NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
College: Lecturer: Course: Date: Characteristics of services The four characteristics of services are intangibility, inseparability, variability and perish ability. Intangibility implies that unlike goods, services can not be evaluated through any of the five common senses: they can not be seen, smelt, tasted, heard or felt. Thus they can not be evaluated before they have been purchased and supplied. Marketing strategies associated with services hence tend to emphasize more on their benefits than their physical characteristics. And while some services like teaching or consultancy can stand on their own, others like hotel catering are usually combined with goods like food or toiletry (Citeman, N. D. ).
Inseparability of services refers to the fact that they are virtually combined with both the service provider and the customer. Both of these parties have to be present in order for a service to be created. This is in contrast to goods which can be produced at one place, transported over a marketing chain, and purchased by the customer at a later time. With services, the service provider produces the service and the customer immediately consumes it. There is no time lag between production and consumption, in other words (Open learn, N. D. ).
The fact that a customer has to be present when a service is being produced also makes services to be perishable. The life span of a service is dependent on the presence of the customer. If the customer is not present, the service is virtually non existent, and can be seen to have perished. Therefore, the amount of service present is highly dependent on the number of customers present.
If the service provider becomes overwhelmed by the number of customers, however, the quality of the service deteriorates (Citeman, N. D. ). The variability of the service emanates from the fact that there is no concrete way of standardizing services. The quality of service provided depends on the traits of the service provider like experience and the company providing it. It may also vary from time to time. Service buyers are aware of this variability and usually adjust accordingly.
Service buyers hence should strive to provide consistently high qualities of service (Big Pond, N. D. ). Works cited Bigpond (N. D. ) Characteristics of services are identified to aid in the formulation of the marketing mix 21 st April 2009 < web > Citeman (2006) Characteristics of services 21 st April 2009 < web > Open learn (N. D. ) Characteristics of service provision 21 st April 2009 < web >
Free research essays on topics related to: service provider, 21 st, april 2009, provider, n d
Research essay sample on N D Service Provider
