Module 1

Module 1: Challenges in a service business (6 hours)

1. Role of services in an economy
2. Differences between products & services
3. Service characteristics & unique challenges
4. Service taxonomy & related challenges
5. Service as an open system, Service package, Service concept. Related challenges

Module 2

Module 2: Defining & measuring service quality (6 hours)

1. Customer satisfaction, Expectation – Perception gap
2. Identifying fail points with Service blueprint
3. Service quality dimensions, Gaps in quality
4. Measuring service quality / SERVQUAL & Walk-through audit
5. Gap analysis, Service design for quality -tools: Taguchi/ Poke-yoke/ QFD/ Kano models

Module 3

Module 3: Designing services (6 hours)

1. Servicescape, Customer experience analysis
2. Service Processes
3. Repositioning services
4. Strategies for change
5. Technology in services

Module 4

Module 4: Improving service processes (6 hours)

1. Measuring customer satisfaction
2. Pressures on service delivery & issues for providers,
3. Strategies for managing/motivating employees,
4. Service profit chain
5. Service capacity, Long & short- term capacity strategies,
6. Yield management & Queue management
7. Service failure, recovery & guarantees

Module 5

Module 5: Designing service strategy (6 hours)

1. Competitive advantage with services, Defining service strategy, Product – Experience space
2. Order winners & qualifiers in services
3. Strategic service vision for service businesses
4. SWOT Analysis, Porter’s 5- force model
5. Strategy formulation, Drivers of strategy, Issues in designing service strategy.

Course Description

‘Why own when you can rent?’ This question is one of the most intriguing issues of business today. Suddenly the concept of buying manufactured hardware seems obsolete. Building, industrial & electronic equipment is today available for rent; no blowing big bucks on the stuff you might need only for a short while or even just once. In the sharing economy, even garments are available for rent! Businesses today rent almost everything – dinner gowns, data storage & computing power. It has become more than a niche. According to the market research firm IDC, by 2023, the global economy will reach digital supremacy — the point at which products and services provided by digitally transformed enterprises will account for more than half of the total global GDP.

The switch from manufacturers selling products in a one-time transaction to a rental service with aftercare – a model known as “Servitization” or the digitally enabled “Uberization”– is the biggest thing to hit manufacturing since the internet. Apart from the conventional services- hospitality, healthcare, professional, education, government’s tertiary services & many others, even manufacturing is becoming a service today. Services are becoming crucial in a country’s development for achieving Millennium Development Goals – poverty reduction & access to basic amenities, like education, water & health. For countries like ours, services are giving an all-new visibility for businesses in the global arena. Services –medical treatment, legal/financial advice, or art performances, are highly differentiated and customized, while those like ATM and movie shows are standardized. While costs still need to be managed, services throw an entirely new set of challenges in the time & quality dimensions. Strategy is different in services businesses and so are the operations because services are not the same as products. The knowledge of managing conventional manufacturing processes is not adequate to take on the service operations management challenges of today. Given the differences between the nature of services & products, it is critical to understand systematically the design & delivery of the services in order to be successful in business. This course explores how to design & manage service models, & create systems to manage employees & customers, with the goal of consistently delivering exceptional and profitable services.

Course Outcomes& Learning levels

The course aims to impart learning that is required for a student to be a competent business professional and contribute value in a service organization in his/her early career. It is divided into five modules with distinct learning outcomes for each. On completion of this course, students will be

1. Able to identify operations challenges in a service business (Analyze).
2. Able to resolve quality issues in service operations (Evaluate).
3. Able to critically evaluate design processes for intended customer service experience (Create).
4. Able to measure service process performance for improvement (Evaluate).
5. Able to develop a service operations strategy for a service business (Create).

Evaluation Pattern

*Based on assignments / Tests / Quizzes / Case Studies / Projects / Term paper / Field visit report.