Lecture 6: Communication in Services Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Lecture 6: Communication in Services Deck (27)
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1
Q

Define Communication Strategy

A

Communicates the firm’s positioning strategy to its target markets, including consumers, employees, stockholders, and suppliers for the purpose of achieving organisational objectives

2
Q

Define Communication Mix

A

The array of communication tools available to marketers including advertising, personal selling, publicity, sales promotions and sponsorships.

3
Q

What are the External Roles (market focused) of marketing communications ?

A

To Inform: what the service offering is, where & when, cost & the particular benefits

To Persuade: why buy; solution to customer needs/problem

To Remind: contact & retain patronage of existing customers; especially important in time-sensitive situations (perishability)

4
Q

What are the Internal Roles of Marketing Communications?

A

Establish, maintain & nurture a desirable corporate culture (integration, shared values) Facilitate internal communication

Ensure efficient & satisfactory service delivery

Achieve productive working relationships

Build employee morale & loyalty

5
Q

How may the Intangibility characteristic of service influence it’s communication?

A

Define: Cannot be seen, touched, tasted. The lack of
Explain: The marketing implications is higher perceived risk, greater reliance on word-of-mouth (eWOM). Thus, eWOM must be monitored and managed by marketers through communications
Example: If your restaurant received bad reviews on Facebook or Zomato, you need to respond and manage public perception of how you managed the situation through professional communication.

6
Q

How may the Inseparability characteristic of service influence it’s communication?

A

Define: Difficult to separate the service from the person who performs the act and from the person who received the act

Explain:
Credence qualities of medical and legal services can lead to a lack of understanding of the value a customer has just finished receiving.

Personal Selling can help reduce perceived risk.

If customers are involved in the process of making their product, clear instructions should be given.

Example:
Service personnel would spend a significant amount of time listening to the customer’s problems before providing personalized advice on the service benefits, rather than ticking of a cookie-cutter checklist of benefits.

at SpudBar, customers are given instructional steps and a form to customize their salad to reduce wait time.

7
Q

How may the Perishability characteristic of service influence it’s communication?

A

Define: Services cannot be owned stored, cannot be returned after purchase

Explain:
Necessary to balance capacity and demand

Use short-term advertising and other sales promotions

Example:

Generating demand through flash sales

Flour Market will announce on Instagram that it’s all SOLD OUT to help people avoid dissapointment from travelling all the way

8
Q

What are the benefits of communication?

A

Communication can :
Promote people as the service

Use brand names, symbols to give visibility to intangible performances

Create memorable, tangible images

Gives sense of credibility, confidence (risk reduction), reassurance

Educate customers what to expect and how to use the service

9
Q

What are the 3 concerns of communication?

A
  • Managing expectations is important
  • Communication must be integrated across the organisation
  • All communication media must support service positioning
10
Q

What is the Hierarchy of Effects Model. Explain and relate it to the Services Sector Hierarchy?

A

Hierarchy of Effect Model is the order of responses a consumer has to a marketing communication.

With many services there is little information available to stimulate cognition, so emotions are likely to be the dominant factor in influencing attitude development, particularly when consumer lacks experience with the service.

Buyers in the service sector commence with emotions, progress with actual purchase, then learn through actual experience

Feel → Do → Learn

(Affect) →(Behaviour) →(Cognition)

Implications: Communciations should stimulate feelings and emotions that are consistent with emotional expectations of target market.

Example: Service workers can stimulate customer feelings through the process of emotional contagion.

11
Q

How can managers manage communication within the service encounter?

A

Non-verbal communication

Physical appearance
Desirable service worker behaviour

Physical evidence (servicescape)
Internal
External

12
Q

Give examples of Non-verbal communication

A

Cues of smiling, light laughter, forward body lean, open body posture and frequent eye contact convey intimacy and non-
dominance commonly associated with friendliness and courtesy

Cues of stoic facial expressions, either staring or avoiding eye contact, backward lean of body, and close body posture are perceived as conveying dominance, unfriendliness and emotional distance

13
Q

What is the importance of Physical appearance?

A

Uniforms:
-  Aids customers to identify service workers

  • Helps employees play their roles; thus facilitates consistency of performance
  •  Enhances group identification
14
Q

Explain Desirable service worker behaviour and give examples

A

Intended to convey courtesy, professionalism, respect, enthusiasm and appreciation…

  • Serving customers immediately
  • Conversing with customers
  • Smiling
  • Maintaining eye contact
  • Maintaining aligned posture
  • Demonstrating proactive behaviours
  • Placing change in the customer’s hand
  • Saying “thank you”
15
Q

Explain Physical evidence (servicescape)

A

Symbols and cues that serve to create expectations and influence perceptions of both customers and the firm’s employees

Similar to a tangible product’s packaging

Includes internal and external evidence.

16
Q

Provide examples of Internal Physical evidence (or servicescape)

A
  • Furniture and furnishings 
  • Facilities and equipment 
  • Grooming, uniforms and
    appearance of staff

- Brochures, pamphlets, business stationery, invoices, business cards, reports

  • Web pages
17
Q

Provide examples of External Physical evidence (or servicescape)

A

Geographic location and surrounding environment,neighbours

 Exterior design and appearance of building

Parking, landscape, signage

18
Q

What is the role of the servicescape?

A
  • Attention-creating: Use colour, sound, scent, uniforms to stand out
  • Message-creating: Use symbolic cues to communicate with intended audience
  • Effect-creating: Use colour, sound, design to create or heighten appetite for certain experiences
  • Strategic: Used as a form of competitive differentiation
  • Functional: Used to facilitate service delivery flow and facilitate customer-to-customer and customer-to-employee interactions
19
Q

What is the SOR Model? Provide Definition and it’s components.

A

SOR Model Definition: a model developed by environmental psychologists to help explain the effects of the service environment of consumer behaviour, described environmental stimuli, emotional states and responses to those states.

Three components of stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model:

  1. A set of environmental stimuli
  2. An organism (employees and/or customers)
  3. A set of responses or outcomes
20
Q

Define the components of the SOR Model

A

Stimuli: the various elements in the firm’s physical evidence

Organism: The recipients of the set of stimuli in the service encounter, includes employees and customers

Responses (outcomes): Consumer’ reaction or behaviour in response to stimuli

21
Q

What are the components of Responses in the SOR Model?

A

Pleasure-displeasure

Arousal non-arousal:

Dominance- submissiveness

Approach/Avoidance

23
Q

What is Bitner’s Servicescape Model?

A

Identifies the main dimensions of stimuli

  • Ambient or Atmosphere conditions
  • Space
  • Signs, symbols and artifacts

People perceive them as a whole (perceived servicescape)

Key to effective design is how well each individual dimension fits together

Customer and employee responses can be categorized into cognitive, emotional and physiological responses, which lead to observable behavioral responses

24
Q

Explain Atmosphere

A

Ambience/ Atmosphere includes Temperature, air quality, noise colour, music, odour, etc

  • Fast tempo and high volume music
    increase arousal
  • Warm colours such as orange, yellow & red increase arousal.
  • Cool colours such as blue, green, violet are associated with feelings of calmness
  • Lighting (dim vs bright)
  • Congruity between scent and service
25
Q

In the context of Atmosphere, explain Congruent vs Incongruent scents.

A

Congruity between scent and service

Congruent scents: Coffee shops such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks use scents of fresh coffee to attract customers

Incongruent Scents: ORANGE SMELL IN HOSPITALS The typical smells of hospital or dentist’s office makes some patients anxious and stressed, evoking intensely unpleasant feelings in patients with dental phobia. Behavioural response is to avoid the service facility.Lehrner et al. (2000) found that the ambient scent of orange in a dental waiting room led female patients to feel less anxious, more positive, and calmer.

26
Q

What are definitions of the components of Responses in the SOR Model?

A

Pleasure-displeasure: the emotional state that reflects the degree to which consumer and employees feel satisfied with the service experience
Arousal non-arousal: the emotional state that reflects the degree to which consumers and employees feel excited and stimulated

Dominance- submissiveness: The emotional state that reflects the degree to which consumers and employees feel in control and able to act freely within the service environment

Approach/Avoidance: Consumer responses to the set of stimuli, demonstrated by:

A desire to stay (approach) the service establishment

A desire to further explore and interact with he service environment (approach) or a tendency to ignore it (avoidance)

A desire to communicate with customers (avoid)

Feelings of satisfaction (approach) or disappointment (avoidance) with the service experience

27
Q

In the Context of the Servicescape model, give examples of what constitutes Space.

A

designs, layout, equipment, furnishings,etc

27
Q

In the Context of the Servicescape model, give examples of what constitutes Signs, symbols, artefacts

A

Signage, styles of décor, personal objects on display,