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Chapter 3

Summary

Managing service innovation raises some particular challenges but, as manufacturers
are facing the need to provide more services, these challenges are very
relevant to both the service and manufacturing sectors. This chapter has
shown:

• The role of the service sector in developed economics and the increasing
  importance of services for manufacturers.
• That service products are intimately linked to their production and delivery
  – the service augmentation. Service augmentation, including the environment
  in which the service is delivered, has a strong influence on customer
  satisfaction.
• The management of innovation for services is complicated by their inherent
  nature, especially by their intangibility and non-storability.
• Managing service quality requires an awareness of the customer’s perception
  and careful management of both the core service product and the
  service augmentation.
• That new service development is challenging because of the nature of
  services. A suitable management process is required and this must consider
  not only the product itself but also the augmented service offering. The
  process also needs to ensure good teamwork, spanning the front and back
  office boundary. In the next five chapters, each of the elements of the Pentathlon Framework will be considered.