Service Recovery Session at the Services Leadership Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

I was invited by Arizona State University to be one of the faculty for their 30th annual Services Leadership Institute.  This event brings together mid- to upper-level executives from service companies to discuss issues related to service management and marketing.  ASU promotes it as "an exclusive mini-MBA program on delivering on your customers' true expectations and competing through your service offerings."  My session was entitled "Service Recovery."

Discussing service failure and recovery.

In talking about Service Recovery, I discussed both "fixing the customer" and "fixing the problem."  I also suggested how a service guarantee might be used to do both.  (You may recall that I have offered a service guarantee in my classes both at BGSU and the University of Idaho.)

A very nice classroom in Mccord Hall in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

For years a session on Service Recovery (by which we mean a firm's response to service delivery failure to resolve the situation for the customer) was delivered as part of the Services Leadership Institute by Steve Brown, the founding director of ASU's Center for Services Leadership. Steve was my mentor when I was a Ph.D. student at ASU, is a fellow basketball fan, can continues to be a friend and encourage me in my professional and personal life. Steve retired a couple of years ago, and decided not to be involved with SLI this year. Thus, an opportunity was created for me to be involved! Before the event, Steve and I had a chance to spend a couple of hours together while I was in the valley.

Dwayne and Steve Brown (wearing his Bowling Green t-shirt!)