Services versus Products

Read this chapter, which describes how intangibility differentiates a service from a product. While reading this passage think about what intangible purchases you may have made and how you determined the value of the product was high enough given the price.

Inseparability

Inseparability is a service characteristic that makes it impossible to disconnect the production of the service from its consumption.

Learning Objectives

Describe inseparability in services marketing and how it distinguishes services from goods

Key Takeaways

Key Points

  • The inseparability of services makes it difficult to separate a service from the service provider.
  • The production and consumption of a service can occur simultaneously, making it impossible to produce and store a service prior to consumption.
  • People are a defining factor in a service delivery process, since a service is inseparable from the person providing it.

Key Terms

  • Inseparable: Not able to be separated; bound together permanently.

Inseparability

Inseparability (also known as simultaneity) is used in marketing to describe a key quality of services that distinguishes them from goods.

Inseparability is a service characteristic that renders it impossible to divorce the supply or production of the service from its consumption. In other words, services are generated and consumed within the same time frame. Moreover, it is very difficult to separate a service from the service provider. They are inseparable.

The Importance Of Service Delivery

Service marketing is comprised of people, processes, and physical evidence, all of which which are unique to the marketing of services.

People are a defining factor in a service delivery process, since a service is inseparable from the person providing it. Thus, a restaurant is known as much for its food as for the service provided by its staff. The same is true of banks and department stores. Consequently, customer service training for staff has become a top priority for many companies today.

The process of service delivery is crucial since it ensures that the same standard of service is repeatedly delivered to the customers. Therefore, most companies have a service blueprint which provides the details of the service delivery process. Such blueprints often even go down to defining the service script and the greeting phrases to be used by the service staff.

The concept of inseparability does not mean that the same service will be delivered to each customer; rather, it means that the same standards of quality will be applied to each service. For instance, no two haircuts will be alike, but each customer can be treated with the same amount of respect.


Haircut: A barber is part of the haircut service that he delivers to his customer. A haircut is delivered to and consumed by a customer simultaneously.