Understand the subtle and sometimes counter-intuitive dynamics of customer relations. Learn a fresh, cultural perspective on service-focused industries. Services are everywhere in our society. We cannot live without them. More than 70% of advanced economies fall under the category of the service sector.
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Other sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing, also seek to incorporate service business.
What is service? While the existing discourse on services emphasizes customer satisfaction, hospitality, and clear design, this course offers a radically new perspective on services.
The coursework will explore major underlying theories of service, including customer satisfaction and service quality. In addition, learners will be exposed to competitive analyses, and explore the contradictory relationships inherent in services from an intersubjective perspective.
In this business and management course, you will learn how to analyze customer interactions, using video data taken in actual service organizations. Through discussions of a variety of services such as sushi bars, restaurants, hotels, and apparel, you will explore the complex nuances and begin to see services differently.
What you'll learn
- Radical perspective on the culture of customer service
- Basics of customer service research
- How to critique and design services
- How to analyze customer interactions
Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction
Discuss the general characteristics of service
Week 2: Service experience: Comparative analysis
We can start to see the paradoxical nature of service.
Week 3: Existing theories of service
Review some major theories of service such as customer satisfaction and service quality.
Week 4: Ethnomethodology: Analysis of customer interactions
Learn to analyze recorded interactions in detail
Week 5: Hospitality: A critical perspective
Gain a critical understanding of the concept of hospitality
Week 6: Aesthetic of service: Taste and manners
Learn the social struggle over cultural aesthetic, taste,and manners.
Week 7: Dialectic of customer relations
Understand the contradictory relationship of service from intersubjective perspective
Week 8: Service design from cultural perspective
Discuss service design that goes beyond human-centered design
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites. This course is designed for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in services. Although some advanced theoretical materials are included, the theme (services) should be familiar to everyone. Students are expected to complete several assignments throughout the course. In these assignments, students will observe, document, and analyze services around them.
