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In the Spotlight

Two children are in front of shelves that are filled with toys such as trucks, buses, and building bricks.
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

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

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