Page 253 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING
P. 253
Services Marketing
Notes Servicescapes encourages the customer to be deeply involved with the service production system,
lingering longer if it is a retail store.
The quality of a Servicescapes also influences the internal customers output. The monotony and
drudgery of a call centre job, coupled with the lack of direct interaction with a customer who for
all practical purposes is from an alien culture, is capable of de-motivating the employees.
Did u know? The attrition rate in India is as high as 60-70% (NASSCOM).
Call centres or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organisations are taking extra care to improve
on their Servicescapes, making the ambience, office, furnishings all conducive to good working
conditions. They are going beyond ergonomics (the science of comfort) to human relationships,
teamwork, career growth and design and enrichment of the job.
The inherent intangibility of services makes physical evidence an important tool for
cannibalisation. The following are the ways in which the physical evidence can be used by
service marketers as marketing mix variables, to achieve his strategic goals.
Facility Design
The arena of service delivery, also known as the Servicescapes, is one of the most visible physical
evidence that a service marketer has at his disposal. The customer gets an enduring impression
of the service organisation by the facilities and design of the office or the place of the service
encounter.
Example: Foyer and lobbies of the worlds great 5-star hotels are designed to awe visitors,
and create a favourable impression of grandeur, cleanliness and efficiency.
The facility design would include buildings, office premises, design, layout and décor of the
office, air-conditioning, furnishings, etc. Call centres, hospitals and consultants are paying a lot
of attention to facility design.
Equipment
Equipment and its usage convey an impression of modernity and efficiency.
There was a clear difference between the public sector banks and the new private banks in the
late nineties. The latter had currency- note-counting machines, computers, ATMs, net-banking
facilities, etc. ATMs also enable the banks to deliver services 24 hours, and therefore are visible
to the general public at any hour of day or night. Other service providers who use equipment to
great communicative effect are dentists (remote-control operated patient-inspection reclining
chair), hair dressers and beauty salons, consultants (lap-tops, LCD projectors), retailers (bar code
scanners), etc.
Example: Dominos Pizza has effectively used its home delivery concept to be different
by using their trademark scooters and carriages for delivery, increasing their visibility.
Signage
Signages are continuous communicative media. Whether in the form of glow signs, posters or
luminous hoardings (or billboards, as known in the US), there is uninterrupted communication
and a powerful reminder to the constituents about the presence of the service organisation.
248 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
