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Intangibility Perishability Heterogeneity Simultaneous Production and Consumption Intangibility

Services have four key characteristics: 1. Intangibility - Services cannot be seen or touched and are difficult for customers to evaluate prior to purchase. 2. Perishability - Unsold service time is lost and cannot be regained once the opportunity to provide the service has passed. 3. Heterogeneity - Services can vary in quality and nature depending on who provides the service and the circumstances of delivery. 4. Simultaneous production and consumption - Services are produced and consumed at the same time, meaning unused service capacity cannot be stored for future use.

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95 views

Intangibility Perishability Heterogeneity Simultaneous Production and Consumption Intangibility

Services have four key characteristics: 1. Intangibility - Services cannot be seen or touched and are difficult for customers to evaluate prior to purchase. 2. Perishability - Unsold service time is lost and cannot be regained once the opportunity to provide the service has passed. 3. Heterogeneity - Services can vary in quality and nature depending on who provides the service and the circumstances of delivery. 4. Simultaneous production and consumption - Services are produced and consumed at the same time, meaning unused service capacity cannot be stored for future use.

Uploaded by

maddymahek
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Characteristics of Services

Intangibility
Perishability
Heterogeneity
Simultaneous Production and Consumption

Intangibility
They cannot be seen, handled, smelled, etc. There is no need for storage. Because services are
difficult to conceptualize, marketing them requires creative visualization to effectively evoke a
concrete image in the customers mind. From the customers point of view, this attribute makes it
difficult to evaluate or compare services prior to experiencing the service. Prior to purchase, much
service promotion must rely on performance attributes which can only be measured after a
purchase experience (tangible goods have search qualities). Also professional services have
credence qualities.
Intangibility also presents pricing problems. How should an auto mechanic charge for his/her
services?
Visibility of the service may be a problem. Although a problem may have been fixed, you dont
understand why?. Need to explain the time needed for repair, and functions that were performed
if you want the repair to be more tangible. Psychological role of price is magnified since customers
must rely on price as the sole indicator of service quality when other quality indicators are absent.

Perishability
Unsold service time is lost, that is, it cannot be regained. It is a lost economic opportunity. For
example, a doctor that is booked for only two hours a day cannot later work those hours she has
lost her economic opportunity. Other service examples are airplane seats (once the plane departs,
those empty seats cannot be sold), and theatre seats (sales end at a certain point).

Services would not be perishable unless they were simultaneously produced and consumed. Hence
the perishable characteristic of services stems from its primary characteristic of simultaneity as
described in section 0 above. We can now remember that perishability is a secondary characteristic
of services. Other product forms like hardware and processed materials also perish after some time
gap. Hence, perishability is not a unique characteristic of services. However, a service perishes as
soon as it is delivered and cannot be stored in the form of an intangible service for future
consumption.

Once again, let us explore the implications of this service characteristic. As services embody
simultaneity and perishability, the service must be delivered when the customer visits the
servicescape. Customers generally visit a service organization at some time of the day, while there
would be no customers at other times of the day. We can understand this phenomenon by observing
how facilities like restaurants get overcrowded during lunch and dinner times but have low loads
during other times. The service manager has to match the supply of service with its demand in
order to satisfy customers. However, in order to keep his resources working uniformly throughout
the business hours, he has to entice customers to purchase and consume services during off-
peak periods. This is why, restaurants like McDonalds offer Happy Hour discounts to customers
who consume their services during off peak periods.
Heterogeneity
Since services are intangible, these are variable too. You may have noticed how services provided
by stewards in airplanes vary from airline to airline. Similarly the services provided by restaurants
vary from time to time. Services would not be variable unless they were intangible. Variability of
services stem from its intangibility characteristic. Hence, variability is a secondary characteristic
of services. Since, products can also suffer from variability; it is not a unique characteristic of
services.

These service characteristics give birth to quality issues as perceived by customers. Simultaneity
of the delivery-consumption process automatically draws attention to the quality of the interaction
that takes place at the interface between the server and the customer. Brady and Cronin (2001)
found the quality of interactions between service providers and customers to be an important factor
in determining service quality. Other authors have illustrated the importance of assurance, empathy
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1988), and care (Lewis, 1991) in influencing customers
perception of service quality. Similarly, Brady and Cronin (2001) opined that customers use
tangible cues from the condition of physical facilities, merchandise, and other articles present in
the servicescape to evaluate the quality of services being delivered. Customers are generally
unhappy to wait for services that are temporarily unavailable as a consequence of inadequate
resources such that no service provider is free to attend them (Taylor, 1994). Thus, perishability
dictates that service providers must be responsive to customer demands and provide timely
services (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1988). Many authors have stressed that reliability,
dependability, credibility, consistency and accuracy (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985)
must be enhanced in order to reduce the inherent variability of services.

Simultaneous Production and Consumption

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