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Copy Right: Rai University

M

ARKETING

OFSERVICES

LESSON 3:

CLASSIFICATION OF SERVICES

Classification of Services

As has already been suggested, there are a number of ways of

classifying service activity, and there is inevitably some degree of

overlap between the methods available. This section outlines

some of the methods of classification commonly used.

End-user

Services can be classified into the following categories:

Consumer: leisure, hairdressing, personal finance, package

holidays.

Business to business: advertising agencies, printing,

accountancy, consultancy. .

Industrial: plant maintenance and repair, work wear and

hygiene, installation, project management.

Service Tangibility

The degree of tangibility of a service can be used to classify

services:

Highly tangible: car rental, vending machines,

telecommunications.

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Service linked to tangible goods: domestic appliance repair,

car service.

Highly intangible: psychotherapy, consultancy, legal services.

People-based Services

Services can be broken down into labour-intensive (people-

based) and equipment-based services. This can also be

represented by the degree of contact:

People-based services - high contact: education, dental care,

restaurants, medical services.

.Equipment-based -low contact automatic car wash,

launderette, vending machine, cinema.

Expertise

The expertise and skills of the service provider can be broken

down into the following categories:

Professional: medical services, legal services, accountancy,

tutoring.

Non-professional: babysitting, care taking, casual labour.

Profit Orientation

The overall business orientation is a recognized means of

classification:

Not-for-profit: The Scouts Association, charities, public

sector leisure facilities.

Commercial: banks, airlines, tour operators, hotel and

catering services.

The Development of Services Marketing

Firms which produce and manufacture physical goods were

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involved in market-ing long before service providers embraced marketing and developed specific

marketing activities. Many of the developments in services marketing are fairly recent. There are a

number of factors affecting developments within services marketing:

Organisation size and structure

Regulatory bodies

Growth in service industries

Characteristics of services

Customer/ employee interaction

Service quality

Specific service sectors

Organisation Size and Structure

Many service providers are typically small and specialized -

plumbers, lawyers and accountants are representative of the

traditional service provider. In the past, they catered exclusively

for the existing local demand. Marketing specialists were not employed due to the size of the

operations, which may have been sole trader or partnership based, and due to limited

competition, especially on a local scale