that they like personal contact.

6.2.2 Classification of Services

The distinction of pure goods seems to have disappeared or disappearing fast in today’s business
environment. Most of the products that we buy are combination of goods and services. Products
can be good-dominant or service-dominant. For example, salt is a good-dominant product and
teaching is a service-dominant product. It is helpful to appreciate that tangibility and intangibility
are two extremes of products on a continuum. Good-dominant products are viewed as tangible
products and service-dominant products are called intangible products. At the middle point of
the continuum will be products, which are equally good and service dominant, such as a
restaurant. Knowing where the product lies on the service continuum is important in determining
the marketing strategies for service products. Theodore Levitt observed:
There is no such thing as service industries. There are only industries where service components
are greater or less than those of other industries.

Figure 6.3: The Service Continuum

Tangible Dominant
Salt
Soft Drinks
Detergents
Automobiles
Cosmetics
Fast Food Outlets
Advertising Agencies
Airlines
Investment &
Portfolio
Management Firms
Insurance
Consulting
Teaching
Intangible Dominant

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