Page 61 - DMGT523_LOGISTICS_AND_SUPPLY_CHAIN_MANAGEMENT

Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Notes  Differing skills, attitude and aptitude;
 Differing moods, involvement, experience, awareness and perception.
If the service has to be delivered with consistent quality – and customers’ participation is taken
as mandatory for the service delivery – then the differences in the characteristics of the customers
have to be taken into account by the service marketer. The customer has to be managed, which
can be attempted in the following ways:
 Training and education of the customer;
 Choosing the appropriate segment of the customers that are desirable and manageable by
the service marketer.
Training and education of the customer: As mentioned before, airline staff pantomime and give
verbal instructions on flight safety procedures before takeoff to the passengers. Package tour
operators give detailed instruction booklets and other information brochures to their customers
and make them sign many clauses of conduct and disclaimers.

Targeting the chosen segment: Citibank took the lead followed by other foreign banks and then
later by most private banks, to keep a high minimum-balance-maintaining clause for its account
holders. In the process they got to avoid the vast mass-banking crowd who were not only
unprofitable (from their point of view) but also greatly differed in their quality of service
participation.
Customer retention strategies: The service marketer should stress on retaining customers, as
they are less expensive than customer acquisition. A retained customer will also contribute
handsomely to the bottom line through positive referrals and repeat purchases over an entire
lifetime. The service marketer can attempt four types of bonding with customers (see Figure):

Figure 3.1: Levels of Retention Strategies

Source: David E. Bowen and Benjamin Schneider, “Boundary Spanning Role Employees and the Service
Encounter: Some Guidelines for Management and Research” in The Service Encounter, ed. J. A. Czepiel,
M. R. Solomon and C. F. Surprenant (Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books, 1985) pp. 127–148.

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