1. Given the special features of services like perishability, intangibility and inseparability, which distinguish them from goods, strategists and marketers, added three extra elements to the marketing mix for services. They realized that people, process and physical evidence play a greater role in the marketing of services than in the marketing of goods. <br />Training at the Taj - CS<br />The Taj Group of' Hotels won the prestigious Hermes Award in 2002 for innovating the best practices in human resource management in the global hospitality industry. Training programs at the Taj Group aim to educate their personnel to be professional and warm, and to enhance their ability to serve global customers. The Taj Group conducts leadership programs that train and assess the potential of their personnel. Taj has its own centers of excellence where heads of departments are trained. These heads in turn train their staff. The training programs contain foundation modules for the employee to reach Taj standards. <br />As the present generation is more health conscious, chefs at Taj are trained regularly to improve their skills and serve healthier recipes. Taj gives priority to on-the-job training. Further, Taj performs a competency mapping for each individual to identify a person's strengths and train him / her accordingly. Further, Taj trains people in-house and sends them abroad to attain more skills. <br /> Place -- What is in a Place? - CS<br />In 2003, the Taj Group redesigned its hotel rooms to make them more comfortable and attractive. After the change, every room at Taj has a 42-inch plasma screen television, DVD players with MP3/CD player with surround speakers, and subwoofers. This gives the customers the freedom to choose from a large range of movie and music tracks. <br />Bathrooms have also been revamped to include a luxury shower area equipped with steam units and double headed showers. Taj has replaced the soft mattresses (still used in many hotels) with hard ones and offered a wide range of soft and hard, pillows in the rooms, for the individual customer to make his choice. <br />2 . <br />Further, each room is provided with ergonomically designed chairs, modem reading lamps, double- level mobile work desk, task lighting and wireless Internet. It also provides up-to-date technologies and facilities for conferencing. These facilities can certainly help the hotel attract more traveling business executives. <br />Promotion ----- Tourism Promotion of Asian Countries - CS<br />Singapore tourism has launched a new destination brand named 'Uniquely Singapore' to attract tourists from all over the world. Their tourism board has designed the campaign to project the modernity, tradition and culture of Singapore. They also plan to launch a special media campaign during 2004-2005 and are planning to conduct a global road show with natural talents to promote the 'Uniquely Singapore' brand among international tourists. <br />Similarly, Malaysia came up with quot;
an annual cultural show called quot;
Colors of Malaysiaquot;
in 200 I, which went on for a month. The purpose of this show was to promote and project Malaysian tourism as a combination of tradition, culture and art. Further, the tourism board aimed to spread out these festivals throughout the year in order to consistently attract global tourists: This festival fitted in exactly with the punch line - 'Malaysia: Truly Asia.' <br />Jackie Chan has been signed to promote tourism in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB). HKTB launched a new commercial with a slogan called quot;
Hong Kong - Live it, Love it!quot;
that aims to invite tourists to experience the place and to love the country. <br /> Process <br />The production and delivery process in the manufacturing sector is easier than in the services sector. Marketers of services are often confused, as there is little difference between marketing and operations management in services. This is because the production, delivery and consumption of services take place simultaneously. For example, a passenger of an airline is required to check in, get a boarding pass, and then go for the security check before boarding the plane. All these activities form part of operations as well as marketing. <br />Customer service encounters have an impact on the quality of service delivered by the organization. A service encounter is the actual time period during which an interaction takes place between the service provider and the customer. <br />Among all the service encounters, a few are very important for completing the service delivery process on a successful note. These particular interactions are named quot;
critical incidentsquot;
and are directly responsible for customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. These feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction may result either from their interaction with the service personnel or from the interaction with the equipment or production processes. <br />Over the years, some service organizations have mechanized their service processes to reduce the element of human judgment and error in service delivery. For example, banks have introduced ATMs to offer convenience to customers and also reduce the human element in the service delivery process. This mechanization helps reduce labor costs which along with competition in the service industry has increased tremendously. Organizations have also started involving customers in the production process to reduce costs. Though some customers' expectations are not met, others are ready to get involved in the service production activity for lower prices. For example, a hotel offering self-service can save on labor costs and can pass on the savings to the customers in the form of lower prices. <br />Further, service organizations have identified customer segments that do not want to take the co-production responsibilities and are even ready to pay higher prices. For example, some customers are ready to pay an additional amount. as commission to portfolio managers for managing their investment portfolio. <br /> Physical Evidence <br />As discussed earlier, service customers experience a greater perceived risk as they cannot rate a particular service until it is consumed. Therefore, service providers should try to attach an element of tangibility to their service offering. The physical evidence can be in any form, for example, brochures or TV commercials showing the details of a holiday destination, pleasant and courteous behavior of the service <br />. personnel in a bank, the location and ambience of a food outlet, etc. <br />
