The characteristics of the services they determine everything that is offered to buyers and customers in order to satisfy their wishes and needs. The services incorporate economic activities that are immaterial and allow a direct interaction between the supplier and the buyer.
The services are usually intangible activities that do not need to be identified separately and are not necessarily related to the sale. These activities guarantee satisfaction when they are marketed to industrial users and consumers.
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In this article you will find:
Fundamental characteristics of the services
The characteristics of general services They can be applied in any type of service, among the most important are:
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1. Lack of property
The lack of ownership is one of the most important characteristics of the service, this is because you cannot have or store a service like occurs with products, that is why it is related to another variety of characteristics such as inseparability, intangibility and perishability.
2. Fluctuation
The demand for services has a high level of fluctuation. Changes in this type of demand are usually seasonal or for weeks, days or hours. The services mostly comprise a maximum demand for hours, a low demand in hours outside the period and a normal demand.
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3. Inseparability
This means that services are produced and consumed at the same time, in the same way that services cannot be detached from their providers. These are usually first sold and then produced and consumed, all this happens at the same time, in this sense a service is produced directly at or near the point of purchase.
4. Heterogeneity
The way in which a service is provided depends on the provider, the location and the time, and it cannot be standardized by itself. supplier, mostly take standardized measures to provide the service and thereby achieve increased sales and satisfy the customer. consumer.
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5. Perishable
Perishable indicates that the services cannot be stored to be sold or to be used later, that is, they cannot be inventoried. This characteristic is quite significant, since it has a significant impact on financial results.
When a demand is continuous, the perishability does not cause any type of problems in the services. But despite this, if there is a fluctuating demand, the companies that offer services could present some difficulties.
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6. Service prices
The decision in the setting of prices in services is under the influence of perishability, inseparability and fluctuation in demand. The quality of a service cannot be adjusted and its price will depend on demand and competition, where different prices could be used.
7. Intangibility
When taking into account the characteristics of good services, it could happen that intangibility comes first, which means that it cannot be tasted, touched, smelled, felt or visualized.
8. Difficult-to-measure quality characteristics
The quality characteristics of a service cannot be put in the form of data for analysis unlike products. If a specialist inspects an attribute of physical form to a product, he could perform a observation, but if it is an intangible service, it could not quantify the attributes to determine the quality.
9. Variability
This is another of the essential characteristics of the services, it refers to the fact that the The quality of services can have a great variety depending on when, how, where and who provides the service.
Due to the labor-intensive nature of services, there is a wide difference in regarding the quality of the services provided by different providers that could be in different moments.
10. Inconsistency
There cannot be a perfect standardization of services. Even if the provider is the same, the quality of the service may differ from time to time.
11. Consumer participation
Some consumers may participate in the production of the services, even when it is not necessary for the consumer to be in the place where the service will be performed. A service cannot be separated from the provider and neither can it be separated from the consumer.
12. Storage
The production and consumption of services are not inseparable, since a storage of services cannot be possible. Because it is an intangible sale, there can never be some type of service inventory.
The characteristics of the services They indicate what a product consists of in relation to the sale, activities, satisfactions and benefits that are offered in an intangible way. Today services have gained great importance and have helped in the growth of the world economy. If you want to see topics similar to this, you can enter and see on our website.
Sources and references:
- Thager H. (2019, February) Nature and Types of Services
- Ethan F. (2021, June) Explain characteristics of services.
