Page 388 - Marketing Management

DESIGNING AND MANAGING SERVICES | CHAPTER 13 365

The Panda Express restaurant chain has management turnover that’s half the industry average,
due in part to a combination of ample bonuses and health benefits with a strong emphasis on
worker self-improvement through meditation, education, and hobbies. Special wellness seminars
and get-to-know-you events outside work help to create a caring, nurturing atmosphere. 40

Achieving Excellence

in Services Marketing

The increased importance of the service industry has sharpened the focus on what it takes to excel
41
in the marketing of services. Here are some guidelines.
Marketing Excellence

Marketing excellence with services requires excellence in three broad areas: external, internal, and
interactive marketing (see Figure 13.4). 42
• External marketing describes the normal work of preparing, pricing, distributing, and promot-
ing the service to customers.
• Internal marketing describes training and motivating employees to serve customers well. The
most important contribution the marketing department can make is arguably to be “exceptionally
clever in getting everyone else in the organization to practice marketing.” 43
• Interactive marketing describes the employees’ skill in serving the client. Clients judge service
not only by its technical quality (Was the surgery successful?), but also by its functional quality
(Did the surgeon show concern and inspire confidence?). 44
A good example of a service company achieving marketing excellence is Charles Schwab.

Charles Schwab Charles Schwab, one of the nation’s largest discount broker-
Charles Schwab age houses, uses the telephone, Internet, and wireless devices to create an innovative combina-
tion of high-tech and high-touch services. One of the first major brokerage houses to provide
online trading, Schwab today services more than 8 million individual and institutional accounts. It
offers account information and proprietary research from retail brokers, real-time quotes, an after-
hours trading program, the Schwab learning center, live events, online chats with customer service representa-
tives, a global investing service, and market updates delivered by e-mail. Besides the discount brokerage, the
firm offers mutual funds, annuities, bond trading, and now mortgages through its Charles Schwab Bank.
Schwab’s success has been driven by its efforts to lead in three areas: superior service (online, via phone, and
in local branch offices), innovative products, and low prices. Daily customer feedback reports are reviewed and
acted on the next day.If customers have trouble filling out a form or experience an unexpected delay,a Schwab
representative calls to ask about the source of the problem and how it can be solved. 45

Company |Fig. 13.4|
Three Types of
Marketing in Service
Industries
Internal External
Marketing Marketing

$

Cleaning/ Financial/ Restaurant
maintenance banking industry
services services

Employees Interactive Customers
Marketing