SERVICE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT OF IDEA GENERATION

QUESTION

SOLUTION

Service Product Management

Management of a service product through its entire life cycle is called service product management (Saaksvuori and Immonen).Under service product management a service is rendered to various clients in order to earn profit. First of all a service space is identified then it is bundled in a productized form and finally sent in the market. Following are some main functions of service product management:

 Generation of Idea

The word “Spa has Latin origination which literally means “Health by water”. Though water treatments are the base for any spa company, but they can also offer services like massages, hair styling, manicures and pedicures, makeup, facials and skin treatments and full body treatments in order to widen their business.

ST.Gregory SPA provides a wide range of services which include hholistic therapies – Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Javanese and Thai face and body treatments; fitness – gymnasiums and indoor and outdoor swimming pools; aaesthetics and active-ageing – holistic health management system.

Service Sales Support

Furnishing of an effective product list along with their financial charges is an important element in service product management. Creation of website and generation of pricing list for services are quite essential for ST.Gregory SPA. The website and the service brochure should provide the information like description regarding the services offered, how the services offered will benefit the clients, staff member performing that service, time required for a particular service and estimated cost of the service.

Demand Supply Management

For an effective service product management one has to balance the demand and supply side of a business. For ST.Gregory SPA clients’ needs are the basis for demand side. On supply side interiors of the parlour, equipments used and products are the key elements on supply side.

Management of Human Resource

Human resource is the most important factor when we talk about service product management as they are the one who provide service to a customer on behalf of service provider. Motivating the human resource is an important element in management of human resource. In case of spa business, the one ST.Gregory has, service provider can motivate his staff by setting some goals; for example each therapist can be given a duty to get feedback formed filled by the clients they serve. The feedback form also contains a question in which they have to rank the treatment provided by the therapist on the scale of 1 to 10. Therapist who scores maximum at the end of the month will be rewarded accordingly.  Staff should be given proper training to provide maximum level of satisfaction to the clients. At the time of giving the treatment they should be focussed and in case there are any personal issues between therapists they should resolve it later.

Marketing and Market Communications

A Spa company can use various source of marketing for advertising and promotion. Print media like daily newspapers is one of the best sources to reach the masses. Special packages can be offered on different occasions like Christmas, valentine, new year etc. Information should be available on major search engines. One can also promote their business by associating with other related business. For example ST.Gregory can sponsor any beauty contest; through this they can reach the people who are beuty conscious.

What is The Flower of Service?

The concept of the flower of service indicates that every core service product is surrounded by various supplementary services (Lovelock, Wirtz and Chatterjee, 2010). These supplementary services are essential for the proper delivery of the core service and also add value for the customers. Every core service product is surrounded by different supplementary services depending upon the nature of the core service product. Figure 1 exhibits the flower of service for ST.Gregory Spa. In case of ST.Gregory Spa,

Hospitality

Hospitality is the first thing that a customer experiences. Impressive hospitality not only helps to retain the old customers but also brings new customers through positive word of mouth promotion. Face to face encounter is the beginning of hospitality. Greetings, hygienic toilets and washrooms, waiting facilities and amenities and security are some key elements of hospitality.

 Example: Clients should get a nice, warm and personal welcome on the arrival. Staff should be clear regarding their bookings to avoid any delay in the services to be rendered. They should be served tea or coffee as per their choice and preference. Appropriate temperature, background music, cleanliness and ambience of the rooms are essential to make client comfortable and relaxed. A small gift, few candies and chocolates, sample of cosmetic product or any gift voucher can be given to the client to make him feel happy while leaving the parlour.

Information

Customers try to get maximum value for their money and for this purpose they need proper information. Accurate, timely and crystal clear information satisfies the hungry customers. Proper information makes customers confident that the service provider is not cheating upon them.

Example: ST.Gregory Spa should have a service brochure which should provide the information regarding description regarding the services offered, how the services offered will benefit the clients, staff member performing that service, time required for a particular service and estimated cost of the service

Consultation

Consultation is the next level of information. A service provider can discuss the requirements of a customer and then can customize their services according to the requirement of the customer. Customized advice and personal counseling are the basic elements of consultation

Example: ST.Gregory Spa offers various personal and corporate membership plans. ST.Gregory Spa offers an annual membership of  $2000. They also offer three-month trial membership of $600. In order to attract the corporate clients; a special corporate annual membership is also offered by them which is corporate annual membership of $1,500.

Order Taking

After gathering the provided information, when a customer is ready to purchase the service he expects the person who is taking the order to be fast, polite and accurate. Customer would not like to waste his time and effort in the process of placing an order. A service provider should take minimum time to take the order.

Example: Technology can be of great advantage in this case. In case of ST.Gregory Spa, service provider can have some customized sofwares so that there in uniformity in taking the orders.

Safekeeping

When customers visit any service site they carry certain personal possessions with them. Safety of their personal possessions is very important for them. In some cases if they are not confident about the safety of their belongings they may not visit that service centre at all. Child care, pet care safekeeping of valuables, valet parking is some examples of safekeeping. Parking facilities, valet parking for vehicles, Changing room, Baggage handling, storage place, safe deposit boxes and Security personnel are some important elements of safekeeping

Example: In case of ST.Gregory Spa, customers are expected to spent long hours and may bring their child along with them. In that case service provider is expected to make a proper arrangement for the kids where they can spend their time without disturbing their parent.

Exceptions

Sometimes a customer may ask for some special arrangements which generally are not followed in routine by the service provider. Special requests, handling of complaints and compensations are some important elements of exceptions. A service provider should keep a close watch on the level of these exceptional items. If there are too many complaints or demand of compensations from clients’ side then it indicates that something is wrong at the base level.

Example: In case of ST.Gregory Spa, if there are too many complaints regarding any particular product then management should immediately look into the matter to avoid any future problem for the business.

Billing

Clear, informative and itemized bills leads to a high level satisfaction of the customers. Any kind of inaccuracy in the bill may make customer feel cheated. Such experience may stop customer from coming to that service provider in future also. Any kind of unexplained symbols or special signs may lead to dissatisfaction of customer. Poor quality of printing or bad handwriting in case bills are being prepared manually may also lead to customer dissatisfaction. At the same time the service provider should not take very long time to make the bill.

Example: ST.Gregory Spa can follow the self billing approach. Service provider can tally the order by customer only. Like this customer will feel important and confident that service provider is not cheating upon them.

Payment

Payment of bill should be easy and convenient process. In case customer is not very technologically updated then service provider should help him to use various options of making payment. In case customer is using any kind of voucher then he should be assisted properly. He should not be embarrassed by asking too many questions regarding the voucher.

Conclusion

Management of service product is a complex job as it involves human being on both the sides of the product. The service provider is human and the customer who is buying the product is again human. Satisfaction is a big word when we talk of service product management. Both the sides should feel satisfies. Service provider should be satisfied in the way that they provided the service in the best possible manner and customer should feel that they got value for their money. There are various elements when we talk of service flower and each element is unique in its own sense. Every element should be given equal importance and not a single stone should be left behind as negligence on any one front can ruin the whole show. For example, in case of ST.Gregory Spa, a client is welcomed in the best possible manner, information are provided in the most accurate and clear manner, through consultation services offered to the client are best suited as per client’s need, order was placed properly and then service was provided in the most efficient and effective manner but at the end at the time of preparation of bill one item was wrongly charged; this action will just destroy the whole efforts and will lead to high level of dissatisfaction among the client. Thus all the aspects should be properly understood and undertaken.

References

Day Spa Business Plan, Bplans.com, [online] Available at: http://www.bplans.com/day_spa_business_plan/strategy_and_implementation_summary_fc.php#ixzz1rLDXr5yM> [Accessed 06 April 2012].

Start Your Own Spa Business, FabJob.com, [online] Available at: http://www.fabjob.com/spaowner.asp> [Accessed 06 April 2012].

Lovelock, C., Wirtz, J.and Chatterjee, J, 2010. Services Marketing – People, Technology, Strategy, 6^th ed. Pearson. Available through: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=g0XivufvLLoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 06 April 2012].

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