Services are Intangible products such as accounting, banking, cleaning, consultancy, education, insurance, expertise, medical treatment, or transportation. Services deal with processes rather than with thing are experienced rather than consumed.
According to Quinn, Gagnon, ‘Services are actually all those economic activities in which the primary output is neither a product nor a construction’.
Learn about:-
1. Meaning of Service Process 2. Characteristics of Service Process 3. Steps for Managing Service Processes 4. Elements
5. Planning a Service Process 6. Phases 7. Service Blueprinting 8. Challenges in Designing the Service Process.
Service Process: Meaning, Characteristics, Steps, Elements, Phases, Challenges and Other Details
Service Process – Meaning
When manufacturing goods, the process involved takes place in the factory’s premises, keeping the customers at bay. The customer rarely comes in contact with the manufacturing process, as those processes that lie with the factory premises, lie in the sole domain of operations.
Interaction of the customers with the system should be a part of the service creation and hence this makes the customer be a part of the service process. The service failures often are the result of inadequately and inappropriately designed service processes.
Services which depend on customer contact or customers are the recipient of service actions, the customer side of the process can be mapped by identifying service delivery process. A chart that draws and lists the various contact points when the system and the customer come in contact to create a value is known as a flow chart.
Service production and consumption are inseparable, and therefore the customer acts as a co-producer of many services. The service delivery is the outcome of the service process. The process constitutes the service itself. The service characteristics of inseparability and participation often make the customer, interact and become a part of the process.
Despite such importance of the service process, sometimes service organisations pay very little systematic attention to this aspect of business. As a result, service processes evolve on their own with internal bias or no focus at all. Therefore, it is not surprising that many service organisations are not adequately equipped to serve the customer well and such processes limit the efficiency of the operations.
It is a process to deliver requested service to the end user. Let us take an example of a company which is known for its service processes – DTDC begin its operations in the year 1990 and since then, year by year they have achieved various milestones based on their service quality.
This company thrives on its quick service and the reason it is able to do so is its confidence in its processes. To top it, the demand of these services is such that they have to deliver optimally without a loss in quality or in quantity. Thus, the process of a service company in delivering its product is of utmost importance.
Quality of a service is defined by the way it is been processed thus detailing the service process becomes very important for all service provider. Service processes intensely interact with the customer. Production processes differ from service processes. The customer only perceives the output of a production process he selects it and pays for it.
Process is an element of the extended marketing-mix of services marketing. A process outlines the procedures and methods to be followed to produce and deliver a service. It also determines the extent of customer involvement and participation required in service creation and delivery. Therefore, process explains a series of activities, their sequence and the role to be played by the service provider, the intermediaries and the customer. It plays an important role in determining the quality of service design, production and delivery.
It is not possible to differentiate production from delivery in services as they are inseparable in nature. Therefore, process includes all the activities related to production as well as delivery of the service. Further, processes need complete dedication and commitment of the service personnel in order to be completed successfully.
Companies, not only in the manufacturing sector, but in the service sector as well, gain competitive advantage over other players with improved processes. A well-designed and well-executed process increases operational efficiency, offers convenience to customers, reduces the cost of offering services, and improves the efficiency of service delivery. Effectively, it helps in achieving the goal of customer satisfaction.
Service Process – 5 Main Characteristics
1. Divergence:
Often, service providers adapt their services to match customer needs, as a single service might not cater to all. The degree, to which a service provider can vary services, deviating from the standard service, is known as divergence. Divergence provides an opportunity for the service provider to customise services for his customers, and serve them better. For example, many tourism companies customise their holiday packages according to customer needs.
2. Complexity:
The process of creating and delivering a service involves many activities. While some activities might be quite simple, others can be quite complex. The complexity of a process should take into consideration the contribution of the different activities to service quality.
The activities that contribute to service quality in an interaction between a banker and a customer may include the friendliness shown by the banker, his knowledge about the products, the speed at which the service is offered to the customer, etc. At the same time, the number of activities in the production and delivery of a service increase with the increase in divergence, i.e., complexity increases with divergence.
3. Service Location:
The nature of the service being offered largely determines the service location. Services can be delivered at the service provider’s location, at the customer’s location, at a neutral location or virtually, depending on their nature. For example, customers can either visit a hotel to have dinner or they can order home delivery.
In the former case, the service location is the hotel, and in the latter, the customer’s home is the service location. A tourist operator offers his services at the tourist spot, which is a neutral location. A banker offers his services virtually when he provides internet-banking facilities to customers. Therefore, service location depends on the alternatives available to the service provider and the customer.
4. Customer Participation and Interaction:
Service processes should be designed depending on the extent of interaction with the customer and his participation in service production and delivery. The level of customer interaction and participation differs from service-to-service. For example, the level of interaction between a banker and a customer is negligible in mobile banking transactions while the level of customer participation is high in deciding and ordering a menu for a wedding.
It can also differ from channel-to-channel for the same service. The perceived quality of a service is enhanced if a customer has prior knowledge of the service process. For example, a customer who has an idea about the check-in process at an airport will be more comfortable and can appreciate the improvements made by the airline in the process, when compared to a customer who has no knowledge of the check-in process.
5. The Service Itself:
Services can be either process-based or technology-based. Process-based services involve many activities that a customer has to go through before obtaining the service. For example, a student aspiring to join an IIM (Indian Institute of Management) course or any other business institution has to fill-up an application form, take the entrance test and appear for an interview, group discussion, etc., before gaining admission. Process-based services involve many people, with high levels of interaction between them.
The service provider has an opportunity to improve the quality of service at every step and in each interaction. On the other hand, equipment or technology-based services require very little inter-personal communication between a service provider and his customer.
For example, internet banking, offered by many banks like ICICI, HDFC, GTB, etc., has almost eliminated the need for personal interaction between a service provider and his customer. Through technology-based services are efficient and convenient for customers, service providers lose an opportunity to enhance the quality of service through personal interaction. Further, any problem in the teleological systems of the service provider affects the quality of service production and delivery too.
Service Process – Steps for Managing Service Processes: 7 Step Process
Services are experiences from the customer’s point of view. Services are processes that have to be designed and managed to create the desired customer experience from the organisation’s viewpoint. Hence processes become the plan of the services. Processes describe the method and sequence in which the service operating systems work and specify how they link together to create the value proposition promised to customers.
Customers are an integral part of the operation, and the process becomes their experience, in high contact services. If the process has been designed up to the customer’s standards, this will frustrate the customers as the process are often slow and of poor quality.
If the process is not designed properly, it affects the frontline employees also in doing their jobs well, which then results in poor productivity, with an increase in the risk of service failures.
While designing and managing a service process, keep in mind the following steps:
Step # 1. Flowcharting:
Flowcharting, a technique for displaying the nature and sequence of the different steps involved in delivering a service to customers, offers an easy way to understand the totality of the customer’s service experience. We can gain valuable insights into the nature of an existing service by flowcharting the sequence of encounters customers have with a service organisation.
Recognising that a value proposition may embrace all or part of the whole cluster of benefits a firm offers to its target market, service marketers need to create a coherent offering in which each element is compatible with the others and all are mutually reinforcing.
Step # 2. Service Blueprinting:
It is important for an organisation to gain a holistic view of how the elements of the service relate to each other, when the service production processes are complex and involve multiple service encounters.
Blueprinting’ according to Shostack, is a graphical approach, designed to overcome problems that occur where a new service is launched without adequate identification of the necessary support functions.
The three main elements in a customer’s blueprint are:
i. All of the principal functions required to make and distribute a service are identified, along with the responsible company unit or personnel.
ii. Timing and sequencing relationships among the functions are depicted graphically.
iii. For each function, acceptable tolerances are identified in terms of the variation from standard that can be tolerated without adversely affecting customer’s perception of quality.
Step # 3. Identify Failure Points:
A good blueprint will bring out the key elements in service delivery, highlighting risks which can go wrong. The most serious fail points are those that will result in failure to access or enjoy the core product, from the customer’s view point.
They involve:
i. The reservation (could the customer get through by phone? Was a table available at the desired time and date? Was the reservation recorded accurately?)
ii. Seating (was a table available when promised?).
There is also the possibility of delays between specific actions, requiring the customers to wait, since service delivery takes place over time. Too much waiting can irritate customers. Failures often lead directly to delays, reflecting orders that were never passed on, or time spent correcting mistakes.
Step # 4. Failure Proofing:
Once the points that seem negative have been identified then a careful analysis for the reasons for failure need to be evaluated in service processes. The analysis done often points outs the prospect for “failure proofing” certain activities in order to reduce or even eliminate the risk of errors. Poka-Yoke technique is widely used in fail-safe service processes.
Step # 5. Setting Service Targets:
Service managers can learn the nature of customer expectations at each step in the process, through both formal research and on-the-job experience. The expectations of customer’s vary from the desired level to the threshold level of merely adequate service.
At each step service providers should design standards to satisfy and make the customers happy else they will have to modify the customer’s expectations. These standards might include time parameters, the script for a technically correct performance, and prescriptions for appropriate style and demeanor.
Step # 6. Service Process Redesign:
The processes that have been out dated, get a fresh lease of life but this does not mean that in the first place the processes were poorly designed. Rather, changes in technology, customer needs, added service features, and new offerings may have made existing processes crack and creak. Instead of getting rid of outdated services and replacing them with a new innovations, redesigning of existing services should be considered.
These are the following types of service redesign:
i. Eliminating Non-Value Adding Steps:
With the goal of focusing on the benefit- producing part of the service encounter, some activities at the front-end and back- end processes of services can be streamlined. By trying to eliminate non-value-adding steps, service redesign streamlines these tasks. The outcomes are typically increased productivity and customer satisfaction.
ii. Physical Service:
Physical re-design involves changing the customer’s experience through the tangibles associated with the service or the physical surroundings of the service. Midway Express Airlines has changed the entire airline flight experience primarily through re-designing the interior of its airplanes. Leather seats, two-by-two seating, China plates, and cloth napkins are all ways of creating a new experience through tangibles and services cape re-design.
iii. Pre-Service:
This type of re-design involves streamlining or improving the activation of the service, focusing on the front-end processes. An example can be express check-in at a hotel or car rental, pre-admission processes at a hospital and pre-payment of tolls on highways. Making the front-end of the service more efficient can dramatically change the customer experience during actual service delivery.
iv. Direct Service:
Direct service means bringing the service to the customer rather than asking the customer to come to the provider. This might mean delivering the service to the customer in his or her home or workplace.
Restaurant food and dry cleaning delivery to the office, pet grooming in the home, auto repair in one’s driveway, and computer distance education and training services are examples of firms bringing services directly to their customers rather than customers travelling to the service provider.
v. Self-Service:
Moving the customer into a production mode rather than a passive, receiving mode is another approach to redesign. Re-designing the service process in this way increases benefits for the customer in terms of personal control, accessibility, and timing. Prime examples of self-service occur when companies offer their services via the Internet, as in the case of Internet banking.
vi. Bundled Service:
Grouping, or bundling, multiple services together is another way to re-design current offerings. The benefit to customers is in receiving greater value, combined with convenience, than they might have received by hiring each service independently.
Step # 7. Managing Customers Effectively:
Managing customers effectively as partial employees is another way to enhance customer performance in service processes and to reduce customer-induced service failures.
The following steps need to be followed:
i. Recruitment and Selection:
For a human resource management to be effective, the first plan is to start with recruitment and selection. The same approach should hold true for “partial employees”. So if co-production requires specific skills, firms should target their marketing efforts to recruit new customers who have the competency to perform the necessary tasks.
ii. Job Analysis:
A “job analysis” of the customer’s roles in the business needs to be in place, which should be compared against the roles that the firm wants them to play. Find out if the customers are capable enough to have the skills needed to perform.
iii. Education and Training:
Once the job has been analysed, the next step would be education and training, especially if the job analysis identified significant misalignment of customers’ role perceptions. If the customers are expected to work more, then the information which be needed by them to perform better would be greater.
This type of training and education can be given to them in different ways. Automated machines often contain user-friendly operating instructions. Many websites include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. Advertising for new services often contains significant educational content, and brochures and posted instructions are two widely used approaches.
iv. Motivate:
Motivation is an essential part for managing customers effectively. They must be motivated by rewarding them for performing well.
v. Appraise:
Appraisals should be done at regular intervals. If the performance is unsatisfactory, then make sure to improve the customer’s knowledge by giving him proper training.
vi. Ending:
When a relationship is not working out, ending it remains an option of last resort. Physicians have a legal and ethical duty to help their patients, but the relationship will succeed only if it is mutually cooperative. Having to terminate customer relationships may indicate problems in the recruitment process that needs to be addressed.
Service Process – Elements
The service process is a part of the extended 3 Ps of services. They are an addition to the existing or traditional 4 Ps of services. The traditional Ps are important in defining and understanding services, however, they are not sufficient for the same. Hence, for a comprehensive understanding of services, the additional 3 Ps – People, Process and Physical Evidence are introduced and studied.
We shall study each element of this extended marketing mix in detail. Process is referred to the procedures, mechanisms and flow of activities by which the service is delivered or the service delivery and operating systems. For example, the process of travelling with a budget airline, is very different from that with a full- fledged premium airline. The process of dining at an up-scale restaurant is different from eating at a local restaurant.
Services are performances or actions done for or with the customers, that is the reason, they typically involve a sequence of steps and activities. The combination of these steps constitute a service process which is evaluated by the customers. Furthermore, in a service situation customers are likely to have to queue before they can be served and the service delivery itself is likely to take a certain length of waiting time.
For example, at a customer service counter of your local telephone service provider, there is a queue of customers waiting for their turn to register their inquiry, complaint or grievance. A doctor’s office has patients waiting for their turn in the ‘waiting room’. There are numerous such examples where, the customers have to wait for the service to be delivered, how fast, effective and efficient is this waiting period is a task for any marketer.
It helps if marketers ensure that customers understand the process of acquiring a service and the acceptable delivery times. Creating and managing effective service processes are essential tasks for service firms. This is the reason behind customer care department of various companies give a 24 hours’ time window (or more depending on the efficiency of the service provider) to address the customer complaint or to visit the customer personally to provide necessary corrective service.
Managing the process factor is essential due to the perishability of services which means that services cannot be inventoried, stored for reuse or returned. We have studied this under capacity constraints and demand variation. As services are performances that cannot be stored, it is a challenge for service businesses to manage situations of over or under demand.
Another distinctive characteristics of the service process that provide evidence to the customer is the standardized or customized approach based on customer’s needs and expectations. Since services are created as they are consumed, and because the customer is always involved in the process, there are more opportunities for customizing the service to meet the needs of the customers.
The first concerns the extent to which the characteristics of the service and its delivery system lend themselves to the scope of customization; the second relates to the extent of flexibility the contact employees or front line staff are able to exercise in meeting the needs of the customers.
Service Process – Important Decisions to be Taken by a Service Provider in Planning a Service Process
A service provider has to take many decisions regarding the use of technology, people, materials and equipment in serving clientele. Most of these decisions are taken while planning the service process, which is in turn determined by the type of service offered and customer requirements.
Let us now discuss the important decisions to be taken by a service provider in planning a service process:
1. Layout Design:
Layout involves decisions regarding both production process and front/office layout. An ideal design uses the space available to the maximum extent, minimizing the movement of goods/people, and increasing customers’ convenience. Finally, it should be pleasant and encouraging for the service employees as well as the customers.
For example, the layout at an airport should place the luggage weighing equipment, ticketing counters, check-in counters, security check equipment, passenger and visitor lounges, and coffee shop in such a way that it increases the productivity of airport personnel by reducing the time and efforts involved, and also offers convenience to customers.
2. Organisational Structure:
Decisions under organisational structure determine the extent to which processes need to be standardised. They also determine whether an informal or formal organisational structure is to be adopted, whether decision-making is to be centralised or decentralised and how the organisation is to be structured.
Service Process – 4 Important Phases
A product is manufactured away from a customers and the time lag between manufacturing and consumption is more. But most of the service is processed just few steps away from customers. Other peculiarity of service processes is that throughout the process there are interactions between service provider and customers.
There may be duties of the customer that are critical for success or failure of the service process. For example, it may be necessary that the customer provides some information to allow the further proceeding of the process. It is important to emphasize that a service process must describe the interaction between customer and service provider.
Another vital factor is that the services offered can be divided into two stages namely:
1. Front stage
2. Back stage
Those activities of the service providers and that of the customers which are visible are referred to as front stage. On the other hand, those activities which cannot be seen are referred to as back stage.
Yet another key property in services is that the processes will have to signify the transfer of resources and related information from customer to the service provider and the compensation vice versa. Furthermore, service processes are often cross- organizational. The top-management service providers, who are responsible for providing the service to the customer coordinates several of sub-processes.
The definition of the lifecycle for service processes is based on the lifecycle which contains the design phase, the deployment phase, the operation and the evaluation phase.
1. Design Phase:
Today’s customers are very demanding not only in terms of better quality services but also how fast they are served. If a company does not want to lose the customers base they have to design their service process is in such a way that service is delivered fast and with quality. Service quality is very important for service providers to build customer loyalty and to achieve competitive edge.
The design phase help to formalize the interaction between the customer and service provider it helps to define the contacts and the information exchanged in this contacts. For example a person entering in a restaurant who are the people who will have first-hand interaction with customers is it the door keeper, the manager who will guide customers to here table or the waiter who will give the menu card or is it directly the manager who will take the order.
Service process is divided into two stages, namely, front stage and back stage to have appropriate execution of interactions. For example, in a restaurant front stage activities are welcoming the customers, taking order from the customers, serving food to the customers, collecting plates after customers are done and in the end bringing the bill whereas, back stage activities are taking order from waiter with regard to what customer has ordered, cooking, decorating the food, preparing the bill and payment work.
Both front stages and back stage are so much interlinked that companies should clearly define the roles and regulations of each and every individual.
The process of design phase is not only concerned with interaction of customer with the service provider, it is also about designing the interaction that the service provider has with suppliers. Many service providers use suppliers to provide sub- services for example many companies are buying space is social networking sites to increase their sales so the contract with these suppliers have to be taken into account as well so that they also are accountable for better service delivery.
Estimating the demand of a service is very tough as they are manufactured the moment they are consumed. Therefore, to assure the customers about the reliability of the service provider, certification and documentation of the service to be provided is an important means.
Such a certificate is based on the compliance with rules and structures assuring an adequate service quality as per requirement. An example for such a surrogate is the certification of ISO 20000 compliance, which is an essential benefit for a service provider.
2. Deployment Phase:
The planning which has been defined in the design phase is verified by the deploying the process. The interactions between the client and the supplier will have to be identified in order to avoid clashes and problems between them during the process.
There are many parallel activities which happen in interacting with an employee such as other customers trying to interact with other service providers outside noise etc. Particular attention should be paid to synchronize the deployment process in order to avoid such disturbances.
The certification of the designed process requires a sealing of the process during deployment. Once the certification is obtained, changes of any kind cannot be performed as this may result in losing the certificate. To fulfill the service level requirements concerning readiness and dependability, appropriate resources and substitute systems have to be allocated and prepared.
3. Operation Phase:
During the operation of the service process, it is essential to record a number of facts and figures to prove to the customer that the level agreements relating to the service process have been met.
To begin with, the availability and dependability of the services will have to be recorded. This log will also include the time required for repair and other broken services. In case the service providers have experienced failure in the past, caution will have to be taken to prevent such failure from reoccurring.
Interaction between the client and customer will have to be logged which serves as a proof of whether the customer’s requests has been catered to, the time taken to provide the service and other such information. The same applies for the handing over and restitution of resources at the end of the service process; the customer’s resources have to be returned to the customer.
This process will have to done by using specified techniques guaranteeing that formal requirements such as receipts, protocols etc. are used and a suitable documentation is generated which proves the restitution of the resources.
As the broken services cannot be replaced from the available stock, the service providers of broken services will have to suggest a remedy wherever possible to ensure the customers are not affected by the same. In order to achieve this, suitable backup and retrieval procedures will have to be made available.
Suppose there is a failure during the service process, the agreements entered into by the parties will play a vital role which safeguards the interest of the customers at first. There may be different service level agreements for different customers defining much shorter recovery times for one customer. Thus, this customer should be supported first.
The challenge here is the tracking of the process status, because the process is cross-organizational. Several service process certificates such as ISO/IEC 20000 require that quality control and upgrading mechanisms are stimulated throughout the operation phase to allow a future estimation and enhancement of the process.
4. Evaluation Phase:
The evaluation phase is also prejudiced by the exceptional features of service processes and services. The service providers will have to be in a position to prove to the customers that the service level agreements have been fulfilled and satisfied all the provisions stated in the agreement.
Besides this, the details about failures, if any, will be used for recognizing actions for improvement in the service process. Therefore, the availability and reliability achieved and the failures occurred have to be compared with the service level agreement, mal-formed interactions shall be traced and violations of the handover and restitution protocols shall be exposed.
Service Process – Elements of Blueprinting
A service blueprint depicts the entire service process on a map and shows the various stages of customer interaction with the service provider, and provides minute details of the service delivery processes, the tangible evidence of the service, and the people involved in carrying it out. Blueprinting helps in breaking up the service delivery process into a series of logical steps. Blueprinting can be used in either designing or redesigning service products. Let us now discuss the various elements of blueprinting.
Elements of Blueprinting:
These elements are discussed by Zeithaml and Bitner in “Services Marketing”. The complexity of the service determines the type of symbols used and the number of lines in the blueprint. However, the rules in sketching the blueprint are not rigid.
The following are the various elements of a blueprint:
1. Customer Role:
This element involves all the steps a customer goes through in selecting a particular service, purchasing it, consuming that service, and finally rating it. For example, a customer visits a restaurant depending on the type of food he wants to eat and his financial position, he interacts with the service personnel in the restaurant and orders the food, he consumes the food, pays the bill, offers a tip, and finally he evaluates the whole experience.
2. Onstage and Backstage Employee Actions:
Onstage employee action can be any activity performed by the service employees that can be seen by the service personnel. Onstage employees’ action may include the manner in which a waiter takes the order, the way he serves, etc., which can be seen by the customer. On the other hand, backstage employees’ actions include those activities performed by the service personnel, which are necessary to support the onstage service personnel. Backstage employees are involved in preparing the food for the customers, arranging them, billing the service, etc.
3. Support Processes:
A service blueprint maps all the support services, activities, or processes that help the service personnel in producing and delivering the services. For example, a hotel may provide training for its service personnel (both onstage and backstage) on the aspects of service creation and delivery. This training is a support process.
4. Technology:
A service provider needs to look into different aspects of the available technology and the extent to which it needs to be upgraded for delivering the desired services at the expected quality. For example, banks that are planning to introduce internet banking should analyse the available technologies, and upgrade their systems to offer services through the internet.
5. Conversion Process:
A service provider is required to choose a method of converting inputs into the desired output from the pool of alternatives available. For example, a bank can communicate with its customers through direct mail, facsimile, telephone, courier, internet, mobile phone, etc. The choice should be based on the organisation’s ability to bear the costs involved, customer preferences, the service quality level offered by each alternative, user friendliness of each alternative and the speed at which it delivers the services.
6. Equipment:
A service provider should opt for equipment that is compatible with the other systems in the process. He should also analyse the extent to which it is useful in the process, compare its operating costs with the resultant benefits, assess the knowledge required by the operators to work with the equipment and finally, estimate its maintenance costs. This will help in choosing the right equipment for the process.
7. Flow of Process:
Process flow determines the flow of work from one stage to another to produce the final output. It involves the logical arrangement of service personnel and equipment to perform the operations according to the process. For example, McDonalds has a well-laid process flow with service personnel operating the equipment to deliver the standard services on time. Generally, companies use flow charts to develop the process flow.
8. Service Personnel:
Service personnel play an important role in production and delivery of services. In fact, they provide a competitive advantage to the service provider. A service provider should therefore be careful to hire the right people in terms of qualification and skills. He should then give them the right jobs to do, train and develop them continuously, and motivate them to deliver the best quality service.
9. Service Location:
As services are intangible in nature, customers attach importance to the service location. They perceive it as an evidence of the quality of service offered Therefore, service providers should choose a location that is easily accessible to customers, has a good infrastructure and the right atmosphere. For example, foreign banks and private banks in India today look entirely different from the old nationalised banks.
Service Process – 4 Major Challenges in Designing the Service Process
Since the services are intangible, there is a difficulty in describing them and it becomes a challenging task for the service originators.
Lynn Shostack, author of a Marketing Management column for ‘The American Banker’ identified four risks inherent in describing services-
1. Over Simplification:
Shostack writes, “To say that ‘portfolio management’ means ‘buying and selling stocks’ is like describing the space shuttle as ‘something that flies.'” Many a times, the key points in the service process remains unnoticed or is overlooked in the designing phase, which will be identified only when the customers on a later date when they criticize about the process.
2. Incompleteness:
Customers can provide a clear picture of the services with which they have direct contact and are familiar to such service. Hence, the service designers will have to program the functioning services in such a way that they can be altered without much difficulty to accommodate the customers.
3. Subjectivity:
People are influenced by their personal experiences and they can relate the same to services, irrespective of whether they are connected to such experiences or not. For instance, if you had a tough day at work, even your favorite food eaten the same day will not leave you contented.
4. Biased Interpretation:
When the users of services describe the services to the others, a prejudice is formed and in addition to that, it creates bias in the minds of the listeners with the use of words and their interpretation of the use of the words. For example, the perspective of a person for the terms “well-mannered and receptive” may be different from what another perceives it to be.