As consumers, we use services every day. Turning on a light, watching TV, talking on the telephone, riding a bus, visiting the dentist, mailing a letter, getting a haircut, refueling a car, writing a check, or sending clothes to the cleaners are all examples of service consumption at the individual level. The institution at which you are studying is itself a complex service organization. In addition to educational services, today's college facilities usually include libraries and cafeterias, counseling, a bookstore, placement offices, copy services, telecommunications, and even a bank. If you are enrolled at a residential university, campus services are also likely to include dormitories, health care, indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, a theater, and perhaps a post office. Customers are not always happy with the quality and value of the services they receive. People complain about late deliveries, rude or incompetent personnel, inconvenient service hours, poor performance, and needlessly complicated procedures. They grumble about the difficulty of finding sales clerks to help them in retail stores, express frustration about mistakes on their credit card bills or bank statements, shake their heads over the complexity of new self-service equipment, mutter about poor value, and sigh as they are forced to wait in line almost everywhere they go. Suppliers of services often seem to have a very different set of concerns than the consumer. Many suppliers complain about how difficult it is to make a profit, how hard it is to find skilled and motivated employees, or how difficult it has become to please customers. Some firms seem to believe that the surest route to financial success lies in cutting costs and eliminating "unnecessary" frills. A few even give the impression that they could run a much more efficient operation if it weren't for all the stupid customers who keep making unreasonable demands and messing things up! Fortunately, in almost every industry there are service suppliers who know how to please their customers while also running a productive, profitable operation staffed by pleasant and competent employees. By studying organizations such as Charles Schwab, Intrawest, Aggreko, Southwest Airlines, eBay, and the many others featured in this book, we can draw important insights about the most effective ways to manage the different types of services found in today's economy. ¸¸.•*¨*•*´¨) ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨) (¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Thank you!

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