Business services are a type of business that sells intangible goods or services. These businesses are not primarily concerned with producing or selling tangible products and therefore are less dependent on financial returns than other types of companies.
They provide a service, rather than a product, for which customers pay a predetermined price. In this way, they differ from production or manufacturing firms, which have a direct line of sight to the end product.
Unlike product businesses, service firms have to build service systems that meet a variety of needs and desires, including customer convenience and friendly interaction. The success of a service business can depend on how well it satisfies these needs and desires.
In designing a service, managers need to shift from focusing on the characteristics that buyers will value in a product and focus more on how those values affect the quality of the service itself. This can be a difficult adjustment, but it is important to do so if you want your service to be successful.
The design process begins by identifying a customer need or desire, and then developing an offering to fulfill that need. This may involve an analysis of the customer’s environment, which can help to identify opportunities for delivering value.
Once a service has been designed, management must then determine how to deliver it to the customer. For example, if your company provides plumbing services, you need to consider whether it makes sense for your customers to drive their cars to your facility to have the work done. This is an opportunity to offer convenience and friendly interaction that can help to differentiate your service from competitors’ offerings.
You should also consider the impact that delivery of your service can have on your employees and other people in the organization. For example, if your employees are slow to complete their work because they are distracted by personal issues, this can affect the efficiency of your entire operation.
This can be especially problematic for business-to-business (B2B) service providers, who need to be efficient in order to remain competitive.
B2B service providers usually target commercial establishments such as retail stores, offices, or hotels, but they can also serve individuals if the services are related to their personal lives. For example, a carpet cleaning firm may target individual consumers with their cleaning services, while a security company is more likely to target commercial establishments.
The best way to get your business off the ground is to start with an idea for a service. This way, you have something to focus on that is both scalable and profitable.
Regardless of the kind of business you are pursuing, it is important to remember that your ultimate goal is to make your business profitable. A business cannot be profitable unless it is generating more inflows than outflows.
Business services are a significant sector in the EU economy, with significant untapped growth potential. To stimulate growth and competition in the industry, EU policymakers have taken a number of actions. These include a High Level Group on Business ServicesEN*** and the development of the European Commission’s An Integrated Industrial Policy for the Globalisation EraEN***.
