COMM 343 - Service Management

Fall 2018 Course Outline

Professor:
Office:
Phone:
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Course Secretary:
Office Hours:
Virtual Office Hrs:
Section 002:
Section 001:

Course Objectives:
Our objective in Service Management is to develop a general management perspective for the
typical Service business. Operations Management and Strategy principles will be applied as we
first understand the nature of a Service, and then examine various methods and tactics associated
with managing that operation. In the last portion of the course, various types of service
businesses will be reviewed with the intent of applying the tools and skills learned earlier in
analyzing those businesses. The ultimate goal of the course is to understand the systems and
processes necessary in creating a distinct advantage for the operator.

Service Management technically falls under the Operations Management umbrella, through one
of the key differences between Service and Manufacturing Operations is the presence of the
customer in the process. Indeed, customer involvement provides key challenges and
opportunities for the Service Provider which must be taken into account in the service strategy,
design, content and operating alignment.

In Service Management, you will be required to draw material from your previous courses in
marketing, finance, organizational theory and information systems as well as your personal
experiences. One of the great advantages of this course is that we have all been part of the
operation of a service organization, as either a customer or employee, and usually have ideas for
improvement. In this course, we will explore ways of evolving those ideas into real strategies.

Different types of learning are achieved through individual and group experiences, both of which
will be applied in this course. Students will:
 Review each case in the course individually for discussion
 Prepare one case analysis memo during the course for submission
 Complete group-based presentations and reports
 Complete a take home Final Paper

This is the 4.0 version of COMM 343, taught seminar-style with an enhanced perspective on
innovation and execution in all areas of Service organizations.

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Assessments and Grading:
Professionalism, Attendance 10%
1 Individual Case Memo Select from memos marked with ** (your choice 25%
of two possible cases)
Team Case Memo – Oberoi Due November 5 20%
Team Project Presentation In class, November 15, 19, 22 20%
Final Case Distributed Nov 26; due Dec 3 25%

Individual Case Memos: Worth 25%

Students will be required to submit one written memo. Memos are due by 12pm (Noon) on the
designated date. Students will post submissions to the portal and bring a hard copy to class.
Guidelines for writing memos are posted on the course web site, but are expected to be a single
page (12-point font, 1” margins) plus any exhibits associated with your analysis, conclusions and
implementation, to a maximum of 6 pages. You will choose 1 case from the cases marked with
** for your memo. Assume the role of a management consultant in analyzing the situation and
making recommendations to the firm.

Team-Based Work:

Students will form their own teams of 5-6 people at the start of the course. Any students not in
teams by the Add / Drop deadline will be assigned to an existing team by the Professor. In your
teams, you will engage in a number of in-class activities, make a team presentation in November,
and submit a written case report.

Team Presentation: Worth 20%

Teams have three options to choose from for their Presentation, as noted below. Assume the role
of the Professor (Option 1), management consultants reporting out to the firm (Option 3) or
Owner / Entrepreneurs (Option 2). In Options 2 and 3, discuss the firm’s problem / opportunity,
analyze their alternatives, and recommend a solution and implementation plan.

Option 1 – Let the Inmates Run the Asylum

 Pick one of the core topics of the course, and as a team, prepare a lecture on the topic to
be presented in class the day the material is scheduled. Your session will supplement the
professor’s work, with him filling in any blanks during your Q&A.

Option 2 – Refreshing an Old Favourite

 Identify which of the traditional favourite businesses you wish to focus on – The Family
Diner, The Car Dealership or the Neighborhood Garage.
 Present your plan to bring that business into the 21st Century, applying course tools and
current service offerings. Why will customers flock to your service?

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Option 3 – Hideous Service Failure
 Identify and discuss a real service business that imploded due to poor service strategy,
execution or other factors. Consider what went wrong for the company, but as
importantly, discuss what you would have done in the same situation, how you would
have prevented the HSF from happening in the first place.

The Professor reserves the right to limit the number of teams focusing on similar sectors of the
Service industry (e.g. Hospitality), on a first-come, first-serve basis. Group presentations are to
be 13-15 minutes long, with each team member playing a role in the development and / or
presentation of the material, followed by a question and answer period with the class. Apply
course tools in all Options, and submit ‘Handout’ copies of your slide deck to the Professor prior
to the presentation.

Team Case Report: Worth 20%

Your teams will also prepare a written report on the Oberoi case, due November 5. Case reports
are to be 1 page long, plus the necessary exhibits to back up your conclusions and
recommendations, to a maximum of 8 pages, and will be submitted by hard-copy.

Class Participation, Attendance and Professionalism: Worth 10%

Since being an effective manager or contributing effectively to a team involves the ability to
convincingly share information and ideas with others, another objective of the course is to help
you enhance your communication skills. These involve both effective speaking and effective
listening. There are several group-based activities in class that will contribute to participation
marks. Fair notice – the easiest way to lose participation marks is to e-mail, Facebook, etc.
during class, so laptops are no longer permitted in this course.

Final Case Submission: Worth 25%

The final exam is a case-based assignment that will be handed out in the final week of classes, to
be submitted by Noon, Monday December 3. The format will be discussed in class and posted to
the portal. The late penalty for this final assignment is 20% per day. Students must pass the
individual component and final case assignment to successfully pass the course.

Research Pool credits are not applicable to this course. I can explain why if you are interested.

Late Policy:

Assignments are due to the portal and by hard copy at the start of class the day the case is
discussed. As the case is ‘solved’ in class, memo assignments will not be accepted after that
class. There are two cases available for submission, so students missing a particular case will be
able to submit another at a later date. Students who are late with the last available case
submission in October will be penalized 10% per day.
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Case Package: The case package must be purchased from the Case Office.

The case method is based on experiential learning. As such, considerable emphasis is placed on
preparation and class participation. Prepare a case individually for up to 2 hours and then discuss
it in your team for an hour where possible. You are expected to come to class prepared to
discuss the reading and case material, and in some cases present your analysis to the class. In
some instances the instructor will give a summary at the end of the class or a short lecture
covering relevant technical aspects involved in the case. However, the key responsibility lies
with you to synthesize the discussion and improve your problem solving skills through active
participation.

There is also an optional book. Limited copies are available in the book store.

Cross, B., “Simple: Killing Complexity for a Lean and Agile Organization”, CRC Press,
2017, ISBN 978-1-138-71343-7

Peer Evaluations:

My assumption is that all team members work equally on the collective team assignments
through the semester, and as a result, all team members will be graded equally for that work.
Should you wish to recognize one team member that exceeds or underperforms to your
expectations as a group, please complete the peer evaluation at the end of this syllabus. If at
least three peer evals are submitted, I may use those submissions to adjust a team member’s
grade accordingly.

Academic Integrity

Definition of Academic Integrity

Any behaviour that compromises the fundamental scholarly values of honesty, trust, fairness,
respect and responsibility in the academic setting is considered a departure from academic
integrity and is subject to remedies or sanctions as established by Queen's School of Business
and Queen's University.

These behaviours may include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, unauthorized

collaboration, facilitation, forgery and falsification among other actions. It is every student’s
responsibility to become familiar with Queen’s School of Business policy regarding academic
integrity and ensure that his or her actions do not depart, intentionally or unintentionally, from
the standards described at: http://business.queensu.ca/about/academic_integrity/index.php.

Helpful FAQ’s about academic integrity are at:

http://business.queensu.ca/about/academic_integrity/faq.php

To assist you in identifying the boundary between acceptable collaboration and a departure from
academic integrity in this specific course, I provide the following guidelines for individual and

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group work. If my expectations still are not clear to you, ask me! The onus is on you to
ensure that your actions do not violate standards of academic integrity.

Individual Work
Assignments and examinations identified as individual in nature must be the result of your
individual effort. Outside sources must be properly cited and referenced in assignments; be
careful to cite all sources, not only of direct quotations but also of ideas. Ideas, information and
quotations taken from the internet must also be properly cited and referenced. Help for citing
sources is available through the Queen’s University library: http://library.queensu.ca/help/cite-
sources. Submitting your own or your team’s work from other assignments or courses is not
permitted.

Group Work
I will clearly indicate when groups may consult with one another or with other experts or
resources. Otherwise, in a group assignment, the group members will work together to develop
an original, consultative response to the assigned topic. Group members must not look at, access
or discuss any aspect of any other group’s solution (including a group from a previous year), nor
allow anyone outside of the group to look at any aspect of the group’s solution. Likewise, you
are prohibited from utilizing the internet or any other means to access others’ solutions to, or
discussions of, the assigned material. The names of each group member must appear on the
submitted assignment, and no one other than the people whose names appear on the assignment
may have contributed in any way to the submitted solution. In short, the group assignments must
be the work of your group, and your group only. All group members are responsible for
ensuring the academic integrity of the work that the group submits.

Consequences of a Breach of Academic Integrity

Any student who is found to have departed from academic integrity may face a range of
sanctions, from a warning, to a grade of zero on the assignment, to a recommendation to Queen's
Senate that the student be required to withdraw from the University for a period of time, or even
that a degree be rescinded. As an instructor, I have a responsibility to investigate any suspected
breach of academic integrity. If I determine that a departure from Academic Integrity has
occurred, I am required to report the departure to the Dean’s office, where a record of the
departure will be filed and sent to the program office to be recorded in the student file.

Turnitin.com
Turnitin.com (http://turnitin.com) is a plagiarism detection tool used by many educational
institutions, including QSB. Turnitin is a leader in the area of originality checking and plagiarism
prevention. Its purpose is to verify the originality of a deliverable (i.e. assignment) and, in doing
so, it validates the effort each student puts into a course deliverable. I may ask you to submit
assignments through Turnitin, which is easily done through the course portal.

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 SESSION PLAN
Session Date Class Outline and Description Case
1 Sep 6 Course overview; The Natures of Services; The
Service Profit Chain
2 Sep 10 Service Structures and Strategies; Amazon GO

3 Sep 13 Service Employees & Employee Loyalty

4 Sep 17 Service Customers and Waiting Line Theory Two Companies

5 Sep 20 Service Design, Capacity Planning; CanaPharm: Pharmacy

Operations
6 Sep 24 Service Strategy Roadmap, Value Map, and CanaPharm: Pharmacy
Operating Plan Operations
7 Sep 27 Visualizing Service Operations Budget Rent-a-Car

8 Oct 1 Lean and Services; Servitization, Productization

9 Oct 4 Service Innovation I

10 Oct 8 Thanksgiving Holiday – No Classes

11 Oct 11 Case Submission and Discussion Malawi Pizza **

12 Oct 15 Service Innovation II Airstream Dream

13 Oct 18 No regular class; Tour of Local Service Operation

14 Oct 22 Case Submission and Discussion Trouble at Tessei **

Oct 25 Fall Break – No Class

15 Oct 29 Hospitality Services and Creating Customer Taking Flight

Breakthroughs
16 Nov 1 Team Field Exercise; No formal class

17 Nov 5 Case Discussion – Team Case Submission Oberoi Hotels

18 Nov 8 Servitization II: Health and Financial Services Medical Scribes of Canada

19 Nov 12 Service Innovation In-Class Exercise MacBook Air

20 Nov 15 Team Presentations

21 Nov 19 Team Presentations
22 Nov 22 Team Presentations
23 Nov 26 Service Innovation III: Leading Change in Services
24 Nov 29 Education Services; Wrap Up
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Session 1: Course Overview; The Nature of Services; The
Service Profit Chain
Services provide convenience, save time or effort, or facilitate otherwise difficult procedures.
Society has demonstrated a willingness to pay a premium for various services. This class will
introduce Service Management, its major themes, what a service is, and the role of services in
today’s society. There will also be a short tutorial on memo preparation and case analysis
techniques specific to this course.

Readings - Course Syllabus

Memo Format Guidelines (Course Website)
Simple: Chapter 1
Video – Operations Management at the Oscars

Session 2: Service Structures and Strategies;

In this section we review how to develop strategic service visions and understand the competitive
service environment. Differentiators such as cost, service quality and speed are discussed in
details.

Readings - Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work

Cases - Amazon GO

Session 3: Service Employees & Employee Loyalty

We examine the crucial impact of staffing and general Human Resource practices on service
quality and capacity management. The Service Encounter is given particular focus.

Readings - Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact

Video - Noodles and Company

Session 4: Service Customers and Waiting Line Theory

We evaluate the role of the customer in services, discuss customer loyalty tactics and benefits,
and the nature of customer relationships. Key: Who is the customer, and what do they want?

Readings - Choosing the Right Customer

Case – Two Companies: The Peril of Forgetting Your Customer
Video - Queuing at Disney

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Session 5: Service Design and Capacity Planning
A focus on the strategic role of capacity planning and the decision criteria for capacity planning
in a service.

Case - CanaPharm: Pharmacy Operations

Reading - Designing Waiting Lines That Work

Session 6: Strategy Roadmap, Value Map, and Building and

Operating Plan
Delivering a strategy relies on the right people understanding that strategy, and more
importantly, appreciating their role in that strategy. Here we looks at tools to develop and
communicate a simple, clear and repeatable strategy.

Case - CanaPharm: Pharmacy Operations

Reading - Simple: Chapter 2

Session 7: Visualizing Service Operations

Problem solving and innovation in a service rely on being able to see and measure the steps
within the service and those in supporting and subsequent tasks. Process Chain Networks
provide an excellent tool for analyzing the structure of a service. Note – this is a fundamental
course with tools you will apply through the balance of the course.

Reading - Simple: Chapter 3

Case - Budget Rent-a-Car (Posted to Portal)

Session 8: Lean and Services; Servitization and Productization

Organizations face challenges associated with getting things done in their firms; this is common.
Fundamental to those challenges is the perception that we don’t have enough resources, or are
too busy. This session focuses on lifting the veil from leadership perception, and freeing up
those resources in the firm to support innovation and executing our customer mandate. The
fundamental concepts of Servitization and Productization are also discussed.

Readings – The Lean Service Machine

Simple: Chapter 4

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Session 9: Service Innovation I: Innovation in Services
Innovation isn’t just about applying R&D in a lab or technology environment. In fact,
innovation in services is more fundamental to the growth and success in that organization. This
class sets the stage for discussing “Breakthrough” services later in the course

Reading - Innovation vs. Complexity

Session 10: Thanksgiving – Classes Cancelled

Session 11: Case Discussion

The first of two case options for your individual case memo. Consider the strategy, service
process and customer issues for Malawi Pizza.

Case - Malawi Pizza **

Video - Service Processing at BuyCostumes.com

Session 12: Service Innovation II

We use a team exercise in this class to evaluate why a particular service model is successful.

Case - Airstream Dream

Reading - Simple: Chapter 6
Video - Breaking Paradigms – Jobs and the MacBook Air

Session 13: Class Trip – Local Service Operation

I see dead people. We tour Fort Fright at Old Fort Henry.

Session 14: Case Discussion and Location Planning

The second of your available case submission options. Evaluate the process design, bottlenecks
and capacity management of Japan’s train cleaning process. As well, we review how service
locations are selected, including location factors and how they affect customer satisfaction.

Case - Trouble at Tessei **

Video - Zappos.com

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Session 15: Hospitality Services and Service Breakthroughs
Here we take an industry specific focus with a look at the restaurant, inn and hospitality industry.

Case - Taking Flight

Session 16: Team Exercise: Who is Your Customer?

Visit and partake in a local service establishment with your team. Meet briefly with the Manager
/ Owner or senior employee present. Using the posted template, have that representative identify
who the organization’s key customers are, and then how their operations support that customer.

Session 17: Case Discussion

Luxury hotels within the hospitality sector are a special type of service, with seemingly
insignificant interactions having a major impact on customer enthusiasm. How can a luxury
brand continue to push the needle with 5-star service?

Case - Oberoi Hotels – Team Case Submission

Reading - Simple: Chapter 5

Session 18: Servitization II: Health and Financial Services

Why do these two service sectors struggle for decent levels of customer service, or do they?
Come to class with examples of ‘better’ health or financial service organizations and what makes
them better. Key – This is a capacity problem to be resolved by an Operations focus.

Case: Medical Scribes of Canada (Posted to the Portal)

Reading - Why Innovation in Health Care is so Hard

Session 19: Service Innovation In-Class Exercise

Consider the culture at firms like Apple, Amazon, and W.L. Gore. What is it that supports
innovation at those firms? How transferable is that to a service organization?

Video - F1 Pitstops – 1950 vs Today

Reading - Simple: Chapter 7
Case - MacBook Air (Posted to the Portal)
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Session 20: Team Presentations
Student teams will present their Theory Lecture, Dragon’s Den or Hideous Service Failure
projects. Teams will have 15 minutes plus 10 minutes for Q&A. 3 teams may present.

Session 21: Team Presentations

Student teams will present their Theory Lecture, Dragon’s Den or Hideous Service Failure
projects. Teams will have 15 minutes plus 10 minutes for Q&A. 3 teams may present.

Session 22: Team Presentations

Student teams will present their Theory Lecture, Dragon’s Den or Hideous Service Failure
projects. Teams will have 15 minutes plus 10 minutes for Q&A. 3 teams may present.

Session 23: Service Innovation III: Leading Change in Services

This is my ‘innovate or die’ pep talk. Final Assignments will be distributed at this time.

Video – Rory Sutherland – TED Conference

Session 24: Education Services; Wrap-Up

Here, a look at the university education system as a business, including the role of outside
organizations and businesses in education.

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 PEER EVALUATION - GROUP PROJECTS

Using the 5-point scale, rate your contribution to the above project and that of the other
members of your group (i.e., the research for and the writing of the report, plus the
preparation of group presentation). Please remember that these documents form part of the
evaluation for the course, and standards of academic honesty must be strictly adhered to.

F Failed to make any contribution to the project.

C Made a minimal contribution to the project. Attended some meetings,

but missed many others. Failed to do the research they had agreed to
perform, failed to meet deadlines, or failed to offer helpful suggestions.

C+ Made a lower than average contribution to the project, i.e. came to

meetings but offered few suggestions, put limited effort into assigned
tasks or performed tasks to a lower standard than did other members of
the group, failed to meet group deadlines.

B Contributed to the project in a quality manner expected of a Queen's

Commerce student, i.e., came to scheduled group meetings, did their
share of the tasks in a 'quality fashion', contributed suggestions,
completed tasks on time.

A Made an above average contribution to the project, i.e. expended more

effort than other members of the group, did additional research, spent
more time, took on a leadership role, etc.

Names and Rating of Group Members (alphabetical order please):

(Remember to rate yourself)

Rating Name Section / Group__________

_____ ________________________________________

_____ ________________________________________

_____ ________________________________________

_____ ________________________________________

_____ ________________________________________

_____ _________________________________________

Signature _________________________________

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