In many advanced economies, services now account for a far greater proportion of gross national product than manufactured goods (e.g., more than 75 percent of GDP and jobs in the U.S.). Yet, it is only in recent years that marketing academics, practitioners, and indeed, service firms have begun to give serious attention to the marketing of services, as distinct from products. It is generally thought that the marketing of services is more difficult, complex, and onerous because of the differences between services and products. The Web, we believe, will dramatically change forever this received wisdom. Most of the problems of services really don't matter on the Web. Services are no longer different in a difficult way. Using the Web to deliver services overcomes previously conceived limitations of services marketing, and in many cases, it creates hitherto undreamed of opportunities for services marketers 1.
The Web offers marketers the ability to make available full-color virtual catalogues, provide on-screen order forms, offer on-line customer support, announce and even distribute certain products and services easily, and elicit customer feedback. The medium is unique because the customer generally has to find the marketer rather than vice versa, to a greater extent than is the case with most other media. In this chapter, we show how the Web is overcoming the traditional problems associated with the marketing of services. We are entering the era of cyberservice .
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