Part 6

MANAGING SERVICE PROMISES

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 2.6

Gaps Model of Service Quality

CUSTOMER
Customer Gap

Expected Service

Perceived Service
Service Delivery External Communications to Customers

COMPANY
Gap 3 Gap 1 Gap 2

Gap 4

Customer-Driven Service Designs and Standards Company Perceptions of Consumer Expectations

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Provider Gap 4
CUSTOMER

COMPANY

Service

Delivery The Communication Gap

External Communications to Customers

Part 6 Opener
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 16.1

Communications and the Services Marketing Triangle

Company
Internal Marketing
Vertical communications Horizontal communications

External Marketing Communication

Advertising Sales promotion Public relations Direct marketing

Employees

Interactive Marketing
Personal selling Customer service center Service encounters Servicescapes

Customers

Source: Kotler, Philip, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, 9th Edition, 1997.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 16.2

Approaches for Integrating Services Marketing Communication

Manage customer expectations

Manage service promises

Goal: Delivery is greater than or equal to promises

Improve customer education

Manage internal marketing communication

McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 16.3

Approaches for Managing Service Promises

MANAGING SERVICE PROMISES

Create effective services communications Coordinate external communication Make realistic promises Offer service guarantees Goal: Delivery is greater than or equal to promises

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Exhibit 16.2

Services Advertising Strategies Matched with Properties of Intangibility

Source: Adapted from B. Mittal, The Advertising of Services: Meeting the Challenge of Intangibility, Journal of Service Research, 2, no. 1, August 1999, pp. 98116.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

use only with Essentials of Marketing McGraw-Hill/Irwin (left) Courtesy Boise Cascade Office Products; (right) Courtesy of Sauder Woodworking Company for 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 16.5

Approaches for Managing Customer Expectations

Offer choices Create tiered-value offerings Communicate criteria for service effectiveness
Negotiate unrealistic expectations
Goal: Delivery is greater than or equal to promises
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 16.6

Approaches for Improving Customer Education

Goal: Delivery is greater than or equal to promises

Prepare customers for the service process

Confirm performance to standards

Clarify expectations after the sale

Teach customers to avoid peak demand periods and seek slow periods

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 16.7

Approaches for Managing Internal Marketing Communications

Goal: Delivery is greater than or equal to promises
Create effective vertical communications Create effective horizontal communications Align back-office personnel with external customers Create cross-functional teams
McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.