As a team, Christopher Lovelock and Jochen Wirtz provide a blend of skills and experience that's ideally suited to writing an authoritative and engaging services marketing text. This book marks their second collaboration on an edition of Services Marketing. Since first meeting in 1992, they've worked together on a variety of projects, including cases, articles, conference papers, two Asian adaptations of earlier editions of Services Marketing, andServices Marketing in Asia: A Case Book. In 2005, both were actively involved in planning the American Marketing Association's biennial Service Research Conference, hosted that year by the National University of Singapore and attended by participants from 22 countries on five continents.

Christopher Lovelock is one of the pioneers of services marketing. Based in Massachusetts, he consults and gives seminars and workshops for managers around the world, with a particular focus on strategic planning in services and managing the customer experience. Since 2001, he has been an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches an MBA services marketing course.

After obtaining a BCom and an MA in economics from the University of Edinburgh, he worked in advertising with the London office of J. Walter Thompson Co. and then in corporate planning with Canadian Industries Ltd. in Montreal. Later, he obtained an MBA from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford, where he was also a postdoctoral fellow.

Professor Lovelock's distinguished academic career has included 11 years on the faculty of the Harvard Business School and two years as a visiting professor at IMD in Switzerland. He has also held faculty appointments at Berkeley, Stanford, and the Sloan School at MIT, as well as visiting professorships at INSEAD in France and The University of Queensland in Australia.

Author or co-author of over 60 articles, more than 100 teaching cases, and 26 books, Dr Lovelock has seen his work translated into ten languages. He serves on the editorial review boards of the International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Service Research, Service Industries Journal, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, andMarketing Management, and is also an ad hoc reviewer for theJournal of Marketing.

Widely acknowledged as a thought leader in services, Christopher Lovelock has been honored by the American Marketing Association's prestigious Award for Career Contributions in the Services Discipline. In 2005 his article with Evert Gummesson, "Whither Services Marketing? In Search of a New Paradigm and Fresh Perspectives" won the AMA's Best Services Article Award and was a finalist for the IBM award for the best article in the Journal of Service Research. Earlier, he received a best article award from the Journal of Marketing. Recognized many times for excellence in case writing, he has twice won top honors in the BusinessWeek "European Case of the Year" Award.

Jochen Wirtz has worked in the field of services for more than 18 years, and holds a Ph.D. in services marketing from the London Business School. He is a tenured associate professor at the National University of Singapore, where he teaches services marketing in executive, MBA, and undergraduate programs and is co-director of the dual degree UCLA - NUS Executive MBA Program.

Professor Wirtz's research focuses on service management topics, including customer satisfaction, service guarantees and revenue management. He has published over 60 academic articles, 80 conference papers, and some 50 book chapters, and is co-author of ten books, including his latest book Flying High in a Competitive Industry - Cost-effective Service Excellence at Singapore Airlines (McGraw Hill, 2006).

Professor Wirtz has received seven awards for outstanding teaching at the NUS Business School and in 2003 was honored by the prestigious, university-wide "Outstanding Educator Award" at the National University of Singapore. His six research awards include the Emerald Literati Club 2003 Award for Excellence for the year's most outstanding article in the International Journal of Service Industry Management. He serveson the editorial review boards of seven academic journals, including the International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Service Research, andCornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, and is also an ad hoc reviewer for theJournal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing. Professor Wirtz chaired the American Marketing Association's biennial Service Research Conference in 2005, and in 2006 he was the Chair for the Services Marketing Track at the Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference.

Dr Wirtz has been an active management consultant, working with international consulting firms, including Accenture, Arthur D, Little, and KPMG, and major service firms in the areas of strategy, business development and customer feedback systems. Originally from Germany, Jochen Wirtz spent seven years in London before moving to Asia.

PART 1: UNDERSTANDING SERVICE MARKETS, PRODUCTS, AND CUSTOMERS

1. New Perspectives on Marketing in the Service Economy

2. Customer Behavior in Service Encounters

PART 2: BUILDING THE SERVICE MODEL

3. Developing Service Concepts: Core and Supplementary Elements

4. Distributing Services through Physical and Electronic Channels

5. Exploring Business Models: Pricing and Revenue Management

6. Educating Customers and Promoting the Value Proposition

7. Positioning Services in Competitive Markets

PART 3: MANAGING THE CUSTOMER INTERFACE

8. Designing and Managing Service Processes

9. Balancing Demand against Productive Capacity

10. Crafting the Service Environment

11. Managing Service Employees for Competitive Advantage

PART 4: IMPLEMENTING PROFITABLE SERVICE STRATEGIES

12. Creating Relationships and Building Customer Loyalty

13. Achieving Service Recovery and Obtaining Customer Feedback

14. Improving Service Quality and Productivity

15. Organizing for Change Management and Service Leadership

Glossary

Credits

Name Index

READINGS

Wingfield, "In a Dizzying World, One Way to Keep Up: Renting Possessions"

Datta and Krishnan, "The Health Travellers"

Kimes and Chase, "The Strategic Levers of Yield Management"

Thornton, "Fees! Fees! Fees!"

Roberts, "Best Practice: Defensive Marketing-How a Strong Incumbent Can Protect Its Position"

Heracleous, Wirtz and Johnston, "Kung-Fu Service Development at Singapore Airlines"

Gilson and Khandelwal, "Getting More from Call Centers: Used Properly, They Can Be Strategic Assets"

Haeckel, Carbone, and Berry, "How to Lead the Customer Experience"

Brady, "Why Service Stinks"

Berry, Shankar, Parish, Cadwallader, and Dotzel, "Creating New Markets through Service Innovation"

Reichheld, "The One Number You Need to Grow"

CASES

Case 1: Susan Munro, Service Consumer

Case 2: Four Customers in Search of Solutions

Case 3: Dr Beckett's Dental Office

Case 4: Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service

Case 5: Giordano: Positioning for International Expansion

Case 6: Aussie Pooch Mobile

Case 7: Jollibee Foods Corporation

Case 8: Accra Beach Hotel

Case 9: Sullivan Ford Auto World

Case 10: CompuMentor and the DiscounTech.org Service: Creating An Earned-Income Venture for a Nonprofit Organization

Case 11: Dr. Mahalee Goes to London

Case 12: Menton Bank

Case 13: Red Lobster

Case 14: Hilton HHonors Worldwide Loyalty Wars

Case 15: The Accellion Service Guarantee

Case 16: Shouldice Hospital Limited (Abridged)

Case 17: Massachusetts Audubon Society

Case 18: TLContact: CarePages Services (A)