Differentiating service from product

Service is any intangible activity offered to meet a need whether by an individual or a corporate body. This definition of service is similar to that of product except for the form in which the value is added. Muktar (2012) described product as any tangible solution to an identified problem. This definition highlights the difference between service and product as the form in which value is provided to the customer. Hence, a significant question to be asked is whether the corresponding activity offered to the customer is tangible or not.

In the real sense of it, the tangibility of a product or service does not matter to the customer. All the customer wants is for his need to be met according to his expectations. This notwithstanding, the customer wants to be respected. He already knows what he wants and the history of the organization in meeting such demands. This knowledge may have been from variety of sources. It may be residual from past personal experiences, from word of mouth of other customers or even from paid advertisements. The onus lies on the management of the organization to ensure that customers get maximum satisfaction from their products and services.

To achieve excellent service delivery at every opportunity to serve a customer, organizations must have a customer service strategic plan in place to take care of any identified employee knowledge gap and attitude issues that may jeopardize customer satisfaction. Otherwise, employees may ignorantly deliver bad service which will gradually deplete the company’s customer base and eventually lead to reduced profitability. In that wise, it is advisable that all organizations prepare ahead of time to improve customer service as a going concern.