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Teaching Services Marketing
An Opportunity to Practice What We Preach
Dwayne D. Gremler
Bowling Green State University
gremler@bgsu.edu
www.gremler.net
2007 SERVSIG Doctoral Consortium
San Francisco, CA
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Setting the Stage
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Who in the audience has taught?
At what level?
What classes?
What was your experience like?
What was the most surprising event that occurred?
What will you do differently the next time you teach?
 What would you like to take away from today’s
teaching session?
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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What Do We Preach?
 Customer Expectations
 Service Quality
 Customizing Services
 Co-Production
 Service Guarantees
 Service Excellence
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Understanding Customer Expectations
 When you teach students, who are the customers?
 Are students customers? clients? products?
 Good service providers do not assume they know what their
customers’ expectations are
 Conduct service research to determine:
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Who are my customers?
What are their interests?
What are their backgrounds?
What experiences do they have in this field?
What are their career goals?
 First week of class:
 students are asked to provide:
 specific characteristics of what would be considered good service
performance by the instructor
 and, of what would be good customer performance in this context
 responses are presented on course web site
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Customer Expectations
 Set Expectations
 communicate customer’s (client’s) roles
 discuss students’ roles and behaviors
 provide a realistic service preview
 first day – detailed overview of syllabus
 some students may self-select out of the class
 reduce customer anxiety and uncertainty
 essay exam study questions provided one week in advance
 a subset of questions selected
 Exceed Customer Expectations (customer delight!)
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provide a unique first day experience – punch & cookies
play music before class (if technology is available)
develop a course-specific web site
make PowerPoint overheads available
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Service Quality Dimensions
 reliability
 ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
 responsiveness
 willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
 assurance
 employee’s knowledge/courtesy and ability to inspire the
customer’s trust and confidence in the service provider
 empathy
 caring, individualized attention given by the firm and its employees
to customers
 tangibles
 appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, or printed
materials
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Demonstrating Service Quality
 Reliability
 do what you promise!
 come early to class
 keep your office hours
 always be prepared
 hold to dates in syllabus as much as possible
 be consistent
 use rubrics when grading papers, essay exams, or any
assignment with “subjective” assessment
 Responsiveness
 provide next day turnaround on evaluation of assignments,
exams, quizzes, etc.
 respond quickly to students’ e-mails, telephone calls
 be available to help outside of office hours
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Demonstrating Service Quality
 Assurance
 know what you are taking about…be prepared, be confident
 communicate your background and expertise
 use current examples to demonstrate knowledge
 bring in guest speakers
 Empathy
 learn students’ names
 via 3" x 5" cards, pictures
 demonstrate care outside of the classroom
 attend a cross-country meet!
 offer to serve as a reference or to write recommendation letters
 Tangibles
 pay attention to classroom, lighting/temperature, syllabi
 keep the classroom clean
 make handouts attractive and clear
 model professional dress
 use stamps!
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Customizing Service Delivery
 Allow students to select teams (for in-class assignments)
 Allow students to select from a choice of assignments
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service encounter journal
international service watch
company complaint letter & analysis
service blueprint
new service development
case analysis
 Allow students to select from among essay questions on the exam
 select four questions to answer from among six
 Allow students to select service topic for final (take-home) exam
 legacy assignment…contribution could be a video clip, comic strip,
business press article, digital images for use in class, or other
possibilities
 Allow students to evaluate themselves on their class participation
 each student assigns his/her own class participation score and justifies it
with a one-page paper
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Co-Production
 Have Student Make Presentations
 students identify business press articles and new
services of relevance to the course
 Provide Discussion Questions (on course web)
 students can anticipate (and prepare for) what will be
discussed in class
 questions provided for:
 textbook chapters
 cases
 assigned articles
 Illustrate Customer Roles in Service Delivery
 Instructor as student!!!
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Co-Production Role Reversal
 Instructor as student:
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Service Guarantees
 Service Guarantee = a pledge or assurance that a service
offered by a firm will perform as promised
(Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler 2006)
 Why provide a service guarantee in the classroom?
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(the ultimate way to) practice what we preach
learning exercise
accountability
WOW! factor
reach disillusioned students
competitive advantage/differentiation
(Gremler and McCollough 1997; McCollough and Gremler 1999)
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Maintaining Service Excellence
 Find your own style
 There are many approaches to leading a class:
 The Comic
 The CEO
 The Obsessive
 The Techie
 The Performer
 Experiment…determine what works for YOU
 Whatever your style, be passionate!
 Seek continuous improvement
 Observe great teachers
 consider both WHAT they teach and HOW they teach
 Examine others’ syllabi
 emulate/borrow what works for you, ignore what does not
 share materials with others
 Ask for advice; obtain peer evaluations
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Maintaining Service Excellence
 Managing challenges
 Balance challenges:
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private vs. professional life
research vs. teaching prep time
lecture vs. active discussion in class
breadth of material vs. depth of material
 Time management
 time flies…whether you’re having fun or not!
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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Practicing What We Preach
 Provide an example of excellent service delivery by:
 meeting (exceeding?) customer expectations
 customizing service delivery
 encouraging and facilitating student co-production
 demonstrating/providing service quality in the classroom
 offering a service guarantee in the classroom
 continually striving for service excellence
 - Dwayne D. Gremler
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It’s lunch time…time for food and drink!
 - Dwayne D. Gremler