Service Industry Marketing: Brief Target Market Description for Dentist Education
As a consumer you have used many services in your local area. I am sure that you have at some stage been to a local restaurant, seen a doctor, or visited a tourist attraction near your home. There are many more examples such as having your car serviced, your hair cut, travelling on the train or bus, shopping in a particular shopping centre as a leisure experience and so forth. Your task is to consider service provision and experiences from a potential consumer’s perspective. Choose one service from each column below. The ‘Nasty Services’ column includes services that may be perceived as unpalatable or perhaps controversial that consumers may consider to be a high risk or high involvement purchase. The ‘Nice Services’ column includes services that consumers may be perceived to actively seek out for the experience. Nasty Services: Nice Services: Dentist Education Pay Day Lending Service Beauty Spa Funeral Insurance Holiday Diabetes Health Clinic Gym The aim of this assessment task is to consider the consumers’ consumption process for palatable or unpalatable services to identify the differences and challenges that service providers may face in their service marketing and delivery. By choosing and analysing two different services you will need to compare these two on the following: 1. Briefly, describe the key characteristics of the target market for each of your services. 2. Identify the key service attributes that you believe consumers of each of your two chosen services would need to evaluate as part of their multi-attribute consumer choice set for each service. What are the Search, Experience and Credence attributes that consumers will need to consider in their evaluation of the choices? 3. Identify and describe the key types of perceived risks that consumers may experience in purchasing and using the services. (Consider displaying in a table). 4. Consider the extended marketing mix elements of people, process and physical environment that are inherent components of service delivery. How would you potentially offset (in the case of the ‘nasty services’) or capitalise on (for the ‘nice services’) the key Search, Experience and Credence Attributes in relation to people, process and service environment management and design? 5. Provide recommendations as to how the company may work to alleviate the perceived risks, before, during and after the service experience. Your arguments and analysis in this report requires theoretical support from a minimum of 10 journal article references. Your report should follow the subsequent structure: title page; executive summary; table of contents; introduction; brief target market description for each service; key service attributes (Search, Experience, Credence) for each service; key types of perceived risks; managing Search, Experience and Credence Attributes in relation to people, process and service environment management and design; recommendations to alleviate the perceived risks, before, during and after the service experience; reference list.
Services Marketing
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Executive summary
The service industry is keen on getting the clients to take up their services. However there are sensitive aspects that are associated with the marketing strategies especially with reference to type service that they offer. Some services are considered to be nasty while others are considered to be pleasant. This is relative to the fact that some services are considered to have negative attributes; it is common for people to hate visiting the dentist for dental education, however it is considered pleasant to visit the gym. This paper discusses the key attributes, the key risks associated with the purchase of the services with reference to searching, experience and credence. The paper also offers recommendations on how best to handle the negative elements associated with the perceived risks.
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc451335841 \h 4Brief target market description for dentist education PAGEREF _Toc451335842 \h 5Key Attributes PAGEREF _Toc451335843 \h 6Key Risks PAGEREF _Toc451335844 \h 8Perceived risks for the services PAGEREF _Toc451335845 \h 8Managing the Risks PAGEREF _Toc451335846 \h 8Recommendation PAGEREF _Toc451335847 \h 9References PAGEREF _Toc451335848 \h 10
Introduction
The service industry is one that is largely associated with the satisfaction for the customers. There is a constant balance that has to be maintained to make sure that the customers are satisfied with the company is offering. Ideally there are two types of services, ones that can be considered to give the positive experience and there are those that can be considered to give a negative experience (Rossomme, 2003). Offering a service such as dentist education is one that can be considered to have a negative experience. Ideally not many people feel encouraged to visit a dentist. In most of the cases, they make the visits because they have to. This means that, they are forced by the situation to make the visits, such as having dental complication that the patient would want checked (Gilbert, Weems, Litaker, & Shelton, 2006). On the other hand, there are services that can be considered to give the clients a positive feeling of satisfaction. In a service such as diabetes health clinic gym, the clients actually look forward to interacting with the service. Unlike the aspect of visiting the dentist, the diabetes health clinic gym is more motivating and tends to encourage the clients to make plans to make such visits. Ideally, companies offering services regardless of the kind, have to make sure that they attract their clients (Christopher, 1986). Considering that the companies have to be in a position to operate in profit, it is crucial to understand how the clients react to the services that are being offered. It is important that a person working in the dental industry tries to make sure the customers feel satisfied with the service. This means that they may have to capitalize on the positive aspects of the business in relation to the services they offer (George & Barksdale, 1974). If persons offering such services that could be considered negatively do not capitalize on the positive aspects, they are likely to run out business. In the case of the business that have a positive aspect associated with them, it much easier for them advertise their business and get customers to come to their premises (Lusch & Vargo, 2006). It is also easy for them make sure that their services give their customers the satisfaction that they are looking for.
Brief target market description for dentist education
Dental services are in most of the targeting a wide range given that, most of the dental services are associated with the family members from and age of three and above. Ideally, dental education is associated with all the family members as an aspect that takes on medical care, emergencies and cosmetic surgeries. Ideally people of all ages require dental care. This also means that the target market includes a lifetime element (Christopher, 1986). They will have the need for the services from the time they are young to when they are old. For most of the patient that come for dental education, most of the are looking for a solution for a nagging dental problem such as root canals, fillings, mouth guards, relines, teeth pulling, partial dentures and dental surgery for health or cosmetic reasons. Majority of the adults that come to seek dental education are mostly concerned with their looks. As such services such as full exams and cosmetic dental surgery tend to be more appealing to them, unlike the younger generation that have medical aspects attached to their needs. As such elements of credence are quit high but they also depend on the level of support offered (Sbaraini, Carter, Evans, & Blinkhorn, 2012). It is also for the patient looking for dental education to search for the information about various businesses which they can approach in their area. This is with the exception of the elements of referrals which are quite common in the industry. As such businesses that establish supportive approach tend to have better customer loyalty (Gilbert, Weems, Litaker, & Shelton, 2006). In the dental education industry, the most common aspect that is associated with the satisfaction of the clients is support and care. This is to mean that, in most of the cases most patient that visit the dentist will have some issues with the dental health that is largely of their own fault. However, clients' satisfaction secret in the industry lies in making sure that the dentist listens to the patient without blaming them for their poor dental health.
The on other hand, unlike the dental education business offers the clients what could be considered to be hope. It has a certain appeal to the clients relative to the fact that, it offers them a chance of healthier life despite their condition (George & Barksdale, 1974). This is a business that offers the clients a chance to take part in exercises that could be considered to have positive impacts on their health. Most of the programs will thus be geared towards helping the clients join professional exercises that help manage the condition. Most of the business market their programs to both the diabetic and those that are not. This is to mean that persons that have been diagnosed with a risk of becoming diabetic and those that have already been diagnosed with diabetes. As such the programs will have advertised benefits that include weight management, energy boosting, increased flexibility, reducing stress, reducing the blood pressure, improving the cholesterol levels and improve self-esteem among others (Christopher, 1986). The business credence is thus highly associated with the aspect of the clients believing the benefits of the business are a match with their needs. This also means that most of the clients search the various businesses that offer services that offer any programs that match what they are trying to achieve in the lives (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1985). This means that businesses in the industry have to make sure that ...