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The airline industry will be going through dramatic changes in the years to come. This is due foremost to altered customer demands and expectations but also to deregulation of the airline business. Many airline companies have lost track of the true needs of their passengers and are trapped in outdated views of what airline service is all about. The paper illustrates how Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) has tried to set a new standard for customer focused services. Part of this effort was a thorough investigation into the concerns of the customers throughout the entire travel experience. Based on the results, SAS has tried to build an understanding of its passengers and today it develops services founded on what SAS believes are the customers’ true needs and expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflective account of the emergence of new marketing theory as seen through the lens of the Nordic School of Service.

The paper is based on documents and the authors' self‐lived history and current involvement (“management action research”).

Northern European scholars, especially from Finland and Sweden, have felt free to design their own theory, at the same time collaborating internationally. Contributions include an early alert to services and business‐to‐business (B2B) marketing being neglected; dissatisfaction with service quality; that the service economy is more than the service sector; and the insight that relationship marketing and many‐to‐many network marketing better represent service reality. A novel service logic abandoning the divisive goods/services, B2B/B2C (business‐to‐consumer), and supplier/customer categories, based on commonalities and interdependencies is arriving. Nordic School methodology is characterised by induction, case study research, and theory generation, to better address complexity and ambiguity in favour of validity and relevance. In the 2000s, the synthesis provided by service‐dominant (S‐D) logic, IBM's service science, and network and systems theory have inspired a lively international dialogue.

The hegemony of the marketing management of mass‐manufactured consumer goods was challenged when services entered the marketing agenda in the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s the differences been goods marketing and service marketing were explored and the understanding for relationships, networks and interaction developed. It gradually laid the ground for the integrated goods/services approach that is now the major challenge for service researchers and practitioners alike.

It is unfortunate if developments of marketing in the USA are perceived as a universal standard for marketing. By studying contributions from many cultures and nations in other countries the paper enhances the understanding of the diversity of marketing. This article presents such a case from Northern Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on customer orientation by developing and empirically testing a model that attempts to explain the elements that constitute customer orientation and that, in turn, influence customer satisfaction. In particular, this study focuses on how service firms design, collect, analyse and use customer-satisfaction data to improve service performance. This study has the following three research objectives: to understand the process and, as a consequence, the phases of customer orientation; to investigate the relationships between the different phases of customer orientation and customer satisfaction; and to examine activities in the different phases of customer orientation that result in higher customer satisfaction.

This study, combining quantitative and qualitative research, is based on a cross-sectional survey of 320 service firms and a multiple case study of 20 organisational units at a large service firm in the European telecom industry.

The results show that customer orientation consists of a process that includes three phases: strategy, measurement and analysis and implementation. Contrary to previous research, implementation has the strongest influence on customer satisfaction. In turn, customer satisfaction influences financial results. In-depth interviews with managers provided insights into the specific activities that are key for turning customer-satisfaction measurements into action.

This research contributes to the literature on customer orientation by developing and empirically testing a model that attempts to explain what constitutes customer orientation and, in turn, influences customer satisfaction and financial results. Given the large amount of research on customer satisfaction, studies on how service firms collect and use customer-satisfaction data in practice are scarce.

Companies in the telecom industry – and in many other consumer markets – have introduced customer or loyalty clubs over a number of years. Customer clubs have been used as a loyalty‐building measure following the deregulation of telecom markets in Europe. They were introduced as a strategic instrument intended to foster customer retention and to contribute to increased sales and profitability. These clubs are the most recognizable part of many CRM strategies. Their short‐ and long‐term effects on loyalty are not obvious, however. The aim of this article is to explore the effects of the customer club on customer relationships in telecommunications by presenting results from two qualitative studies, which are quantified and reported in terms of responses to the club. The results of this empirical study in a Swedish telecom company reveal that the majority of customer‐club members do not perceive their membership as adding value or contributing to higher commitment and improved loyalty. Nevertheless, there are differences between non‐members and members regarding their perceptions of the service provider. The target group of club members has significantly higher satisfaction with the company than the non‐member customers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore enhancing theory development in service research and provide an overview of the five essays on theorizing initiated by the International Network for Service Research workshop, held at Karlstad, Sweden in September 2014.

A collaborative theorizing process which was initiated at the Karlstad, Sweden workshop.

Six (five from the event and the introduction) original and provocative essays that explore different aspects of theorizing in service research.

Exploring how a collaborative approach to research can be used.

To introduce the special issue focusing on the QUIS 9 symposium.

A brief perspective of the best papers presented at the Quality in Services (QUIS9) symposium held at Karlstad university, Sweden in June 2004.

Outlines some of the highlights surrounding the conference.

Provides a brief report of the context of the conference.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for understanding service design and how service design relates to central concepts within service marketing.

For companies, service design is growing in importance and has become a crucial capability to survive in the service-dominant economy. Service design increases the capacity to improve not only service experiences but also organizational design. On this premise, the authors propose a conceptual framework.

By relating service design to research efforts within service marketing, dual value creation can be enhanced. As such, the conceptual framework portrays service design as an enhancer of customer experience and organizational performance.

To the authors knowledge, service design has not been discussed in the service marketing literature. Thus, this is the first attempt to see service design in light of well-established service marketing models such as SERVQUAL and an updated version of the Service-profit-chain.

The purpose of this paper is to use an eco-friendly service concept framework to demonstrate the effect of credible eco-certification signaling.

The authors examine a cross-sectional data set consisting of 2,481 hotel sites across the US. The authors measure the performance of the operations component of eco-friendly service by operations-driven resource efficiency (ODF), and the performance of the marketing component by customer-driven resource efficiency (CDF). A series of multivariate regressions compare these two resource efficiency measures between credibly eco-certified hotel sites and others.

The results indicate that credible eco-certifications achieve the signaling effect. Eco-certified hotels outperform others in both ODF and CDF measures; and eco-certified hotels still achieve higher CDF after controlling for ODF.

The findings suggest that eco-friendly service design requires not only eco-friendly operations but also a built-in credible signaling mechanism. This mechanism engages the customers in eco-friendly service coproduction and in doing so integrates the operations and marketing components of eco-friendly service strategy through eco-certifications.

This study is among the first to demonstrate empirically the signaling effect of credible eco-certifications in services. It increases understanding of eco-friendly service design and delivery by exploring the role of credible eco-certifications in linking customer benefits with the service organization's strategic intent.

Service organizations and marketers have focussed too much of their energy on their core service's performance and too little emphasis on designing a customer journey that enhances the entire customer experience. There is nothing wrong with firms seeking continuous improvement in service quality and customer satisfaction. These efforts are needed for firms to be competitive in the marketplace. The problem occurs when performance levels and service offerings become too similar within an industry, so that price is the only competitive weapon that remains. The purpose of this paper is to argue that in order to break this deadlock, companies need to focus on the small details that make big differences to customers.

The paper builds on interviews with executives in successful service organizations. It provides an analysis of differentiation strategies in diverse service organizations across consumption contexts, nations and cultures around the world.

The paper develops three research propositions and argues for radical approaches to help service organizations truly understand customers and provide service experiences that engage and delight them. The paper argues that the new challenge for marketing is to help companies find and implement these small details to make a large impact on the overall customer experience.

In order to truly understand the customer experience, we need a holistic view of all interactions customers have with a company. We need to understand the customer-firm interactions at all touch points, that is, during search, purchase, consumption and post-consumption. Customer experience involves the customers’ cognitive, affective, emotional, social and sensory responses to the firm. The originality of this research lies in the focus on the small details that make a difference to customers during the service process rather than in the final outcome of the service performance.