COMMUNICAT

ION GAP
IN

SERVICES
MARKETING

Introduction
Communication gap is a gap between customers expectation and service providers delivery
process. Delivering superior value to the customer is an ongoing concern of Product Managers.
This not only includes the actual physical product but customer service as well. Products that do
not offer good quality customer service that meets the expectations of consumers are difficult to
sustain in a competitive market. In some cases, promises made by companies through advertising
media and communication raise customer expectations. When over-promising in advertising does
not match the actual service delivery, it creates a communication gap. Consumers are
disappointed because the promised service does not match the expected service and consequently
may seek alternative product sources. Communications gap is the difference between what is
promised to customers, either explicitly or implicitly, and what is being delivered. Hospitality
companies use advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion to inform, persuade, and remind
guests about its products and services. Showing beautifully appointed hotel rooms, refreshing
swimming pools and luxurious lobby areas in an advertisement communicates to the target
customers. The extent of communications between the company and the advertising agencies
will affect the size of the gap. Over-promising is commonly responsible for the communication
gap. Each gap has a cumulative effect from the preceding gaps.
Brief Discussions
In todays globalised, interconnected and service-dominant economy, the pressure to create
compelling, distinctive and meaningful engagements with customers and consumers is becoming
evermore challenging. Customers now have greater choice, information and power than
marketers have witnessed to date. Their expectations from the brands and businesses they choose
to buy from continue to grow, placing new pressures on the growth ambitions of businesses. In
the background, the last 15 years have seen the concept of branding evolve from merely a design
and communications-led ideal to one which runs far deeper into the DNA of an organization.
Chief marketing officers have little choice but to acknowledge that, while brands are built on
promises, its the experience delivered that makes the difference between myth and reality. It was

these factors combined that led The Chartered Institute of Marketing to create the Branded
Customer Experience Benchmark, an in-depth study among senior marketing and brand leaders
from over 100 major international businesses.
Consumer's have different opinion towards a brand ability to fulfill his or her expectations. It
may have little or nothing to do with the actual excellence of the product, and is based on the
firm's current public image , consumer's experience with the firm's other products, and
the influence of the opinion leaders, consumers peer group and others. Gap 4 in gap model is the
variance in delivery of the customer experience and related communications to customers. All too often
organizations exaggerate what will be provided to customers, raising customer expectations and harming
customers service perceptions.

Communications should discuss the likely case rather than the best case.
Advertising research and survey research combine to aid in closing this Gap.

Creating organizational change of any sort, not least around brand and customer experience,
requires people and teams to embrace the need to do things differently. It often means parting
with legacy processes, priorities or responsibilities and embracing new ways of working. Its in
this context that rational considerations are replaced with emotive ones and culture becomes
paramount. Example: The position of communication gap is in fourth stage just to ensure coordination
between external communication between customer and service delivery. For example we can take
Amazon .com a re-known online store. When a consumer buys a product from Amazon they selects
the mode of delivery and the company tells them the expected number of days it will take to
receive their merchandise. For example: standard shipping is three to five days but shipping in
one or two days is also available. The company has set standards for how quickly customers are
informed when a product is unavailable (immediately), how quickly customers are notified
whether an out of print book can be located (three weeks), how long customers are able to return
items (30 days) and whether they pay return shipping costs. These standards exist for many
activities at Amazon from delivery to communication to service recovery. This example shows
how a company can resolve the issue of communication gap. Some basic feature that may
hamper the proper delivery of service and create communication gap are elaborated below
Lack of integrated services marketing communications: The concept of having an integrated
marketing communications services plan is all about effectively coordinating your efforts to
produce a sale in a targeted market. Without some form of an integrated marketing
communications plan, and coordinated efforts toward a common sales goal, hardly anything of
value would exchange hands due to a lack of awareness, conflicting agendas and distribution
channel confusion.

Ineffective management of customer expectation: In a broad sense, every requirement is also

an expectation: the customer expects that the requirement will be met. It is sometimes unclear
whether a specific characteristic is a requirement or an expectation. Consider robustness as an
example. A robust system is one that detects and reports errors and provides the user with options
for continuing. Expectations, however, are more problematic. Because they are subjective and
rarely explicit, it is almost impossible to meet them. Customers are reasonable and understand
the uncertainties in any project. If they feel abandoned or left out of the process, they will react
with anger or dissatisfaction to any departure from their conceptions of the ideal project. Treat
them as participants, to be consulted and informed, and they will understand and accept even
substantial deviations from their original expectations.
Overpromising: For decades, companies have invested significant time and money in efforts to
develop compelling value propositions that focus marketing plans and develop future business
direction. However, the results of these efforts often overpromise benefits that the broader
organizations can't, or even worse, never intended to deliver. Consumers quickly recognize the
gap between what a brand promises and what it actually delivers. The widening of this gap in
recent years has led to widespread consumer frustration in different service sectors.
Inadequate horizontal communications: Service should be determined by customers wants &
needs. Therefore, all enterprises must research and understand:
Which products, services and service characteristics are important to the customer
The relative importance of these customers wants
The level of performance on each product and service characteristic which will meet
customer expectations
Without a clear understanding of these, there will be a gap between customer expectations and
the products/services delivered by the enterprise. Service should be determined by customers
wants & needs. Therefore, all enterprises must research and understand:
Which products, services and service characteristics are important to the customer
The relative importance of these customers wants
The level of performance on each product and service characteristic which will meet
customer expectations
Without a clear understanding of these, there will be a gap between customer expectations and
the products/services delivered by the enterprise.
Inappropriate pricing: Price is one of the most neglected elements of the marketing mix,
despite it being the only "P" of the marketing mix that actually captures value. Inadequate
attention to price and inappropriate pricing strategies based on poor understanding of customer
need and value are eating away at companies bottom-lines. Just simple math tells that a small
percentage increment in price and revenue has a disproportionately big impact on profits. Despite
this "known fact" marketers, business leaders and sellers spend far too little time on right-pricing
their offerings to their customers, mostly out of ignorance, poor understanding of customer need

and value and lack of attention to detail. Attention to a better and more detailed understanding of
customer needs and value drivers combined with a more detailed analysis and comparison of
offerings with those of competitors are fundamental factors most commonly neglected or
overlooked by commercial management in their pricing activities and approaches.

Figure: 1: The Gap Model

Closing the Gap: to close this gap by measuring satisfaction and brand perceptions and by testing new
product and ad concepts. Become more competitive in the minds of customers by assessing the customer
perceptions that are critical to your business. Another effective way of eliminating communication gap is
using social media. A new survey by global professional services company Towers Watson reveals

that while individuals hover up endless hours staying in touch, only about half the companies
spoken to are using social media tools to communicate with their staff. Even among companies
that have introduced social media technology into their employee communication channels, there
is uncertainty over which social media tools are most effective.

Importance of Services Marketing

Proper marketing of services contributes substantially to the process of development. If
innovative marketing principles are followed in services marketing; the socio-economic
transformation will take place at a much faster rate. In future, the service sector would operate in
a dynamic environment offering great potential. If the opportunities are properly utilized by the
service sector, it will lead to an all round development of the economy. The components of the
service sector are wide and varied. For example, the service sector includes personal care
services, education services, Medicare services, communication services, tourism services,
hospitality services, banking services, insurance services, transportation services and consultancy
services. The organized and systematic development of the service sector would create enormous
employment opportunities.
In current business environment almost all services are found technology-driven. Developed
countries are making full use of latest technology while rendering services. Technologies used by
service generating organizations such banks, insurance companies, tourism, hotel services,
communication services. and. education services are not detrimental in any way to the
environment. If investments are made in the service sector, it will contribute to the nationbuilding process. With increased developmental activities, the per capita income increases which,
in turn, facilitates capital formation. Performance of profitable services can absorb higher
investments, thereby accelerating the rate of capital formation. The standard of living is
determined by the availability of goods and services for citizens and a wise spending on them.
The development of services industry is sure to promote the standard of living of the people.

Conclusion

The traditional marketing mix is considered in the context of services. Since a different
marketing mix is needed for services, some have expanded the traditional four Ps. Thus, the
marketing mix components in service marketing include (i) Product (ii) Pricing (iii) Promotion
(iv)Place (v) People (vi) Physical evidence and (vii) Process. The service marketer encounters
many challenges in the form of heterogeneity of the services; requirements of customers,
interaction with customers while delivering service perish ability of service and intangibility of
offer, etc. These unique characteristics of services necessitate the extension of scope of
marketing mix generally, it is regarded that a good is a thing and a service is an act. In other
words, goods represent the object or material whereas a service is deed or a performance. Both
services and goods are interlinked.

References
-Book: Services Marketing; 6th Edition, Valarie A Zeithaml/Marry Jo Bitner/Dwayne
D.Gremier/Ajay Pandit
- faculty.mu.edu.sa
- Figure 1: www.slideshare.net
- www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
- adage.com