Characteristics of Services and Technology in Service Management

This article discusses the characteristics of services, including intangibility, simultaneity, perishability, and heterogeneity, and their influence on service management. It also evaluates the impact of technology on service management, including positive and negative impacts, and ethical responsibilities in using technology in business.

Mock test

Contents
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Questions A- Critically debate the different characteristics of services and...................................1
how does it influence service management?...................................................................................1
Service Characteristics.................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of characteristics........................................................................................................2
Influence of characteristics on service management...................................................................2
Question B- Critically evaluate how technology can improve service............................................3
management and consider the ethical responsibilities in using technology in................................3
the business......................................................................................................................................3
Impact of technology on business services..................................................................................3
Positive and negative impact of technology on business.............................................................4
Ethical implications for using technology...................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
Online-.............................................................................................................................................6

MAIN BODY
Questions A- Critically debate the different characteristics of services and
how does it influence service management?
Service Characteristics
There are various characteristics of the services which are mentioned below-
 Intangibility- The customers are not able to touch and see the services with their naked
eyes (4 Characteristics of Service, 2022). Services are not felt or tested in any regard
before they are eventually availed by people.
 Simultaneity- This characteristic of services states that the services will occur at the
same time when it is delivered to customers. For example, a company cannot store
services for future use and it has to be delivered at the same time when it is produced.
 Perishability- This is another important characteristic of services which states that the
services cannot be stored store for future use (7 Important Characteristics of Services,
2022).
 Heterogeneity- This characteristic of services states that the services are not uniform in
any case and each service which is provided by separate service providers will be distinct
from one another. Even the same individual is not supposed to provide same service
twice to their customers.
Evaluation of characteristics
 Intangibility - The services are not seen and touched by anyone which means that any
customer cannot guarantee the success or a positive experience regarding a service before
it is availed eventually (Mohamed, Rye and Fonzone, 2020). Customers have less trust on
services due to this characteristic which is why service providers must ensure that their
services come with a strong brand image which generates trust.
 Simultaneity - The services occur on the same time when they are delivered. Hence, the
management of services is essential because there is only one single attempt to provide
services to customers. The people who offer services are required to make sure that they
will maintain customer satisfaction by offering high quality of services in first attempt.
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 Perishability - Services are not able to get stored for future use which is they are quite
perishable by nature which in some instances make them more averse to failure than
physical products (Aloqaily and et. al., 2019). Service providers have to keep their
resources ready at all times as services are very exhaustible due to this characteristic
compared to physical products
 Heterogeneity – Since the amount of services which are on offer in any given market by
all sorts of vendors and people differ from one another, services are extremely specialized
by design. This characteristic also makes it compulsory for service providers to undertake
extra efforts to further differentiate their services from other competitors.
Influence of characteristics on service management
The characteristics of services can influence service management in various ways and these
ways are mentioned below-
 Intangibility – This characteristic influences service management by making it
compulsory for firms to ensure that their services are top notch in quality as without a
proven track record, people do not trust service providers as they cannot feel services
unlike products.
 Simultaneity – Since service provides only have one chance to serve their target
audience in a holistic manner, this characteristic has influenced them to subject strong
standards of quality control over their services.
 Perishability – By nature, services are very perishable as they cannot be stored by firms
for duplicated usage which is why companies nowadays are adopting new technologies to
make services last longer. Companies are also using methods such as offering digital
membership cards to people to prolong their services.
 Heterogeneity – This characteristic has also had a major influence on service
management as the entire field of service management is seeing greater rates of advanced
technological adoption by firm’s globally. This is being done by service providers to
differentiate the features and quality of their services far beyond of those provided by
their competitors.
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Question B- Critically evaluate how technology can improve service
management and consider the ethical responsibilities in using technology in
the business
Impact of technology on business services
Technology has played an important role in development of services and service
management businesses in different ways over the past few years. With the help of technology, a
company can analyse the needs and demand of their customers regarding the specific services
which they provide (Coombs and et. al., 2020). Technology has affected the way businesses
provide services in their target market in many ways which are listed herein.
 Rise in technology has made it so that people search services online when in need which
is why modern businesses have to ensure that they have optimized and searchable digital
presence
 Service delivery has been completely integrated in many sector with cloud technology
which has helped make modern services much faster and efficient in comparison such as
cloud storage and cloud relationship management.
Positive and negative impact of technology on business
Positive impacts
 Helps to reach to customers at global level- With the help of technology like
Mobile phones, social media channels and many others the companies can reach to
customers at global level.
 Helps to maintain good relationship- It is essential for the service providing
companies to maintain good relationship with their customers. For example, in case
customer needs to complaint about any particular service then that customer can use
company’s social media handles to communicate their concern. Company can
respond to customer’s issues as quick as possible.
Negative impacts
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 High cost of maintenance- Even though advanced technologies allow for greater
productivity to be extracted from a company’s workforce and operations, the associated
cost is a major barrier as it is very expensive to keep modern technological systems
updated (Fernando, Jabbour and Wah, 2019).
 Decline in face to face communication- After adopting technology such as social media
advertisements and many other mediums the employees of companies interact with
customers through mobile phones and websites and the face to face interaction is
declining.
Ethical implications for using technology
The rise of modern technology has resulted in tremendous ease of conducting businesses and
imparting quality services but at the same time, there are many ethical implications which must
be kept in mind by service providers which are mentioned below.
 Using sustainable technology- Companies must ensure that no amount of technology
that they use on their business operations harms the environment in any manner.
Technologies such as block chain and data mining carry devastating environmental
effects and should be used sparsely. A major example is Tesla which has built its entire
service model around providing sustainable business solutions to people in form of solar
powered electronic technology.
 Taking the suggestions from employees- It is one of the most important ethical aspect
for the businesses that they should take the suggestion of their employees while adopting
any new technology within their organisation and use those technologies in a manner
which should not threaten their autonomy and job security (Munoko, Brown-Liburd and
Vasarhelyi, 2020).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Aloqaily, M. and et. al., 2019. Data and service management in densely crowded environments:
Challenges, opportunities, and recent developments. IEEE Communications
Magazine, 57(4), pp.81-87.
Coombs, C. and et. al., 2020. The strategic impacts of Intelligent Automation for knowledge and
service work: An interdisciplinary review. The Journal of Strategic Information
Systems, 29(4), p.101600.
Fernando, Y., Jabbour, C.J.C. and Wah, W.X., 2019. Pursuing green growth in technology firms
through the connections between environmental innovation and sustainable business
performance: does service capability matter?. Resources, Conservation and
Recycling, 141, pp.8-20.
Mohamed, M.J., Rye, T. and Fonzone, A., 2020. The utilisation and user characteristics of Uber
services in London. Transportation Planning and Technology, 43(4), pp.424-441.
Munoko, I., Brown-Liburd, H.L. and Vasarhelyi, M., 2020. The ethical implications of using
artificial intelligence in auditing. Journal of Business Ethics, 167(2), pp.209-234.
Online-
4 Characteristics of Service, 2022 [Online] available through:
<https://www.iedunote.com/service-characteristics/>
7 Important Characteristics of Services, 2022 [Online] available through:
<https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/7-important-characteristics-of-services/30016/>
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