Abstract

This paper reports research that investigates the perceptions of service managers on the future of customer service. It provides insight into the evolving managerial issues through detailed interviews with senior customer-service directors and managers in different service sectors. Service organisations that will be successful in the future will focus the roles and capabilities of their customer-service staff on customer needs, and support them through active service leadership. A six-stage approach to developing the necessary strategies for managing customer service in this environment is deduced.