• Preface
• New features for this edition
• Case examples and exercises
• About the authors

1. Introduction to service operations
2. The world of service
3. Service strategy
4. The service concept

1. Customer relationships
2. Service quality
3. Designing customer experience
4. People in the service operation
5. Service culture

1. Service supply networks
2. Designing the service process
3. Managing service performance
4. Service resources and capacity

1. Service innovation
2. Service improvement
3. Learning from problems
4. Learning from other operations

• Index
• Publisher acknowledgements

Service Operations Management, 5th Edition, by Robert Johnston et al. is a market-leading text on service operations management and provides a clear understanding of how service performance can be improved in organisations. This textbook applies underlying theories to the real world challenges faced by service operations managers on a daily basis, by providing a diverse range of examples and illustrations. Each chapter provides a range of tools, frameworks and techniques designed to help you better analyse existing operations and understand ways to deal with operational challenges.

This book can be used to support a dedicated Service Operations Management course, or a service-focused course in Operations Management. The book is also ideal if you who want to build on knowledge of the basic principles of operations management, and it serves as a handbook for operations managers in service organisations as they seek to develop and implement operations strategies.

About the authors

Robert Johnston was Professor of Operations Management at Warwick Business School. He had a management degree from the University of Aston and a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick.

Michael Shulver is a Senior Lecturer in the Information, Decision and Operations Division at Bath School of Management where he is the Director of Online Teaching.

Nigel Slack is Emeritus Professor of Operations Management and Strategy at Warwick Business School, an Honorary Professor at Bath University and 'Honorary Fellow of the European Operations Management Association'.

Graham Clark is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management, having been a member of the Operations Management Faculty for nearly 30 years.

Pearson, the world’s learning company.

• The learning objectives point your students towards the right learning direction in each chapter.
• Summaries at the end of each chapter help your students understand the basic themes discussed and organise their studying.
• End-of-chapter questions and exercises encourage students to practice what they have learned and check their understanding of the content.
• End-of-chapter case studies offer the practical understanding your students need to cement their learning of the most essential concepts.
• Suggestions for further reading support your students as they explore additional resources that will help them better understand the learning material.

UPDATED! Servops.net is the instructor’s companion website and manual for this textbook. Key features include:

• a range of presentations in PowerPoint and Keynote formats to suit a range of teaching styles, experiences and time constraints
• an available series of video screencasts in which the authors explain their approach to teaching each topic
• a series of lesson plans and handout designs useful for your lectures
• detailed questions to go with the cases, followed by bullet-point answers to the question

• Real-world, up-to-date illustrations: Operations management is an applied subject, so each chapter includes a range of short illustrations and case examples from around the world showing how organisations have identified or dealt with the particular issues being discussed
• International, real-world illustrations – examples in the text, case examples and case exercises – are drawn from many countries to show the diversity and international nature of operations issues and activities. (We have included a list of the case examples later.)
• State-of-the-art ideas and information cover world-class service, performance management, service concepts, customer experience and service processes.
• Introducing Professor Nigel Slack, who has joined the author team for this latest edition of the book! Nigel Slack brings a wealth of experience in authoring his market-leading texts in Operations Management and Operations Strategy.
• NEW! Increased coverage of the growth in the service sector and the various types of service organisations.

• NEW! A new chapter on service innovation has been included in the Improving Service Operations section.
• UPDATED! Discussion questions and exercises at the end of each chapter are available - aimed both at students and practising managers. These questions will encourage readers to test their understanding and apply the material in the chapter.
• UPDATED! Suggestions for further readings allow topics to keep developing, to help students develop their basic understanding of the topic further and extend its scope.
• UPDATED! Each chapter concludes with a case exercise suitable for class discussion. The cases are short but focused on the topic and are a rich source of material for debate and development.

• NEW! Significantly revised chapter order to reflect a new structure based on four parts – Framing service operations, Understanding customers, Delivering service, and Improving service operations
• NEW! "Counterpoint" features in most chapters provide comments or criticisms of conventional theory and/or practice
• UPDATED! Frameworks, tools and techniques provided in each chapter