In order to understand services marketing, we suggest first conceptualizing the services sector and its relationship with the economic evolution of countries.
Kotler defines a service as: "Any act or performance, essentially intangible, which one party can offer to another and which does not result in ownership of anything. The performance of a service may or may not be linked to a concrete product". (KOTLER, 2000, p. 448).
According to Las Casas, a service is considered to be "a transaction carried out by a company or an individual, the purpose of which is not associated with the transfer of a good". Adopting the concept proposed by the American Marketing Association, the author defines services as: "Those activities, advantages or even satisfactions that are offered for sale or that are provided in connection with the sale of goods." (LAS CASAS, 2002, p. 15).
In the services marketing literature, many authors agree that delivering services to customers is one of the main ways of building a long-term relationship with customers. Services can therefore be considered a strategic tool used to manage the entire customer relationship.
Historically, it is understood that the theory and practice of marketing was initially associated with physical products, known as goods. However, over the years, the growth of the service sector has become one of the biggest trends. As economies began to evolve rapidly, an increasing proportion of their activities became concentrated in the service sector.
It should be noted that when referring to services, the reference adopted encompasses, following Las Casas' teachings, the most varied number of companies and professionals, from airlines, hotels, car rental companies, barbers, therapists, lawyers, doctors and financial institutions, software programmers and management consultants, among thousands of others (LAS CASAS, 2005).
At the moment, the service sector is immensely diverse, ranging from the government, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) to the business sector.
Analysing different authors who characterize the service sector, it can be seen that there is a consensus on the main characteristics of this segment. Kotler (2000) summarized and named these characteristics as: intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability.
Kotler (2000, p. 452) explains that in order for a company to control the quality of the service it offers, it can adopt three types of strategy:
- invest in good hiring and training processes. Recruiting the right employees and offering them excellent training are essential steps;
- standardization of the service execution process in all sectors of the organization.
- monitoring customer satisfaction through suggestion and complaint systems, customer surveys and comparisons with competitors.
It is understood that services are actively linked to relationships. Relationship marketing's approach to services marketing is due to the fact that the relationship is a service provided to the customer and its interactive nature becomes the basis for the continuous offer of superior value.
Cobra (1994) values the creation of services: creating a successful service operation is undoubtedly a difficult task, but sustaining that success is even more difficult. Services are nothing less than performance and the challenge of sustaining the vigor, commitment, skills and knowledge of those who perform them, at all times.
In all product segments, companies seek improvements with a dizzying number of improvements to obtain better and smarter products through innovative ideas, says Oliver (1999). In services, it couldn't be any different, and in this context, better generally means error-free and fast.
Two characteristics of services that influence the development of marketing strategies should be considered in the view of Churchill and Peter (2000), in addition to those mentioned above. These are:
Customer effort - While in products the customer's involvement may be limited to buying the end product and using it, in services they may be involved in its production. This happens in many types of services, with varying degrees of effort.
If you go to the salon to have your hair dyed, you have to spend a certain amount of time there, with the hairdresser working on your hair. An example of less effort is a credit card service. The customer's effort doesn't go beyond taking the card out of their pocket to make purchases or pay the bill.
SERVICES MARKETING
Source: PORTAL EDUCAÇÃO https://www.portaleducacao.com.br/educacao/artigos/34607/marketing-de-servicos#ixzz3P0XYqZZl