ColinAke.com…until I write a book.

One of my classes this semester is Services Marketing - an elective for management majors persuing a marketing certificate. The class is taught by one of my all time favorite professors at Tech, Peter Vantine. Professor Vantine has some extensive history in the services marketing industry and his experience contributes to a course that encourages us to treat the marketing of services differently than traditional product marketing.

How is a service different from a product? Customers usually don’t obtain ownership of the service. They cannot be inventories and sold later - this they’re very perishable. Often there is a level of service variability that depends on the person performing the service. Services are subjective to the opinion of the customer.

One of the things I have to turn in is a Service Journal - a series of entries documenting my service experiences, both good and bad. I’ve already done a little bit of that here with my rantings against AT&T, so I believe I’ll continue the trend and post some service journal entries for you all to enjoy. I’d also love to hear from you as I post the entries to determine if you’ve had a different experience with the same company, or if you feel my interaction typifies the company’s customer service.

Sit back, enjoy, and feel free to critique the ride.

Take care,

Colin