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Services Marketing
Notes It is said that services marketing is a game of promises played amongst three entities engaged
in the service transaction. The three entities in a service transaction are:
The Company
This is the organisation that has dreamed up the service product, and its various benefits. It
offers the service product to the customer to achieve its service goals to the customers.
Example: East India Hotels, which owns and manages the Oberoi brand of hotels, offers
expensive accommodation, entertainment, leisure, etc., for the upper crust of society.
Autoriders have collaborated with Avis/Hertz-Rent-A-Car to provide a fleet of cars for rental
usage to corporate and well-heeled individual customers.
The Customer
The customer is the one who wants his needs and desires satisfied. He will do so by consuming
the service product.
Example: Romesh Bhandari wants a loan to purchase a car. He gets a loan from ICICI
Bank at a certain rate of interest.
The Sharma family is bored and therefore goes to Essel World on a public holiday. They have a
grand time.
The Provider
They are the internal customers of an organisation who invariably complete the service transaction
on behalf of the company. They are mostly employees, but also include franchisees, channel
partners, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, etc.
Example: Andromeda is the largest Direct Sales Agent (DSA) for Citibank and successfully
sells its multibrand cards successfully.
Karvy Consultants and LIC, Reliance, etc. are other examples for this.
Three different types of marketing take place during the service transaction amongst the three
entities:
External Marketing: The company does external marketing on the customer. It promises
benefits, explains features and assures satisfaction by way of advertising, public relations
exercises and other forms of corporate communication. It uses mass-media to convey its
promises. It makes promises to the customers.
Internal Marketing: The Company does internal marketing to its providers. The company
has to provide working space like offices, and equipments, like computers, and telephones
to its provider. It also has to recruit, select and trained appropriate employees, channel
partners, and franchisees. It enables the providers to complete the service transaction. The
company enables its promises.
Interactive Marketing: The providers do interactive marketing with the customer. The
provider is the one who interacts with the customers. The provider is the face of the
company and represents the company. Both the customer as well and provider get instant
feedback about each other during a service transaction. Their transaction reflects the
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