Course Title Services Course Code MKT3353 Recommended Study Year Any No. of Credits/Term 3 Mode of Tuition Sectional Approach Class Contact Hours 3-hour lecture per week Category Stream Elective – Marketing Stream Discipline - Prerequisite(s) BUS2205 – Co-requisite(s) NIL Exclusion(s) NIL Exemption Requirement(s) NIL

Course Instructor Dr. Esther Li Section 1 13:00-14:30 Tuesdays & 15:30-17:00 Fridays Office Hours 1 4 :30-17:00 Tuesdays & 14:00-15:30 Fridays

Brief Course Description In view of the recent emergence of the modern -centered economies, this course is to acquaint students with the unique characteristics of services and their marketing implications. Students will understand the problems and challenges facing a services marketer, the frameworks for developing services marketing strategies, the applications of these frameworks and concepts in the Hong Kong economy and the recent developments in services marketing. It also serves to integrate what students have learnt in previous courses through comprehensive case discussion, role-play exercises, and group projects.

Aims The trend toward service-dominated economies has been global in scope. Not surprisingly, services are the major drivers of economic growth in Asia, where the share of services in the most advanced economies is comparable to that of their U.S. and European counterparts. Given the importance of services in the world economy, it is imperative for students to have basic knowledge of services marketing. The objective of this course is to acquaint students with the unique characteristics of ‘services’ and the managerial implications. Featured topics include the fundamental differences between services and goods, service strategies of managing the service experience, and consumer perception of service quality and service delivery.

Learning Outcomes On completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand the basic knowledge of services marketing. (LO1) 2. Apply the relevant concepts to analyze the key issues in critical service incidents and present their analyses of the most satisfying and dissatisfying service experiences in a service journal report. (LO2) 3. Able to think critically the key concerns and marketing problems in the service organization under the term project assignment, and present the findings clearly through both an oral presentation and in a written report. (LO3) 4. To work well in teams and cooperate with teammates. (LO4)

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Indicative Contents Recognize characteristics of service

Justify the requirement of a distinct approach to marketing of services, comprehend an organization’s service strategy using the Gaps Model of Service Quality.

Develop a Customer- Focus by locating the Customer Gap

Identify factors that influence customer expectations of service, explain the potential gap between expected quality and actual / perceived quality that affects service satisfaction, identify service quality dimensions, illustrate how service encounters function as building blocks for customer perceptions.

Manage Customer Requirements by Customer Research and Relationship Building (Provider Gap 1: Listening Gap)

Outline elements in an effective service program, analyzing customer research findings with reference to zones of tolerance, diagnosis profitability tiers with the aid of the customer pyramid tool, state different relationship development strategies, differentiate service recovery strategies.

Align with Customer Requirements by and Standards (Provider Gap 2: Design Gap)

Distinguish different types of service innovation, present service blueprinting as a technique for service design, identify different types of customer-defined service standards, explain how physical evidences affect , recognize the strategic role of and guidelines for physical evidence strategy.

Match Customer Requirements by Delivering and Performing Services (Provider Gap 3: Service Performing Gap)

Exemplify the role of service leadership and service culture with example, explain the critical boundary-spanning roles of service employees, present different strategies for delivering quality service through people, identify the critical roles of customers in service delivery, present different strategies for enhancing customer participation in service co-creation.

Manage Service Promises by Integrated Communication and Value-based Strategies (Provider Gap 4: Communication Gap)

Restate key service communication challenges, illustrate with examples for five categories of strategies to match service promises with delivery, explain why service prices are different for customers, present pricing strategies that link to four different types of value definitions.

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Teaching Method Presentation of theories of services market will be supported by small-group discussions, lectures supported by seminars, videos, role-play presentations, case studies, and field study projects.

Measurement of Learning Outcomes 1. Class activities and discussions require students to demonstrate their knowledge of services marketing. (LO1) 2. Service journal reports and discussion requires students to apply appropriate concepts and theories to analyze different service business issues. (LO1, LO2, LO3) 3. Team projects measure students’ ability to think critically by requiring them to apply service marketing concepts to analyze real-world business issues. It also measures students’ written communication skills and their abilities to work with others (both regular and Service-Learning- based). (LO1, LO3 and LO4) 4. Team presentation measures student’s presentation skills by requiring each student group to present their projects orally as well as answering questions from audiences. The team project and presentation are assessed for logicality, strength of arguments and feasibility of recommendations. (LO1, LO3 and LO4) 5. Final exam measure students’ level of understanding of the service marketing knowledge. (LO 1)

Assessment

(1) Continuous Assessment 70% Class Participation 10% Individual Service Journal Report 20% Group Project* 40% (Preliminary Findings Presentation 10%, Oral Presentation 15%, Project Write-up 15%)

(2) Final Examination 30%______Total 100%

Group Project Each group will conduct an in-depth analysis for a recent issue faced by a service organization of your choice. Students are required to (1) identify a real-world issue faced by this service organization, (2) apply services marketing concepts to analyze how the organization tackles the issue, and (3) suggest further recommendations for the organization. On completion of the project, students are required to give a presentation and to submit a written report containing all their findings.

With respect to oral presentations, the other groups in the same class will assess the performance of each group based on both their Progress Presentation (a 10-12 minutes presentation) and Final Presentation (a 20-25 minutes presentation). Higher marks will be given to groups that can attract audience attention and that clearly explain their project findings to their classmates.

With regard to written report, each written report should stay within the limit of 5000 words (i.e. 20 pages). To have a professional report properly organized, a Table of Content should be placed in the fore front, followed by grammatically correct expressions in the written report, and rounded up with supporting information in the appendices including: reference lists, secondary data and/or primary survey findings, service blueprints and , etc.

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Required/Essential Readings Valarie A. Zeithaml, Mary Jo Bitner, and Dwayne Gremler, Service Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus across the Firm, seventh edition, McGraw-Hill, 2018

Recommended/Supplementary Readings 1. Hoffman, K Douglas and Bateson, John E.G. (2011), Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies and Cases, 4th Edition, Thomson.

2. Fitzsimmons, James A. and Mona J. Fitzsimmons (2008), : Operations, Strategy, and Information Technology, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill.

3. Gronroos, Christian (2015), Service Management and Marketing: Managing the Service Profit Logic, 4th Edition, John Wiley & Sons.

Important Notes:

(1) Students are expected to spend a total of 6 hours (i.e. 3 hours of class contact and 3 hours of personal study) per week to achieve the course learning outcomes.

(2) Students shall be aware of the University regulations about dishonest practice in course work, tests and examinations, and the possible consequences as stipulated in the Regulations Governing University Examinations. In particular, plagiarism, being a kind of dishonest practice, is “the presentation of another person’s work without proper acknowledgement of the source, including exact phrases, or summarised ideas, or even footnotes/citations, whether protected by copyright or not, as the student’s own work”. Students are required to strictly follow university regulations governing academic integrity and honesty.

(3) Students are required to submit writing assignment(s) using Turnitin.

(4) To enhance students’ understanding of plagiarism, a mini-course “Online Tutorial on Plagiarism Awareness” is available on https://pla.ln.edu.hk/.

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MKT3353 Services Marketing

Assessment process: Each student is required to attend all lessons and be active to participate in class discussions.

Traits Emerging Practicing Mastering (1-4 marks) (5-7 marks) (8-10 marks) Attend Less than 70% of class Between 70 – 80% of More than 80% of classes attendance. class attendance. class attendance. Punctuality Arrive class on time Arrive class on time Arrive class on time for less than 70% of for 70 - 80% of for more than 80% classes. classes. of classes. Participate in Keeping silent during Sometimes being Always being active class class discussions. active during class during class discussion discussions. discussions. Enthusiasm Seldom or never Sometimes respond to Always respond to in the subject respond to teacher’s teacher’s questions, or teacher’s questions, questions, nor raise raise questions, or or raise questions or questions, nor provide provide further provide further further examples examples related to examples related to related to the topic of the topic of interest. the topic of interest. interest.

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MKT3353 Services Marketing

Assessment Process: This individual assignment assesses students’ knowledge of services marketing concepts by requiring students to create a journal of 6 service encounter entries (the exact format is shown in the following page), and then select and analyze 2 service encounters in details. The paper (8 pages, double-spaced) will consist of three parts.

Discussion of Best Service. You elaborate on the best service encountered in the last three months. Based on your reading of the textbook and our class discussion, you will analyze: • What was the source of satisfaction? • Why was the encounter so special? What did the employee do? • What were your expectations? • What could the company do to ensure that this kind of encounter is the “rule” rather than the “exception” (if you think it should ensure this)? A good paper will be selective and focus on the most important issues, as this part of the paper should be about 3 pages in length.

Discussion of worst service. You will elaborate on the worst service encountered in the semester. Based on text reading and class discussion, you will analyze: • What was the source of dissatisfaction? Can you categorize the encounter according to the four common themes: recovery, adaptability, spontaneity, and coping? • What did the employee do to make this such a bad encounter? What were your expectations? • What should the employee have done? • Using the GAPS model of service quality, can you identify likely gap(s) that may have caused this service failure? A good paper will describe the problem and present a specific, logical plan for improvement. This part of the paper is also expected to be about 3 pages in length.

Personal Insights. Finally, you should conclude your paper with 1-2 pages discussing what you have learnt from this assignment that will help you be a better manager?

The grading criteria used for evaluating such a paper include a student’s ability to relate material from readings and lecturers to one’s paper, one’s ability to diagnose probable causes of problems and match them with appropriate solutions, depth and substance of observations, persuasiveness of arguments and the quality of writing. Your service encounter journal paper (together with the six journal entries included in its appendices) is due on October 11 (Friday). A hard copy of your service encounter journal report needs to be submitted in class on Friday October 11th and also submitted through turnitin on the same day before 12:00 noon.

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SERVICE ENCOUNTER JOURNAL ENTRIES

Your Name: ______Name of the Firm: ______Type of Service: ______Date of Encounter: ______Time of Encounter: ______

What specific circumstance led to this encounter? ______

Exactly what did the firm/employee say of do? ______

How would you rate your level of dissatisfaction or satisfaction with this encounter? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Extremely Dissatisfied Satisfied

What exactly made you feel that way? ______

What could the employee/firm have done to make you happier with the encounter? ______

How likely is it that you will go back to this service firm? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Extremely Unlikely Likely

WHY? ______

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TRAITS EMERGING PRACTICING MASTERING 1 - 4 MARKS 5 - 7 MARKS 8 - 10 MARKS (1) Identify the Explain customer Explain customer Explain how customer sources of dis/satisfaction sole on the dis/satisfaction beyond dis/ satisfaction can be dis/satisfaction for the basis of product or service actual features and influenced by product service encounters attributes attributes of product or attributes, customer under study service emotions, attribution for success or failure, perceptions of fairness, and other customers. (2) Analyze with Discuss various personal, Discuss various factors Discuss various factors reference to the situational, and outside that influence customers’ that influence customers’ services marketing factors without an expectations with an expectations to develop concepts those factors appreciation of their appreciation of their an appreciation of the that influence varying impacts on desired impact over widening or most important factor, customers’ and adequate expectations narrowing the zone of and to derive ways of expectations of service tolerance how marketers can shape as applied such influential factors

(3) Define Define service quality only Define service quality to Define service quality to dimensions of service in objective, tangible involve BOTH cover not only objective, quality of the measures perceptual soft but also perceptual as encounters under study measures, and objective well as behavioral hard measures measures

(4) Summarize Explain the quality of the Explain the quality of the Explain the quality of the using the GAPS Model service encounters purely service encounters by service encounters by the problems or issues by the “performance gap” taking into account the considering both the as relevant to the in terms of the roles of different providers’ gaps customer gap as much as encounters under study service employee consisting of : listening, the provider gaps design, performance, and communication gaps (5) Develop Develop some ad hoc or Develop some basic Develop a managerial strategies quick fixes to the service general strategies that comprehensive set of for closing the gaps failure without reference to are derived from the strategies to close the that cause service services marketing Gaps Model to address gaps that cause the failure concepts the service failure service failure, and make such a level of service quality a rule rather than exception

(6) Present and A poor report, confusing in A satisfactory business A fully professional communicate with structure or grammar. report although missing business report with clarity and logic in the Fails to provide adequate some key elements or good formatting, use of written report for the tables, charts, referencing lacking in structure or tables and charts, service encounter or appendices grammar referencing and paper appendices

Total Score (out of 60)

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MKT3353 Services Marketing

Assessment Process: Each group will conduct an in-depth analysis for a recent issue faced by a service organization of your choice. Students are required to: (1) identify a real-world issue faced by this service organization, (2) apply services marketing concepts to analyze how the organization tackles the issue, and (3) suggest further recommendations for the organization. In the middle of the term, students are required to make a progress-presentation (i.e. a 10-12 minutes oral presentation) on Friday November 1 to explain their project progress and their upcoming action plan.

Assessment Criteria Emerging Practicing Mastering and Weighting (1 – 4 marks) (5 – 7 marks) (8 – 10 marks) Ability to identify and Students fail to set up Students can set up Students can set up specific define problems faced objectives for the client generic marketing marketing communications by the project client, firm, or unable to communications and sales and sales related objectives and set relevant identify the major related objectives that in measurable terms that objectives that address problems faced by the address the client firm’s address the key problems these problems in its client firm. key problems to a faced by the client firm to a business plan moderate extent, but the great extent. (10 marks) objectives are not set in measurable terms, making control difficult. Ability to make use of Students find it difficult Students can interpret Students can interpret and primary survey and to explain their decisions primary and secondary make sense of survey secondary information for the client firm, or information to inform the findings, industry reports, to inform the present unable to justify their client firm’s services and situational analysis to project's business decisions on the basis of marketing management come up with informed decisions any information related decisions to a decisions over the targeting, (20 marks) collected. moderate extent, but the positioning, and 7P-related sense-making process is decisions for the client firm limited to descriptive to a great extent. information only. Ability to apply Students fail to evaluate Students can apply some Students can apply most of conceptual knowledge the project firm’s but not all of the relevant the relevant services and skills learnt from decisions from service services marketing marketing concepts and the subject matter of marketing angle, or concepts and skills to skills (including 7p, service Services Marketing to unable to develop new guide decision making for blueprinting, service scape, analyze the project business the client firm. people management, CRM, firm and come up with recommendations under SIMC, etc.) to guide decision business the guidelines of making for the client firm recommendation services marketing (20 marks) concepts. Ability to develop new Students develop some Students can develop and Students can develop and business strategies for ad hoc quick fixes for propose a number of new propose a set of new services the project client the client firm, as strategies for the client marketing trategies that including new target opposed to integrated firm to a moderate extent, reinforce each other for the markets, new service service management but the strategies tend to client firm to a great extent. design, new strategies. be stand alone options mix, etc. rather than integrated (30 marks) strategies Ability to organize and Students fail to present Students can present Students can present fluently present the problems, fluently and work under fluently and work under and work under the support objectives, and the support of proper the support of proper AV of proper AV aids to a great informed decisions for AV aids. aids to a moderate extent. extent. the project in a business-like manner and using suitable audio-visual aids. (20 marks)

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MKT3353 Services Marketing

Assessment Process: On completion of the Group Project, each group is required to give a final presentation and to submit a written report on their project. Each oral presentation should stay within a 25-minute limit and follow up with a 10-minute Q & A session. A hard copy of the group report needs to be submitted in class on Friday November 29th and also submitted through turnitin on the same day before 12:00 noon. Traits Wt Emerging (1-4 mark) Practicing (5-7 marks) Mastering (8-10 marks) Identifies key Fails to correctly Recognizes important Clearly recognizes the problems in service recognize any service marketing, critical service marketing, marketing, promoting important service promotion and promotion and marketing, promotion distribution issue(s) issue(s) of the business, and and distributing 10% issues as faced by and distribution underlying the provides sufficient details of Client firm issue(s) underlying business, but provides the issue(s) the business. limited information of the issue(s) Applies services Applies service Applies service Applies service marketing marketing concepts marketing concepts marketing concepts concepts learnt to a large learnt only to a learnt to a limited extent learnt in the course to 30% tackle the problems minimal extent, or, no extent faced by Client firm application of the concepts learnt Makes appropriate Fails to make use of Utilizes limited data Utilizes a wide range of use of, and clear available data sources, or makes available data sources, and referencing to sources, or fails to inappropriate mention provides clear referencing to primary survey provide adequate of sources, or sources of primary and findings and referencing within the provides limited secondary information used secondary data report referencing to support decisions made for improved marketing, available to inform 20% the management and promotion and distribution decision making over measures for the business the involved service marketing, promotion and distribution issues faced by Client firm Proposes sound Makes no Proposes a number of Proposes a number of business strategies recommendation or recommendations, but innovative and recommendations makes some of those are recommendations that are to improve service 15% recommendations that irrelevant to the issue fully consistent with the marketing and tend not to consider or analyzed issue analyzed business development are inconsistent with of Client firm the issue analyzed Designs innovative Design a few devices Design many new Design a variety of new marketing, but have little or no devices but with devices (like store layout promotional or justification in how limited justification in plans, promotional distributional they can address how they can address materials, membership materials to address various niche various niche schemes, or value-added the problems of Client 15% segments, and resolve segments, and resolve delivery services) with clear firm the real-life problems the real-life problems justifications that seek to faced by the Client. faced by the Client. address various niche segments, and resolve the real-life problems faced by the Client. Delivers a Delivers a poorly Delivers a satisfactory Delivers a professionally professional business written and structured report, but with some formatted, formally report for Client firm 10% report that makes it confusion in structure organized business report, difficult to follow and or writing style clearly presented, with few comprehend grammatical errors TOTAL 100

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MKT3353 Services Marketing Assessment process: Each student is required to sit in a two-hour long examination to answer a number of long and short questions, which full mark is 100.

Traits Emerging Practicing Mastering (1-4 mark) (5-7 marks) (8-10 marks) Demonstrate Unable to identify key Able to identify some Clearly identify key understanding of the topic issues concerned from issues concerned from issues concerned by identifying the key a services marketing a services marketing from a services issues in the question from perspective perspective marketing a services marketing perspective perspective Apply services marketing Unable to apply or Able to relate services Able to apply concepts and theoretical relate services marketing concepts in services marketing frameworks to the analysis marketing concepts in analyzing business concepts to analyze and problem solving of analyzing business problems business problems business problems faced problems by service organizations Support the recommended Discussion of Discussion of Discussion of solution on the basis of solutions is superficial solutions is adequate solution is deep, stated criteria and such as subjective and based on logic/ contains thorough assumptions from a opinion or preference reasoning from a explanation, and services marketing instead of based on services marketing based on logic/ perspective, with reference logic/ reasoning from perspective, but from reasoning from a to underlying quantitative a services marketing a single assumption services marketing figures or qualitative perspective. without recognition of perspective, plus reasons than subjective its limitation. awareness of opinion or preference alternative assumptions and recognition of its limitation. Articulate the solution or Failed to complete the Complete the task(s) Complete the task(s) answer in appropriate way task(s) in an by choosing a format, by choosing a and relevant format appropriate form as language, or graph (or format, language, or specified. other visual graph (or other representation) to visual explicitly connect representation) in content and form, ways that enhance demonstrating meaning, making awareness of purpose clear the and audience. interdependence of language and meaning, thought, and expression.

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Class Schedule * No Class on National Day (1/10/2019, Tuesday) In-Class Activities & Week LBY G06 (13-14:30 Tuesdays) Ch Group Projects’ MB G11 (15:30-17:00 Fridays) Progress and Final Presentations Foundations for Services Marketing Course Introduction and 2/9 1 Group Formation for Projects Frameworks for Services Gaps Model of Service Quality 9/9 2

The Customer Gap: Difference between customer expectations and perceptions Customer expectations of services Discussion: what affect expectation on the 16/9 3 theme park: the HK Disneyland? Customer perceptions of services Brief training: how to write Service 23/9 4 Journals Report Understanding Customer Requirements 30/9 Listening to customer through Hands-on practices: how to measure 5 * research SERVQUAL for your term project Service Recovery Role-play: Complain handling 7/10 7

Individual Service Journal Report Due: In-class Submission (October 11, Friday) Aligning Service Design and Standards Service innovation and design Hands-on Practices: draw up service 14/10 8 delivery processes for your term project Physical evidence and the Progress Report: 21/10 10 servicescape 1/11 (Friday) Delivering and Performing Service 11 Employees’ & Customers’ roles 28/10 Customer Participation Exercise 12 in service delivery Managing Demand and Capacity 4/11 13 Capacity Management Exercise Management Managing Service Promises 14 IMC for services Pricing for services 11/11 15 Final Presentations: 23/11 Final Presentations: 30/11 18/11 Projects 1 & 2 Project 3 & 4

Final Presentations: 27/11 Course Review & Exam Briefing 25/11 Projects 5 & 6 Group Report Submission Due:

In-class Submission (Nov 29, Friday)

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