People

People as part of the marketing mix

People are the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are altered to meet the individual needs of the person consuming it. Most of us can think of a situation where the personal service offered by individuals has made or tainted a tour, vacation or restaurant meal. Remember, people buy from people that they like, so the attitude, skills and appearance of all staff need to be first class. People have an important role in service delivery, they are relied upon to deliver and maintain transactional marketing and people play an important part in the customer relationship.

People deliver services in all sorts of settings. It is an important element of the services marketing mix. If you go to an organized event such as the Olympics then everything about the experience is underpinned by people. Behind-the-scenes there are project managers and chefs, maitre d' and accountants. The people deliver the service and this is the same for restaurants, hairdressers and auto mechanics.
People are the transactional interface between the company and its customers so people deliver the service and they collect money i.e. get paid on behalf the company for the service. So if you go to a restaurant the waiter will greet you, take your order and serve your food and finally he or she will take the money which completes the contractual transaction.
People underpin the customer relationship between the company and the consumer. Remember that people buy from people (as we always remind you on Marketing Teacher) and that the relationship between the person you are dealing with and yourself add much value to the transaction.
If you know you're going to eat at your favorite restaurant, it a good idea to learn the waiter’s name and build a rapport. Think of other times such as when you were selling a property and an agent was a particularly reliable and polite person, or perhaps you bought a car because you trusted the salesperson and this advantage clinched the deal. Marketing today is based on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the relationship with people that you're dealing with at the company can recruit you as a customer, retaining you as a customer and encourage you to remain a customer in the future. This is where people underpin the long-term customer relationship.
Here are some ways in which people add value to an experience as part of the marketing mix. Let’s consider training, personal selling and customer service.

Training.

All customer facing personnel need to be trained and developed to maintain a high quality of personal service. Training should begin as soon as the individual starts working for an organization during an induction. The induction will involve the person in the organization's culture for the first time, as well as briefing him or her on day-to-day policies and procedures. At this very early stage the training needs of the individual are identified. A training and development plan is constructed for the individual which sets out personal goals that can be linked into future appraisals. In practice most training is either 'on-the-job' or 'off-the-job.' On-the-job training involves training whilst the job is being performed e.g. training of bar staff. Off-the-job training sees learning taking place at a college, training center or conference facility. Attention needs to be paid to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) where employees see their professional learning as a lifelong process of training and development.

Personal Selling

There are different kinds of salesperson. There is the product delivery salesperson. His or her main task is to deliver the product, and selling is of less importance e.g. fast food, or mail. The second type is the order taker, and these may be either 'internal' or 'external.' The internal sales person would take an order by telephone, e-mail or over a counter. The external sales person would be working in the field. In both cases little selling is done.
The next sort of sales person is the missionary. Here, as with those missionaries that promote faith, the salesperson builds goodwill with customers with the longer-term aim of generating orders. Again, actually closing the sale is not of great importance at this early stage. The forth type is the technical salesperson, e.g. a technical sales engineer. Their in-depth knowledge supports them as they advise customers on the best purchase for their needs. Finally, there are creative sellers. Creative sellers work to persuade buyers to give them an order. This is tough selling, and tends to offer the biggest incentives. The skill is identifying the needs of a customer and persuading them that they need to satisfy their previously unidentified need by giving an order.

Customer Service

Many products, services and experiences are supported by customer services teams. Customer services provide expertise (e.g. on the selection of financial services), technical support (e.g. offering advice on IT and software) and coordinate the customer interface (e.g. controlling service engineers, or communicating with a salesman). The disposition and attitude of such people is vitally important to a company. The way in which a complaint is handled can mean the difference between retaining or losing a customer, or improving or ruining a company's reputation. Today, customer service can be face-to-face, over the telephone or using the Internet. People tend to buy from people that they like, and so effective customer service is vital. Customer services can add value by offering customers technical support, expertise and advice.

Process

Process as part of the marketing mix

Process is another element of the services marketing mix or 7Ps.There is a number of perceptions of the concept of process within the business and marketing literature. Some see processes as a means to achieve an outcome, for example - to achieve a 30% market share, a company implements a marketing planning process.
Another view is that marketing has a number of processes that integrate together to create an overall marketing process, for example - telemarketing and Internet marketing can be integrated. A further view is that marketing processes are used to control the marketing mix, i.e. processes that measure the achievement of marketing objectives. All views are understandable, but not particularly customer focused.
For the purposes of the marketing mix, process is an element of service that sees the customer experiencing an organization’s offering. It's best viewed as something that your customer participates in at different points in time. Here are some examples to help you build a picture of a marketing process, from the customer's point of view.
Going on a cruise - from the moment that you arrive at the dockside, you are greeted; your baggage is taken to your room. You have two weeks of services from restaurants and evening entertainment, to casinos and shopping. Finally, you arrive at your destination, and your baggage is delivered to you. This is a highly focused marketing process, and is an example of the importance of process in enabling delivery of the customer proposition. Another way of looking at this example is that there is end to end service support, which has enabled transactions between the company and its customers. There are other ways in which the process supports the customer experience as we will see from the next section.

At each stage of the process, marketers:

• Deliver value through all elements of the marketing mix. Process, physical evidence and people enhance services.
• Feedback can be taken and the mix can be altered.
• Customers are retained, and other services or products are extended and marked to them.
• The process itself can be tailored to the needs of different individuals, experiencing a similar service at the same time.

Processes essentially have inputs, throughputs and outputs (or outcomes). Marketing adds value to each of the stages. Take a look at the lesson on value chain analysis to consider a series of processes at work.
There are a number of types of processes. Technological processes include the process of manufacturing goods and adapting them for the needs of clients. For example Rolls-Royce motor cars will build a Phantom which is adapted to the requirements of each individual client. There are also electronic processes which include things like Electronic Point-Of-Sale (EPOS), barcodes on products which are scanned on phones or by checkout people and other means such as loyalty cards.
Processes include direct activities and indirect activities. Direct activities add value at the customer interface as the consumer experiences the service. Many processes are supported by indirect activities, often known as back office activities, which support the service before, during and after it has been consumed.

Physical Evidence

Are you looking for physical marketing?

Physical evidence as part of the marketing mix

Services as we know are largely intangible when marketing. However customers tend to rely on physical cues to help them evaluate the product before they buy it. Therefore marketers develop what we call physical evidence to replace these physical cues in a service. The role of the marketer is to design and implement such tangible evidence. Physical evidence is the material part of a service.
There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the following:

• The building itself (such as prestigious offices or scenic headquarters). This includes the design of the building itself, signage around the building, and parking at the building, how the building is landscaped and the environment that surrounds the building. This is part of what is known as the servicescape.
• The interior of any service environment is important. This includes the interior design of the facility, how well it is equipped, internal signage, how well the internal environment is laid out, and aspects such as temperature and air conditioning. This is also part of the servicescape.
• Packaging.
• Internet/web pages.
• Paperwork (such as invoices, tickets and dispatch notes).
• Brochures.
• Furnishings.
• Signage (such as those on aircraft and vehicles).
• Uniforms and employee dress.
• Business cards.
• Mailboxes.
• Many others . . .

A sporting event is packed full of physical evidence. Your tickets have your team's logos printed on them, and players are wearing uniforms (i.e. the team colors/colours and clothing). The stadium itself could be impressive and have an electrifying atmosphere. You travelled there and parked quickly nearby, and your seats are comfortable and close to restrooms and store. All you need now is for your team to win!
Some organizations depend heavily upon physical evidence as a means of marketing communications, for example tourism attractions and resorts (e.g. Disney World), parcel and mail services (e.g. UPS Courier Services), and large banks and insurance companies (e.g. Lloyds of London). This is important to their corporate image. Of course there are other examples with a slightly more tangible offering such as Rolls-Royce motor cars and P&O cruises.

Physical Environment

The physical environment is the space by which you are surrounded when you consume the service. So for a meal this is the restaurant and for a journey it is the aircraft that you travel inside. The physical environment is made up from its ambient conditions; spatial layout and functionality; and signs, symbols, and artefacts (Zeithaml 2000).

Ambience

The ambient conditions include temperature, colour, smell and sound, music and noise. The ambience is a package of these elements which consciously or subconsciously help you to experience the service. Ambience can be diverse. The ambience of a health spa is relaxing and calm, and the music and smells underpin this experience. The ambience of a nightclub will be loud noise and bright lights which enhance this customer experience, obviously in a different way. The marketer needs to match the ambience to the service that is being delivered.

Spatial Layout

The spatial layout and functionality are the way in which furniture is set up or machinery spaced out. Think about the spatial layout of your local cinema, or a church or temple that you have visited and how this affects your experience of the service. Functionality is more about how well suited the environment is to actually accomplish your needs. For example is the seat in the cinema comfortable, or can you reach your life jacket when on an aircraft?

Corporate branding (signs, symbols and artefacts)

Finally corporate image and identity are supported by signs, symbols and artefacts of the business itself. Examples of this would be the signage in Starbucks which reassures the consumer through branding. When you visit an airport there are signs which guide you around the facility smoothly, as well as statues and logos displayed throughout the complex. This is all important to the physical evidence as a fundamental element of the services marketing mix.