COURSE DESCRIPTION
Services are becoming the dominant economic driver in the U.S. economy and are critical for competitive advantage in companies from all industrial sectors. Superior service drives the competitive advantage of leading companies like Charles Schwab, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, and FedEx. Even for companies not considered traditional service companies, services represent their primary growth and profitability strategies into the 21st century. For example, IBM and GE, two companies that gained prominence due to their product offerings, now generate approximately 40% of revenues and over 60% of current profits respectively from services.
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to services marketing as a separate and distinct area of marketing thought and practice and help you to understand its powerful influence in competitive markets. During this course we focus our attention on three main services marketing areas, the service customer, the service company and the integration of marketing, human resources and operations within the service system. All course activities are intended to help you become proficient in analyzing and judging the merits of services marketing strategies and assist you in making strategic decisions in both business and consumer services industries. Throughout the course an emphasis is placed on marketing's role within the total organization.
