Characteristics of Services That Make Them Unique from Product

Service has a number of unique characteristics that make them so different from products. Some of the most commonly accepted characteristic are:

• Intangibility

• Inseparability

• Heterogeneity

• Perishability

• Ownership

Intangibility

When we buy a cake of soap, we can see, feel, touch ,smell and is to check its effectiveness in cleaning. But when we pay fees for a term in college, we are paying for the benefit of deriving knowledge and education which is delivered to us by teachers. In contrast to the soap where we can immediately check its benefits, teaching is an intangible service. When we travel by flight, the benefit, which we are deriving, is a service but it has some tangible aspects such as the particular plane in which we fly. In this case the service has both a tangible and intangible aspect as compared to teaching which has no tangible aspects at all.

The intangible characteristic of services, which make them distinct from products are:

• A service cannot be touched

• Precise standardization is not possible

• There is no ownership transfer

• A service cannot be patented

• Production and consumption are inseparable

• There are no inventories of the service

• Middlemen roles are different

The consumer is part of the production so the delivery system must go to the marketer or the customers come to the delivery system.

Inseparability

In most cases, services cannot be separated from the person or firm providing it. Service is provided by a person who possesses a particular skill, by using an equipment to handle a tangible product (dry cleaning) or by allowing access to or use of physical infrastructure (hotel, train). A plumber has to be physically present to provide the service, the product, which can be produced in the factory today, stocked for the next two, three or more months and sold when an order is procured.

Heterogeneity

The human element is very much involved in providing and rendering services and this makes...