Service Management Emphasis

Service Management Emphasis

Provide world-class service for any organization.

Virtually every organization has a large service component and a significant need for skilled professionals. Learn how to provide world-class service management in any industry. Service management is an integrated collection of courses designed to provide the unique skills and knowledge required to succeed in the service economy. This emphasis is especially valuable for those who plan to work in a management or professional capacity in the service sector, including professional service organizations (e.g. law, accounting), customer service departments, call centers, help desks, insurance etc.

Why study Service Management at UCCS?

  1. AACSB Accredited

    The UCCS College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance College Schools of Business (AACSB) which ensures your professors, classes and fellow students are of the highest quality. Only 5% of business schools worldwide have achieved this distinction.

  2. Exceptional Faculty

    Our leading instructors are nationally and internationally recognized for their research and instruction. Receive personalized guidance from professors with real-world experience in their field. 

  3. Ethical Curriculum

    The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at UCCS instills principle-based ethics education throughout the business school, resulting in a high standard of ethics in our students and graduates.

  4. Community Support

    UCCS offers a various ways to connect and engage across campus. The College of Business sponsors several business-oriented clubs and organizations, including the business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi.

  5. Real-World Experience

    The College of Business houses its own Career Development Center, dedicated to provide business students with assistance in career development, internship opportunities and job placement upon graduation. 

  6. Global Perspectives

    The College of Business incorporates international business cases into the curriculum to ensure you are prepared for cross-cultural and international business opportunities. For those who wish to study abroad, the College of Business maintains partnerships with business schools across the world.

Service Management Courses

  • Human Resource Management for Managers

    This course presents an overview of the entire Human Resource (HR) function. Topics include recruiting, staffing, job descriptions, health and safety laws, training and career development, performance management, compensation and benefits, employee relations and workplace issues.

  • Experiences in Leadership

    A guided self-development course to learn and apply the scientifically-proven principles and skills of effective leadership in modern times. Content focuses on the ideological styles of authentic, transformational and servant leadership.

  • Service Management and Marketing

    This course builds and expands on the introductory marketing course by showing adaptations and applications of marketing ideas to the service setting. The service component of business requires a distinctive approach to marketing strategy both in development and execution. In addition, quality service cannot be delivered without understanding and developing the organizational and human resources of the firm. Designed for those students who are interested in working in either traditional service industries or in the service areas of manufacturing industries.

  • Managing Service Operations

    This course prepares students for operations management opportunities in service industries such as financial services, entertainment, hospitality, logistics services and health care. Focusing on the management of service operations, this course will explore topics in three modules: 1) understanding services, 2) designing the service enterprises and 3) managing service operations. Sample topics include service strategy, new service development, service quality, service facility location, managing capacity and demand for services, managing waiting line and queuing models and managing service projects. Equips students with the concepts and tools necessary to effectively manage a service operation, and should provide entrepreneurially-inclined students with the foundation to open their own service businesses.

  • Total Rewards for Motivating and Retaining Employees

    This course examines the compensation and benefits practices to attract, engage and retain employees. Emphasis is placed on a total rewards strategy to meet the organization's strategic goals, job analysis and job descriptions, compensation and benefits plan design and administration, pay and benefits laws, recognition, wellness and reward practices.

  • Talent Acquisition: Recruiting, Interviewing, and Selecting Employees

    This course examines the practices involved in building and maintaining an effective workforce that meets the organization's needs by identifying and hiring candidates who can make a significant contribution and are most likely to be retained. The major focus of the course is on the development of students' skills and use of pre-employment testing/assessment methods and internet recruiting tools, workforce planning, selection, placement, applicant tracking systems and knowledge of key hiring related laws.

  • Advanced Topics in Human Resource Management

    This course examines the key competencies and practices that are required for HR professionals to be effective in organizations. Topics include HR strategies and structures, ethical foundations for HR, a HR professional's role in business partnering with internal organizational clients, business management for attaining organizational goals, consultation and facilitation skills, HR Technology, HR data reporting and analysis.

  • Improving Personal and Team Creativity

    This course covers the concepts and theories of creativity, but devotes most of the course time to specific, proven approaches to unlock and surface the student’s innate creativity. Examples of creative approaches in business and industry are illustrated. Both individual and group creativity techniques are reviewed and practiced, with emphasis on how to form a creative work team.

  • Organizational Development and Change

    This course provides students with critical skills for today's times of unprecedented change and fierce competition. The course introduces students to the field of Organization Development and Change that prepares leaders and those committed to being change champions with skills in improving the health and performance of individuals, groups and organizations.

  • Marketing Research

    This course emphasizes marketing research as a decision-making tool for marketing managers. A variety of methodologies is explored. Course project provides students with hands-on experience in planning an investigation, data collection design, sampling, experimentation, interpretation of results and report preparation.

  • Retailing Strategy

    This course prepares students to manage a successful retailing operation. Topics include retail strategy, marketing, finance, store operations, human resource management, buying and supply chain issues.

  • Sport Marketing

    This course focuses on the two primary components of sports marketing: (1) the marketing of sport and (2) the use of sport as a marketing tool for other products and services (i.e. sponsorship). The marketing of sport component gives attention to the various techniques and strategies used to market sport products, services, events and experiences. The first part of the class will work toward the preparation of a sport marketing strategy. The marketing through sport section will examine the core concepts, objectives and components of partnership marketing (and sports sponsorship as a central part of this) and will ultimately work toward to presentation of a sport sponsorship proposal.

Potential Careers

Career
Average Salary
Outlook Through 2028
Number of New Jobs Through 2028

Customer Service Manager

$57,000

+7%

21,800

Call Center Director

$91,000

+9%

60,200

Project Manager

$88,000

+10%

51,000

Hospitality Professional

$63,000

+3%

600

Facility Services Manager

$66,000

+7%

21,800

Human Resource Professional

$60,000

+5%

33,000

Please note, the above information was collected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, therefore the proposed average salary ranges do not necessarily reflect entry level positions. For guidelines, insights and support regarding salary negotiation, please contact the Career Development Center.  

Service Management Faculty Spotlight
Jeffery Ferguson, Ph.D.
Dr. Jeffery M. Ferguson has over 40 years of teaching and research experience in the areas of service management, marketing strategy, marketing research, work place spirituality and service quality. He received the UCCS Outstanding Teacher Award in 2005 and has won the College of Business Outstanding Teacher Award twice. For 20 years, Jeff was a marketing research consultant conducting focus groups and survey research for a variety of regional and national clients on topics such as new product design, program evaluation, target market identification and customer satisfaction. He served on the school board in District #38 for over 20 years and was president for 13 of those years. He was selected to the Colorado Association of School Boards All State School Board in 2000 and won the McGuffy Award twice. For ten years, he has been a guest lecturer in educational leadership classes at UCCS.