CSL’s Executive Director Emeritus Mary Jo Bitner Receives Honorary Doctorate

December 3, 2019

On October 25, the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland conferred the CSL’s own Executive Director Emeritus Mary Jo Bitner an Honorary Doctor of Hanken for her contributions as a leader and pioneer in the development of the service discipline. I had the opportunity to conduct a phone interview with Mary Jo to discuss her recent honor as well as her esteemed career.

JL: Being a very accomplished individual, what does having been awarded this honorary doctorate mean to you?

Strategic Service Institute: Looking Under the Hood of Service Offerings

September 18, 2019

You arrive at your destination on time, but your luggage doesn’t—and when it does, it’s somebody else’s.

That’s a spectacular service failure, and one that’s easy to describe. But not all bad service experiences are as clear cut. Sometimes a customer will be unhappy about her interactions with your company, but she won’t be able to articulate why. Without specifics, it’s difficult to correct for a misstep.

Strategic Service Institute: Is Your Firm Agile?

July 30, 2019

Strategic Service Institute

Strategic Service Institute: Is Your Firm Agile?

What does success look like in our fast evolving environment? If you are picturing only the service delivery that is currently wowing your customers, you might find rough road ahead.

“Companies and their leaders must be evolving one service while at the same time thinking about the next,” says Dr. Douglas Olsen, faculty director of the Strategic Service Institute at the Center for Services Leadership. “The key is to be agile and able to adapt in a strategic and thoughtful manner.”

Strategic Service Institute: Implement Excellence Now While Innovating for Tomorrow

June 5, 2019

Is the customer experience at your company frictionless?

Douglas Olsen, faculty director of the Strategic Service Institute, describes the omni-channel customer experience this way.

A customer starts by searching online. Then she goes to the physical store where she looks at the product, but also continues her on her phone for other choices, merchants and pricing. She might talk to a salesperson, then go home and search again before she finally makes the buy and returns to the store for curbside pickup.

Congratulations to the Winners of the 3rd Annual Young Scholar Research Competition

March 20, 2019

The Center for Services Leadership is a proud sponsor of the Young Scholar Research Competition and Awards presented at the annual Organizational Frontlines Research (OFR) Symposium held February 21-22, 2019 at the annual 2019 AMA Winter Educators’ Conference which was held February 22 – 24, 2019 in Austin, Texas.

New CSL White Paper – Customer Success in the Age of Data

July 20, 2018

Customer Success (CS) is a new concept helping companies find ways to retain customers and maximize revenues in a business environment characterized by big data, changing modes of consumption and new business models. The latest white paper produced by the CSL, along with members of the CSL’s advisory board, reports on a seminar for member companies of the Center for Services Leadership. Participants learned about the market conditions and other trends that make Customer Success Management an effective tool.

Edge: Helping Youth Get that First Job

May 15, 2018

The Center for Services Leadership is helping develop a customer service curriculum aimed at youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school and not working. This is the first time that the Center is involved in delivering customer service education to those who will man the front line.

Strategic Service Institute: Form a Crack Team to Solve Your Service Performance Issues

April 4, 2018

“Attending the ASU Strategic Services Institute was an outstanding way for our team to spend some valuable time immersed among talented individuals and CSL experts. Chaos in today’s service industry driven by changing expectations was reinforced. The surprise for me came in the thoughtful and execution-oriented way to put the customer ‘lens’ front and center with tools and approaches. Stand-out was the key role service leadership plays to ignite the internal culture for change and with a supporting cast of smart and capable folks to enable the journey.”