Microsoft Word Volume 2 Service and Service Quality Final docx

Some key traditional service classifications 
Judd (1964) outlined three broad, yet mutually exclusive areas of services, within each of which a 
more detailed list might be developed. These three areas arise from: (1) the right to possess and use a 
product (Rented Goods Services) ; or (2) the custom creation of, repair, or improvement of a product 
(Owned Goods Services) ; or (3) no product elements but rather an experience or what might be 
termed experiential possession (Non-Goods Service).’ 
Chase (1981, p.698) holds that ‘the potential efficiency of a service system is a function of the degree 
of customer contact entailed in the creation of the service product’. Chase (1978, 1981) developed a 
contact based classification scheme for services. ‘For Chase, contact refers to the duration of a 
customer's presence in the service system. According to this scheme, hotels are high contact, "pure" 
services, while the postal service is low contact. Repair shops are medium contact services, lying in 
between the prior extremes’ (Schmenner, 1986, p.23). 'The strength of the customer contact based 
taxonomy suggested by Chase is that it, unlike most other taxonomies, is not merely descriptive. 
Attached to it is a normative ... set of guidelines to aid in the design and operation of service systems.’ 
(Wemmerlöv, 1990, p.22). 
Mersha (1990) broadened the definition of customer contact to incorporate services provided without 
requiring the physical presence of the customer. A customer contact matrix was developed for 
classifying service systems using low and high levels of active vs passive contact (Figure 3). ‘Where 
contact is low, most of the tasks are performed in the back office, but where contact is high the 
customer is in direct contact with the service system through most of the service delivery process’ 
(Mersha, 1990, p.394). Active contact ‘involves direct customer-service interaction’ e.g. health care. 
Passive contact does not involve direct customer-service interaction’ e.g. riding a bus. A service is 
deemed as consisting of both active and passive contact elements, but varies according to the level of 
each type of these contacts. For example, an inpatient service has high active and high passive contact 
components because the patient requires both direct contact with the physician during consultation and 
indirect contact through the taking of medication and monitoring blood pressure that was prescribed 
during the consultation.