Dedication -- Preface -- Introduction -- Understanding service products, consumers, and markets -- Creating and capturing value in the service economy -- Understanding service consumers -- Positioning services in competitive markets -- Applying the 4 PS of marketing to services -- Developing...

Preface -- Introduction -- Fluctuations in demand threaten profitability -- Defining productive service capacity -- Understand patterns of demand -- Inventory demand through waiting lines and queuing systems -- Customer perceptions of waiting time -- Inventory demand through reservation systems...

Preface -- Introduction -- Service employees are extremely important -- Frontline work is difficult and stressful -- Cycles of failure, mediocrity and success -- Human resource management : how to get it right -- Service culture, climate and leadership -- Conclusion -- Summary -- Endnotes

Preface -- Introduction -- Integrating service quality and productivity strategies -- What is a service quality? -- Identifying and correcting service quality problems -- Measuring service quality -- Soft and hard service quality measures -- Learning from customer feedback -- Hard measures of...