The Dynamics of Service: Reflections on the Changing Nature of Customer/Provider Interactions (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series) [Hardcover]

Barbara A. Gutek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787901016 | ISBN-13: 978-0787901011 | Publication Date: July 21, 1995 | Edition: 1

A service revolution is sweeping America. Nearly three-quarters of people in the U.S. labor force work in services, almost half of family income is spent on services, and providing good service is widely believed to be the key to an organization's success, whether in for-profit, nonprofit, or government. Yet, in an era where the customer is supposedly king, individuals are increasingly dissatisfied with the service they receive. As more and more services traditionally offered by indepAndent practitioners--such as law, health, and mental health--shift to large organizations, the quality of the customer-provider interaction deteriorates.

The Dynamics of Service is the first book to examine the service transaction in depth from social, psychological, and management perspectives. Barbara A. Gutek details the changing nature of customer-provider interactions from relationships when a customer has repeated contact with a particular provider--to encounters, which typically consist of a single brief episode. She examines the cumulative impact of this quiet revolution upon customers, providers, and the enterprises that provide service--and shows how it is changing the quality of our lives.

With powerful implications for health care, psychotherapy, higher education, law, and all areas where work is rapidly being restructured in large organizations, The Dynamics of Service provides professionals in many disciplines with a common framework for understanding how customers will be served in the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book presents the perfect combination. It is easy to read and impossible to forget. If you are like me, you will find yourself assigning it to your management students and giving it to your clients, especially those with whom you are establishing a relationship." --Faye J. Crosby, professor of psychology, Smith College, and author of Juggling

"A wonderful example of why, in an age when the customer is king or queen and customer service is supposedly the name of the game, we often feel so badly mistreated. This book helps faculty and administrators in higher education understand the problems created by treating college and university students like customers." --Sheila Slaughter, professor of higher education, University of Arizona

"From the supermarket checkout to the doctor's office, service transactions are increasingly important in our lives. Barbara Gutek's insightful distinction between encounters and relationships explains the meaning of that fact, the choices it confronts us with, and their consequences for the quality of our lives." --Robert L. Kahn, professor emeritus of psychology and public health, University of Michigan

"Barbara Gutek's The Dynamics of Service digs into the much-discussed current concept of service to see what's really inside: when and why do customers feel served? Are we truly becoming a service-oriented society? Or are we so deperonalizing and robotizing customer service that no shred of human connection may be left in what we used to call 'the provider/customer relationship'? This is a thorough, thoughtful, in-depth analysis of where that provider/customer relationship has been and where it may be going." --Harold Leavitt, professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

From the Inside Flap

A "service revolution" is sweeping America. Nearly three-quarters of people in the U.S. labor force work in services, almost half of family income is spent on services, and providing good service is widely believed to be the key to an organization's success, whether in for-profit, nonprofit, or government. Yet, in an era where the customer is supposedly king, individuals are increasingly dissatisfied with the service they receive. As more and more services traditionally offered by indepAndent practitioners--such as law, health, and mental health--shift to large organizations, the quality of the customer-provider interaction deteriorates.The Dynamics of Service is the first book to examine the service transaction in depth from social, psychological, and management perspectives. Barbara A. Gutek details the changing nature of customer-provider interactions from "relationships" when a customer has repeated contact with a particular provider--to "encounters," which typically consist of a single brief episode. She examines the cumulative impact of this quiet revolution upon customers, providers, and the enterprises that provide service--and shows how it is changing the quality of our lives.With powerful implications for health care, psychotherapy, higher education, law, and all areas where work is rapidly being restructured in large organizations, The Dynamics of Service provides professionals in many disciplines with a common framework for understanding how customers will be served in the future.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (July 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787901016
• ISBN-13: 978-0787901011
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,207,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and unique theory with important implications, October 20, 1997

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[e-mail] (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dynamics of Service: Reflections on the Changing Nature of Customer/Provider Interactions (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series) (Hardcover)

Are you in a service business? If so, you could learn a lot from reading this book. Based on solid research and keen insight, the book explains why people feel service is getting worse in America. It postulates two basically different ways service providers relate to their customers: in "relationships" and in "encounters." Choosing the right way to provide service (and avoiding "pseudorelationships," is vital to the success or failure of a service business.