Title: 11 In The Spotlight
Course: Principles of Marketing > Section: Chapter 11

Figure 11.1 Services are intangible, nonphysical products, such as childcare, and they make up the majority of the US GDP. (credit: “DSC_1551” by Josh Ward/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Chapter Outline

11.1 Classification of Services

11.2 The Service-Profit Chain Model and the Service Marketing Triangle

11.3 The Gap Model of Service Quality

11.4 Ethical Considerations in Providing Services

In the Spotlight

Services are acts a consumer is willing to pay for, and there are hundreds of different types. One such service is day care. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, 88 percent of two-parent families and 83 percent of single-parent families relied on non-parental care prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and spent approximately $42 million on early care and education.^1

Sara Bullock, who has a background in early childhood education and four children of her own, owned a childcare business in Maryland for more than 10 years. When her husband was required to move to Tennessee for his job, she closed her business and started a new childcare business using a different business model. She changed it from a conventional daycare center to a “drop-in” center, allowing parents to bring in their children for short periods of time (anywhere from one to seven hours) without requiring them to make a monthly commitment. That was the birth of MeTime Drop-In Child Care. The concept has been so successful that Bullock has already begun plans to open a second location.^2