7 Most Important P's of Service Marketing

Services are intangible in nature, thus marketing a service is often a difficult task for the marketers. The firm must determine the needs and wants of consumer an d it should aims to satisfy the target market. The characteristic of intangibility in service poses difficulty for at least first time consumer to understand the offering an d evaluate service alternatives. When we talk about marketing a product there are only 4 P’s i.e. Product, Price, Place and promotion but when it comes to service marketing there are additional aspects to be taken care those additional elements are People, Physical evidence and process. Thus the service marketing consist of 7 P’s. The first 4 Ps for the tangible product of the services and last three deals mainly with the services.

1. Product
   Physical product can be easily inspected and can be taken a short trial before buying but this is impossible in case of services. Customers can not try a service until they pay for it and receive it, they cannot be sure whether they have received the right service according to the amount which has been paid for  specific service because of the intangibility of the service. The most important factor to be consider here is understanding of what benefit and satisfaction a consumer seeking for the service. For an instance a restaurant offers food for its customer but when customer coming to the restaurant they may seeking for an atmosphere different from the noise of the city. Thus it is very necessarily to think from the consumer view point.
   Service marketers must thoroughly understand the nature of the service and the service which they offer must satisfy the customer. The benefit which is associated with a particular service must satisfy the needs and requirement of the customer. The service concept is based on the benefit customers seeks and which the marketer is willing to provide from the services offered. The marketers must decide about the benefits which is associated with a single service i.e. package of service should be a mixture of service as well as product benefit.
2. Price
   In case of a product there is a similar term for every product i.e. price but in case of service there is different term used for the cost of every service such as for education the term tuition fee is used similarly for transportation service it is fare, insurance premium, property use rent etc. Pricing a product is much more easier than pricing a service, perishability nature of service makes it difficult to meet the demands through it inventory. Season or time of demand plays a vital role in setting the price for the services. For example during the off season the hotel set low tariffs for the rooms while in peak they set higher tariffs. The intangibility characteristic make the pricing even more difficult to calculate the cost of service in case of services provided by doctors, lawyers the price can be settled by negotiation between buyer and seller. In services such as tailoring, the tangible component is higher so it is easy to set prices for these kind of service. While setting the prices one more thing should be kept in mine I.e. government regulations because charges of water supply, electricity supply, bank charges etc.
3. Place
   Product are produced at a different place and than distributed to other require places by different distribution channels but in case of services the channels of distribution is more direct because the production and consumption of the services takes place at the same place between customer and service provider. The inseparability characteristic of services such as those of doctors, teachers, consultant etc. poses a distribution constraints since they are able to serve only the local market. The most effective element to be considered  here is accessibility and availability both must be met in order to achieve a successful service marketing.
4. Promotion
   Promotion of product is much more easier than promotion of the service because of the intangible characteristic of the service. Buying a service much more riskier than of a product because services cannot be received until you pay for it. The task for marketing manager here to design the promotion mix in such a way that it helps them to overcome the constraints. While designing the promotional mix the marketing manager should keep in mine few things such as the benefits of the service should be stressed, use of simple and a clear massage, providing some tangible clues about the service etc.
5. People
   The most important things to be considered by any organization is the people.  For many people intensive business, employees are the business for them. If quality people leave the organization it is considered as loss for the organization.The role of people is very important in management both as customers and service providers. Service provider is important because a customer sees a company through its employees , they represent first line of contact with the customer and quality of service is totally depends on the people who provides it in case of product a bad product can be returned back but in case of service the service cannot be returned back thus it should be performed well at every time. Human resource management is so central to the activities of the organization that it cannot be separated. In service industry the physical appearance of the organization depends upon the people of work their.
6. Physical evidence
   As services has a intangibility characteristics they do not hold any physical product to show their customers so it is very essential for service industry to maintain their physical appearance so effective that it can be help the organization to show the quality of the service. The exterior and interior design of a restaurant, cleanliness of the hospital, comfortable seat arrangement in the cinema hall. All that is show the physical evidence for the service industry. The physical evidence are of two types one is peripheral and another one is essential. Peripheral evidence are those which is purchased by the customer and its ownership can be transferred such as air ticket, movie ticket, check book etc. but all that has less value such as a check book by a bank it has no value unless you have money. Essential evidence are those which cannot be possessed by the customer such as building, décor design etc.
7. Process
   This is the system by which a customer receives a service. When customers enter to the restaurant they go to billing counter buys a coupon and get the food, some restaurant first provide the food and then as for the bill all these procedure foe receiving a service can be known as process.