E-commerce solution for services

European Business ReviewEmerald Article: E-commerce solution for servicesZillur Rahman

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To cite this document: Zillur Rahman, (2004),"E-commerce solution for services", European Business Review, Vol. 16 Iss: 6 pp. 564 - 576

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E-commerce solution for servicesZillur Rahman

Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,Roorkee, India

Keywords Electronic-commerce, Distribution management, Service industries

Abstract The diversity of the service sector makes it difficult to come up with managerially usefulgeneralizations concerning marketing practice in service industry, but IT and the Internet arecausing fundamental changes in the economics of service industry. The Internets influence increating e-services has been revolutionary for providers and their customers. This paper argues fora focus on specific categories of services and proposes a two-dimensional model for classifyingservices in ways that transcends narrow industry boundaries. This model has been developed usingnon-metric discreet attributes and contains examples of services that fall under different groups.

One of the most significant developments of the 1990s is the identification of theservice industry as the fastest increasing component of the world trade (Dunning,1993), as they account for over 50 per cent of the world trade (Winsted and Patterson,1998). This is not surprising. Services, not manufactured goods, have fuelled moderneconomic growth (Bateson, 1995). It is not a coincidence that two of the largest servicesectors: banks and railroads boomed at the same time as the Industrial Revolution.Without such services, the economic benefits of large-scale production could neverhave been realized (Riddle, 1986). Yet, only in recent years have marketing academics,practitioners, and even service firms begin to give serious attention to the marketing ofservices, as distinct from products.

The emergence of services marketing as a distinct body of literaturenotwithstanding, there seems to be broad consensus that the boundary delineatingservices from goods is somewhat fluid (Bharadwaj et al., 1993). Often significantservice components are integral to the consumption/use of tangible goods (e.g.automobiles, household appliances), as are significant tangible elements to theconsumption/use of services (e.g. car rentals, air travel).

As evidenced by Shostack’s (1977) characterization of products (goods and services)in terms of the proportion of physical goods and intangible services they contain, thereare few pure goods or services. Recognizing the fluid nature of the boundarydelineating services from goods, the molecular model (Shostack, 1977) views all marketentities as exhibiting varying levels of tangible and intangible elements, and servicesas intangible- dominated market entities. Along similar lines Berry and Parasuraman(1991) suggests that if the source of products core benefits is more tangible thanintangible, it should be considered a good, and if it is more intangible than tangible, itshould be considered a service. In addition to intangibility, inseparability/simultaneity,heterogeneity, and perishability are generally viewed as the distinguishingcharacteristics of services (Bharadwaj et al., 1993).

More specifically, a service depends to some extent on the interaction between thebuyer and seller for its provisions (Grosse, 1996).

Service marketing is generally considered more difficult, complex, and onerousbecause of the problems created by unique service characteristics.

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European Business ReviewVol. 16 No. 6, 2004pp. 564-576q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0955-534XDOI 10.1108/09555340410565396

The 1990s, however, have seen the emergence of a phenomenon we believe willdramatically change this received wisdom forever: the Internet and the World WideWeb. The Internet is expected to have a major impact on the business world (BusinessWeek, 1996; The Economist, 1999). Unlike other existing media, it has truly globalreach and is predicted to redefine the way business is conducted (Sivadas et al., 1998).

The Internet has substantially reduced the search costs of companies andconsumers, particularly in case of goods and services with “digital attributes” (Bakos,1997; Lal and Savary, 1999). In addition, the Internet provides opportunities for almostcostless distribution of information goods.

Services are no longer unmanageably different. E-services not only overcomespreviously conceived limitations of service marketing, it creates hitherto undreamed ofopportunities for the marketers. E-services overcomes many of the traditionalproblems of service marketing by giving the marketer unprecedented control over thepreviously capricious characteristics of services. As an interactive medium, the Webcombines the best of mass production (based on the manufacture of products) andcustomization (typically found in services). The ultimate tool for mass customizing, itcan treat millions of customers as each were unique.

But only in the mid 1990s, when a flurry of Internet service providers beganofferings of dial up access, did e-service became widely available to mass consumers.E-services can be defined as being “comprised of all interactive services that aredelivered on the Internet using advanced telecommunications, information, andmultimedia technologies” (Boyer et al., 2002). Clearly, the Internet’s influence increating e-services has been revolutionary for providers and their customers.

But can all services be sold and delivered using these technologies. In this paper, Ihave developed a model, which can be used to analyze which services can be sold anddistributed over the Internet.

In this model, I have addressed two issues. The two fundamental issues are atwhom (or what) is the act directed and the extent to which the act can be customized.These two issues are chosen over the whole lot of other issues such as independent vscollective consumption; time defined vs task-defined transactions; continuous deliveryvs discrete transactions; supply constraints vs demand fluctuations (Lovelock, 1983),as these are much more relevant from the point of view of services which can be soldand executed over the Internet (Zeithaml et al., 2002).

As shown in Figure 1, these two questions result in a four-way classificationscheme. The classification scheme is explained in the figure with the help of examplesdrawn mainly from India.

Analysis of the modelQuadrant 1Service with high possibility of customization, delivered to people. These services havethe possibility of high customization. They may, or may not, require direct contact ofthe service provider with the recipient. Services require confidence, since they can onlybe described rather than experienced prior to being consumed. The Internet as aninformation medium is highly suitable for this (Lovelock, 1996). This is true in caseswhere direct contact of the service provider and the recipient is not required. Theservices that come under this quadrant are described below.

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Information services. These services have been placed in the quadrant of highcustomization because on the Internet, information can be provided to an individual asper his/her interests. It is unlike the concept of a newspaper, in which a person findsarticles relating to his area of interest, and goes through them. On the Internet, only thearticles that interest the reader are sent to him. All e-mail service providers (e.g.rediff.com, indiatimes.com) ask their customers for their preference of the informationthey would like to receive in their inbox. Options range from current affairs to fashiontrends and information technology to sports. Thus, this service is being provided onthe Internet, but major improvements are still possible. The direct news services, whichare not connected to any e-mail service providers, are not very popular. Specializedinformation sites do exist, but are not able to attract the attention of potentialcustomers. Advertising and promotion efforts of these sites often fail, as promotionalmails are considered as Spam and their reach is very low.

Doctor’s advice. The future of medicine on the Internet is going to be good.Healthcare information is the most sought after on the Internet after sex and money.The challenge is to use the Internet to standardize communication among doctors,hospitals, labs, insurance companies, pharmacies, and patients to build onesuperhighway. These Internet works would allow patients to take advice fromdoctors, as most of them prefer dealing with doctors and hospitals as the primarysource of information.

In the near future, storage of medical records will have to be done, as it wouldbecome a legal requirement. So the data repository that emerges as a result of thisInternet work would be a large source of drug development inputs. But this all is toodistant and any site that provides satisfactory advice to the patient is bound to makehuge profits in the future.

Some Web sites operating in this field are docmedlnternet.com,doctoranywhere.com, meditimes.com, medybiz.com, mdspeak.com, apollolife.com,and check4health.com.

Figure 1.Classification of services

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These portals perform a variety of activities such as e-enabling doctors, andbuilding linkages with the healthcare community, doctor-to-doctor telemedicine(Mahanta, 2001) and an Internet work built around the PC. Some sites evenprovide customized and specialized information to the doctors.

The main aim of these portals is to build an Internet work of doctors. But this is adifficult task as there are 550,000 doctors in India. The total size of the Indianhealthcare industry is US $18 billion. The cost of travel, accommodation, and time,apart from the anxiety of unfamiliar delays, make the case of providing advice on theInternet stronger.

The biggest problem in this case is Internet working, and the low penetration of PCsin India. Moreover, there is the lack of a clear value proposition for doctors to promptthem to switch to an e-environment.

Current portals are just connecting the doctors together so that they can interactwith each other. The end consumer cannot get advice from the doctors in times of need.So these are B2B portals instead of B2C.

Lawyer’s advice. This is again a service that can be offered on the net, as it does notrequire direct contact of the provider and the recipient of service. The customers canpost their queries online and the provider can answer these queries via e-mails. Thisworks like the trouble shooting columns that appear commonly in newspapers. Somesites in this segment are economictimes.com, vakilnol.com, myiris.com,mywealthguide.com, bizilaw.com, tm4india.com, and indialawinfo.com (Kapoor,2000). These sites provide a variety of services to the consumer.

Some provide online legal resource, trademark and copyright law resource,information on tax returns, information about corporate law, and recent changes in thelaws. These sites provide extensive information about the various aspects of law.

Personal tuitions. Providing personal tuition on the Internet is different fromproviding online education. Whereas e-education deals with teaching a large group ofstudents who can access tutorials, personal tuition deals with each student separately.A Web site operating in this segment is hometuitions.com. It provides solutions tostudents’ problems. With the increasing popularity of personal tuitions, this segmentholds considerable promise. Internet can be used for imparting tuitions to studentswith highly customized packages and study material, and at considerably lesser rates.A major roadblock here is the very low penetration of computers in India and the lackof trust that parents put on a “virtual” tutor.

Beauty saloons and fashion designers. These are the services that cannot bedelivered without the direct contact of the recipient and the service provider. Theseservices, although highly customizable, cannot be delivered on the Internet. Theseservices can be promoted over the Internet and information about these can also be hadon the Internet but these cannot be delivered over the Internet. The beauty saloon canshow various hairstyles and can allow the users to choose the hairstyle best suited forthem. But to get the haircut, the customer will have to go to the saloon. Similarly, in thecase of fashion designers, customers can choose from a large number of stylesdisplayed on the net the choice of colour and fabric, etc., can also be made. But, unlessclothes are physically seen their true appearance cannot be judged. Hence fashiondesigners can advertise and promote new designs and fashions on the Internet, but forbuying a dress, the customer will have to go to the boutique of the designer.

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Broadcasting services. Broadcasts on the Internet are made through streaming dataon the screen of the surfer in the form of a data strip on the top, bottom, or the sides, ofthe screen. The broadcasts may be of sports commentary or stock market quotes ornews. The preference remains with the customer as he specifies the area of his interest.The data transmission speed in India is very less due to the narrow bandwidthavailable, as compared to developed countries. This makes these broadcasts useless inIndian scenario, as they require a high bandwidth for streaming data. The demandwould improve as the technical roadblocks are taken care of. Some Web sites that areengaged in these services are www.tbs-satellite.com, www.ituner.com, www.cricket.indiatimes.com, etc.

Entertainment. This is the attribute to which most of the Internet sites cater. Be itmusic, movies, games, or chat, everything is available on the Internet. Some of theseare masti.com, ticklewit.com, uthplanet.com, and 9cheers.com (Pillai, 2001). These sitesoffer dating, careers, games, chat, humour, and free gifts.

There are other sites that offer music and movies. A newWeb site offers the user thesong he wishes to listen. Whenever the song is played on any associated radio station,it is saved on the hard disk of the computer of the person who had requested that song.As for movies, it is possible to download movies from the Internet and watch them, butit is not commonly done because of the long hours it would take to download a singlemovie.

In India the greatest problem is bandwidth. So it is very time consuming todownload a movie. It may take hours or even days. Even downloading games takes alot of time and listening to music is also not easy because of frequent Internetcongestion. This could be why most sites are unable to convert hits into customers andhence are not able to generate as much revenue as they would have liked. The future ofthese sites is bright. The content is satisfactory.

Financial services. Several financial institutions like the Industrial DevelopmentBank of India, Housing Development Finance Corporation, personalfn.com, andsharekhan.com have introduced online services. Also, banks are bringing theirpersonal and corporate services online. There are various sites in this segment likecfoindia.com, which provides financial solutions, ebachat.com, which provides onlineguide to offline savings, and personal finance portals such as moneypickle.com andinvestor.com. These Web sites offer a variety of services including explanation ofterms related to finance. There are some sites that offer portfolio management services.The Web sites of banks offer interest rates on various term deposits, and details ofloans. Other sites like icicidirect.com, 5paisa.com, sharekhan.com, and indiabulls.comoffer e-broking. Users enter the details of trade they want to execute and the site doesthe rest. It moves fund from users’ bank accounts and transfers shares to theirdepository account. An important aspect of e-financial services is payment via theInternet. Most people are wary about giving their credit card numbers on the Internetdue to security reasons. According to a survey of 5,000 cardholders across ten Indiancities, 72 per cent were not willing to give their card number over the Internet (Gargand Mahanta, 2000).

An alternate mode of payment is the prepaid card. It is just like an online debit card.The person buys the card and scratches it to get a 16-digit alphanumeric code. The userpunches this code on the Web site and the amount is credited to his account. The usercan buy goods using the entire sum or a part of it. The balance remains in his account.

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In this case, the risk is limited but the power to pay is also limited. There are severalvariants of the prepaid card. Major players like MasterCard have tied up with Citibankto launch a virtual card for online payments. Although these services are bound to pickup sooner or later but certain issues are proving to be a great hindrance to growth. Theabsence of digital signature verification procedures, security issues, and the generalregulatory environment has stunted growth of the online financial services business inIndia. The e-world is setting in place several businesses for financial services. Asinstitutions in India embark on the e-road, they will embrace competitive businesses. Inthe process, they become more profitable and the consumers will be better served(Bhagat, 2000). The consumer would be able to check his accounts, transfer funds, andapply for a credit card online.

Though e-financial services have not grown, as fast as expected, this B2C space isdefinitely not vanishing with the bubble because the functionality offered to theconsumer is too strong.

B2C consultancy. This service is available on the Internet. A Web site calledexplorebiz.com is a portal that provides services to retailers to enable them to becomee-tailers, (www.isp-planet.com/research/ india_stats.html).

But the need here is of a portal providing B2C consulting to all entrepreneurs orentrepreneurs who wish to start their business. Such a service on the Internet could beuseful to many.

B2B consulting. This is the segment that is most lucrative (Dhawan et al., 2000). Atpresent, no site provides B2B consulting. For example, those seeking information toset-up an online retail store could visit a Web site that provides customized solutionsfor a fee.

Cards, flowers and gift items. Web sites like virtualflower.com, 800flowers.com,indiatimesshopping.com, etc., offer customers a choice of ordering flowers online.Customers can choose from a very large number of flowers and get them arranged inpre-specified designs for bouquets. They can also make their own designs online andorder. The flowers are delivered to the address that the customers enter duringregistration. Payment has to be made online using credit cards.

During festival seasons and around Valentine’s Day, the demand for chocolates andflowers increases manifold. A number of Web sites offer their services to deliverflowers, chocolates, or other gifts as chosen by the customer online. The delivery timeis around 24 hours. Delivery can be made anywhere in India or abroad, depending onthe Web site.

E-cards have become very popular on the Internet. The number of cards sent on theInternet is threatening the paper cards business. Most of the sites offering e-cards arefree, with the exception of Hallmark.com and archiesgreetings.com. Judging by thepopularity of this service, it is just a matter of time before all the sites start charging forthese services.

Quadrant 2People are the recipient of service, with a low extent of customization. These services arethe most economical to deliver as the extent of customization is very less. As a resultthe same service is suffice for the majority of the customers. In these services, theInternet does not have an edge over other communication media as television and printmedia also offer standardized services. The difference that the Internet can make in

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these areas lies in the possibility of offering the customers an option of customization,as Internet is an interactive medium. It gives service providers a chance to directlyinteract with their customers and hence they are in a position to make changes in theirofferings as per the customer’s requests.

The services that come under this quadrant are described below.Education. This can be considered as the oldest service available on the Internet.

Students can access lectures and tutorials through the Internet. They can send queriesand get replies through e-mail. They can do so at convenient times. So this aims atproviding quality education at the doorstep. Services like these are not possible withcorrespondence courses. Even if they are made available, the effectiveness is reducedas the mails take a long time in reaching the recipients.

Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, was the first major player,which provided education over the Internet. There are several other sites that offer thesame. These include blackboard.com, totalteamwork.com, indiacoach.com,brainvisa.com, stubrit.com, and classontheweb.com (Bhise et al., 2000).

The problem facing e-education is the lower bandwidth available in India. Studentsfind it difficult to download tutorials and other related information. PC penetration isquite low and the cost of accessing Internet is high. So Internet education has notprogressed as fast as it should have. Another important aspect is the security andintegrity of the database (Urban et al., 2000), which contains test questions. Thequestions are generated at random and the same set of questions may go to twodifferent users. In other words, some users may know the questions beforehand.

Public transport. Indian Railways has launched a Web site, www.indianrail.gov.in,which provides a variety of services to the consumers. These include status of ticket,train timings, availability of berth, and online booking of tickets. But, for delivery oftickets, one has to go to the booking counter.

Similarly, all major airlines provide information regarding flight timings,availability, etc., over the Internet, but the customer has to go to the airline office tocollect his ticket. But to travel one has to go to airport or railway station so completeservice delivery is not possible over the Internet.

Travel. This is the most lucrative segment available on the Internet (Bhardwaj,2001). In this segment, the yearly growth is several times the current business. Whenno news seems to be good for the dot-coms, travel on the Internet has picked up pace.Launched in mid 2000, these sites are different in the sense that they have risingadvertising revenues and rapidly growing transaction volumes.

The main Web sites operating in this segment are makemytrip.com, traveljini.com,Internet2travel.com, indiaoverland.com, india-tour.com, and thomascook.co.in. Theyoffer travel guides, weather, converters, travel tips, distance calculators, etc.

These sites are not only getting business from India but also from non-residentIndians. The advantage of these sites is availability of information, and best travelpackages. They are more convenient and customer friendly. A number of travelpackages are available on these sites, from which the customer can choose the optionhe likes best. Customers also have an option of designing a trip on their own. The costis then calculated on the Web site.

Movies. Movie theatres offer advance booking with the desired seat numbers overthe Internet and in some cases, tickets are delivered to the homes but to watch themovie the person has to go to the theatre.

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It is possible to view a move on the Internet because a theatre owner can makeprovisions to show the latest release on the Web. But low bandwidth and othertechnical limitations mean that this cannot happen in the near future.

Restaurants. Although ordering food on the Internet is still not prevalent (Pillai,2001), a site called foodarcade.com has been launched. It offers ordering food online,booking tables at restaurants, getting food delivered at home, but the success of thissite seems to be a distant reality. It might be attributed to the fact that not many peoplewill use the Internet to order something when this can be done over the telephone. Sowe see that complete service delivery over the Internet is not possible in this quadrant.

Branded clothing. Branded clothes are available on the Internet on a large number ofWeb sites. Many brands like Benetton and Lee are available at standard costs and instandard sizes. The customer can choose the colour and size on the Internet and orderonline. The payment can be made through a number of options available. Theseoptions are payment online using a credit card or payment on delivery of the goods.The second option is more popular in India, as transactions using credit cards have notbecome famous. This is because people don’t want to disclose their credit card numberson the Internet because of privacy concerns (as explained under section Financialservices). This has proved to be a major hurdle for online service providers.

Museums and libraries. With the reach of the Internet increasing every day, a largenumber of museums and libraries have gone online, to make their access easier to thepeople. Examples include the Aviation History Online Museum at www.aviation-history.com, the inventor’s museum at www.inventorsmuseum.com, and museums ofvarious other disciplines. These museums offer pictures, papers and virtual toursthrough time. Similarly online libraries have come up on which surfers can go througha large number of encyclopedias and books that are available. Examples of onlinelibraries are Library of the Berkeley University in USA, The Berkeley Digital Libraryat www.sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/. Other libraries are www.questia.com, www.libraryspot.com, etc. A very large number of encyclopedias, books and dictionaries arealso available on the Internet for the reader’s reference. Example is of EncyclopediaBritannica, which is available at www.britannica.com. On this site, the surfer can gothrough all the editions of the encyclopedia. Other sites like www.yourdictionary.comoffer the services of the complete dictionary on the Internet. Some other onlinedictionaries are the Cambridge Dictionary at dictionary.cambridge.org, the Webster’sdictionary at www.mw.com/netdict.htm, etc. On these Web sites, the surfer can findmeanings of words and phrases. A number of language options are also available.

Spectator sports. Sports like cricket and football, which are very popular in India,can be shown on the Internet in real time. This could increase the usage of the Internetby many times and could mean revenues for the Web sites as these sports have a hugefollowing in the country. Also offices in India have become computer savvy over theyears and the number of televisions in the offices is abysmally low due to obviousreasons. It is for this reason that sites that broadcast live scores are immensely popularamong office goers. This segment could become the target audience of the Web sitesshowing live matches. This is a possibility using streaming video, but India still lacksthe bandwidth and the technological infrastructure to implement this.

Postal services. Postal services are offered on the Internet in the form of e-mails only.Portals offer this free service. Mithi.com has gone a step ahead by providing e-mail in11 Indian languages (Rahman and Bhattacharyya, 2002). A large number of portals

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followed, and multilingual e-mail services are being provided by rediff.com,indiatimes.com, etc. In the future, with digital signatures becoming legal in India,one can send documents on the Internet and full use of postal services on the Internetwill take place.

Consumer goods. Many Web sites offer customers, goods like electronic items,music cassettes, CD’s, cell phones, telephones cameras, etc. Some of these items arebranded and some are not. The payment options available to the customer are paymentonline using a credit card or payment on delivery. These services were not famousinitially and the number of transactions made online was very low. But, over time, thepopularity of Web sites offering these services has increased. This has been a result ofcontinuous promotion efforts by Web sites like indiatimes.com. The biggest problemthat arises in these Web transactions is that of after sales service. Once the sale ismade, the customer has no direct contact with the Web site. In this situation, the aftersales service part of the purchase leaves a big question mark in the mind of thecustomer. As most of these goods are expensive and require maintenance, thecustomers are wary of buying them from a Web site. To lure customers, these Websites offer these goods at a discount of around 10-15 per cent from the market price.But, customers prefer buying these goods after seeing and touching them in a shop.Another problem is the long time it takes for the delivery of the ordered goods. It takesaround one to two weeks for the delivery.

Quadrant 3Things are the recipients of service with a high degree of customization. In this quadrant,the direct recipient of service is not a person or the customer. The direct recipient ofservice is a tangible possession of the customer. In these services direct contact of thecustomer and the service provider is required as the recipient in an object that has to bein contact with the service provider, so that service can be performed on it. Hence theseservices cannot be delivered on the Internet. But can be promoted and ordered.

Some of these services are described below.Insurance services. Various Web sites operating in this category (Gill, 2000) are

indiainsure.com, weassure.com, licindia.com, bimaonline.com, assureindia.com, andfirstpolicy.com. These sites are trying to educate people and to build a community.

They provide critical information to people who are going to buy insurance policies.Firstpolicy.com helps the user to know how much insurance one needs. To do so it hasa portfolio planner, which helps to calculate one’s insurance requirements.

Another important thing for the consumer is settling on the right policy for him.This varies according to the needs and income of different customers. As a result, ahuge scope for customization exists. The Bima consultant on bimaonline.com throwsup a list of policies after the consumer inputs his basic requirements. The next step isto calculate the cost. To help the consumer in this area both bimaonline.com andfirstpolicy.com offer a premium calculator. The next step is buying the policy.Bimaonline.com and assureindia.com provide an extensive list of sales agents.

These sites also contain modules that could be of great help to the insuranceprofessionals. Agents can list themselves at bimaonline.com and assureindia.com.Assureindia.com also provides a module on education opportunities in insurance.

Thus, we see that these sites not only offer B2C services but also offer B2B services.The problem in this area is that the policies cannot be bought offline because cyber

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laws are not yet in an advanced stage to provide for buying of policies on the Internet.As a result, the delivery of the services is not possible on the net. The customer canget all the information that he wishes for, but to buy the policy, he will have to get intouch with an insurance agent.

Another drawback is that a single portal does not offer all services, so the consumerhas to search different portals to gather all the required information.

The future prospects of insurance services on the Internet are bright. The insuranceportals are popular because private insurers have flooded the markets. There is a needfor a financial portal that will broker products from different firms at its site. Also theconsumers will be able to make comparisons, get quotes, and buy at one go. They couldeven participate in reverse auctions. So the need is for a single Web site that comes outwith a single screen for all the services.

Architectural design. Architectural deigns of famous and latest buildings, designers,trends and ideas are available on the Internet in the form of articles, books andpublications. Some Web sites for these are www.greatbuildings.com, www.plannet.com, etc. No Web site was found to be offering it’s architectural services on the net.Although this service cannot be delivered on the net, the scope of its online promotionstill remains. There is immense scope of customization here as design can be accordingto the tastes of the customer and as per his budget. But customized services on theInternet can be offered only after firms start offering their basic services initially.Today architectural design is aided by computer software like CAD and hencecustomization of architectural design on the Internet is not a very distant possibility. Ifit is made possible, it could turn into a profit earner for the service provider.

Real estate. Large databases for homes, offices and other properties are available onthe Internet. Customers can look for a location of their choice in these databases andfind out the price of the property. A number of Home Finance options are also availableon these Web sites. A person can choose a property of his choice from the ones that arelisted on the Web site. Detailed maps are given to pinpoint the location of the property.The customer can then request for the property to be shown to him, by giving hiscontact address on the Web site. The final deal is struck only after the propery hasbeen shown to him, and the payment is not made online. Examples of these Web sitesare www.realtor.com, www.realestate.yahoo.com, etc.

Design centres. Interior designing for homes and offices, computer designs andautomobile designs are some of the services being offered on the Internet. Interiordesign libraries are available online from which a person can see the latest designs andask for a designer to visit at his contact address. Example of such a Web site is www.interiordesign.net.

Automobile designs are being offered to a very large extent. Remodelled cars areshown on the Web site. The customer can choose the design of his choice and find outthe price for it. He would have to go to the service providers work shop to get theremodelling done, but the design and it’s price can be seen on the Web site. Example iswww.dcdesigns.net.

Dell Computers gives it’s customers to design computers and servers, as per theirspecifications on their Web site. The cost of the computer is then calculated accordingto the configuration chosen by the customer. The order can be placed on the Web siteand the product is delivered to the doorstep of the customer. The Web site of Dellcomputers is www.dell.com.

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Quadrant 4Things are the recipients of service with a low degree of customization. These servicesdo not have scope for customization and are offered as standard for all customers.Delivery of these services is not possible on the net. The difference that Internet hasmade is that the customer can choose and order these services from the comfort of hishouse. This advantage comes from the Internet being an interactive medium ofcommunication.

Service that fall in this quadrant are described below.Appliance repairs. Online troubleshooting, maintenance tips and expert advice are

available on the Internet to repair household appliances. Repairs manuals of commonappliances are also available to help people do minor repairs at home. A very largenumber of Web site are preset which are offering these services. But, if following thetips on offer on these Web sites does not repair the appliances, then they have to bephysically taken to a workshop for repair. Appliances for which tips are availableonline are microwave ovens, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, etc. TheWeb sites offering these services are www.repairclinic.com, www.doityourself.com/appliances, www.appliancerepair.net, etc. Some Web sites offer free pick up anddelivery of the appliance from the house of the customer, provided it falls in its servicearea.

Dry-cleaning. A number of dry-cleaning and laundering services have their ownWeb sites. These Web sites are primarily for promotional purpose. They also givedetails about the prices charged and the cleaning process being used by them. Some ofthese Web sites are www.siliconvalleycleaners.com/www.fbodaily.com www.americleaners.com/www.ezdrycleaners.com, etc. The Web sites also offer tips ongarment care and for removal of tough stains. The Web sites also offer the option ofpick up and delivery from the customer’s doorstep provided that he falls under hisservice area. The procedure for order placement starts by online registration. Afterthis, the customer downloads the order form, fills it, and places it in the laundry bag.The laundry bag is picked up from his doorstep and delivered after dry-cleaning isdone, and other requests are fulfilled. Registration has to be done only for the first time.After that, registration is not required. These sites have elaborate policies pertaining topick up and delivery and loss, if any, during the process.

Car servicing. A few Web sites list the service stations for automobiles in aparticular area. The automobile is picked up from the customer’s house and deliveredafter service. This facility is available after registration on the Web site. An example ofsuch a Web site is www.positivelypella.com/establish/autos.htm.

Accounting services. Accounting firms have set-up Web sites to offer services ofchartered accountants to customers. Customers can get some free advice online, but fordetailed accounting they have to contact a chartered accountant of the firm. Examplesof a few such Web sites are www.mdsegal.com, jfwhite.co.uk, etc.

Insights and implicationsThe convenience of receiving service may be the lowest when a customer has to cometo the service organization and must use a specific outlet. Offering service throughseveral outlets increases the convenience of access for customers, but may start to raiseproblems of quality control as convenience of access relates to the consistency of the

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service product delivered. Another study can be undertaken to investigate this issue ofquality of services delivered through Web Sites.

For some types of services the organization will come to the customer. But since it ismore expensive to take service personnel and equipment to the customer than viceversa, the trend has been away from this approach to delivering customer service. Inmany instances, however, direct contact between customers and the serviceorganization is not necessary; instead the transactions can be handled at arm’slength by the use of IT and the Internet. Through the use of these technologies manyservice organizations have found that they can bring their services closer to thecustomer, yet obtain important economies from operating out of a single physicallocation.

This paper describes a model in which to understand which services can be sold anddelivered with the help of Internet and advanced telecommunications, information, andmultimedia technologies.

The service sector will continue to be the engine of growth in the coming years. Theappreciable growth in this sector has been achieved not at the expense of themanufacturing sector, but because the service sector has grown at a faster pace.

Hence, services form an important part of any economy. The Web has sparked anexplosion of creativity and innovation. At the same time the Internet seems likely torevolutionize communications-intensive industries and activities. The growth of theservice sector has been phenomenal. So a combination of these could have a goodfuture.

This model should be of value to researchers, as it suggests a different way oflooking at service businesses. Undoubtedly there is also room for further refinement ofthe model proposed.

The model proposed in this paper can contribute usefully to management practice.First, marketing managers can obtain a better understanding of the nature of theirproduct, and of the characteristics of their service delivery systems. This identificationshould help them identify how these factors shape marketing problems andopportunities and thereby affect the nature of marketing task. Second, by recognizingwhich characteristics their own service shares with other services, often in seeminglyunrelated industries, managers will learn to look beyond their immediate competitorsfor new ideas as to how to resolve marketing problems that they share in common withfirms in other service industries.

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Further reading

Pitt, L., Berthon, P. and Watson, R. (1999), “Cyber services: taming service marketing problemswith the World Wide Web”, Business Horizons, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 11-18.

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