Customer Service Management (MHR202)

Content

• What is Customer Service?
• Importance, diffusion, and challenges of customer service
• Service Culture
• Strategy for Formulating a Plan for Success
• Empowerment and Teamwork
• Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication in Customer Service
• Coping With Challenging Customers
• Problem Solving Models and Motivation
• Service Breakdowns and Recovery
• Service Quality Models and Total Quality Management
• Leadership, Technology and Customer Service

Course Objective:

This course equips students with a comprehensive understanding of the service industry’s dynamic landscape, exploring its economic significance, strategic value and growth, and the evolving role of service quality in fostering organizational excellence. Students will engage in advanced analyses of service management principles, service dominant logic, customer-centric strategies, and leadership frameworks designed to optimize service processes and empower teams. By integrating both theoretical insights and applied methodologies, this course prepares students to drive innovation in service design, tackle complex service challenges, and contribute to sustainable value creation within a globalized service economy.

Learning outcome

A candidate who has completed this course should have the following learning outcome defined in terms of knowledge, skills, and general competence.

Knowledge:

After completing this course the student can:

• Analyze the structure, characteristics, and economic impact of the service industry, exploring growth trends, recent transitions, and the critical role of services in global and domestic economies.
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge and specialized insight into the domain of customer service culture and promote a radical perspective that can be innovatively applied to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Critically assess and apply service quality and business excellence models to evaluate and enhance organizational performance, customer satisfaction, and process improvement.
• Develop advanced skills in interpreting and critically analyzing different sources of customer interactions, such as body language and other nonverbal cues, in order to make scholarly arguments and independently contribute to solving practical problems in service organizations.
• Develop high-level collaborative skills for cross-functional teamwork, applying advanced communication and conflict resolution techniques to lead and participate in innovation-driven projects that enhance organizational service capabilities.
• Examine the ethical dimensions and sustainability considerations in service management, equipping students to make decisions that support both organizational goals and broader societal well-being.
• Understand the principles and frameworks of comprehensive strategic analysis (internal, external, macro, and micro) for businesses and service organizations.
• Explore and apply advanced leadership and service frameworks that foster a high-performance culture, focusing on mentoring, motivation, and mobilization of diverse teams towards shared objectives in service delivery.
• Develop advanced thinking and design skills for single or multiple services and demonstrate the ability to independently analyze, conceptualise, and create innovative service offerings in academic and professional contexts.

Skills:

After completing this course, the student can:

• Apply comprehensive knowledge of fundamental service concepts, terminologies, and theories creatively and innovatively to address evolving challenges in service management.
• Apply knowledge of service industry structure, characteristics, and economic impact to inform strategic decision-making and problem-solving.
• Advanced expertise in customer service culture, with the capacity to propose innovative strategies that enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall service quality
• Skills in evaluating and implementing service quality and business excellence models to improve organizational performance, optimize processes, and elevate customer satisfaction.
• Develop well-supported, scholarly arguments based on the analysis of customer interactions, including nonverbal cues.
• High-level collaborative and communication skills, with the ability to employ conflict resolution and project management techniques to lead innovation-driven, cross-functional projects.
• Equipped with the ability to evaluate the ethical and sustainability dimensions of service management, fostering decision-making that supports organizational goals and societal well-being.
• Apply strategic analysis frameworks to synthesize information and make critical decisions in service-oriented organizations."
• Proficiency in leadership and empowerment frameworks, with a focus on mentoring, motivating, and mobilizing diverse teams towards excellence in service delivery.
• Advanced conceptual and design thinking skills for developing single or multiple service offerings, with the ability to analyze, conceptualize, and create innovative solutions in both academic and professional settings.

General Competence:

After completing this course, the student can:

• Demonstrates a proactive approach to lifelong learning and adapts to the dynamic service industry landscape, utilizing new knowledge to drive continuous improvement.
• Develops a globalized understanding of the service industry, with an ability to contextualize local and international trends within strategic frameworks.
• Embraces ethical principles and sustainability in decision-making processes, aligning actions with organizational goals while considering societal impact.
• Engages in creative and critical thinking to address complex challenges in customer service management, fostering innovative service solutions.
• Promotes a culture of empowerment and high-performance teamwork, applying leadership skills that encourage collaboration and shared achievement.

Required prerequisite knowledge

Exam

Coursework requirements

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Method of work

Weekly 3-hour classes throughout the semester.

Active student learning by means of short seminars, case discussions, dialogues, and presentations.

• Expectations regarding hours of work:

  MHR 202 is a 10 ECTS course, and the total expected workload is 280 hours, broken down as follows (approximately):

• Classes: 50 hours
• Group projects: 100 hours
• Independent study: 130 hours
• Divided over 16 weeks = 17.5 hours per week

Open for

Course assessment

Literature