The document discusses the significance of 'process' within the services marketing mix, emphasizing its role in service delivery and customer experience. It outlines various types of processes, including direct and indirect activities, and highlights the benefits of efficient processes in improving customer satisfaction and operational effectiveness. Amazon is cited as an example of a company that innovates its business processes to enhance service delivery and communication with both customers and merchants.

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A Study On Process In Marketing Mix
Our last article spoke about the Marketing Mix- Place. Now, here is the extended series of the
Marketing Mix where we are going to shed light on Process.
Process
Process is an element of Services Marketing Mix. The delivery of your service is usually done
with the customer present so how the service is delivered is once again part of what the
consumer is paying for. This element of the marketing mix looks at the systems used to deliver
the service. All services need to be underpinned by clearly defined and efficient processes. In
other words, you know your objectives to perform. For instance, banks that send out Credit
Cards automatically when their customer’s old one has expired again require an efficient process
infrastructure to identify expiry dates and renewal.
At Each Stage Of The Process, Marketers:
 Deliver value through all elements of the marketing mix. Process, physical evidence
and people enhance services.

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 Feedback can be taken and the mix can be altered.
 Customers are retained, and other services or products are extended and marked to them.
 The process itself can be tailored to the needs of different individuals, experiencing a
similar service at the same time.
Processes essentially have inputs, throughputs and output. Marketing adds value to each of the
stages bringing out milestones.
Types Of Processes
There are a number of types of processes. For example, technological processes include the
process of manufacturing goods and adapting them for the needs of clients. There are also
electronic processes which include things like Electronic Point-Of-Sale (EPOS), barcodes on
products which are scanned on phones or by checkout people and other means such as loyalty
cards.
 Processes Include Direct Activities And Indirect Activities.
 Direct activities add value at the customer interface as the consumer experiences the
service.
 Indirect activities often known as back office activities, which support the service before,
during and after it has been finished.
 It can also have an integration of processes to create an overall marketing process. For
example- Logistics and Internet Marketing can be integrated. Another view is that
marketing process is used to define and control the marketing mix to achieve objectives.
 For the purposes of the marketing mix, process is an element of service that sees the
customer experiencing an organization’s offering. It’s best viewed as something that your
customer participates in at different points in time.

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Some Benefits of Process
 Increased customer satisfaction and shorter time-to-market for products and services
 Greater efficiency (and cost savings) with existing applications and processes
 Greater team satisfaction as collaboration and best practices are improved
 Full transparency of all activities across the team and organization
Example from eCommerce
Amazon is a consistent business process innovator because it questions what it does today. In
1995, Amazon started offering more than million books but stocked only 2,000. Amazon
forwarded customer orders to book wholesalers/ publishers who ship the products with
Amazon’s packaging material and labels. The outcome of the move was effective dealer

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relationship. Now, in 2013, they increased the number of Warehouses with 50 new warehouse
facilities. The idea here was to provide same day delivery catchment area in the process.
Similarly, last year, Amazon India set up a call centre with a difference. While most etailers have
their customer service desk for the consumers, Amazon opened up one for its dealers/
merchants. The idea was to create an interface with merchants to improve communication touch-
points.
In the above example, each department of Amazon has its own allocation of work, based on its
functions. It is important that these departments work in coordination with each other so that the
overall objectives of the organization are achieved. For this purpose, the work process in each
department should be designed in a way to avoid conflict among the departments.
Conclusion
Companies seek to offer a level of service it knows it can deliver which reduces mistakes and
increase customer satisfaction. Process is all about paying importance in enabling delivery of the
customer proposition. Process innovation radically alters the older paradigms, principles and
conventions to create and deliver better customer value.(Reference: Marketingteacher)