Marketing Services - by Leonard L Berry (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Excellent service is the foundation for services marketing, contend Leonard Berry and A. Parasuraman in this companion volume to Delivering Quality Service. Building on eight years of research, the authors develop a model for understanding the relationship between quality and marketing in services and offer dozens of practical insights into ways to improve services marketing. They argue that superior service cannot be manufactured in a factory, packaged, and delivered intact to customers. Though an innovative service concept may give a company an initial edge, superior quality is vital to sustaining success.

Berry and Parasuraman show that inspired leadership, a customer-minded corporate culture, an excellent service-system design, and effective use of technology and information are crucial to superior service quality and services marketing. When a company's service is excellent, customers are more likely to perceive value in transactions, spread favorable word-of-mouth impressions, and respond positively to employee-cross-selling efforts. The authors point out that a service company that does relatively little pre-sales marketing but is truly dedicated to delivering excellent quality service will have greater marketing effectiveness, higher customer retention, and more sales to existing customers than a company that emphasizes pre-sale marketing but falls short during actual service delivery. The focus of any company, they insist, must be customer satisfaction through integration of service quality throughout the entire system.

Filled with examples, stories, and insights from senior executives, Berry and Parasuraman's new framework for effective marketing services contains the key to high-performance services marketing.

Review Quotes

Carl Sewell President, Sewell Village Cadillac; Author of "Customers For Life" Written with the soul of a teacher -- read the action checklists. They are invaluable. No one understands customer service better.

George S. Day The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania A practical marriage of research insights with the best practices of firms. The lessons are just as pertinent to product marketers looking for defenses against agile competitors.

J. Barry Mason University of Alabama Exciting, breakthrough concepts which extend and deepen the framework of their recent book, "Delivering Quality Service." Berry and Parasuraman model the way for the pursuit of zero defects in services.

Jeffrey Heilbrunn President, American Marketing Association Buy this book...before someone from Japan buys your company.

Richard M. Hart Chairman of the Trust Committee, BANK ONE, Texas Deals with the reality of the marketplace and effective approaches to marketing service quality. We will provide copies to all of our staff.

Ron Zemke President, Performance Research Associates Must reading for not only marketers but for any executive or manager concerned with the creation of distinctive quality service -- which should include just about everyone in the organization

Stephen W. Brown First Interstate Center for Services Marketing, Arizona State University Significantly extends the literature on marketing and quality in services...well-researched and original....This book makes a difference.

Stew Leonard, Jr. President, Stew Leonard's The latest concepts in quality at your fingertips! The "action-checklist" at the end of each chapter makes it easy to apply the concepts immediately. All I can say is "WOW!"

Thomas J. Fitzgerald Vice President, Corporate Marketing ARA Services Very effectively combines the two disciplines of service quality and services marketing. Their work certainly reinforces my belief that for success in services, "it's not what you do, it's how you do it."

Thomas M. Bloch President and Chief Operating Officer, H&R Block This book represents an important advancement in the field of services marketing literature. It should be placed on the "required reading" list for all directors of service marketing.

Jeffrey Heilbrunn

President, American Marketing Association

Buy this book...before someone from Japan buys your company.

Richard M. Hart

Chairman of the Trust Committee, BANK ONE, Texas

Deals with the reality of the marketplace and effective approaches to marketing service quality. We will provide copies to all of our staff.

Ron Zemke

President, Performance Research Associates

Must reading for not only marketers but for any executive or manager concerned with the creation of distinctive quality service -- which should include just about everyone in the organization

Stew Leonard, Jr.

President, Stew Leonard's

The latest concepts in quality at your fingertips! The "action-checklist" at the end of each chapter makes it easy to apply the concepts immediately. All I can say is "WOW!"

Thomas J. Fitzgerald

Vice President, Corporate Marketing ARA Services

Very effectively combines the two disciplines of service quality and services marketing. Their work certainly reinforces my belief that for success in services, "it's not what you do, it's how you do it."

About the Author

Leonard L. Berry holds the JCPenney Chair of Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University, where he is also Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Retailing Studies.