In recent times much has been written about marketing of intangible products (services), and product intangibles (promises, services and other intangible value added benefits) that are often bundled with durables and non-durables. Marketing of services is being recognised as a specialised area within the broader area of marketing. Several business schools are beginning to offer marketing of services as a separate credit course. They are also looking at holding executive development programmes aimed at the service industry. Management gurus have highlighted several aspects of marketing services that differ significantly from marketing of durables and non-durables.

Much has also been written about the differences between services and products. On the basis of identified differences a new marketing mix has been evolved with additional elements that address the vital differences between products and services.

Writings such as that of Donald Cowell, Berry & Parsuraman and others has addressed issues such as the service product, service concept, service elements, and service forms. In services, however, one area that needs to be emphasised is “management of expectations”.

Understanding expectations
Every potential customer has some expectation about the performance of a product. In most products, be it an automobile, a soap or an article of clothing, customer expectations can be moulded to a larger degree than in the case of services such as hotels, airlines, restaurants etc. When marketing a tangible product it is possible, to some extent, to specify product performance, thereby ensuring that customer expectations are not too far from the actual experience.

Hence, in the case of a car, many specifications can be given which will enable a customer to measure how the car performs vis-a-vis promise and expectation. In the case of other products such as detergents or garments there are many ways in which a manufacturer can define performance.

In the case of services, however, such definition is difficult as a customer’s perceptions are much more individual and nebulous in nature. For example, in the case of a hospital or an airline it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to specify in measurable terms the warmth of the staff, the care and concern, and the individual attention that each consumer will receive. Yet, it is precisely these aspects that will ultimately determine the degree of satisfaction that a customer derives from his experience. It is, therefore, important to understand this word “expectation”.

The diagram Levels of Expectation would serve to explain. There are two levels of service that customer has. One, what he consider adequate service which may be defined as what he considers as acceptable, in other words what he can predict with some confidence on the basis of his or other’s prior experience of similar services. Anything below this would be clearly unsatisfactory. On the other hand, there is the level of service which can be defined as desired service. This is in the realm of what a customer hopes to receive and believes that should be the level of service provided. Between these two levels lies what may be defined as the tolerance zone. This zone spans the range of service levels that would be considered satisfactory.

For example, when a customer goes to a bank to cash a cheque, he has some expectations. In the case of a public sector bank, if he can cash his cheque within, say, fifteen minutes, that would be considered adequate. If he can complete the transaction within five minutes, that would be desirable. Anything in between would be acceptable to him. If however, the transaction takes a longer time, or if the waiting period is made unpleasant on account of other factors such as the physical environment of the bank, or the impoliteness of the staff, the service performance would fall below his level of “adequacy”.

If, on the other hand, the experience is outstandingly good, the customer will become a champion of the service providing organisation: the dream of every marketer.

Key dimensions
Research has shown that there are five key dimensions along which a customer tends to judge the quality of a service. These are:

• Reliability: the consistency, efficiency, dependability and precision with which a service is rendered;
• Tangibles: the quality of the physical facilities and goods used in providing the service, for instance, the quality of the furnishings, crockery, cutlery, etc in a restaurant;
• Responsiveness: the degree of willingness to help;
• Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence;
• Empathy: the degree of caring and personalisation.

An interesting aspect that research has also thrown up is that expectations are dynamic, they fluctuate. The desired service level usually changes more slowly and often rises. Adequate service levels can move up and down, indicating that the minimum expectations of customers can vary from time to time.

Several factors can influence a customer’s expectation levels. Some of them are discussed below:

• Temporary service intensifiers: factors that heighten customer sensitivity on a temporary basis, for instance, an emergency or prior experience — when faced with the prospect of missing his flight, a hotel guest checking out has an extremely small zone of tolerance in assessing the quality of the check-out procedures in a hotel. Similarly, passengers on a delayed flight are ultra-sensitive to the quality of food and in-flight service.
• Enduring service intensifiers: factors that intensify a customer’s sensitivity on an ongoing basis for, instance, expectations of an affiliated party, or the customer’s customer. Hence, restaurants that cater to businessmen who entertain their customers have to be particularly sensitive to their customer’s needs relative to those establishments that cater to families.
• Perceived service alternatives: for example, at high demand time, hotel guests tend to have higher tolerance levels though not necessarily lower expectations. In India today, passengers’ tolerance levels for Indian Airlines inefficiency have got significantly reduced after the advent of the private airlines.
• Explicit service promise: advertisements, claims and promises made during personal selling
• Implicit service promise: service related cues other than explicit promises. For example, price, star rating — in hotels, foreign/Indian banks. Other factors influencing customer’s expectation levels include personal needs, past experience, word of mouth communications, service failures etc.

Managing expectations
A marketer, therefore, has to manage customer expectations in such a way that the customer does not experience a dissonance between his expectations and the actual promise. Given below are some steps that would enable a marketer to do this:

• Ensure promises reflect reality. A good marketer never over-promises to entice the customer and also manages service evidence like tangibles. He resists the urge to mimic competitors. He does conduct periodic research to ascertain customer expectations and satisfaction levels.
• Place a premium on reliability. There is really no substitute for doing it right the first time. Service problems are temporary service intensifiers and tend to drive up expectations. However, when service problems take place, redressal is swift and to the complete satisfaction of the customer.
• Communicate with customers. A marketer must show a sense of caring and is proactive in anticipating customer needs. This means he is accessible to customers — try getting in touch with the airport manager of Indian Airlines when you have a problem to realise the value of this aspect. A good marketer encourages customers to call. In fact, he believes that not hearing from customers is worse than getting complaints. His point is eloquently made by Theodore Levitt in his article on “relationship management.” He rewards employees for nurturing relationships. Service problems are, to some extent, inevitable. A good marketer always capitalises on service recovery.
• Continuous evaluation. Formal and informal research to ascertain the levels of satisfaction being experienced by customers.

Nripjit Singh (Noni) Chawla

This article originally appeared in Business Standard - 09 April 1996