In today’s economy—where customer experience creates more value than products—services are at the forefront of innovation, loyalty, and strategic growth. From hospitality and finance to healthcare and digital platforms, service companies are setting the standard for how brands engage, retain, and delight customers. This course offers a deep dive into what makes service marketing distinct, beginning with the foundational characteristics of services—intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability (IHIP)—and how they impact every aspect of strategy and execution. 
At the heart of the course is the 7 Ps of Service Marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence. Students will learn how to apply this extended marketing mix to design and deliver exceptional service experiences across a variety of industries.
In exploring how service companies build value, the course will address the drivers of customer satisfaction and delight, the development of long-term relationships and loyalty, the use of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to guide strategic decisions, the design of communication strategies across the service journey, and the implementation of service recovery plans that transform failure into renewed trust. Students will also examine how service design and innovation contribute to continuous improvement and competitive advantage.
Through real-world cases, hands-on tools, and active learning, students will develop the mindset and capabilities to market, manage, and lead in service-driven environments—and to bring a service-centered approach to any business, including product-based firms.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Differentiate services from goods using the IHIP framework, and analyze how these characteristics influence marketing strategy and customer expectations
2. Apply the 7 Ps of Service Marketing to design and evaluate service strategies across diverse industries
3. Assess customer needs and expectations to develop approaches that foster customer satisfaction and emotional engagement
4. Evaluate the drivers of customer loyalty and relationship strength in service-based businesses
5. Calculate and interpret Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to inform strategic marketing and customer asset management
6. Develop integrated communication strategies that support the service experience across multiple touchpoints
7. Design service recovery plans that effectively address service failures and rebuild customer trust
8. Reflect on how service design and innovation contribute to continuous improvement and competitive advantage

Class attendance is highly recommended as most of the topics are covered in-class with instructor's slides, discussions, exercises.
An 80% participation rate is mandatory.
After 6 unexcused absences, the student will be unable to participate in the final project, losing all the points assigned to the final project.
Responsible and active contribution to group projects is mandatory. A student peer-review, to measure contribution of each team member to group projects, will be used in the final case study exam.
In case of an unexcused absence on the day of a graded assignment, the student will lose all the points of the graded assignment, unless absence is excused through a petition to the Dean's Office prior to the assessment day.

The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. 

Please note: Professors cannot excuse absences. All requests for excusing absences must be addressed to the Dean's office

PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING SERVICE PRODUCTS, MARKETS, AND CUSTOMERS

Week 1:
Introduction to the course; Key service concepts

Week 2:
Positioning Services in Competitive Markets

Week 3:
Understanding Service Consumers

Experiencing services

Week 4:

First test

Product: Understanding "Service Products" and Service Brands

Week 5:

Place: Distributing Services

Pricing: Dynamic Pricing and Revenue Management

Week 6: 
Pricing, continued
Promotion: Service marketing communications

Week 7:

Review day before midterm exam

Midterm exam

Week 8:

Processes: Designing customer-driven service experiences

Week 9:
Physical Evidence: Crafting the service environment

Week 10:

People: Managing personnel for service advantage

Week 11:

 Managing relationships and building loyalty
Customer lifetime value

Week 12:

Complaint handling and service recovery

Week 13:
Improving service quality and productivity

Review day before final exam

Week 14:
Presentation of final projects - solution to a case study (Presentation + Paper + Peer review)

Finals week: Feedback to final exam