Programme overview
Introduction:
Service businesses often market intangible offers with tools built for physical products, so promises outrun delivery, capacity sits idle or overbooked and customers leave after one poor encounter. Services marketing addresses this by treating people, process and physical evidence as part of the offer and by measuring service quality as the gap between what customers expect and what they perceive. This Core Concept course equips marketing, product and customer teams to position, price and communicate services and retain customers. Participants produce a Services Marketing Plan with a Service Quality Gap Analysis for a case service organisation.
Course Objectives:
- Explain how intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability change marketing decisions for a given service
- Apply the extended 7Ps mix to design the people, process and physical evidence elements of a service offer
- Measure service quality with a SERVQUAL questionnaire and locate shortfalls using the gaps model
- Set service positioning, prices and demand-capacity tactics that match customer expectations
- Plan internal marketing, service recovery and relationship programmes that raise customer retention
- Produce a Services Marketing Plan with a Service Quality Gap Analysis for a case service organisation
Target Audience:
- Marketing staff who plan offers and campaigns for hospitality, telecoms, logistics, professional and training services
- Product and proposition owners responsible for designing and pricing service packages
- Customer experience and customer service leads accountable for satisfaction and retention results
- Brand and communications staff who promote intangible offers to consumers and business clients
- Business development staff who win and renew service contracts
- Branch and outlet managers who shape the service customers receive at the front line
Course Outline:
Day 1: What Makes Services Different: Service Characteristics and Customer Expectations
- Intangibility, Inseparability, Variability and Perishability: Marketing Implications
- Goods-Service Continuum and Search, Experience and Credence Attributes
- Service Encounter Types: Remote, Phone and Face-to-Face Moments of Truth
- Customer Expectation Levels: Desired Service, Adequate Service and the Zone of Tolerance
- Current-State Services Marketing Audit Checklist for a Case Organisation
Day 2: Service Quality Frameworks and the Extended 7Ps Mix
- Extended Services Marketing Mix: People, Process and Physical Evidence Alongside the 4Ps
- Gaps Model of Service Quality: Knowledge, Standards, Delivery, Communications and Customer Gaps
- SERVQUAL RATER Dimensions: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness
- SERVQUAL Questionnaire Design with Paired Expectation and Perception Items
- SERVPERF Performance-Only Measurement and Importance-Performance Grid
Day 3: Service Positioning, Pricing, Capacity and Communications
- Service Positioning Map and Differentiation on RATER Attributes
- Pricing Intangible Services: Cost, Competition and Perceived-Value Methods
- Demand and Capacity Balancing: Queues, Reservations and Off-Peak Pricing
- Service Communications Mix: Tangible Cues, Testimonials and Credentials
- Servicescape Design Cues and Physical Evidence Audit Template
Day 4: Internal Marketing, Service Recovery, Loyalty and the Service Brand
- Internal Marketing Programme: Frontline Staff as Part-Time Marketers
- Service Recovery Paradox and Perceived Justice in Complaint Handling
- Recovery Scripts, Empowerment Limits and Complaint Channel Design
- Relationship Marketing Ladder: Customer Tiers, Loyalty Schemes and Switching Barriers
- Service Brand Building: Brand Promise, Touchpoint Consistency and Word of Mouth
Day 5: Case Service Organisation and the Services Marketing Plan
- Multi-Sector Case: Hotel, Telecom Retailer and Training Provider Service Profiles
- SERVQUAL Score Interpretation and Gap Prioritisation for the Case
- Service Quality Gap Analysis Report with Root Causes by Gap
- Services Marketing Plan Drafting: 7Ps Actions, Recovery and Loyalty Measures
- Plan Presentation to a Peer Panel with Retention KPI Targets
Skills You Will Gain:
- Service Positioning
- Extended Marketing Mix Design
- SERVQUAL Survey Analysis
- Service Pricing
- Demand and Capacity Management
- Internal Marketing
- Service Recovery Planning
- Customer Loyalty Management
Why Attend This Course:
- Leave with a Services Marketing Plan and Service Quality Gap Analysis built on a realistic case service organisation
- Find where customer disappointment starts inside the organisation, not only at the counter
- Turn complaints and service failures into occasions to keep customers and win referrals
- Compare services marketing practice with peers from hospitality, telecoms, logistics and professional services
Conclusion:
Services win and keep customers when what is promised, what is delivered and what customers expect stay aligned. This course moves from the characteristics that set services apart, through the extended 7Ps mix, the gaps model and SERVQUAL measurement, to positioning, pricing, demand management and service communications, then internal marketing, service recovery, relationship marketing and service brand building. The final day applies these tools to a case service organisation and produces a Services Marketing Plan with a Service Quality Gap Analysis.