DULERY Marion Student Registration Number: 201439756

MG211: Managing the Service Encounter Tutorial Assignment 1

Submission Date: Thursday, 23 October 2014 Word Count : 750

“I confirm that the work undertaken for this assignment is entirely my own and that I have not made any use of unauthorised assistance.

The sources of all reference materials have been properly acknowledged.

I have read and understood the statement relating to academic dishonesty and plagiarism published in the ‘Department of Strategy and Organisation Undergraduate Handbook’ on My Place. I hereby confirm that this assignment complies fully with these guidelines.”

First and foremost, the service concept is an essential element of service design and its development. It plays a fundamental role in the design process and is a way to materialize the nature of the service. The service concept defines the “how” and the “what” of service design (Journal of Operation Management 20 (2002)). It serves as an intermediary between the customer’s needs and an organization’s strategic intents.

There are many ways of defining a service concept: Clark et al. defined it from the customer’s and the provider’s point of view as to what they expect of the service itself and how they view it. Those expectations are then related to a way of structuring the service concept to fulfil the needs of the two actors. In contrast, Heskett defines the service concept from an organisation’s point of view and the perception of it as to put forward the structure itself and the actual image it wants to reflect.

The service concept serves as a framework in the evaluation of services and as a tool in terms of development and market positioning.

For example, if Apple wants to launch a new type of technology, the managers would then have to decide about the definition of the service concept before the design process. It is important in the way that it helps decision-­‐making during the planning process.

The service concept is a helpful way to measure performance features for the delivery process of service organizations. All parties need a common understanding of the service concept in order to move from an idea to the actual launch.

However, a broader understanding of the service concept would help organizations with service design.