Concept and Characteristics of Services
Services involve the exchange of benefits without exchanging physical goods. They solve problems and sell solutions. Major industries like finance, healthcare, and education are service-based. Some services, like restaurants, provide both goods and services. Services differ from goods in various ways. Some of the key characteristics of services are:
Services are transient and have limited reusability and applicability. They cannot be stored or used repeatedly. For example, a movie ticket can only be used once for a specific movie and time.
Services cannot be touched and felt and do not have any physical presence or physical existence. The value of services, unlike goods, is not determined by owning them physically.
Services cannot be separated from the service provider and the person availing the services. The patient’s presence is required for the doctor to treat them, for example.
Services are not quantifiable. The value cannot be measured and different people can feel differently about the quality of service. It is non-static and cannot be as easily replicated as we do with products.