April 17, 2012
Marketing department head joins consulting firm's advisory board
Kevin P. Gwinner, professor of and head of the department of marketing, has joined the advisory council of Service 360 Partners, a consulting firm.
As an adviser, Gwinner will ensure that the company relies on the latest insights into how to effectively manage client relationships and service excellence.
"Professor Gwinner is a leading scholar on the topics of service excellence and customer loyalty. His research is focused on practical topics that have already influenced the best practices we share with clients. In combination with his exceptional teaching, he is the perfect partner for us as we seek to bridge the gap between academic theory and the practical challenges of service excellence," said Lance Bettencourt, co-founder and partner of the Bloomington, Ind.- based company.
Gwinner’s research on customer-employee interactions, word-of-mouth and complaining behavior, and relationship quality has twice won him the Outstanding Research Paper Award for the best article published in the Journal of Service Research. In 2005 his research on consumer relational benefits was recognized as the most influential article published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science in the prior seven years.
Gwinner has also received the Commerce Bank Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching from the university, and he is a faculty fellow of the College of Business Administration.
Each of his areas of expertise will be brought to bear in partnership with Service 360 Partners. In addition to advising, he will occasionally use his expertise to lead Service 360 Partners training workshops and supporting specific company engagements. Collaboration with Service 360 Partners will also open up unique research opportunities and result in unique insights that he will bring back to the classroom.
"I am looking forward to my interactions with Service 360 Partners and their clients. It is just this type of interaction with real world business partners that keeps our business courses fresh and relevant and lends an additional level of sophistication to research," he said.