So what is meant by 'Quality?'

Quality is a product or service's ability to meet the customers' need or want. Quality is difficult to define, and varies with each consumer, however we can take a look at some of the components of quality for products and services:

Products

• Performance-The product does what it is supposed to do.
• Features-The product includes all the specifications that it says it has or that are required, this includes safety measures.
• Reliability-The product performs consistently.
• Durability-When the product is being used it has to last under the conditions of normal use.
• Serviceability-The product is easy to maintain or repair either by the consumer or by providing a warranty which says the company will provide repairs.
• Aesthetics-This is important to consumers, products have to look good, and this contributes to a brand equity and identity.
• Perception-Even if the product has good quality, if the customer does not think so, then it won't sell. The customer has to have positive feelings about the product, the company, the brand name and the employees.

Services

• Responsiveness-Services are performed in a prompt manner.
• Reliability-The service is performed right, the first time, and all subsequent times.
• Assurance-Knowledgeable and friendly employees are essential as customers will equate employees behavior with the entire company. If a customer has a bad experience with an employee, they will be less likely to purchase from the entire company's offerings. Customers expect technical competence and professionalism from salespeople.
• Empathy-Providing individualized attention to customers will make them feel special and keep them coming back.
• Tangibles-Some services provide physical evidence that they occurred, for example a restaurant cooks (service) and provides the food (product).

People - Ps

People are the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are altered to meet the 'individual needs' of the person consuming it. Most of us can think of a situation where the personal service offered by individuals has made or tainted a tour, vacation or restaurant meal. Remember, people buy from people that they like, so the attitude, skills and appearance of all staff need to be first class. Here are some ways in which people add value to an experience, as part of the marketing mix - training, personal selling and customer service.

Training.

All customer facing personnel need to be trained and developed to maintain a high quality of personal service. Training should begin as soon as the individual starts working for an organization during an induction. The induction will involve the person in the organization's culture for the first time, as well as briefing him or her on day-to-day policies and procedures. At this very early stage the training needs of the individual are identified. A training and development plan is constructed for the individual which sets out personal goals that can be linked into future appraisals. In practice most training is either 'on-the-job' or 'off-the-job.' On-the-job training involves training whilst the job is being performed e.g. training of bar staff. Off-the-job training sees learning taking place at a college, training centre or conference facility. Attention needs to be paid to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) where employees see their professional learning as a lifelong process of training and development.

Personal Selling

There are different kinds of salesperson. There is the product delivery salesperson. His or her main task is to deliver the product, and selling is of less importance e.g. fast food, or mail. The second type is the order taker, and these may be either 'internal' or 'external.' The internal sales person would take an order by telephone, e-mail or over a counter. The external sales person would be working in the field. In both cases little selling is done. The next sort of sales person is the missionary.

Here, as with those missionaries that promote faith, the salesperson builds goodwill with customers with the longer-term aim of generating orders. Again, actually closing the sale is not of great importance at this early stage. The forth type is the technical salesperson, e.g. a technical sales engineer. Their in-depth knowledge supports them as they advise customers on the best purchase for their needs. Finally, there are creative sellers. Creative sellers work to persuade buyers to give them an order. This is tough selling, and tends to o ffer the biggest incentives. The skill is identifying the needs of a customer and persuading them that they need to satisfy their previously unidentified need by giving an order.

Customer Service

Many products, services and experiences are supported by customer services teams. Customer services provided expertise (e.g. on the selection of financial services), technical support(e.g. offering advice on IT and software) and coordinate the customer interface (e.g. controlling service engineers, or communicating with a salesman). The disposition and attitude of such people is vitally important to a company. The way in which a complaint is handled can mean the difference between retaining or losing a customer, or improving or ruining a company's reputation. Today, customer service can be face-to-face, over the telephone or using the Internet. People tend to buy from people that they like, and so effective customer service is vital. Customer services can add value by offering customers technical support and expertise and advice.

by Mkt Teachers

Physical Evidence - Ps

Physical evidence is the material part of a service. Strictly speaking there are no physical attributes to a service, so a consumer tends to rely on material cues.

There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the following:

• Packaging.
• Internet/web pages.
• Paperwork (such as invoices, tickets and despatch notes).
• Brochures.
• Furnishings.
• Signage (such as those on aircraft and vehicles).
• Uniforms.
• Business cards.
• The building itself (such as prestigious offices or scenic headquarters).
• Mailboxes and many others . . . . . .

A sporting event is packed full of physical evidence. Your tickets have your team's logos printed on them, and players are wearing uniforms. The stadium itself could be impressive and have an electrifying atmosphere. You travelled there and parked quickly nearby, and your seats are comfortable and close to restrooms and store. All you need now is for your team to win!

Some organisations depend heavily upon physical evidence as a means of marketing communications, for example tourism attractions and resorts (e.g. Disney World), parcel and mail services (e.g. UPS trucks), and large banks and insurance companies (e.g. Lloyds of London).

by Mkt Teachers

The Adoption Process.

The Adoption Process (also known as the Diffusion of Innovation) is more than forty years old. It was first described by Bourne (1959), so it has stood the test of time and remained an important marketing tool ever since. It describes the behaviour of consumers as they purchase new products and services. The individual categories of innovator, early adoptor, early majority, late majority and laggards are described below.

Innovators are the first to adopt and display behaviour that demonstrates that they likely to want to be ahead, and to be the first to own new products, well before the average consumer. They are often not taken seriously by their peers. The often buy products that do not make it through the early stages of the Product Life Cycle (PLC).

 

Early adoptors are also quick to buy new products and services, and so are key opinion leaders with their neighbours and friends as they tend to be amongst the first to get hold of items or services.
The early majority look to the innovators and early majority to see if a new product or idea works and begins to stand the test of time. They stand back and watch the experiences of others. Then there is a surge of mass purchases.

The late majority tends to purchase the product later than the average person. They are slower to catch on to the popularity of new products, services, ideas, or solutions. There is still mass consumption, but it begins to end.

Finally, laggards tend to very late to take on board new products and include those that never actually adopt at all. Here there is little to be made from these consumers.

There are a number of examples of products that have gone through the adoption process. They include Ipods or DVD players (or even video players and digital watches). Initially only a small group of younger or informed, well off people bought into these products. Opinion leaders, or the early adoptors then buy the product and tend to be a target for marketing companies wishing to gain an early foot hold. The early majority are slightly ahead of the average, and follow. Then the late majority buy into the product, followed by any laggards. New adoption process or curves begin all the time. Who knows what will happen with solid state technology or Internet purchases of media?

by Mkt Teachers