Challenges in Service Marketing
CHALLENGES IN SERVICE MARKETING
Managing, growing, and profiting with both product and service businesses are challenging tasks. But the challenges are different from one to the other. Listed below are some of the most common and difficult challenges of growing and managing consulting, professional, or technology service businesses that don 't necessary apply to product businesses. • Marketing Intangibles This makes services difficult to conceptualize and evaluate from the client perspective, creating increased uncertainty and perception of risk. From the firm 's perspective, service intangibility can make services difficult to promote, control quality, and set price. • Services are often produced and consumed simultaneously. This creates special challenges in service quality management that product companies do not even consider. Products are tested before they go out the door. If a product has quality problems while in production, the company can fix them and customers are none the wiser. Service production happens with the customer present, creating a very different and challenging dynamic. • Trust is necessary. Some level of trust in the service organization and its people must be established before clients will engage services. This is as important, sometimes more important, than the service offerings and their value proposition. For example, an insurance agent is essentially marketing a promise that his company will deliver when it comes time to pay a claim. If the agent does not appear trustworthy or if his company has a poor reputation, he will have a hard time convincing the prospect to purchase a policy • Competition is often not who you think. Competitions for product companies are other product companies. Competition for service companies are often the clients themselves. Often the client would be asking 'should we engage this service at all ' and 'if so, should we just do it in-house '. • Brand extends beyond
Managing, growing, and profiting with both product and service businesses are challenging tasks. But the challenges are different from one to the other. Listed below are some of the most common and difficult challenges of growing and managing consulting, professional, or technology service businesses that don 't necessary apply to product businesses. • Marketing Intangibles This makes services difficult to conceptualize and evaluate from the client perspective, creating increased uncertainty and perception of risk. From the firm 's perspective, service intangibility can make services difficult to promote, control quality, and set price. • Services are often produced and consumed simultaneously. This creates special challenges in service quality management that product companies do not even consider. Products are tested before they go out the door. If a product has quality problems while in production, the company can fix them and customers are none the wiser. Service production happens with the customer present, creating a very different and challenging dynamic. • Trust is necessary. Some level of trust in the service organization and its people must be established before clients will engage services. This is as important, sometimes more important, than the service offerings and their value proposition. For example, an insurance agent is essentially marketing a promise that his company will deliver when it comes time to pay a claim. If the agent does not appear trustworthy or if his company has a poor reputation, he will have a hard time convincing the prospect to purchase a policy • Competition is often not who you think. Competitions for product companies are other product companies. Competition for service companies are often the clients themselves. Often the client would be asking 'should we engage this service at all ' and 'if so, should we just do it in-house '. • Brand extends beyond