4 I’s Of Services.
Services have four major characteristics that greatly affect the marketing programs.
1. Intangibility:
Unlike products, services cannot be held, touched, or seen before the purchase decision thus, they should be made tangible to a certain extent. Marketers should “tangibilize the intangible” to communicate service nature and quality. This can be done through:
- Environment
- Uniforms
- Paperwork
- Brochures
Insurance is a guarantee against risk and neither the risk nor the guarantee is tangible. Hence, insurance rightly come under services, which are intangible. Efforts have been made by the insurance companies to make insurance tangible to some extent by including letters and forms
.
2. Inconsistency:
Service quality is often inconsistent. This is because service personnel have different capabilities, which vary in performance from day to day. This problem of inconsistency in service quality can be reduced through standardization, training and mechanization.
In insurance sector, all agents should be trained to bring about consistency in providing service or, the insurance process should be mechanized to a certain extent. Eg: the customers can be reminded about the payment of premium through e-mails and sms instead of agents.
3. Inseparability:
Services are produced and consumed simultaneously. Consumers cannot and do not separate the deliverer of the service from the service itself. Interaction between consumer and the service provider varies based on whether consumer must be physically present to receive the service.
In insurance sector too, the service is produced when the agent convinces the consumer to buy the policy and it is said to be consumed when the claim is settled and the policyholder gets the money. In both the above cases, it is essential for the service provider (agent) and the consumer (policy holder) to be present.
4. Inventory:
No inventory can be maintained for services. Inventory carrying costs are more subjective and lead to idle production capacity. When the service is available but there is no demand, cost rises as, cost of paying the people and overhead remains constant even though the people are not required to provide services due to lack of demand.
In the insurance sector however, commission is paid to the agents on each policy that they sell. Hence, not much inventory cost is wasted on idle inventory. As the cost of agents is directly proportionate to the policy sold.
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