Integrated service marketing communications
A major cause of poorly perceived service is the difference what a firm promises about a service and what it actually delivers. Customer expectation are shaped by both uncontrollable and company-controlled factors. Word-of-mouth communication, social media, publicity, customer-generated media, customer experiences with other service providers, and customer needs are key factor that influence customer expectations and are rarely controlled by the firm
Controllable factors such as company advertising, personal selling, and promises made by service personnel also influence customer expectation. By coordinating communication within and outside the organization, companies can minimize the size of this gap. It is essential for organizations to promote their brands well among the end-users not only to outshine competitors but also survive in the long run. Brand promotion increases awareness of products and services and eventually increases their sales, yielding high profits and revenue for the organization.
Table Of Content
1. The need for coordination in marketing communication
Although it can be said there are a number of reasons for the important shift to integrated marketing communications, the following are some of the major catalysts of note for the public sector:
- By coordinating marketing communication efforts, organizations can avoid duplication, take advantage of synergy across communication tools, and develop more efficient and effective marketing communication programs.
- The shift of marketing communication dollars from media advertising to other forms of promotion.
- The movement away from relying on advertising-focused approaches, which emphasize mass media such as network television and national newspapers and magazines, to solve communication problems.
- The fragmentation of media markets, which has resulted in less emphasis on mass media and more attention to smaller, targeted media alternatives.
- The rapid growth and development of database marketing which has prompted many marketers to target consumers through direct mail, direct response advertising etc.
- The growth of the Internet especially digital/on-line marketing, which has changed the very nature of the way organizations communicate and interact with target audiences.
- Demands for greater accountability from advertising agencies and changes in the way they are compensated which motivated agencies to consider a variety of marketing communications tools and less expensive alternatives to mass media advertising.
Internal marketing communication is an important tool for small businesses. Your employees and business partners interact with customers and prospects, so it is important that they communicate the same marketing and product messages that you build into your external promotional campaigns. By keeping your employees and business partners aware of your marketing goals and programs through internal communication, you can ensure that they play their part in increasing sales and customer satisfaction.
2. Key service communication challenges
Discrepancies between what is communicated about a service and what a customer receives — or perceives that she receives — can powerfully affect consumer evaluations of service quality. The factors that contribute to these communication challenges include
- Service intangibility
- Management of service promises
- Management of customer expectations
- Customer education
- Internal marketing communication
Service intangibility: Consumers can see and touch goods — they’re a physical product. They know exactly what they’re buying when they’re spending their money. They may even be able to carry the item away with them — although they have to drive off the lot when they buy a car.
This portability is not the case with services. The effects of services may not be apparent immediately, and what’s done is not always obvious. The client of a management consultant, for example, may have to wait for months (or years) before they can see the results.
Management of service promises: A serious problem occurs when companies fail to manage service marketing communications — the vows made by salespeople, advertising, and service personnel — and service falls short of what is promised.
Management of customer promises: A serious problem occurs when companies fail to manage service personnel — and service falls short of what is promised. This sometimes occur because the part of the company making the promise lacks the information necessary to make accurate statement.
Management of customer expectations:Appropriate and accurate communication about services is the responsibility of both marketing and operations. Marketing must accurately reflect what happens in actual service encounters; operations must deliver what is promised in communications.
Customer Education: Service companies must educate their customers. If customer are unclear about how services will be provided, what their role in delivery involves, and how to evaluate services they have never used before, they will be disappointed.
Internal marketing communication: Multiply function in the organization, such as marketing and operations, must be coordinated to achieve the goal of quality service provision. Because service advertising and personal selling promise what people do, frequently and effective communication across functions — horizontal communication — is critical.
3. Five categories of strategies to match service promises with delivery
The goal is to deliver service that is greater than or equal to promises made. and
Address service intangibility: Approaches to address service intangibility are
- Advertising and other communication strategies that clearly communicate service attribution and benefits to consumers
- Strategies designed to encourage word-of-mouth communication
If service companies recognize the challenges they face due to intangibility, they can use selected strategy to compensate. In one way or other, each of the individual strategies we discuss here focuses on way to make the message dramatic and memorable.
Manage service promises: In manufacturing physical goods, the department that make promises and those that deliver them can operate independently. Goods can be fully designed and produced and then over to marketing for promotional sale. In services, however, the sales and marketing department make promises about what other employees in the organization will fulfill. Because what employees do cannot be standardized, great coordination and management of promises are required. This coordination can be accomplished by creating a strong service brand and by coordinating all of the company’s marketing communications.
Manage customer expectations: Accurately promising when and how service will be delivered is one of the most important ways to close the communication gap. Among the most effective strategies to manage customer expectations are to make realistic promises; to offer service guarantees, options, and tiered-value offering; and to communicate criteria customers us to assess service
Manage customer education: Customers must prefer their role properly for many services to be effective. If customers forget to perform their role, or performance them improperly, disappointment may result. For this reason, communication to customers can take the form of customer education.
Manage internal marketing communication: The fifth major category of strategies necessary to match service delivery with promises is managing internal marketing communications. Internal marketing communications can be both vertical and horizontal. Vertical communication are either downward, from management to employees, or upward, from employees to management. Horizontal communications are those across functional boundaries in an organization. A third strategy in internal branding, which consists of various strategies to sell the brand inside the company.
4. Summary
Discrepancies between service delivery and external communications have a strong impact on customer perception of service quality. In this chapter we discussed the role of and need for integration service marketing communications in minimizing these discrepancies. We describe external and interactive communications using the service triangle and emphasized the need to coordinate all communication to deliver service that meets customer expectation.
