Introduction to Service: What It Is and What It Should Be by Harry Katzan, Jr (E

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Service is a subject we should all know about, because it is the up and coming discipline for the 21st century. This book covers what a service is and what it should be. In ordinary everyday language, a service is an activity that one entity provides for another entity, such as auto repair or dental work. The entity performing the service is called the service provider and the entity receiving the service is called the service consumer, even though different names usually apply. Services are important to people in business, government, education, health care and management, religion, military, scientific research, engineering, and other endeavors that are too numerous to mention. The subject is important to providers and consumers of services, alike. In fact, most service providers - be they individuals, businesses, governments, and so forth - are also consumers of services during the course of everyday life. A sage has said that in reality, everything is a service, because a consumer - when receiving an activity of some sort - is actually providing a service to the provider. Think about it. Even a person with an MD degree is actually not a service provider unless he or she has patients. This is a subject for another chapter or even another book. Today, most of us are employed in performing a service of some kind. Typical examples are doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, entertainers, news people, dry cleaners, and maintenance workers. Actually, this should not be a surprise, since much of what we do in everyday life involves using a service. A service activity is characterized by the fact that the result is usually intangible, meaning, in this instance, that an artifact of some sort is not produced as a result of the service experience, as in the manufacture of a product. Most people never think about the many aspects of a service engagement. Therefore, basic concepts and some service definitions are definitely in order. A service is a client/provider interaction that creates and captures value for both participants, and a service system is a system of people and technology that adapts to the changing value of knowledge in the system.

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