Q1. What are services? How are services different from physical products? What special features do services have, and how do these features affect the marketing of financial services?
Key Points:
- Services are intangible deeds or performances fulfilling needs without ownership transfer.
- Services differ from products by intangibility, inseparability, perishability, and heterogeneity.
- Intangibility requires financial marketers to build trust and use physical evidence.
- Inseparability means customer and provider interaction defines service quality.
Answer: Services are economic activities or deeds, acts, or performances offered by one party to another, typically without the transfer of ownership of any tangible goods. They fulfill customer needs and wants through direct interaction, effort, or process. In the context of financial services, these include banking, insurance, investment advisory, loan provisions, and wealth management, all characterized by the delivery of an intangible benefit rather than a physical product. Services fundamentally ...