7 Important Characteristics of Services

1. Perishability: Service is highly perishable and time element has great significance in service marketing. Service if not used in time is lost forever. Service cannot be stored.

 2. Fluctuating Demand: Service demand has high degree of fluctuations. The changes in demand can be seasonal or by weeks, days or even hours. Most of the services have peak demand in peak hours, normal demand and low demand on off-period time. 

3. Intangibility: Unlike product, service cannot be touched or sensed, tested or felt before they are availed. A service is an abstract phenomenon.

 4. Inseparability: Personal service cannot be separated from the individual and some personalized services are created and consumed simultaneously. 

 5. Heterogeneity: The features of service by a provider cannot be uniform or standardized. A Doctor can charge much higher fee to a rich client and take much low from a poor patient. 

 6. Pricing of Services: Pricing decision about services are influenced by perishability, fluctuation in demand and inseparability. Quality of a service cannot be carefully standardized. Pricing of services is dependent on demand and competition where variable pricing may be used. 

 7. Service quality is not statistically measurable: It is defined in form of reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance all of which are in control of employee’s direction interacting with customers. For service, customers satisfaction and delight are very important. Employees directly interacting with customers are to be very special and important. People include internal marketing, external marketing and interactive marketing