Blog Posts

Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond.

Believe it or not, the Academy Awards (commonly known as the Oscars) do not have set criteria for what distinguishes a leading actor from a supporting actor. However, unlike the Academy, the criteria for a lead actor and supporting actor in frontline employees (FLE) are very clear in regards to service innovation.

According to the 2017 US National Customer Rage Survey, conducted in partnership with the Center for Services Leadership and Customer Care Measurement and Consulting, only 21% of complainants were completely satisfied with how their complaints were handled. 51% felt they recieved nothing at all in response to their complaint.

ASU has been ranked number one in innovation by U.S. News & World Report for four consecutive years now. But how exactly does one institution continue to lead in innovation?

It is common practice to try and retain customers through loyalty programs (LPs) that typically offer rewards for continued business as incentives to stay with the company. LP’s, however, can be costly to service providers if the rewards can be easily replicated or lead to a price war.

Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond.

What do Disneyland and Harvard University have in common? They both represent complex service systems that offer very unique customer experiences.

Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more.

“You have used all of your high-speed data for this billing period. You are now using low-speed data until…” This is one common example of what is known as a “flat-rate bias”. Flat-rate pricing exists when a fixed fee is charged for a service instead of the customer paying for their actual usage.

In a world where service providers are growing more aware of the importance of being transparent with customers, a group of researchers conducted a study to interpret what constructs the performance transparency of service firms.

Used-car salespeople are more often than not depicted as being loud, aggressive, persistent, and male. This is what is known as a stereotype and it’s one aspect of the service industry that can hurt both the customer and service provider.

Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond.

Customers are doing their research before buying, and increasingly they are relying on other people for the information they want. They consider online reviews, social media recommendations and word of mouth, searching for non-commercial, unbiased advice.

Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond.

Improving customer experience and engagement has been ranked by the Marketing Science Institute as one of the most important challenges for companies in coming years.

Billions of people, primarily in rural areas of emerging economies, comprise what’s called the Base of the Pyramid, those who eke out a living at the lowest income level. The challenges of living on so little leads to non-consumption, where people cannot buy products that would improve their livelihood.

Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond.

The breakfast buffet is closed when a customer arrives looking for scrambled eggs; a flight is delayed. Service failures may or may not be the providers’ fault, and they may affect a single customer or a group. But importantly, service failures are often unpredictable.

Success breeds success. The old saw might seem logical, but it does not always play out in the services market. In fact, service firms that are already productive with existing services may not be able to replicate that success with new service innovation. 

Customer complaints are alarm bells: the voice of an unhappy customer can help a company understand where it needs to refine its service procedures. But managers never learn about 71 percent of customer complaints because front line employees are not reporting them.