The Services Marketing Triangle
Internal Marketing
Interactive Marketing
External Marketing
Company(Management)
CustomersEmployees
“Enabling the promise”
“Delivering the promise”
“Making the promise”
Three interlinked groups work together to develop, promote and deliver services
Frontline Service Personnel: Source of Customer Loyalty and Competitive Advantage
Frontline is an important source of differentiation and competitive advantage. a core part of the product the service firm the brand
Frontline also drives customer loyalty, with employees playing key role in anticipating customer needs, customizing service delivery and building personalized relationships
Boundary Spanning Roles Boundary spanners link the inside of the
organization to the outside world
Multiplicity of roles often results in service staff having to pursue both operational and marketing goals
Consider management expectations of restaurant servers: deliver a highly satisfying dining experience to their
customers be fast and efficient at executing operational task of serving
customers do selling and cross selling, e.g. “We have some nice
desserts to follow your main course”
Role Stress in the Frontline
Person vs. Role: Conflicts between what jobs require and employee’s own personality and beliefs
Organization vs. Customer: Dilemma whether to follow company rules or to satisfy customer demands
Customer vs. Customer: Conflicts between customers that demand service staff intervention
3 main causes of role stress:
Emotional Labor The labor that goes
beyond the physical and mental skills needed to deliver quality service.
“The act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions”
Service Culture Corporate Culture
The pattern of shared values and beliefs that give the members of an organization meaning, and provide them with the rules for behavior in the organization.
Cannot be developed overnight.
No magic or easy way to sustain a service culture.
Hire the Right People
“The old saying ‘People are your most
important asset’ is wrong.
The RIGHT people are your most
most important asset.”
“The old saying ‘People are your most
important asset’ is wrong.
The RIGHT people are your most
most important asset.”
Jim Collins
Recruitment The right people are a firm’s most important asset:
take a focused, marketing-like approach to recruitment
Clarify what must be hired versus what can be taught
Clarify nature of the working environment, corporate values and style, in addition to job specs
Ensure candidates have/can obtain needed qualifications
Evaluate candidate’s fit with firm’s culture and values
Fit personalities, styles, energies to the appropriate jobs
The Organizational Culture, Purpose and Strategy Promote core values, get emotional commitment to strategy Get managers to teach “why”, “what” and “how” of job.
Interpersonal and Technical Skills Both are necessary but neither is sufficient for optimal job
performance
Product/Service Knowledge Staff’s product knowledge is a key aspect of service quality Staff need to be able to explain product features and to
position products correctly
Train Service Employees
Factors Favoring Employee Empowerment Firm’s strategy is based on competitive differentiation
and on personalized, customized service
Emphasis on long-term relationships vs. one-time transactions
Use of complex and non-routine technologies
Environment is unpredictable, contains surprises
Managers are comfortable letting employees work independently for benefit of firm and customers
Employees seek to deepen skills, like working with others, and are good at group processes
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