1. Advertising
Advertising is any kind of paid, non-personal method of promoting by an identified organization or individual. Certain services such as entertainment (cinema, theatre), passenger and freight transport (roadways, airlines, trains), hotel, tourism and travel, insurance have been advertising heavily in newspaper, magazines, radio, TV to promote greater usage and attract more customers. However, certain service professionals such as doctors, accountants, and lawyers, have rarely used advertising as a means of increasing their clientele.
Objectives of advertising have been identified as:
a) Creating an understanding of the company in the customers' minds by describing the company's services, activities and its areas of expertise.
b) Creating a positive image for the company.
c) Building a strong sense of identification with the customer by turning his needs, values and attitudes.
d) Creating a positive background for the sales people to sell the services by providing all relevant information about the company.
2. Word of Mouth (WOM)
Word of mouth plays an important role in promoting services. Services are adopted, if not more, as much because of word of mouth communications as because of active promotion by marketers. However, people seldom pass on information about a product or service without some reasons. Managers who want to take advantage of word of mouth communication should make specific efforts in this direction. Given below are some suggestions for stimulating a positive word of mouth (apart from providing excellent service quality)
a) Offering a gift, discount or other reward to customers who bring in new customers.
b) Asking customers who express satisfaction, to tell their friends.
c) Running a newsletter and asking customers to contribute. Contribution may be in terms of letters, stories or ideas. This can also be done through website.
d) Reward your regular customers with some freebies.
e) Target opinion formers.
