Classification of services

There are a number of ways in which services can be

classified. Some of them are mentioned here.

1. On the basis of the END USER the services can be

classified into following categories:
• Consumer : leisure, hairdressing, personal finance
and package holidays
• Business to Business: advertising agencies,
printing, accountancy, consultancy
• Industrial: Plant Maintenance and repair, workwear
and hygiene, installation and project management.

2. The DEGREE OF TANGIBILITY can be used to classify a

service.
• Highly tangible: car rental, vending machines,
telecommunications
• Service linked to tangible goods: domestic
appliance repair, car service.
• Highly tangible: psychotherapy, Consultancy,
legal services.

3. The DEGREE OF CONTACT can be used to classify a

service
• People based: high contact : education, dental
care, restaurants and medical services
• Equipment based: low contact: automatic car
wash, launderette, vending machine, cinema.

4. The EXPERTISE and SKILLS of the service provider

can be broken down into the following categories:
• Professional: medical services, legal services,
accountancy, tutoring.
• Non Professional: baby sitting, care taking, and
casual labor.

5. The overall BUSINESS ORIENTATION(PROFIT) is a

recognised means of classifications:
 • Not for profit: The Scouts Association, charities,
and public sector leisure facilities.
• Commercial: banks, airlines, tour operators, hotel
and catering services
Christopher Lovelock gives another classification of services based on the customer
involvement in production process:

 People processing: tangible actions to people’s bodies, such as airline transportation,

haircutting and surgery. Customers need to be physically present throughout service
delivery in order to receive the desired benefits of such services. It is important to figure
the process and output to identify the benefits created. Also some non- financial costs are
to be identified – such as time, mental and physical effort and even tear and pain – that
customers incur in obtaining these benefits.

 Possession Processing: Tangible actions to goods and other physical possessions, such
as air freight, lawn mowing, and janitorial services. In these instances, the object requiring
processing must be present, but the customer need not be.

 Mental Stimulus Processing: intangible actions directed at people’s mind, such as

broadcasting and education. In this instance the customers must be present mentally but
can be located either in specific service facility or in a remote location connected by
broadcast signals or telecommunication linkages. Services that interact with people’s
mind have the power to shape attitudes and influence behavior. So when the customer is
in a position of dependency or there is a potential for manipulation, strong ethical
standards and careful oversight is required. This type of service can easily be converted
to digital bits or analog signals, recorded for prosperity, and transformed into a
manufactured product, such as a compact disc, videotape, or audio cassette, which may
then be packaged and marketed much like any other physical good

 Information Processing: Intangible actions directed at intangible assets, such as

insurance, investment banking, and Consulting. For these services, no direct involvement
with the customer may be needed, once the request for the service is initiated. Services
highly dependent on effective collection and processing of information include financial
services, accounting, law, marketing research, management consulting, medical
diagnosis and a variety of other professional services. Tradition and a personal desire to
meet the supplier than often determine the extent of customer involvement in such
services more by the needs of operation process.