New to this edition

• Increased focus on customer expectations and perceptions and what they imply for marketers.
• Increased coverage of business-to-business service applications.
• Two new and original cases were written specifically for this textbook: one on JetBlue's service disaster in 2007 and one on Caterpillar's decision to become an integrated solution provider. Students are thrown into the real world concepts involved in company's services.
• Increased technology and Internet coverage, including updated “Technology Spotlight” boxes in each chapter.

• Greater emphasis on the topic of service quality than existing marketing and service marketing texts.
• Cross-Functional Treatment of Issues: through integration of marketing with other disciplines such as operations and human resources. This coverage illustrates to students the strong role that teams play in the business world and specifically in developing and marketing a service.
• Students Develop the Skills Needed to Market a Service: Students learn how to apply basic marketing concepts in the service environment.
• Three Service Ps: People, Physical Evidence, Process: Builds upon the traditional marketing mix to address differences between marketing of services and tangible goods.
• Focus on Customer Relationships and Relationship Marketing Strategies: Integrated throughout the text to reinforce the role that relationship marketing plays in marketing a service.
• Emphasis on Service Quality Measurement: Reflects the importance good companies place on their ability to quantify and measure service quality as they strive to build customer loyalty and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of service offerings.
• Focus on Customer Expectations and Perceptions: Key to developing and delivering service offerings customers will value.
• Detailed Coverage of Service Development Processes: Including a detailed and complete introduction to service blueprinting—a tool for describing, designing and positioning services—exposes students to forward-thinking ideas intended to better match service with customer expectations.
• “Strategy Insight” in each chapter focusing on emerging or existing strategic initiatives involving services. This feature provides the type of feedback that students need to observe the strategic initiatives.
• Technology Spotlight Boxes: in each chapter highlight the role technology plays in Services.
• Global Feature Boxes: Highlight global services marketing examples.
• Consumer-based Pricing and Value Pricing Strategies: shows students how to price a service.
• Unique Structure: The text is organized around the gaps model of service quality, described in Ch. 2. For example, Chapters 3, 4, and 5 each deal with an aspect of the customer gap—customer behavior, expectations, and perceptions, respectively—to form the focus for services marketing strategies.