4.01 Services Marketing Management

GRADUATESHIP


4.01 SERVICES MARKETING MANAGEMENT - 2011/12
The objective of this course is that, on completion, the student having examined the major issues in Services Marketing including the differences, if any, between Services Marketing and traditional Marketing Theory, will be able to apply the theory to the decisions in Services Marketing Management.

Please note change in allocation of weightings in Section A and Section B.

SECTION A (25%)

Compulsory Question.

SECTION B (3 × 25%)

1. Introduction
An overview of Services Marketing.  Differences between Goods and Services Marketing.  The Services Marketing Mix, Gaps Model of Service Quality, Consumer Behaviour in Services, Service Expectations, Service Quality Issues and Measurement.

2. Listening to the Customer
Expectations and Perceptions, Services Marketing Research, Relationship Marketing, Lifetime Value of a Customer, Service Failure, Recovery Strategies, Service Guarantees.

3. Service Design
Blueprinting, New Service Development, Customer Defined Standards, Physical Evidence and the Servicescape.

4. Service Delivery
Service employees, BoundarySpanning Role, Human Resource Management and Internal Marketing, Role of the Customer in Service Delivery, Enhancing Customer Participation, Intermediaries for Service Delivery, Electronic Channels, Managing Supply and Demand, Yield Management, Waiting in Line Strategies.

5. Managing Service Promises
Co-ordinated Service Marketing Communications, Matching Service Promises with Delivery, Exceeding Customer Expectations, Approaches to Pricing Services, Value Definitions.

6. Closing the Gaps
Service Profitability, Offensive and Defensive Marketing, Customer Pyramid, Customer Retention, Balanced Scorecard, Integrated Gaps Model of Service Quality. 

READING LIST

Essential Reading
Zeithaml, Valarie A. & Bitner, Mary Jo (2009), Services Marketing, Integrating Customer Focus Across The Firm, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill International Editions.

Recommended Reading
Bateson, John, E.G. & Hoffman, Douglas, K. (1999), Managing Services Marketing, Text and Readings, 4th Edition, The Dryden Press.

Lovelock, Christopher & Wright, Lauren (1999), Principles of Service Marketing and Management, Prentice-Hall.