What Is the Difference Between a Product and a Service?

Mistakes, defects, inaccuracies, and system failures can happen in real time, compromising the quality of services being offered. For example, if a customer orders food in a restaurant, two different cooks can produce distinct tastes despite having the same recipes. To address this discrepancy and promote consistency, restaurant businesses train and set quality standards for their employees to maintain a good reputation in terms of service quality. The heterogeneity of services confirms that different companies have different quality standards. Due to inseparability, services are produced and consumed simultaneously.

• We can define a service as a transaction that does not involve transfer of physical goods from the seller to the buyer.
• Examples of these types of products are fire extinguisher, reference book, and life insurance among many others.
• This is because the customer already has the required information needed on the product before they go out to purchase it.

Certain types of business may also combine elements of product- and service-based businesses. For example, a car dealership may also offer maintenance services. Other entrepreneurs might sell healthy, organic food and complement the sales by offering life coaching sessions. Since the setup of these two types of businesses differs, there are benefits and drawbacks to each.

Importance of Service Marketing

Here’s the answer and I’ll make it as simple and as clear as possible. I think it’s important, very important, that salespeople understand the difference between selling a product and selling a service. Knowing the difference can affect how you sell AND how one hires, evaluates and assesses salespeople.

You may not be able to tell until the final stages of the process . A product’s customer care perspective is less than that of a service. Customers are attracted to a particular service by customer care. In a product, branding and other product features can differentiate it from others that offer similar services. Although it seems like the main distinction between the two concepts is founded on their tangibility, that is not always the case.

• All products, whether they are goods, services, blankets, diapers, or plate glass, possess peculiarities that require adjustments in the marketing effort.
• For example, chairs are manufactured first and are used by consumers later after a while.The production and consumption of services happen simultaneously.
• We’re not selling our service or our product, but what our product or service can deliver for our customers in terms of their business value.
• The other notable aspect about a service is that it cannot be returned to the provider since it is intangible.

When you sell a product, there is time invested to create or acquire the product and then it is sold again and again without further time invested. Services by their very nature are time-intensive activities because there is no way to continue providing a service without continuing to invest time performing the service. Because service products are so closely related to the people providing the service, ensuring the same level of satisfaction every time is very difficult. Dentists have their bad days, not every baseball game is exciting, and the second vacation to Walt Disney World Resort may not be as wonderful as the first. As you can see from the examples above, service products are quite diverse. Nonetheless, they tend to have the following characteristics.

Principles of Marketing

In a nutshell, the client lacks sufficient knowledge about the inspector’s expertise until the task is already in progress. The point at which a customer can become a consumer can be challenging to follow, so let’s go over an example. Say a coffee shop purchases coffee beans that it will later resell to people who come into the store.

Examples of such perishable services are theater entertainment, airline flights, auto repairs among many others. If an individual purchase a ticket to a baseball game, and he/she ends up not attending, the ticket expires. If you’re selling correctly, there is no difference in selling products vs services. In the case that there is, it means you’re not selling, you’re pitching a product and it’s time to start over; watch this. If we’re selling correctly, we’re ultimately anchored in the customers “gap.” The gap between where they are today and where they want to be tomorrow. We’re selling based on solving measurable, tangible, urgent business problems.

Product vs Service Characteristics

We all need different products and services to satisfy our needs and wants. In marketing, products and services are two closely related concepts. Products are things that have a physical existence; when we buy a product, we acquire an asset. Services, on the other hand, refer to transactions in which there is no transfer of physical goods from the seller to the buyer. Or, a law firm might provide legal services, but that could lead to tangible documents like letters and contracts.

Usually, the quality of the service is mainly determined by the service provider while the customer determines the value of the product upon its purchase. The marketers of a service should therefore have knowledge about what the customers really desire such that they can tailor their services to meet those needs. The marketers need to understand the features to sell to the customers. Specialty products are the types of products for which consumer is willing to put lots of effort before making the buying decisions.

Think about how websites and ebooks have replaced paper books and how compact discs has replaced cassettes or DVDs. Other times, services can be substituted for certain products. Netflix and other entertainment companies like Netflix offer streaming services that many people prefer to satellite or cable television programs. When a customer buys a car for example, they are also responsible for servicing it. Service providers cannot be separated because they are available at the same time as services. However, once the purchase is complete, a product may be taken away from the owner.

Selling a service is vastly different than selling products. At the heart of it, the main difference is that a product business sells physical, tangible objects, whereas a service business provides value through intangible skills, expertise and time. Goods refer to the tangible consumable products, articles, commodities that are offered by the companies to the customers in exchange for money. They are the items that have physical characteristics, i.e. shape, appearance, size, weight, etc. It is capable of satisfying human wants by providing them utility.

However, services cannot be returned because it is impossible to return a service that has been delivered already. Marketing products fulfills customer’s requirement by offering value. Service marketing offers good relationship with its customers. A product is an item that is tangible and easier to market because it can be touched, displayed and demonstrated for a targeted audience. The tangibility of products is due to the fact that they can be touched or felt by customers before acquisition.

In most cases, people are usually attracted by the quality of service they get from a particular organization instead of the product itself. Quality service is satisfactory and people who are satisfied will continue doing business with the company. The customer care perspective of a product is limited compared to that of a service.

In other words, they are willing to put in all the voided check and efforts required to get that particular product. They are willing to pay a higher price than they would for an alternative product if they need to. However, with these products, their loyalty is never wavered and substitute product is never an option for them. Example of such products include designer clothing, Rolex watch, customized cars and a whole lot of others.

Because it is not tangible, a service can’t always be returned to its provider. It’s much more difficult for customers to assess the quality of service than the product purchased. You will get less dandruff if you buy anti-dandruff products. However, did your lawyer prepare a good divorce document for you?

For example, laptops.There is inconsistency in services, as different customers have different demands and get their demands fulfilled accordingly. For example, different people need different services in salons.InseparabilityThe production and consumption of goods can be separated. For example, chairs are manufactured first and are used by consumers later after a while.The production and consumption of services happen simultaneously.

It may be due to the method they provide services is different or the parameters they consider in valuing their services vary. The billing process of a service is continuous unlike that of a product. For instance, a service can be in the form of monthly subscriptions where a service is rendered upon receipt of the subscription. The other notable aspect about a service is that it cannot be returned to the provider since it is intangible.

For example, in the pharmaceutical sector, the brand name of manufactured drugs is printed on the letter pad and handed over to the doctors, who give prescriptions to patients. Personalized services are also used in event organization wherein the name of the product or group is printed on the giveaways. The primary aim of every businesses is to ensure repeat purchase from customers and personalizing your services will help market it. Speciality products are those products with unique characteristics or brand identification for which customers are willing to make a special purchase option.

Most companies require personalized services for their customers, and such services may be internal or external. Personalized services can be products such as books or other material that are printed with company’s name or logo . This serves as a reminder to customers about the company and their products thereby enabling repeat purchase. The process in which marketing activities are aligned to promote and sell a particular product for a specific market is products marketing.

In response, the customer will like the product or decide to return it if it doesn’t meet their needs. Most products have an element of service in them, for example when purchasing a product like a pen, service is engaged when an employee sells it and hands it over to the customer. Basically, products are objects that are manufactured, stored, transported, advertised and then sold, and services are actions performed such as providing medical care or hairdressing.