question_answer

What are services? Explain their distinct characteristics.

Answer:

Ans.     A service is an act or performance offered by one party to another. They are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for customers at specific times and places as a result of bringing desired change.

According to Sir William B, "Service refers to social efforts which includes the Govt. to fight five giant evils - wants, disease, ignorance, squalor and illness in the society".

Characteristics of Services

Service is an act or performance offered by one party to another. They are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for customers at specific times and places as a result of bringing about a desired change in or on behalf of the recipient of the service. The term, service, is not limited to personal services like medical services, beauty parlors, legal services, etc. According to the marketing experts and management thinkers the concept of services is a wider one. The term services are defined in a number of ways but not a single one is universally accepted. The distinct /characteristics of services are mentioned below:

1. Intangibility: Services are intangible. We cannot touch them, it is not a physical object. According to Carman and Uhl, a consumer feels that he has the right and opportunity to see, touch, hear, smell or taste the goods before they buy them. This is not applicable to services. The buyer does not have any opportunity to touch, smell, and taste the services. While selling or promoting a service one has to concentrate on the satisfaction and benefit a consumer can derive having spent on these services. For example: Railways sells a train ticket from destination-A to destination-B. Here it is the matter of consumer's perception of services than smelling it or tasting it.

2. Inventory: Services too, are perishable like labour. Service has a high degree of perishability. Here the element of time assumes a significant position. There will be a complete loss of labour. If labour stops working, it is a complete waste. It cannot be stored. Utilized or unutilized services are an economic waste. An unoccupied building, an unemployed person, credit unutilized, etc. are economic waste. Services have a high level of perishability.

3. Inseparability: Services are generally created or supplied simultaneously. They are inseparable. For example, the entertainment industry, health experts and other professionals create and offer their services at the same given time. Services and their providers are associated closely and thus, not separable. Donald Cowell states 'Goods are produced, sold and then consumed whereas the services are sold and then produced and consumed'. Therefore inseparability is an important characteristic of services which proves challenging to service management industry.

4. Inconsistency: This character of services makes it difficult to set a standard for any service. The quality of services cannot be standardized. The price paid for a service may either be too high or too low as is seen in the case of the entertainment industry and sports. The same type of services cannot be sold to all the consumers even if they pay the same price. Consumers rate these services in different ways.

This is due to the difference in perception of individuals at the level of providers and users. Heterogeneity makes it difficult to establish standards for the output of service firm.

5. Involvement: In the sale of goods, after the completion of process, the goods are transferred in the name of the buyer and he becomes the owner of the goods. But in the case of services, we do not find this. The users have only an access to services. They cannot own the service.

For example: a consumer can use personal care services or medical services or can use a hotel room or swimming pool. However, the ownership remains with the providers.

According to Philip Kotler, "A service is an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything" From this it is clear that the ownership is not affected in the process of selling the services.