Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Service Across the Firm, 5e

PART 1: Foundations for services marketing
1: Introduction to services
2: Consumer behaviour in services
3: Customer expectations of service
4: Customer perceptions of service
5: The gaps model of service quality
PART 2: Understanding customer requirements
6: Listening to customers
7: Building customer relationships
PART 3: Aligning service design and standards
8: Service innovation and design
9: Customer-defined service standards
10: The physical and virtual servicescape
PART 4: Delivering and performing service
11: Employees' roles in service delivery
12: Customers' roles in service delivery
13: Delivering service through electronic channels and intermediaries
14: Managing demand and capacity
15: Service recovery
PART 5: Managing service promises
16: Managing external and internal communications
17: Pricing of services
PART 6: Service and the bottom line
18: The financial impact of service quality
19: Artificial intelligence in service encounter

European economies are now dominated by services, and virtually all companies view service as critical to retaining their customers today and in the future. Successful businesses recognize that the development of strong customer relationships through quality service (and services), as well as implementing service strategies for competitive advantage are key to their success.
In its fifth European edition, Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm provides full coverage of the foundations of services marketing, placing the distinctive Gaps model at the centre of this approach. The new edition includes a brand-new chapter on AI and robotics in services as well as fully updated real-world and topical examples. The book focuses on the development of customer relationships through quality service, outlining the core concepts and theories in services marketing today.


Key features:
• NEW chapter on Artificial Intelligence in Service Encounters.
• NEW case studies exploring some of the latest services marketing debates on topics such as how technology is changing servicescapes, what social and environmental responsibilities brands have, and key challenges companies will be facing in the future.
• All Opening Examples and Service Spotlights revised or replaced with new and up to date content, covering specifically European and internationally recognisable brands, including Amazon, Emirates IKEA, LEGO, Nespresso, and Zalando.
• Pedagogy updates to reflect latest trends and market influences such as AI, Robotics and Sustainability.
• New videos, case studies, question banks, and teaching materials for the new AI chapter are available with McGraw-Hill’s Connect®, the well-established online learning platform, which features our award-winning adaptive reading experience as well as resources to help faculty and institutions improve student outcomes and course delivery efficiency.


Alan Wilson is Emeritus Professor of Marketing and was previous Head of the Marketing Department within the University of Strathclyde Business School. Before joining the university, he was a senior consultant and executive trainer within the services division of a London-based marketing consultancy. He specializes in the marketing of services and has a PhD in the subject.