... touched. As well as intangibility, service has three other major characteristics, heterogeneity, simultaneity, and perishability. Heterogeneity is the state of the service being dissimilar or different due to the fact the service experienced can differ from previous experiences. This happens because interaction between consumer and service provider differs with each experience. (Hope, Muhleman 1997) This is due to the uniqueness of consumer's perceptions or simply the slightest differences between the way employees perform their tasks. For example at your favourite restaurant two identical meals on different nights may have variations due to different staff preparing the meal, even though there may be a standard way of producing the meal. Even the way in which the meal is served to you can result in heterogeneity of the service provided. Simultaneity reflects the production and consumption of the service at the same time. An excellent example of this is a hair cut when ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now