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Preface
This is a book about service excellence. The perspectives we take are people,
technology, and people and technology. We identify service (in a variety
of forms) as an area of business and management where rapid change is
taking place. We believe our chosen perspectives are among the key drivers
of change. Social, cultural, and technological developments are inuenc-
ing the ways in which customers contact, negotiate, and purchase services
from their chosen service providers. These same developments are also driv-
ing communications between customers relating to the services they buy
and are willing to recommend to others (or otherw