Why service does not sell?

WHY SERVICE DOES NOT SELL ?

As a consultant and a corporate trainer, I see multitude of young MBAs entering service industry today. They seem to be driven by the enormous market that lies waiting for them and they are naturally optimistic about 200% increase in market share and 500%  in revenue in a service offering. This service could be financial consultancy or welder training. But, the enthusiasm shown to "win the war" is almost similar. 

Having got the the title "Marketing Executive" and armed with the dubious data of phone numbers and e mail addresses churned out by obscure agencies for a cost, they start their drum beats. They soon realise that there are so many out there beating similar drums. In order to win customers, the price is reduced and freebies are rolled out for acquiring the indifferent customers. The costs are cut which sometimes impact on service delivery leading to customer dissatisfaction. The drum beats grow louder to attract more customers to compensate the attrition of acquired customers. 

The Marketing Executives and the Managements of service organisations need to think why the painful process should continue when no one except the telephone companies benefit out of this mindless work.  We must understand the following cardinal principles in service as an offering.

1. Service cannot be sold:

The need for service has to originate from the customer. There may be great insurance policies but they are not of use to a man nearing 70. We cannot sell a service however attractive it is to people who have no need for it. We must ask ourselves, "Have we done our homework to check the need of the customer before bombarding with the earthshaking offers and wasting every one's time?

"Listen to the customers" is a good advice but many service organisations would not even let the customer speak at all lest that they may have to listen. Service is never standardised like products. Some customisation is inevitable and this is the differentiator for distinguishing those who are star performers and those who also ran. Marketing people in service organisations should encourage a customer speak and address the specific requirements. 

2. Trumpet the benefits-not the discounts: 

30% discount in the annual fees for the Gym is really good but it falls on deaf ears unless some one understands the benefits of joining the gym. Customers see mailers offering June discounts or year end discounts for those services which do not mean anything to them nor they can visualise what value they add. 

3. Do not send mailers  with multiple services:

Lazy people are known to send mailers with multiple services, In training organisations, people send mailers bunching up different training programmes in one table called training calendar.   Are customers supposed to go through the entire calendar and keep in mind which training is when? It is unrealistic today to expect people to remember anything which is planned to happen beyond say a month. But people keep on mailing training calendars which are of no use except that they satisfy the Marketing people that they are working systematically.

4. Project the service personnel in knowledge based services:

In knowledge based services like training and consultancy, customers give a lot of weightage to the people who provide the services. They would like to weigh between the competences they find in one organisation  with another and then take decision. The marketing people in such service organisations need to project the people who are delivering those services in the communication. I have met many marketing executives in knowledge based organisations but they normally proclaim the strength of their brand or location or "rapport" with the CEOs instead of realising the importance of the people who provide the services. when one of my customers posed a question to a quality systems auditing organisation on the profiles of the auditors who would be deputed,  the query was met with a disbelief and a look of "Don't you trust us?" 

5. Increase the customer base before attempting to reduce the costs:

It is common to see the Marketing people taking decisions to cut corners in service offering and reneging on the promises made to recover the costs. A the calculations go hay wire, the cost cutting starts. But unfortunately unlike in product, in service the cost cutting is done in the full view of the customer.  People look for cheaper venues, recycle course stationery in training related services. I know a tour organiser who distributed cheap suitcases which failed in the first flight itself. If the efforts are spent on increasing customer base, such self defeating tactics would have been unnecessary.

Unless we do these, our marketing costs will increase and soon we will find that the service does not sell, which is not true.