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A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.

Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.

Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.

The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.

Offers a fresh outlook for managing the delicate interaction between the customer and the contact employee in the service environment. Emphasizes that the quality of the customer‐employee interfacehas a great effect on customers′ perceptions of the quality and value of the service, as well as on their satisfaction. Suggests a model of how companies can improve this interface by treating employees ascustomers and customers as employees, thus developing lower cost and higher quality services and also higher levels of satisfaction on the part of both customers and employees. Recommends various steps for management to take.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of the foundational construct of “connection” in linking design and service in performing vital functions in the healthcare sector. “Connection” facilitates patients receiving life-saving and life-improving care at the right time, in the right place, in the right way.

This article discusses various design-improvement initiatives making clear that healthcare, like any labor-intensive service delivered to people, is a human endeavor whose systems and features can be materially and cleverly enhanced once their intricacies are analyzed, understood and then redesigned to move closer to excellence.

By designing connection into healthcare and thinking holistically about the needs and preferences of users (patients), the functionality and the appeal of healthcare services can be enhanced.

The gap between the service that healthcare aims to deliver – and what it actually delivers – is unacceptably large. This article calls for incorporating connection through design into healthcare as a way to bridge this gap.

Explores the segmentation by service marketers of the consumer market on the basis of service quality expectations. Measures consumer expectations and various quality dimensions for three commonly purchased professional and three non‐professional services. Evaluates the effect of various consumers′ demographic characteristics on service quality expectations. Concludes with a discussion of research and managerial implications.

“Big Ideas in Services Marketing”, published in 1987, identified seven precepts fundamental to the just emerging field; this paper aims to explore the relevance of these ideas three decades later and discuss what should be changed and what should be added.

Deep reflection on the central ideas proposed in a paper written 30 years ago through the lens of the author’s personal research and learning journey was the basis for preparing this retrospective essay.

The seven ideas presented in the original paper have stood the test of time although one of the seven “services branding” was incompletely developed. After 30 years, four more ideas need to be added, i.e. competing on value, meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations, saving customers’ time and effort, and generosity.

The proposals in the 1987 paper offered an early framework for consideration by scholars who have produced a worthy body of work and brought services marketing into its own as a legitimate discipline.

Can businesses that deliver services through multiple distribution points significantly improve their reputations for quality? Yes, but these businesses must overcome the common perception that chain operations do not care about quality as much as locally‐owned firms. Explores the idea of large companies acting like small ones to improve their quality reputation.

Over the past two and a half decades services marketing has emerged as a well established area of inquiry in the marketing discipline. In many ways, its growth and acceptance in the academic arena are indeed noteworthy. A question arises, however, concerning the direction that services marketing as a field of study should take in the future. This article reports and content‐analyzes the insights of ten leading services scholars regarding that question. That group comprises Leonard Berry, Mary Jo Bitner, David Bowen, Stephen W. Brown, Christian Gro¨nroos, Evert Gummesson, Christopher Lovelock, Parsu Parasuraman, Benjamin Schneider, and Valarie Zeithaml. Recurring themes and provocative observations among the services experts’ comments are related and discussed. Concluding remarks are offered.

Evaluates customers′ and employees′ service quality expectations and perceptions from the example of a hospital environment. Considers employees′ responses in administrative and nonadministrative categories. Notes differences between the groups and discusses the managerial implications arising from the differences found. Includes a detailed description of the methodology involved in the study.

Discusses intensifying competition in the USA from within and outside banking and changes in customers having a major effect on bank management thought and action. Speculates that US banking may be forced to have a strategic re‐examination of the most central of marketing questions: to whom, what and how should we market to them? Gives a list of in‐depth questions and goes on to investigate them and also addresses the four highest priorities and discusses these in turn. Chronicles these as follows: emphasizing relationship banking; developing multi‐tier delivery systems; marketing to investors; building a personal selling organization. Concludes that newer and bolder perspectives are urgently needed within the bank marketing discipline and in closing says the 1980s will prove to be a transitional decade for the bank marketing profession in the USA.