Mktg 485 - Marketing Mix

2.         The traditional elements of the marketing mix are product, price, promotion, and place. The additional elements added for services are people, physical evidence, and process. Each of these three elements are important for service firms because they are all within control of the firm, and all have the power, both standalone and together, to influence customer satisfaction and retention.

People communicate with and help satisfy customers in a multitude of ways. From within the service firm, a customer’s perception of the quality of service received can be influenced by the attitudes and even appearance of employees. Other customers can also influence the customer’s perception of the service received by the way that they engage with the service provider. For example, in a restaurant, if another patron is loudly pointing out all of the flaws in the place, you might begin to notice them as well and then have a negative experience. Physical evidence, in my opinion, is the most important of the extended elements because the physical evidence is based on tangibility. Tangible representations of the service, like letters, equipment, business cards/brochures, and even the building itself, are all things by which the customer may use to measure the quality of service. Another reason why physical evidence is so important is because it is a way for the firm to “send consistent and strong messages regarding the organization’s purpose, the intended market segments, and the nature of the service.” (Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler, p. 26) Lastly, the process as a whole helps satisfy customers because they can have either a good or bad experience based on how complex or simple the process of receiving the service is. If the process is overly complicated, most customers, especially new ones, are not likely to return. However, if the process is simple and doesn’t take much effort, there is little room for error and the customer is likely to return.

My example of a service provider is a restaurant. People can influence how customers feel about a restaurant by the wait staff not giving good service. They could be too slow or not knowledgeable of the menu. Physical evidence, such as photo reviews online, could showcase how dirty the place is. Lastly, the process could be too complicated, such as it not being clear whether you should seat yourself or wait to be seated, where to order or pick up food, or even how to end your dining experience (do you pay up front or with the waiter, is it appropriate to tip, where do you leave your empty plates, etc.). All of these, singularly or together, could lead to a bad experience, and be enough to cause someone to either not return or not even give the place a chance.

3.        The five provider gaps are: The Customer Gap, the Listening Gap, the Service Design and Standards Gap, the Service Performance Gap, and the Communication Gap. The Customer Gap is the difference between customer expectations and perceptions; The Listening Gap (Gap 1) is the difference between what customer expect and what the company thinks customers expect; The Service Design and Standards Gap (Gap 2) is the gap between the company’s understanding of customer expectations and the standards designed and established for service delivery; The Service Performance Gap (Gap 3) is not delivering the service on par to the standards set in place to ensure that the service received matches, or goes beyond, the standards established; The Communication Gap (Gap 4) is the difference between service delivery and the service provider’s external communications.