ABSTRACT
In this unit we shall look at the interrelated aspects of service and service quality in satisfying
customer requirements and the ways in which the notion of customer service has expanded to
encompass the broader area of customer care. Within these areas of service and customer
care we shall look at the role that people, and particularly an organization’s staff, play in service
and customer care delivery. We shall look at why service and customer care have become
increasingly recognized critical factors in the success of a business, whether it is concerned
with providing services or selling products. Service delivery, customer care, and the all-
important people element of an organization on which they are based have become the focus
of a new approach for organizations providing products as well as services. In some ways for
marketers, this is familiar territory. Many marketing pundits have long argued that the delivery
of extra ‘added value’ through the service, customer care and people dimensions is a critical
competitive factor in market places that are becoming more crowded and more competitive by
the day. In fact we have already seen that it is these augmented product dimensions that are
often the most important factors in choice for customers. As we saw in Unit 3 ‘The marketing
mix: product’ the augmented level of the product is sometimes the only way in which a
company can differentiate itself from competitors. Increasingly, customers are looking for
good service delivery and quality and will often, in addition, respond to high standards of
customer care from the marketer. It is to these increasingly important areas of the marketing
mix that we turn our attention in this unit.
