In an increasingly competitive market, it is necessary to improve customer service and invest in service marketing. Working to ensure that the experience with the business is positive is no longer a differentiator; it is an obligation for any organization that wants to stand out from its competitors.
Service marketing is an ideal tool for attracting more customers and building customer loyalty, and it is through it that your business can build a better relationship with the public. By applying it, your company can gain a good share of the market, increasing sales and revenue.
Continue reading to understand right now what this type of marketing consists of, its relationship with customer behavior, the importance of investing in this strategy , the 8 Ps of this tactic and its main advantages. Stay tuned!
What is service marketing?
Service marketing can be defined as a set of operational activities that seek to investigate, obtain and serve the demand of customers looking for a particular product or service. In practice, these are actions that analyze, plan and implement attitudes to meet customer needs.
The fundamental objective of this method is to help a sale with a set of efforts that will delight the customer, differentiating your business from the competition . It is a tool that interacts with all areas of the company, which helps to generate more revenue and improve the relationship between the company and the customer.
What is the relationship between service marketing and customer behavior?
No action within a marketing strategy should be taken before analyzing who the target audience is and studying their behavior. This way, it is possible to make decisions that match the expectations of your customers and achieve the objectives expected from the campaign.
This is a way to differentiate your business from the competition and generate credibility. In services, we analyze consumer preferences and behaviors to improve the provision of services to the end public, using marketing and communication techniques to avoid marketing mistakes that your company cannot afford to make and to meet customer expectations and solve their problems.
How important is it to use this strategy in your company?
Many managers do not see the importance of marketing and believe that it is limited to distributing pamphlets, sending emails, building websites , creating advertisements, etc. However, marketing is a very complex area and has several aspects that are constantly evolving.
The existence of competition between companies has made it essential to use different marketing tactics to secure their space in the market. Good service marketing planning generates direct and immediate positive impacts on the company. As soon as it is implemented, greater visibility is achieved in the market, new opportunities will arise and there is a greater chance of potential sales being made. For this reason, it is important to use this strategy in the business, as it improves the organization’s performance in general.
What are the 8 Ps of service marketing?
The market for services is a little more dynamic and, therefore, it is essential to analyze some marketing mixes from this perspective. Let’s take a look at the 8 Ps applied to services marketing.
Product
It is important to define which product will be delivered to the customer. What your company sells — whether a good or a service — needs to satisfy the consumer’s need, creating value for them. For the provision of services, the purchase is considered an intangible asset.
Price
Pricing is analyzed differently between products and services. The latter has fewer variable costs compared to the former, passing these costs on to the customer when necessary .
Within services, there are more costs that are considered “invisible”, that is, they are not seen by the end consumer. Comparison is the biggest point of difference: it is possible to easily compare different goods, but to compare the quality of services, a thorough analysis is necessary.
Square
As we have seen, services cannot be stored, and distributing them generates several fixed costs. They must be available to the customer when they need them, which generates the need for more accurate planning.
Promotion
Referrals, word of mouth and personal sales are prominent in communication and sales in service marketing. Interactivity and building a relationship with the consumer are important to encourage loyalty and personify the message, even if it is disseminated masse. Going through the traditional 4 Ps, let’s learn about the other 4 remaining ones.
People
As we can see, people — including employees and consumers — are extremely important to the strategy. Everyone involved in providing a service is influential in the marketing process, in addition to the customers who will use what is being sold.
Since the raw material is the labor itself, it is essential to care about those involved in the process. Training, alignment with the company’s culture and quality of the service provided are essential for developing a good service marketing campaign.
Processes
Workflows and methodologies are important in all marketing. When providing a service, you must make decisions to ensure that the service is delivered to the customer in the best possible way.
Processes influence everything, from hiring to supplying to the end consumer. Good processes contribute to the loyalty rate, as they maximize the quality of the service.
Productivity and quality
The way the service is delivered to the consumer makes all the difference. If in service marketing we are talking about creating better relationships through the provision of what was contracted, it is crucial to ensure that the solution is of quality.
Your team’s productivity needs to be assured, as the delivery of what was promised must be done in an exemplary manner, preferably with “something extra”, always maintaining the standards determined for the provision of the service.
Profile — physical evidence
The profile demonstrates the location and manner in which the service is provided. All points of contact between the end consumer and the brand/service are considered, including points of sale, business cards, online and offline communication channels , and many others. It is important that physical evidence is constantly evaluated, so that the user experience is always the best possible.
What are the advantages of service marketing?
When used well, this marketing brings a wide range of advantages that benefit the company’s development. See a list of the main ones in the topics below.
Positive impacts on business image
One of the main objectives of service marketing is to convey greater credibility to the target audience, which increases customer confidence and facilitates the company’s sales conversion.
Improved financial performance
There are services that have a very small profit margin — a percentage calculated on the service earmarked for profit — and can even generate losses for the organization. However, a good marketing campaign improves the company’s image in the market and adds value to the brand, making customers willing to pay more for the services.
This type of marketing generates new business and increases profits in each of them simultaneously. This increases your profits , which can be converted into projects, investments, expansion of the organization, among other initiatives.
Creates a competitive edge
Regardless of whether your business is in a saturated sector, you will naturally encounter competitors and lack competitive advantages to stand out in the market.
Service marketing also helps to distinguish itself from competitors and to consolidate itself in the eyes of the public by improving its image and communication with its customers, making the latter choose its business over companies without credibility or with poor communication skills.
Customer loyalty
Many entrepreneurs focus only on acquiring new customers and fail to retain their current ones, but this is a big mistake, as the cost required to expand their clientele is greater than that required to retain current ones.
If customers are dissatisfied with your services, they become detractors, that is, they depreciate your brand to third parties. On the other hand, the opposite effect occurs when the company invests in quality and after-sales service: customers become promoters of the brand and spread the word to colleagues, friends and family.
This type of marketing helps build a pleasant and unique experience for buyers, improving their customer satisfaction and loyalty rates.
Increased team productivity
For an organization to be successful, it is crucial that the entire team is committed to achieving the same goal, remains engaged and works in harmony, as they are the ones providing the services.
In addition to working to promote the company and its image to the public, service marketing improves the alignment and standardization of employees. The strategy focuses on two internal elements:
- focus and well-being of employees : this can be achieved by creating an appropriate organizational culture and improving the organizational climate;
- management of daily processes: set of attitudes that make employees achieve the desired results.
Service marketing improves customer relationships, the company’s image, the quality of services and even the focus of its employees. Therefore, it is a complete and essential strategy for the development of a service provider.
