Services Marketing

Services dominate today’s world economy as a result of the considerable growth of the service sector over the last decades. The countries’ economies depend nowadays on service industry, which contributes to a large extent to the national wealth and has become an impor-tant source of employment. Growing number of services has intensified competition among companies, which have to employ new strategies and tactics to respond to customers’ chang-ing needs and expectations. Services have come to be perceived as an important source of differentiation and a way of gaining competitive advantage in the market. Even manufactur-ers are turning to service aspects of their operations to build brand preference and increase market share. As a consequence of the emergence of service economy, profound knowledge and skills in marketing and managing services have become crucial for a business success of a company. This book provides with a framework for understanding services marketing and is pri-marily designed for undergraduates, however, it is also recommended to students at any level of study who wish to expand their knowledge in the field of services marketing. Managers might also find concepts and analytical procedures described in this book helpful to over-come challenges they face and improve service performance. The text provides with knowl-edge about all aspects of the development of services marketing strategy and explains how to create the customer-focused services culture within a company. The book is divided into 10 chapters covering the material required for the services marketing course.