Institute of Commercial Management | Qualification Subject

Strategic Management In Hospitality

ICM Professional Diploma Unit

The Nature of Services

  • The growing importance of services
  • Services: what makes them special?
  • A closer look at services
  • The role of service classifications

Defining the Service Concept

  • Why do we need a service concept?
  • How to define the service concept
  • Implementing the service concept
  • The service concept as a guiding framework: an overview of its main ingredients
  • Why not all service concepts are alike

Servitisation: Or Why Services Management is Relevant for Manufacturing Environments

  • From goods to services
  • Why servitisation?
  • Making the transition

Relationship Marketing

  • Relationship marketing: new words to an old tune?
  • Linking customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability
  • Lifetime value: the link with profitability
  • How to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
  • Setting objectives in service marketing

Promoting Services

  • What is so different about promoting services?
  • The basic building blocks of promotion
  • Designing a marketing communications strategy for services
  • Drawing up a promotion plan

Pricing Services

  • Developing a framework for pricing decisions
  • Pricing objectives
  • Pricing strategies
  • How to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
  • Pricing structure
  • Pricing levels and tactics

Customer Satisfaction and Complaint Management

  • Service quality and customer satisfaction
  • A service satisfaction framework
  • Measuring customer satisfaction
  • Complaint management

Service Guarantees and Service-level Agreements

  • Service guarantees
  • Service-level agreements
  • Internal service guarantees and service-level agreements

The Role of Human Resource Practices in Service Organisations

  • The nature of services
  • Human resource management for services

Competencies and Service Organisations

  • Designing competency-based HR practices
  • Linking customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability
  • Competencies for service organisations

Collaboration: Integrating Work and Learning

  • The benefits of collaboration in the workplace
  • The broader relevance of collaboration to services
  • The role of collaboration in learning
  • Collaboration as the central theme
  • Establishing collaborative relationships

The Role of Empowerment in Service Organisations

  • The relevance of empowerment for service environments
  • Empowerment: the employee and the supervisor
  • Empowerment: the organisation

Role Stress Among Front-line Employees

  • Relevance of role stress for the service encounter
  • Linking customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability
  • Role stress defined
  • Handling role stress for front-line employees

Service Process Design and Management

  • Process choice
  • Process design
  • Process monitoring
  • Process evaluation
  • Process re-engineering

Capacity Management

  • Capacity and capacity management
  • Capacity planning
  • Scheduling capacity
  • Managing the demand side
  • The psychology and managerial consequences of waiting

Facilities Management

  • The nature of facilities management in services
  • The nature of facilities management in services
  • Location
  • How to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
  • Designing the servicescape

IT Developments and their Impact on Services

  • The network era – where do we stand?
  • The impact of IT developments on service encounters
  • Action strategies for the new media

Performance Measurement Systems in Service Firms

  • Designing performance measurement systems for services
  • Implementing an integrated performance measurement system

Managing Innovation in a Service Environment

  • Innovations as spiral processes: the value-constellation approach
  • Innovation portfolio management
  • Organising the innovation portfolio: the make-or-buy decision
  • The operational management of innovation

Managing Services across National Boundaries

  • Why internationalise?
  • Drivers towards internationalisation
  • Culture and cultural differences
  • Internationalisation strategies

Defining a Service Strategy

  • The nature of strategic management
  • The challenges of strategic management for services

Example Candidate Response Booklet

Example Candidate Response (ECR) Booklets are a source of crucial information for Centres and Candidates as they use real candidate responses. We ask Senior Examiners to comment on five or more responses in terms of why the mark was awarded with commentary about how to improve the answer (if necessary).

Recommended Reading

Main Text:

Services Management – An Integrated Approach (2nd edition) – B. Van Looy, P. Gemmel & R. Van Dierdonck (Prentice Hall)

Indicative Text:

Alternative Text and Further Reading: