A service can be defined as any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another, which is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Services encompass a very wide range of activities e.g health care, education, tourism, insurance and finance. This is the second edition of a very successful book written by one of the leading writers and researchers in services marketing and management. The most important change in this new edition is a greater emphasis on the relationship approach to services marketing.
The contents of this book are: The Service and Relationship Imperative - Managing in Service Competition; Managing Customer Relationships - An Alternative Paradigm in Management and Marketing; The Nature of Services and Service Consumption, And Its Marketing Consequences; Service And Relationship Quality; Quality Management in Services; Return on Services and Relationships; Managing the Augmented Service Offering; Principles of Service Management; Managing Service Productivity; Managing Marketing or Market-oriented Management; Managing Total Integrated Marketing Communication; Managing Brand Relationships and Image; Market-oriented Organization - Structure, Resources and Service Processes; Managing Internal Marketing; Managing Service Culture - The Internal Service Imperative; and Conclusions.