This section contains a collections of links and documents that are useful and relevant to service management in general. It is set up to work like a wiki format so that you can enrich the collection with your own contributions. Whenever posting any material, please make sure that your comply with copyright laws and the intellectual property rights.
This folder contains items the focus on the fundamentals of service businesses. Topics such as service concepts, definitions, classification schemes, etc. Material that could help those who are new to the field and refresh the knowledge of others.
Rathmell, 1966 - What Is Meant by Services? J.M. Rathmell, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30, 1966, pp. 32-36
Judd, 1964 - The Case for Redefining Services. R.C. Judd, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 28, 1964, pp. 58-59
Hill, 1977 - On Goods and Services. Peter Hill. The Review of Income and Wealth, 1977, 23: 315-338
Carr, 2005 - The End of Corporate Computing. Nicholas Carr. MIT Sloan Management Review. Spring 2005, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 67-73
Porter, 1996 - What is strategy? Michael E. Porter. Harvard Business Review. November-December 1996.
Luftman, 1999 - Achieving and Sustaining Business-IT Alignment. Jerry Luftman and Tom Brier. California Management Review. Vol. 42, No. 1. Fall 1999.
Amit, 1993 - Strategic assets and organizational rent. Raphael Amit and Paul J.H. Schoemaker. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 14, 33-46. 1993
Edmondson, 2002 - Transformation at the IRS. Edmondson and Frei. Harvard Business School. 2002.
Rayport, 2004 - Best Face Forward. Rayport, J.F. and Jaworski, B.J.. Harvard Business Review. December 2004
Farrell, 2003 - Getting IT spending right this time. Farrell, et al. McKinsey Quarterly, 2003, No. 2.
Pfeffer, 2006 - Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management. Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert I. Sutton. Harvard Business School Press. 2006.
This is meant to be a collection of case studies and vignettes on service management. (Includes but not limited to ITSM and ITIL). The more of these the better. Please make sure you include complete reference information that attributes sources. The most valued ones would be those that you have been personally involved with. That way interested readers could learn more about these real-life situations.
Self-service technologies, such as websites and kiosks, bring both risks and rewards. This is a topic that is of great relevance to the discussion about the impact of digital technologies on the very nature of the service industry.
Here's a starter set of articles.
You're hired
http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=3171466
Do it yourself
http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=3196309
Why aren't you banking online?
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/02/pf/debt/internet_banking/
Exploding the self-service myth
by Youngme Moon and Frances Frei
Harvard Business Review
May-June 2000
IDC Report on Self-Checkout Systems in Retail Stores
IDC_report_Oct2004.pdf
This IDC report commissioned by NCR is cited in the article "You're hired" published in The Economist on Sept 16th, 2004. It presents key findings on the response of consumers to self-service options. Of course, the report is one-sided in the sense that it only highlights the positive elements or benefits of self-service systems. It is useful reading for you nonetheless since spells out the key characteristics of such systems and how they are evaluated by customers and service providers (or retailers) in this case.
The Psychology of Waiting Lines
This article by David H. Maister is widely cited within the context of queuing systems in which customers are people. Maister is a well-regarded management consultant known for his advice on the management of professional services firms. His book "The Trusted Advisor" is sort of a bible for consulting firms. This article examines how waits are experienced and shall attempt to offer specific managerial advice to service organizations about how to improve this aspect of their service encounters down in separate components so that practicing managers can begin to think about the available tools they can use to influence the customer's waiting experience.
Counterpoint: Commerce Bank's approach to customer service
This article is interesting to us because it highlights the "unconventional" that Commerce Bank has taken to customer service with regards to accessibility of its services and channels for interaction.
The theme of this collection is service operations. Articles, papers, and websites that provide guidance to operations managers and their staff.
This is meant to be an annotated list of books that would help service management professionals and students. For this list to be helpful please write a short note for every item you recommend. Please do not recommend books you have not read :-) Or those that you yourself have written :-)