Definition of the term service. Definition of the concepts of "service", "customer service" and "after-sales service management"

Service (service,service) - any activity or work that one party can offer to another, characterized by the absence of the offered material tangibility of such activity and not expressed in the possession of something.

Service from the point of view of marketing - the object of sale in the form of an action of the performer, bringing benefits to the consumer or a useful result. In the process of providing services, a new, previously non-existing tangible product is not created, but the quality of an already existing, created product is changed. These are goods provided not in the form of commodities or exchange, but in the form of activities. The very provision of services creates the desired result for the consumer.

Services have four main characteristics that greatly influence the design of marketing programs:

• intangibility - impossible to demonstrate, see, taste, transport, store, package or study. All this is possible only in relation to the final result (it was - it became);
• inseparability - a service can be provided only when an order is received or a client appears, i.e. services are provided and consumed at the same time;
• variability (non-standardizability) - customers are direct participants in the service process and affect its final result;
• impossibility of storage - unlike material goods, they cannot be produced for future use.

Services are subdivided on the:

• material;
• not material.

material service provides a change (restoration, preservation, improvement) of the consumer properties of products, as well as the movement of products and people, the creation of conditions for the consumption of products (products, services).
intangible service- a service that is not unrelated to the product in its material form (business, intellectual services, security, etc.).

Service classification:

• domestic services: food, housing, service, recreation;
• business services: technical, intellectual, financial;
• social services: education, health care, safety;
• production services: operation, repair.

Service Marketing. The marketer's task is to "manage perception", he needs to make the intangible tangible: fix changes, provide full information about the work done. the sale of services requires more personal involvement, attention, contacts and information from consumers than the sale of goods. Including the consumer in the process of producing a service means that the seller must take care not only about what to produce, but also about how the consumer perceives what is produced.

The peculiarities of the service market are also affected by the fact that the provision of services often requires special knowledge and skills that are difficult for the buyer to evaluate. The quality of services of the same type varies over a very wide range depending on who, when this quality is perceived by the consumer. Therefore, marketers must adjust not only their management and portfolio of solutions, but also, to a certain extent, influence the consumer.

Service Marketing Complex to the traditional "4P" extended by 3 elements:

• product
• price price);
• sales (place);
• promotion (promotion);
• personnel (personnel);
• environment, or environment (physical premises) - creating a certain mood and impression;
• process (process) - accuracy, efficiency and obviousness for the consumer of the rendered service.

Thus, when developing a marketing policy and marketing program, service companies need to consider seven components of the marketing mix.

Service competitiveness- the quality of the service perceived by the consumer and the cost characteristic of the service, which determine its success in the market. Competitiveness is influenced by many factors, one of which is the comprehensive quality of service.

Service quality is a measure of how accurately the level of service provided meets the client's expectations. Quality includes a complex:

• Objective quality of service;
• Subjective quality of service
• Communication quality.

Objective Quality- a set subject to an objective assessment: reliability, availability, security of the service provided, provided by the package of services that the company offers to the client and which he can objectively evaluate by changing the service application object.

Subjective quality of service- the consumer's point of view, the consumer's attitude to especially important aspects of the service provided and personal perception of the final result of the service provided, those positive emotions or negative affect, which form a cognitive assessment of satisfaction.

Communication quality- the ability and demonstrated desire of the performer to help the consumer of the service in realizing his needs and solving problems, characterized by: empathy of the performer, his competence and helpfulness (desire and aspiration).

Package model. In accordance with this concept, a service, as a consumed product, is described from a set of different services, which together form a total product, including:

• main service;
• ancillary services;
• supporting services.

Basic service is the service for which the firm enters the market.
Ancillary Services contribute to the consumption of the main
Supportiveservices make the main one more attractive, increase its cost, distinguish it in comparison with the services of competitors. There is a difference between supporting and ancillary services. Auxiliary ones cannot be abandoned, since in this case the entire package will cease to exist, and supporting ones are not necessary, but their use can become a prerequisite for the formation of a competitive advantage.

International Classification of Goods and Services(ICTU, International (Nice) Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks), is a service segmentation system and a single service classifier.

DEFINITION OF SERVICE, CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AFTER-SALES SERVICE MANAGEMENT

D. I. Dolgov (Mordovia State

University named after N.P. Ogarev)

The complexity of finding a definition of "service" lies in the fact that the researcher of services is dealing with a flexible object, the boundaries of which change depending on the desires of the performer and / or consumer of the service. One and the same object containing a set of physical objects and a number of actions of the contractor's service personnel can be considered by the consumer both as a material product and as a service.

Services are diverse and their key criteria will be the object of the service, the connection of the service with a tangible product, the degree of participation of personnel and the use of technology in the provision of services (table 1).

Table 1 - Overview of the definitions of the category "service"

	Definition
Assel G.	Services are intangible benefits that are acquired by consumers. They are not property related.
	The service is an action or benefit, its buyer does not receive ownership of any material object.
Grenros K.	A service is a process that includes a series (or several) intangible actions that, of necessity, occur between customers and service personnel, physical resources, systems of an enterprise - a service provider.
Golubkov E.P.	A service is an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is inherently intangible and does not result in the ownership of the customer.

End of table 1

Kotler F.	A service is an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is generally intangible and does not result in ownership of anything. The production of services may or may not be related to the product in its material form.
Haksever K., Render B., Russell R., Murdick R.	Services are actions, deeds or performance of work and are intangible.
	A service is a change in the state of a person or a good belonging to an economic unit, resulting from the activities of another economic unit with the prior consent of the first.

Table 1 provides an overview of some of the definitions given at various times by well-known economists and marketers.

Since services differ from material goods, many researchers consider it necessary to highlight the distinctive characteristics of services, which include the following:

1) lack of quantitative characteristics;

2) quality instability;

3) non-persistence of services;

4) indirect measurement of quality;

5) the inseparability of the service from the performer and the consumer.

To the above characteristics, you can add other features of the services:

The provision of services is characterized by partnership interaction between the service provider and the consumer. The result of this activity is the benefit, benefit, especially significant for the consumer of services, due to which he pays the work of the service provider at the market price;

The consumer often takes a direct part in the process of providing the service. However, the generation of a range of services is possible without the presence of the consumer;

The consumer of services cannot become their owner. But this does not apply to things for which the service is provided (for example, a repaired TV set);

The provision of services is an activity, therefore services cannot be tested and evaluated before the consumer receives and pays for them;

A specific service represents a specific use value only at a certain time and in a certain place, which sharply limits the possibility of its replacement in the market.

Services as a special kind of commodity are becoming more and more diverse. different forms. Currently, different criteria are used in the scientific literature and, in accordance with them, different classifications of services are proposed. Traditionally, the service sector includes tangible and intangible services.

Material services are aimed at transferring or restoring the use values ​​created in material production. These are services of freight transport, industrial communications, logistics and marketing, trade, public catering, services for the manufacture and repair of shoes, clothing, cultural and household items.

Intangible services include services of education, healthcare, passenger transport, cultural and educational institutions, physical culture and sports, public administration, and some consumer services enterprises (baths, laundries, hairdressers).

Services can also be classified according to the following criteria:

a) by the degree of contact with the consumer: a service in which the presence of a client is necessary - education, health care, and a service provided without a consumer - carpet cleaning, car repair;

b) by consumer segments: business services and personal services;

c) on the basis of tangibility: “tangible services” and “intangible services”;

d) on a functional basis:

1) creation of new products (tailoring, footwear, furniture manufacturing);

2) services for the restoration of consumer properties of products (dry cleaning);

3) services for giving new consumer properties to the product (modernization of computers, installation of additional devices on a car);

4) services of a personal nature and sanitary and hygienic:

Intellectual (culture, education);

Physical (health care, baths, sports);

Aesthetic (hairdressing, cosmetology);

5) organizational and technical services (transportation of people, cargo; transfer of information);

6) organizational and economic services (services of banks, pawnshops, rental, services of a legal nature);

e) in accordance with the sectoral approach:

Trade services (wholesale and retail);

Catering and accommodation services (hotels, catering establishments);

Transport services;

Communication and information services;

Services for the supply, procurement and storage of material and technical resources;

Services of credit and financial institutions;

Education, culture and art services;

Scientific services;

Health services, including physical culture and sports;

Household services (housing repair, industrial and household and utility services);

Services of a personal nature (non-production, domestic, etc.);

Public administration services;

Other services .

One and the same service for different qualities can be included in different groups.

The most well-known classifications used in the practice of managing the economies of states and individual industries include the classifications of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Standard Industrial Classification, and the classification of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Table 2).

Table 2 - Main types of service classification

World Trade Organization classification	International Standard Industrial Classification	Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development classification	All-Russian classifier of services OK-002
		Mediation
Construction and engineering
Distribution	Warehouses, trade, restaurants, hotels	Supply, supply planning	Trade, catering, markets

End of table 2

Financial		Banks, real estate, insurance, wealth creation	Banks, financial intermediation, insurance
Health and social	Public, individual, social		Medical
Tourism and travel			Tourist
Leisure, culture, sports			Culture, physical culture and sports
Transport	Transport	Transportation	Transport
Ecology

The main conclusion that can be drawn from this table is that the services are numerous and varied.

As noted earlier, the activities that today, according to statistics, are classified as services are quite different. They are aimed at different objects, have different target audiences, sensitivity to promotion, price elasticity of demand. All this has a direct impact on marketing activities, which have their own specifics depending on the characteristics of the class or type of services.

Consider the typology of services according to criteria such as:

Need satisfaction form: it can be a pure service or a service that is possible only with the sale of a material product, with the transfer of ownership of this material object (for example, mobile communications). In accordance with this criterion, services are ranked on a scale from a pure service to a service with a material product.

A tool or way to satisfy a need. Personnel or mechanisms (for example, consulting / gas station) can act as a way to satisfy a need. In accordance with this criterion, services are arranged on a scale, starting with those that are provided by employees of the service enterprise, and ending with those where the consumer receives the service with the help of automatic device or mechanism.

The scheme presented in this section (Figure 1) clearly demonstrates the advantages of typology and allows you to consider and analyze the specifics of marketing activities for services located in different quadrants of the graph.

net service

Need satisfaction form

Staff

Need Satisfaction Tool

Mechanisms

service with product

Figure 1 - The division of services into types in accordance with the criteria "form of meeting the need" and "tool or way to meet the need".

In accordance with the proposed scheme, each service falls into one of the four quadrants of the coordinate system. It should be noted that services located near the axes of the coordinate system have almost the same properties. Cardinal differences are observed between the marketing of services located far enough from the center of the coordinate system in different quadrants. Let us consider in more detail the first criterion for the distribution of services into types.

The relationship between a tangible product and a service can be different. On the one hand, a service can only consist in a qualitative or quantitative change in the assets owned by the consumer, on the other hand, in order to implement a certain type of service, the consumer needs to purchase a tangible product. In the first case, the consumer receives utility only through the actions taken by the service provider, in the latter case, the consumer receives utility both through the actions and through the supply of a material product. The material product acts as necessary condition for the service to take place. The first service can be called pure, the second - a service with a product.

A pure service fully corresponds to the definition given above. Such a service does not exist prior to being provided. A pure service is inseparable from the producer, is consumed simultaneously with production, is not subject to storage, its quality changes more easily than the quality of a tangible good. The models of service marketing described above work in the case of the provision of a pure service.

The task of the performer of a product-containing service is not only to take appropriate actions, but also to sell a tangible product. The properties of a service with a product are opposite to the properties of a pure service and, in fact, represent the properties of a tangible product. So, the product exists until the moment of delivery, it can be stored, separated from the manufacturer, etc.

Thus, according to this criterion, services can be ranked from a pure service to a service with a product. Depending on the place on this scale, services change such properties as quality flexibility, dependence on the performer, the possibility of storage, etc. From the point of view of marketing, the two extreme types on this scale of services are different and require special approaches. The theories of service marketing described above modeled pure service marketing. Marketing a service with a product may not be different from marketing a physical product.

The supremacy of this or that way of satisfaction of needs determines what type this or that service belongs to. In the production of certain types of services, the role of personnel is extremely important. These include cultural, medical, cosmetic, hairdressing and other services. The way of providing other types of services involves a high degree of participation of technology and mechanisms. Such services include services in the field of communications, transport services. Of course, these directions rarely exist in their pure form; as a rule, both personnel and technology are involved in the provision of services.

This division of services is important for marketing for several reasons. This division directly affects such characteristics of the service as the flexibility of quality, the possibility of simultaneous production and consumption of the service, the separability of the service from the performer, the possibility of storing the service. The quality of services provided to the consumer by the personnel of the service company is determined by individual performance, depending on the level of professionalism. Therefore, it is important to pay great attention to the recruitment, training and development of employees, as well as to develop and monitor compliance with service standards. If a firm specializes in services that depend on the operation of machinery and equipment, then the management of such a firm should pay special attention to the development of technological progress in the industry and invest sufficient funds in R&D.

In general, the location of the service in this coordinate system, compiled on the basis of two criteria, affects the positioning of the company, working with the company's product portfolio, determining the directions of strategic development, developing a marketing strategy, and ultimately the choice of marketing tools.

Based on the proposed division, you can create a service marketing model that takes into account the specifics of each type of service. Of course, this approach to service marketing needs further research, which, first of all, should concern the principles of dividing services into types with a thorough study of the theory of service marketing for each type formed in accordance with this classification.

Consumer Services is a way of providing services to the consumer.

A form of customer service is a variety or combination of methods (methods) of customer service.

Modern forms services bring the service closer to the consumer, reduce the service time, and create the convenience of consuming services. These forms include:

customer service in stationary conditions;

customer service with home visits;

contactless service at the place of residence of the consumer;

service using exchange funds of goods.

Servicing of consumers in stationary conditions is carried out in the premises of the service organization in the hall or service salon. In stationary conditions, both material and socio-cultural services are provided.

When providing catering services, hotel services, services for the manufacture of products, the stationary form of service is the most convenient.

When providing material services in stationary conditions, technological operations are carried out in specialized workshops equipped with various types of technological equipment for the repair and production of products. Stationary service allows you to perform complex types of repairs, maintenance and manufacture of products according to the individual order of the consumer.

Some service companies provide the consumer with a rental service household appliances if the repair requires stationary conditions and takes a long period. The consumer pays for the rental of this equipment only for the period of repair established by the rules. If the enterprise violates this repair period, the consumer uses the devices received for rent free of charge until his devices are received from the repair.

The main methods of serving consumers in stationary conditions are service by a service specialist and self-service.

Inspectors, consultants, administrators, masters (hairdressers, cosmetologists, repairmen, salesmen, waiters) act as service specialists working with consumers.

Home service is the most convenient for consumers. This form of service is used in the provision of services for the repair of household large-sized machines and appliances, such as refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, televisions, electric stoves, personal computers, repair services for apartments and houses, services for landscape design, cleaning services.

On-site catering services are provided to customers, including the organization of lunches, banquets, gala picnics.

Departure to the house of a service specialist is carried out on the basis of an order at a reception point, by phone, via the Internet. The service specialist (repair master) performs maintenance at the time agreed with the consumer.

Service with a mandatory visit to the consumer requires services for the repair of heat, water, power supply, apartment renovation, and agricultural services. Catering services, delivery services for ready meals and semi-finished products, services for organizing and holding corporate holidays have gained popularity.

The provision of services can be carried out by the method of express service, in which the consumer's order is executed in an accelerated time frame. The price of express services is, as a rule, higher than the services provided within the usual time frame. Contactless service does not imply direct communication between the consumer and the service provider. Contactless service is currently used in the provision of dry cleaning and laundry services, information services, communication services, etc.

When providing dry cleaning services, items are received using storage containers located in residential buildings. Consumers place laundry or dry-cleaning clothes in a container along with a completed receipt. Clean linen or clothes are transported to the consumer's home at a predetermined date. Payment for services is made upon receipt of the order.

As contactless service, it is possible to qualify the provision of a significant part of utilities for heat and power supply, etc. When providing various types of information services, communication services, contactless service is also used. Payment for services is made by prepaid services using quick payment cards, which are registered on the organization's website on the Internet or by phone.

Service with the use of exchange funds of goods is based on the urgent exchange of a defective household appliance for a similar repaired appliance with payment of the repair cost. This form of service is used in the repair of watches, electric shavers, vacuum cleaners, polishers, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.

Inpatient and home-based customer service can be provided on the basis of a service subscription that the consumer purchases for a fixed period. Service is carried out after a certain time or at the request of the consumer. If it is impossible to carry out repairs at the consumer's home, the service organization transports the goods to the repair shop and back.

Subscription service is used in service organizations for repair and maintenance durable goods, dry cleaners and laundries, hairdressers and beauty salons.

The form of service should be understood as a certain way of providing services, consisting of a set of specific service operations and benefits for the consumer. Within the same type of service, different forms of service can be involved, which are developed for the convenience of customers, to bring the service process closer to the needs of consumers.

The concept of "service" is close to the concept of "service". However, if the latter focuses on the very essence of the relationship between the consumer and the producer, then the service interprets these relationships as a phased process that has its own structure, acquiring a character extended over time.

Progressive forms of service are designed to bring the service closer to the consumer, make it more accessible, thereby reducing the time to receive it and creating maximum convenience for him.

These forms include:

subscription service;

Contactless service at the place of residence;

Urgent execution of the order in the presence of the client;

Service with the help of the exchange fund of machines and devices;

Home repair of complex household appliances;

Express repair service;

Receiving orders at the place of work, by phone or by mail; - self-service;

Exit service.

Subscription service consists in the fact that the customer, having concluded an agreement with a service company, receives the right to prompt service, carrying out planned preventive procedures during the term of the agreement. Thus, subscription maintenance of TVs at customers' homes provides for a scheduled preventive examination twice a year, prompt troubleshooting on a customer's call. If it is impossible to repair the TV set at the client's home, the company is obliged to deliver it to its repair shops and return it after repair at a convenient time for the client. Subscription services are also being introduced at bath and laundry enterprises, hairdressing salons, etc.

Contactless service is as follows. In the entrances of residential buildings (hostel), the service company installs storage containers. The customer puts the laundry or dry-cleaning clothes into the container along with the completed receipt. Clean linen or clothes are delivered to the customer's home at a predetermined time. Payment is made upon receipt of the order.

Service with the help of exchange funds of machines and devices consists in the fact that the owner of faulty household appliances (appliance) receives in exchange already repaired similar equipment (appliance). In this case, the client pays only the cost of the repair necessary to restore the equipment (device) handed over to him. This form of service is widely used in the repair of watches, electric shavers, vacuum cleaners, polishers, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.

Home service is widely used in the repair of large equipment (refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, electric and microwave ovens). The owner of faulty household appliances by phone or mail makes an order for the workshop to perform repair work. At the time agreed with the customer, the master comes to him.

A variation of this form of service is the provision to the client for the period of repair of his household appliances in the studio (workshop) on the terms of rental of similar equipment. The client pays for the rental of this equipment only for the repair period established by the rules. If the enterprise violates this period, the customer uses the rental equipment free of charge until his own is received from the repair. Home service requires high culture and special tact from the master. The master must necessarily introduce himself and present his official ID. Currently, this form of service has been used in the repair of apartments, furniture, etc.

A further development of home service is the express repair service (repair "today - for today"). It is used in the repair of televisions and other household appliances. By phone, the customer contacts the service dispatcher. Then the car with a mechanic, who has in stock almost everything necessary for the repair of modern equipment, is sent to the customer's address. To get to the place, the mechanic is given no more than two hours. If it is delayed, the customer is entitled to a discount. Of course, the customer pays a little more for speed than in an ordinary TV studio.

Reception of orders at the place of work is carried out in a complex receiving point, equipped at the checkpoint or on the territory of the enterprise (plant, factory). Completed orders are delivered there at a predetermined time.

Self-service allows the population to satisfy their needs for household services on their own. So, at dry cleaning factories and laundries, for a fee, customers receive machines for self-washing clothes or cleaning clothes. In hotels, residents are given the opportunity to make their own tea or coffee.

Field service is the provision of services to the population at the place of work or place of residence by a special team of the service enterprise. This form of service is widely used to provide services to the population in rural areas where there are no stationary service enterprises. The formation of mobile teams and the definition of the types of services provided are made taking into account the demand of the population, local conditions and characteristics. Practice shows that hairdressing services, cutting of fabrics, minor repairs of clothes and shoes, photography, repair of television and radio equipment, household machines and appliances are most in demand.

The above lists only the most common forms of service in trade, household and financial services. In fact, there are many more. Thus, the forms of service in intermediary activities, in the provision of medical or legal services etc. The practice of service constantly multiplies these forms, which is caused not only by competition, but also by the need to satisfy ever-increasing social demands.

Customer service takes place in an environment called the contact zone. The contact zone is a spatial environment in which the service specialist (service provider) and the consumer are located. Examples of the contact zone are the salons of fashion houses, photo centers and photo labs, shopping malls, lobbies and hotel rooms, etc.

The time spent by consumers and the number of contacts with them by specialists who provide services in the contact zone depend on the nature of the services, forms and methods of service. The behavior of personnel working with consumers is based on the rules and etiquette of service, the corporate culture of the service organization, personal culture and work experience.

During the service, both the consumer and the performer of the service can act as a listener. For example, when providing landscape design services, the service specialist listens to the requirements of the owner of the site, and when providing information and advisory services, educational services, the consumer acts as a listener.

The activities of the maintenance personnel of a service enterprise are regulated by regulatory and technical documents, rules for the provision of services and job descriptions.

In the process of service, consumers may find themselves in stressful situations associated with the instability of the quality of services. Such a risk arises in the provision of medical and legal services, dry cleaning services, security services. The service specialist must have experience in psychological communication and inspire confidence in the consumer.

The words and actions of service personnel are elements of service quality. The speech of the service personnel should be meaningful, clear, intelligible, understandable, competent. The conversation of the service specialist with the consumer should be leisurely. Customer service must be performed in accordance with the rules of business etiquette.

The communication style of service personnel should be appropriate for the service organization's service scenario and the type of service provided. The service specialist must have a good memory and be able to timely and correctly convey the information necessary to serve a particular customer. He must have self-control, be able to conduct an operational analysis of the methods and results of activities, shortcomings in work and the reasons for the decline in quality.

The service specialist in the process of communicating with the consumer must carefully listen to him and provide information about the range and properties of services. Information should be available, technical terms are understandable for any consumer.

The service specialist must promptly and without delay ensure the paperwork and settlement with the consumer, approve the consumer's choice, thank him for visiting and express the hope that he will come again.

The offer of the main service can be supplemented by related services and goods.

A service organization should have its own service style that matches its image. The service style manifests itself in the contact zone and combines the practical methods of service inherent in the employees of the service organization. The granularity of the maintenance style is reflected in the maintenance scenario.

General management is the management activities and processes associated with the development of the concept and strategy for the development of the organization, setting its goals, planning, organizational activities, administration, coordination and control, and, if necessary, adjusting previously made decisions. It is based on theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of management, as well as methods and techniques that ensure the joint effective activities of people working in an organization.

Being one of the types of management activities, general management occupies a special place in management. It, as the name itself shows, has the property of generality and therefore is equally important for any manager, regardless of the position in the management apparatus or the function performed in the management process. The foundation of this community is primarily the principles that reflect the ideological basis of managerial activity, as well as the essence and content of management processes, through which managers set goals and organize work to achieve them.

The principles and processes form the basis for solving such important management problems as the development of an organization's strategy and the entire system of its plans, reorganization and restructuring, program and project management, crisis development management, the use of professional consultants and many others.

They receive practical implementation in all other management disciplines, creating a real basis for managing any organization as an integral system. They are also necessary for the performance of management functions, which are formed under the influence of the division and specialization of managerial labor. The connection is obvious: the more complete the knowledge, skills and abilities of general management, the more confidently each manager will be able to solve problems related to replenishing his specialized potential and, if necessary, changing the nature of work.

Now this is of particular importance as a way of adapting to changing conditions in the managerial labor market during the entire period of the manager's active life. According to statistics from a number of countries, managers change jobs every 5-7 years on average, therefore, in 30-35 years of their working life, they have to solve the problem of adaptation to new responsibilities and organizations five to seven times. When making such decisions, the general fundamental training of the manager, knowledge of the scientific foundations and practice of management processes helps. If they correspond to modern ideas and views on management, the transition to new job requires building up knowledge only in a highly specialized area and does not take much effort and time.

Currently, you can manage all types of activities, including after-sales service.

After-sales service management- this is a set of measures carried out by the manufacturer or seller for installation, installation and commissioning, elimination of product (goods) defects during the warranty period, post-warranty repairs. But these are only general and basic elements of after-sales service. The enterprise, which seeks to win the sympathy of the consumer, develops new forms and standards of service. In the field of technically complex products (goods), the buyer should not feel "abandoned" after the purchase. Therefore, manufacturers and sellers should strive to "custody" the consumer in various forms. For example, for computer manufacturers and retailers, a common form of after-sales service is the installation of software and general consumer training on the use of individual software products. Manufacturers of the software products themselves (for example, information databases) guarantee after-sales service in the form of regular information updates, troubleshooting, version updates, etc. Car manufacturers and dealers create after-sales service centers, which include services, departments of original spare parts and components, installation departments (they are engaged in the installation of security alarm systems, antennas, satellite navigation systems, etc.).

After-sales (technical) service is one of the most important components of the competitiveness of goods and determines the success and intensity of sales in the market. Every year, the requirements for maintenance are increasing: if a few years ago, the delivery time for spare parts to any country in the world was 3-5 days from the time the application was submitted, now it is 24 hours; the terms of production of spare parts, parts and assemblies after the removal of goods from production are also lengthened and have recently been determined for machinery and equipment at about 8-10 years, etc.

Service departments that have direct contacts with end users are the most valuable sources of information for marketing research, studying the requirements and requests of consumers, identifying weaknesses and product defects that cause the main complaints from buyers, the accumulation of ideas for new models and types of products, etc.

After-sales service also includes work on consideration and satisfaction of customer complaints regarding the quality of goods. It is not uncommon for leading design engineers of enterprises, especially during the introduction of a new product to the market, to visit consumers in the event of complaints about the quality of the purchased product. Such visits of highly qualified specialists allow in a short time to qualitatively and competently solve the problems of eliminating defects in the product, to make improvements in the production and technological processes and thereby contribute to the success of the product in the market. The task of post-warranty repair is to reduce equipment downtime, increase overhaul periods, increase operational safety and, ultimately, gain a stable position in the market, achieve the competitiveness of manufactured products.

For the high quality of after-sales service, companies develop special service standards or rules that provide for systematic training and training of personnel involved in the service, ensure an identical level of service throughout the entire service network and are mandatory.

In my opinion, a service is a system of interrelated activities of people aimed at high-quality and timely satisfaction of the needs of customers for after-sales service of the goods they have purchased in the short and long term.

Thus, services, customer service and after-sales services play an important role in ensuring the competitiveness of products. This is especially true for machines, equipment and other technology - ceteris paribus, consumers will prefer the product of the company that has the best organized service policy.

List of used literature

1. Abryutina M. S. Analysis of the financial and economic activity of the enterprise / M. S. Abryutina, A. S. Grachev. – M.: Dis, 2001. – 457 p.

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DI Dolgov DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPTS "SERVICE", "CUSTOMER SERVICE" AND "AFTER-SALES SERVICE MANAGEMENT" // Scientific electronic archive.
URL: (date of access: 02/14/2020).

At all stages of the development of society and the economy, there will always be various types of services, we often hear this word, we use the services of third parties and, probably, the topic considered in this article will be of interest: the concept of “Service”, regulatory legal acts accompanying the legal term “ provision of Services”, the main features of the “Service”, the civil law definition of the term “Service”.
The number of Services provided in today's society is diverse and practically unlimited due to the constantly changing society. Let's start with the fact that the Services are provided to both individuals and legal entities. What does the word "service" mean? If we turn to dictionaries, then "Service" is:
- an action that benefits, helps another;
- household amenities provided to someone.
In the dictionary of civil law, the concept of "Service" is defined as entrepreneurial activity aimed at meeting the needs of other persons, with the exception of activities carried out on the basis of labor relations.
It will be interesting to get acquainted with the statements and definitions of the concept of "Service" of some economists, each of his time and era. Thus, compare the attitude to this concept in connection with the change in society itself and the public relations. So, we read, compare, analyze, make our own assessments ... Purely personal.
- K. Marx: "A service is nothing but a useful action of one or another use value - whether it is a commodity, or labor";
- M.B. Rossinsky: “... A service is a specific use value in the form of a specific labor activity and a specific form of economic relations that presupposes the existence of a producer and consumer of services;
- ON THE. Barinov: “A service is an economic relationship arising from the results of labor that creates use values, manifested in the form of the useful action of a product (thing) or the activity itself to meet specific, reasonable human needs”;
- E.P. Grushevaya: “A service is an economic relation not about the results of labor, but about labor as an activity”;
- V.S. Kolyago: "... linking services with the labor process itself as such is a fundamental methodological mistake ... a service is an economic category, therefore its criterion characteristic is in the sphere of economic relations regarding activity, and not in the labor process itself";
- M.N. Maleina: Service is “... a certain action, the result of which has no material embodiment and is inseparable from the personality of the performer. At the same time, the service has a result - the satisfaction of property, cultural, aesthetic, information needs, ensuring the state of health, safety, acquiring skills, experience, patterns of behavior”;
- L.V. Sannikova: understands by “services” the actions of the “Service Provider” to preserve or change the state of intangible benefits (non-property rights, information, intangible benefits) performed in favor of the “Service Receiver”;
- Yu.Kh. Kalmykov: A service is “the provision of some benefits or the creation of certain amenities”;
- D.I. Stepanov: A service is “a kind of objects of civil legal relations, expressed “in the form of a certain lawful operation, i.e. in the form of a series of expedient actions of the performer or in an activity that is the object of an obligation that has an intangible effect, an unstable material result, or a embodied result associated with other contractual relations, and characterized by the properties of feasibility, inseparability from the source, instant consumption, non-formalization of quality”;
- A.V. Barkov: "The advantage of this definition is that it allows you to identify characteristics services as an object of civil rights: an intangible result, i.e. intangibility, inseparability from the source; close connection with the personality of the performer; synchronism of the provision and receipt of the Service; immediacy of consumption; non-permanence, impossibility of storage and accumulation of the Services; the impossibility of the performers to guarantee the result of the Service; exclusivity of the Services, which is expressed in their heterogeneity and variability”;
- E.G. Shablova: “A service is a way to satisfy an individual need of a person that is not associated with the creation (improvement) of a thing or object of intellectual property and is achieved as a result of activities permitted by the current legal order on a reimbursable basis.”
Thus, the first scientific search for the concept of “Service” began in the studies of economists of past centuries. If we turn to history, it should be said that the concept of “Service” was an integral part of ancient Roman private law and was called a contract of employment. It was a special contractual type, which included three types of contracts, in which the main criterion was the presence or absence of a materialized result.
From the above review, it follows that at present there is no consensus among scientists on the definition of the concept of "Service".
Nevertheless, despite the diversity of opinions, the legislator enshrined the concept of "Service" in the "Fundamentals of Civil Legislation of the USSR" in 1991. The shortcoming in this legal Act was that the concept of “Service” was applied only to:
- transport expedition;
- trademark and service mark rights.
On the modern language the legislator, the definition of “Service” is contained in paragraph 5 of Article 38 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (part 1) dated July 31, 1998 No. 146-FZ: “For tax purposes, a service is recognized as an activity whose results do not have a material expression, are realized and consumed during this activity."
If we turn to the definition of the concept of "Services" of the Tax Code Russian Federation, there are four main features of the Service:

- the service always has definite result(useful effect), which is the main property (consumer) value in the service;
- the result (beneficial effect) of the service does not have a material expression;
- the result of the service is consumed in the process of providing the service and thereby immediately loses its value, which is why it cannot circulate on the market and act as an independent object of civil law transactions, but is realized in the process of providing the service.
If we analyze the legal definitions in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Civil Code of the Russian Federation) (part 1) of November 30, 1994 No. 51-FZ, then the concept of “Service” is mentioned in Article 128, which refers to objects of civil rights: “this means that the Services, by their nature, have a property value that allows them to be in civil circulation. Clause 1 of Article 779 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (part 2) dated January 26, 1996 No. 14-FZ contains: “under a contract for the provision of services for a fee, the contractor undertakes, on the instructions of the customer, to provide the Services (perform certain actions or carry out certain activities), and the customer undertakes to pay for these Services.
In the legislation on culture, the concept of "Service" means "... relations that arise between cultural organizations, on the one hand, and other organizations (legal entities), as well as citizens (individuals), on the other, when the latter meet cultural needs. At the same time, these Services are of a civil law nature, while the institution of public Services is associated with the implementation of the competence of state and municipal authorities.
What do we see from the analysis of legal acts? And the fact that the concept of "Service" is interpreted by legislators in different ways. So the Civil Code of the Russian Federation does not clarify the definition of "Services". In the framework of this study of the main approaches to the definition of the Service, it can be concluded that the concept of "Service" contains some features:
- service is a specific form of economic relations;
- service is an activity, i.e. a set of targeted actions aimed at achieving a specific goal;
- the service satisfies the needs of the person;
- the service is a useful action;
- the service can have a creative, exclusive orientation;
- the service does not have a material embodiment and is inseparable from the personality of the performer;
- the service has instant consumption, unformalized quality;
If we analyze the relationship between the concepts of "Service" and "Work", then we come to the following conclusions:
- the difference between work and service is revealed through the direction of activity: the purpose of work is to create a new or updated (recycled) thing and its subsequent transfer, and in services, activity is not a prerequisite for the provision of services, it is inseparable from a positive effect;
- a thing can exist separately from its source, i.e. the producer, the service is manifested only in the effect, which is perceived at the level of feelings;
- the interpretation of the terms "service" and "work" leads to the fact that they are related to each other as a genus and species (service is a genus, work is a species);
- services and works are actions constituting an independent subject of obligation, having its own property value.
So, summing up all of the above, it is necessary to draw a final conclusion - what is a "Service". But it was, it wasn't! So, our own definition (and why not?): A service is an expedient action of one person, the “Service Provider” (legal or natural person), aimed at satisfying non-material needs, the benefits of another person, the “Service Recipient”, and implemented in the process of providing Services, the result of which has a certain value.

Services as an economic activity have existed for a long time. In England, domestic servants were the largest class of the population until 1870. However, defining a service proved to be a difficult task. Particularly lively discussions on this issue unfolded in the late 60s - early 70s of the twentieth century. It was then that the service sector of developed countries began to bring in GDP about the same as the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy combined. K. Grenroos believes that only in the 1990s did economists reluctantly settle on one of the definitions of a service. H. Voracek is sure that none of the attempts to define a service has been successful.

Until now, various definitions of service can be found in the economic literature; Below are some of the more typical ones. Comparing them with those economic goods that are today considered services provides interesting food for thought.

Services are sometimes called activities that do not create an independent product, material object or material values. It will be incorrect if the service consists of tailoring or making shoes from materials provided by the customer.

R. Maleri's definition is interesting: "Services are intangible assets produced for marketing purposes." By definition, intangible assets (or intangible values) are values ​​that are not physical, material objects, but have a cost, monetary value. A service is a process, a series of actions. These activities can be a tool for producing value, they can create value, but they are not value in themselves. If certain actions are useful only for the one who performs them (for example, exercises in the morning), then they can hardly be considered a service.

According to K. Grenroos, a service is a process that includes a series (or several) of intangible actions that, of necessity, occur during the interaction between customers and service personnel, physical resources, systems of an enterprise - a service provider. This process is aimed at solving the problems of the buyer of the service. This definition describes the service quite accurately, however, some services (cosmetic, hairdressing, etc.) can be tangible (this property will be described below).

Some researchers (for example, K. Grenroos and J. Bateson) believe that describing the properties of a service is more productive than trying to derive a definition.

Often, researchers in this area compare its properties with the properties of a tangible product. At the same time, scientists come to the same opinion more often than when trying to give a definition, but even here disagreements and all kinds of assumptions arise. More often than others, among the specific properties of services, they name that they represent an action or process, they are intangible, they cannot be stored, their quality is more variable compared to a tangible product, and also that the production and consumption of services are simultaneous. For example, this is how the properties of a service are described in the book "Standardization and Certification in the Service Sector":

• - services are a combination of the process of providing a service and consuming the result of a service;
• - services, depending on the object and result, are divided into tangible and intangible;
• - in many cases, the subject (performer) of the service is an individual entrepreneur or a small business;
• - in many cases, the consumer (person) is the object of the service and (or) is directly involved in the process of its provision;
• - provision and consumption of services can be simultaneous;
• - as a rule, the service has an individual nature of provision and consumption;
• - in the service sector, the share of manual labor is high, the quality of which depends on the skill of the staff;
• - the provider of the service, as a rule, is not the owner of the result of the service;
• - services are local, non-transportable, may have a regional character;

services may not be persistent.

This list is not exhaustive and far from exhaustive, but it demonstrates well the need for reservations when describing the properties of a service. It can be noted that in this case, some properties are accompanied by the remarks “as a rule”, “in many cases”, “may be”, etc.

Today, there is no unity in the definitions of a service and its properties, and there are several reasons for this.

One of the main reasons is that the activities that can be called services are many and varied, as are the objects to which these activities are directed. Often the purchase of goods is accompanied by related services, and almost every purchase of services is accompanied by related goods.

The next reason is that official statistics group these activities into one class of services. Researchers, on the other hand, are looking for common ground in the phenomena recorded by official statistics.

The third reason for the difficulty of finding a definition of "service" is that the researcher of services is dealing with a flexible object, the boundaries of which change depending on the desires of the provider and / or consumer of the service. A material good can easily become a service. “A machine, any physical product can be turned into a service, if the seller makes an attempt to make a special solution, taking into account the needs of this client”, rightly says K. Grenroos. J. Bateson also emphasized that the boundary between goods and services depends on the attitude of goods suppliers and consumers to this. One and the same object, containing a set of physical items and a number of actions of the service personnel of the contractor, can be considered by the consumer both as a material product and as a service.

The presence of an unambiguous comprehensive definition is required to create a theoretical structure that describes the process of interaction between a producer and a buyer in the service market. It is the definition that lies at the basis of conceptual theoretical research. However, even the definition of a service cannot always help to decide practical tasks, which stand in front of an enterprise operating in the service sector. Based on the definitions and classifications already given, the following definition can be given: a service is an economic benefit in the form of activity; this is an action (or sequence of actions), the purpose of which is to increase the consumer utility of the object to which this action is directed, and the task is to influence this object.

Can this definition help an enterprise solving practical problems, for example, the task of developing and implementing an effective marketing strategy? Of course, however, as we have said, the services are diverse. From the point of view of marketing, one of the key criteria will be the object of the service, the connection of the service with the tangible product, the involvement of personnel and the use of technology in the provision of the service. Those processes that are related to services and fit this definition have different indicators according to these criteria. So, the object of the service can be a person, his tangible and intangible assets, his relatives, pets, tangible and intangible assets. legal entities, as well as information, energy and more. This definition is equally true in relation to services, in the provision of which, on the one hand, the main added value is created by personnel, and, on the other hand, by technology or mechanisms. In addition, the definition combines services that can be called pure, that is, fully consistent with the definition, and services that accompany a material product. Thus, these most important criteria for marketing are not reflected in the definition that highlights the essence of services. The process of identifying key factors from a marketing point of view is the opposite of the process of highlighting the general, which underlies the definition of a service. This is the process of searching for the specifics of a particular class of services, necessary for the creation and implementation of a marketing strategy.

The modern world economy is increasingly characterized as a service economy. This is primarily due to the increase in the service sector in the economies of most developed and developing countries. The growth of the service sector is one of the indicators of a country's economic progress.

Economic history shows that all developing countries necessarily make the transition from agriculture to industry and then to the service sector. This transition has also led to a change in the definition and characteristics of goods and services.

What are services

There are a huge number of definitions of services, the two most clearly describing the concept:

1. A service is a type of activity, the results of which do not have a material expression, are realized and consumed in the course of this activity.
2. A service is a benefit provided not in the form of physical objects, but in the form of activity (intangible benefits).

Product definition

A commodity is a product of nature and human labor or only human labor in material and intangible substance and in the form of services, which, due to its properties, is able to satisfy existing or expected social needs and is intended for exchange and trade.

A commodity is a product of labor, produced not for own consumption, but for sale, tangible and intangible assets, as well as securities and derivatives used in any operations, except for operations for their release (issue) and redemption.

Product properties:

1. The ability to satisfy a particular human need.
2. Suitability for exchange for other goods.

The difference between goods and services

Following are the fundamental differences between physical goods and services.

Service classification

There are three types of services: business services, personal services and social services.

Business services are services that support the day-to-day operations of a business but are not a commodity, such as IT services. Other services that a business enterprise may require for the smooth functioning and management of its activities include banking, warehousing, insurance, communications, transport, and more.

Personal services are commercial activities provided to individuals according to their individual needs. The service here is personalized for the client. Some examples of personal services are cosmetics, food, hotel and lodging, medicine, any artistic service.

social services are important public services. They are provided by the government or non-profit organizations. These services are aimed at achieving social equality in society and are not provided with a profit motive. Social services include: education, medical institutions etc.

A more detailed classification and description of services is given below.

Services are divided into:

• Material.
• Intangible.

According to the nature of the provision:

• Paid or market.
• Free or non-market.

By appointment:

• Production.
• Consumer.

According to the nature of consumption:

• Public.
• Individual.
• Mixed.

According to the form of ownership of their producers:

• State.
• Private.

By funding sources:

• Budget.
• Self-financed.
• Mixed.

By legal status:

• Legal.
• Illegal.

Location of services:

• Internal.
• External.

By sector of the economy:

• Financial.
• Non-financial.

By industry origin: management, science, culture, health care and so on.

By types of services: management, information, transport, and so on.

Main characteristics of services

The following characteristics apply universally to any service. The most important characteristics of the services are:

• Lack of ownership.
• Intangibility.
• Inseparability.
• Impermanence.
• fragility.
• Interchangeability.

Lack of ownership is one of the most obvious characteristics of services. You may not own or store the service; it can be done. Unlike goods that have a material form, a service is not property. This feature is closely related to several other characteristics of services such as intangibility, inseparability and permanence.

Intangibility means that the service cannot be picked up or touched. For example, airline passengers only have a ticket and a promise that they will be at their destination at a certain time. The problem of intangibility is vital for potential customers, because it is difficult to assess in advance the quality of the services provided.

The characteristics of services include inseparability, which means that services are produced and consumed at the same time. It also implies that services cannot be separated from their providers. Unlike services, physical goods are produced, then stored, then sold, and later consumed. Services are first sold, then produced and consumed at the same time.

Volatility or variability refers to the fact that the quality of services can vary greatly depending on who provides them, when, where and how. Due to the labour-intensive nature of the services, there is a big difference in their quality, they can be provided different people or even by the same vendors at different times.

Perishability means that the services cannot be stored for later sale or use. This is one of the most important characteristics of services as it can have a significant impact on financial results. Service companies use various methods to create a better match between supply and demand.

Fungibility says that goods can replace services that satisfy similar needs, and vice versa. As a result, there is competition between services and goods.

Definition of service quality

Service quality (SQ) in its modern conceptualization is a comparison of the expected result (E) with the actual result - the characteristic of the service (P), which leads to the equation SQ = P - E.

A business with a high quality of service will meet or exceed customer expectations while remaining cost-competitive. Empirical evidence shows that improving service quality improves profitability and long-term economic competitiveness. Improvement in the quality of service can be achieved by improving operational processes; identification of problems and their solution; establishing valid and reliable service performance metrics and measuring customer satisfaction and other outcomes.

The characteristic of service quality is considered in two aspects:

• Technical quality: what the client receives as a result of the interaction (for example, a meal in a restaurant, a room in a hotel).
• Functional quality: how the customer receives the service; the nature of the service (e.g. courtesy, attentiveness, promptness).

Technical quality is relatively objective and therefore easy to measure. However, there are difficulties when trying to assess functional quality.

Service life cycle

Every product or service goes through a specific life cycle. Lifecycle management is a key task of marketing and sales management. The model shown below describes the relationship between sales volume and profit from a product or service. The model defines five stages life cycle:

1. Development stage - a product or service is being developed, it has not yet entered the market, therefore, the enterprise incurs costs.
2. Implementation stage - a product or service is placed on the market, sales are slowly growing, profits still do not cover costs.
3. Growth stage - sales are growing, profits turn into positive numbers.
4. Maturity stage - sales continue to rise, but profits begin to decline (falling price).
5. The decline stage is a gradual decline in sales and profits.

Then the organization either changes the marketing system, improves the characteristics of products or services, and sales increase again. Or the project dies.

Service Marketing

Service marketing is a broad category marketing strategies aimed at providing services. This includes everything from personal services such as medical care and spa treatments to rental vehicles and facilities. Any method that creates benefits for a service company is a valid approach, including informational content, promotional offers, advertisements, and many other marketing materials.

Characteristics of the service market

Segmentation, targeting and positioning are the strategic foundations of marketing used to create competitive advantages that shape an organization's success story. The definition of the market is the basis for setting up a service delivery organization. The characteristics of goods and services differ in the market.

Market segmentation is a strategy that recognizes the need to "specialize" according to the needs of a market segment and then attempts to become the leader in that segment. Service market segmentation is defined as the process of dividing the market into separate groups that have General characteristics service performance and customer needs or consumption patterns.

Why is market segmentation important?

1. Defining a market niche leads to a more efficient use of resources.
2. Segmentation improves market manageability by dividing it into smaller parts.
3. Market definition helps improve a company's ability to meet customer needs.

Significance of the service market for the global economy

Without a doubt, the services market has grown in recent years and contributed to the global economy. Today, services account for more than 65% of the gross world product. IN developed countries The service sector contributes more to economic growth than any other.