SERVICES MARKETING (ONLINE) - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module commences with introducing the principles of services marketing. The services sector, such as telecommunications, financial services, hospitality, transportation services, healthcare, and professional services, accounts for over three-quarters of GDP and employment in most developed countries. In light of the growing importance of services in local and global economies, it becomes crucial to study and understand the functionality of service offerings. This module will explore the distinctive characteristics of services and explain how these characteristics affect the marketing approaches used by firms – including challenges involved in controlling service quality and managing customer experience. The module also covers the principles of relationship marketing combined with the meaning and application of services and relationship marketing across different service contexts. 
This module also assesses the impact of emerging technologies and AI on services marketing. It also introduces advanced analytics techniques employed by leading companies to assess and manage their customer’s service experience. Additionally, the module focuses on real-world business scenarios providing students with an opportunity to examine management decision-making and enhancing a wide range of study skills, such as independent research, analytical skills, as well as critical thinking.

Module provider

SOL - Surrey Business School

Module Leader

HEIRATI Nima (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative contents of the module include:

• Models and approaches to services and relationship marketing.


• The impact of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) on in services and relationship marketing.


• Positioning core and supplementary services.


• Service quality and managing customer experience and service processes.


• Employing advanced analytic techniques and big data to manage customer experience.


• Building and managing long-term customer relationships.


• Managing customer complaints and misbehaviour.


• Managing business relationships.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy of this module is aimed at allowing students to gradually build up their knowledge and understanding of services and relationship marketing and is designed to allow students to evidence their achievement of the learning outcomes. The assessment components comprise one individual Customer Journey Analysis report (100%). For this assessment, students will be working in a consultant mindset by synthesizing and applying services and relationship marketing principles to real-world companies. Managerial implications need to be provided to show how a company can improve its services and relationship marketing strategy elements, with supporting evidence from theory and research in the relevant field. This assessment support students to achieve all learning outcomes.
Feedback
Formative Feedback
The online seminars will offer opportunity for students to receive formative feedback on topics covered and the assessment to help improve students understanding on topics and performance in their assessed work
A detailed marking scheme is provided for students at the beginning of semester together with the assessment details. This allows students to identify what is expected of them. The marking scheme outlines the percentage figures for each assessment component. This is also essential as it allows for consistency in the marking process.

• During the live sessions, the requirements of each assessment component and the feedback process will be explained.


• As the live sessions are built around topic-specific group exercises, students do not only benefit from the module leader but also receive peer evaluations.


• A Q&A and feedback session is provided for each assessment component.

Summative Feedback
Detailed feedback will be provided for each summative assessment by the marker, using marking grid with marking criteria. The grid is detailed and structured to show the breakdown of marks in each band for each criterion. All students will be able to check the detailed marking grid against the marks they scored for each part of the assessment and see what the higher-level descriptor is for achieving marks above [and below] the marks they were awarded.

Module aims

• Provide students with knowledge of fundamental concepts and frameworks widely used in services and relationship marketing.
• Enable students (as future managers) to synthesis and apply key elements of both services and relationship marketing strategies that help businesses across different contexts gain competitive advantage.
• Employ diverse analysis techniques to critically assess typical customer journeys and make strategic marketing decisions to improve customer experience by application of effective services and relationship marketing strategies.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to provide structured formal learning through the online environment. By actively engaging in the full range of guided learning activities students will explore the fundamental concepts, tools, and theories of the module to create new knowledge and build on existing experience. The live learning sessions are designed to provide students with the opportunity to learn through the application of skills, discussion, and peer learning. In this module, theory and practice go together.
Students are invited to contribute to discussions from their own background and experiences and are encouraged to be actively involved in problem solving, thus developing their own judgments, opinions, and critical thinking. Students are expected to utilise independent learning to deepen their knowledge and skills in core areas of interest. Furthermore, Q&A and discussion forums will be set up to facilitate the discussion of various topics between the module leader and students.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM586

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:
Digital capabilities:  Understanding the critical roles of information technology (IT), artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced analytics (e.g., big data) for service business is the key aspect of learning in this module. Students will develop the capacity to work with databases, online reports, and data analytic platforms for managing customer experience (i.e., CX dashboards), service processes, and customer relationship management (i.e., CRM platforms). Further, the module assessments require students to use a wide range of digital resources (e.g., websites, databases), platforms (e.g., CX design platforms), as well as presentation and video recording applications (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint). Students are encouraged to communicate with one another and learn from each other during seminars and using the Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Employability: This module introduces the principles of services marketing, service processes management, and relationship marketing, which are highly valued across different industries. As products and standardized services become more commoditized, customers differentiate based on experiences with a company more than specific product/service features and functions. Customers want to feel connected to their favourite brands, and they want the companies they buy from to know and respect them. Customer experience has become the leading competitive differentiator, thus businesses must ensure that their service strategies can deliver personalized, pleasing interactions at every customer touchpoint. This module equips students with knowledge and practical techniques and skills to analyse the customer journey, manage service processes, build strong relationships with target customers, and ultimately manage the customer experience successfully. These skills are highly valuable to employers across different sectors. Furthermore, this module improves the students’ employability as the service sectors, such as telecommunications, financial services, hospitality, transportation services, healthcare, and professional services, account for over three-quarters of GDP and employment in most developed countries (e.g., UK).
Global and cultural capabilities:  The module is taught in a collaborative way, in a cohort that commonly represents a wealth of nationalities and backgrounds. Students are encouraged to engage with and learn from, diverse perspectives through interaction and case studies. Different service processes and customer experience management scenarios across different cultural settings will be introduced and discussed. The module goes beyond the customer differences in terms of personality traits and advances the understanding of how cultural background and values affect the customers’ expectations. The module provides students with the opportunity to interact effectively with other students from diverse backgrounds to broaden their worldview, own perspectives and interpretations, and reinterpreting issues against a broader spectrum of ideas and representations.
Resourcefulness and resilience:  This module involves practical critical thinking and problem-solving skills that teach a student how to analyse and improve a company’s service processes and explore solutions to enhance the customer journey. Using practical cases, this module encourages students to become a critical thinker who reason about and solve challenging problems through combining the theory taught with practical skills and techniques. Building on their knowledge and understanding throughout the module, students will be able to develop and apply new ideas to improve the customer experience for real companies. This approach helps students move from the initial understanding to the application and evaluation of the principles of services and relationship marketing. Further, the presentation of key issues that could affect hypothetical customer experience for a real company and proposition of solutions as part of the coursework in this module enable students to build their personal and communication capabilities to describe and defend their ideas and solutions. Therefore, this module and its assessment are designed to support students to develop their critical thinking, problem-solving, and personal capabilities and thrive as independent learners.
Sustainability: Although the sustainability issues are not the key focus of principles of services and relationship marketing, the module discussed the role of emerging technologies and AI to deliver services and create virtual servicescapes for customers. Furthermore, all the resources for this module are available digitally and students should digitally submit the assessments.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.