Services Marketing

Services There are four broad categories of services. These are people processing, possession processing, information processing and mental processing. These four categories represent the process view of services, which is based on the idea that services are essentially transformative in nature. Something is transformed as part of the service, and services can therefore be categorized in terms of what is being processed. The first is people processing, which is a focus on the customer as the person to whom something is done.

A haircut is a good example, but another good one would be a hotel room. The service is provided in terms of the provision of rest and a personal space. There is a physical component, but they call it the hospitality industry because the key deliverable is the hospitality and the physical component is just a manifestation of that. The second is possession processing. This is similar to people processing, except the focal point is an inanimate object. A cobbler performs a possession processing service, for example.

Something like that would probably be viewed as having a human component, but ultimately the cobbler is performing the service on the shoe -- whether there are pleasantries exchanged as part of the service is not likely going to be a more important determinant of return business compared to the quality of work on the shoe. Information processing is focused on information as the item upon which the service is performed.

Information processing could be something like a management consulting service, where the company gathers information, analyzes it, and then creates a report for management about what should be done. The key thing upon which the service is based is the information, and without it there would be no service. Finally, there is mental processing. This is a service, for example, that is largely experiential. The service is primarily processed in the mind. A good example would be entertainment, which occupies the mind, and education, which seeks to stimulate the mind.

The differentiation between information processing and mental processing is the object of the action, in other words the difference between transforming the information and transforming the person with the information. An accountant doing your taxes is engaged in information processing because the numbers are the object while mental processing is something more like entertainment. 2. Seeing a doctor at the clinic could be looked at as a combination service, depending on what the doctor is doing.

If the doctor is repairing the body -- sewing stitches, for example -- that is people processing because the service is being performed upon the body. If the doctor is just looking at you and giving advice, that is information processing because the doctor is taking in some information about your symptoms, applying his or her knowledge to that information to transform it, and then the output is the recommendations. So a doctor can.