Service Marketing and Managing

SERVICE AND SERVICE MARKETING

Service industry is estimated to be nearly worth Rs 75,000 crore (US$ 13.56 billion) and is growing at a healthy CAGR of 17 per cent. The food services sector in India is expected to reach Rs 1,370 billion (US$ 24.77 billion) by 2015. In the future, the organized market (Franchise market) is expected to grow even faster - at around 20 to 25 per cent per annum. AS per the data available it can be said that service marketing has huge scope in future and industry like food and beverages expected to grow at such level, gives a chance to Real Fruit Juice to extend itself into new scenario and according to the market. So that to take maximum benefit from the market. Service marketing purely worked on the basis of the services which a firm or shop offer to its customer, which has become most essential part of the industry these days. So Real Fruit Juice has to work on its services vigorously since it have not done much with services to offer with the product. It has huge potential for aggressive expansion.

Managing Service Quality- Service quality of any firm is tested at each encounter with the customer. These qualities are tested by consumer on the basis of his expectations which he makes towards the product or service before consuming or using it. If service is not up to the mark then there are chances of losing the customer in near future perspective. In service personnel plays a very crucial role, if personnel are bored or are not able to answer customers doubt then customers will think twice about doing business again. Since the product Real Fruit Juice comes from the brand "Dabur", there is always a hint of assurance of good performance of the product. But it also has the added pressure of delivering up to the mark set by the company.

Customer Expectations- Customers always form service expectations from various sources like past experiences or word of mouth or through advertisement. Customer always tries to compare its perceived service with that of the expected one’s. If perceived service falls below the expected services, customers get disappointed and do not use that service again. It was and is a huge challenge to live up to the expectations in this sector because it can be a real dud out there in the market if it does not not deliver fresh juice because the whole idea behind juice is that it should be nutritious and fresh To delight their customers companies use many strategies.

GAP Model of Service Quality highlights the main requirements for delivering high service quality, also known as “Parasuraman, Zeitham and Berry model” or the "5 gaps model”.

It identifies the five gaps that cause unsuccessful delivery:

Provider Gap 1 (Between consumer expectations and management perception) – It is very difficult to perceive what customers want or what things can satisfy his/her expectations. For every management it is very necessary to identify the need and expectation of their customers if they want to attract more customers. For the industry like food and beverages it is one of the most essential part of the business which is to be taken care deliberately, as customer will spend where it find the quality health drink on the go. In case of Real Fruit Juice manager might think people want good tasty juice, but customer might be expecting good nutrition and easy availability, which if she/he does not get, might get upset.
 

Provider Gap 2 (Between management perception and service-quality specification) –In this case management might correctly perceive customers wants but are not able to set performance standard. In case of Real fruit Juice manager is able to identify the need of quick energizer which has high immunity enriching values and can also be had on the go.

Provider Gap 3 (Between service-quality specification and service delivery) – This gap generally rises where manager specify everything clearly but the personnel is not well trained Dabur if not Real Fruit Juice knows well of its standard in medicinal and nutritional values of its products. In this case it might well be promised to the customer that the Real Fruit Juice is available fresh whereas in some places it might have got expired and delivered and also it could well be tampered.

Provider Gap 4 (Between service delivery and external communication) – Consumers expectations are always affected by the statements made by company representatives or through ads or through any promotion campaign. If in some ad, there are statements made by some official of the company about the ingredients or nutritional value which it actually fails to deliver to the customer when the product is bought (the statements can be both long term as well as short term) then a product like Real Fruit Juice's market share might well go for a toss as there are other options available. This means that external communication have distorted the customer’s expectations.

Consumer Gap or Gap 5 (Between perceived service and expected service) – This gap occurs when the consumer wrongly perceives the service quality of the firm. This gap is from the consumers end and not from the provider’s end. In case of Real Fruit Juice there is no such gap found. It had delivered fresh juice that it promised. It has immunity enriching effects and it also is high on the nutritional value.