The business services industry comprises a broad spectrum of businesses that provide non-financial service to others. These include advertising, consulting, transportation (including shipping and logistics), waste handling, staffing, administrative and security services.
In general, business services fall between the two extremes of product-oriented and service-oriented industries. They offer products or services that are intangible, which makes it difficult to explain the businesses to non-business audiences.
Business services have four basic components: design, engagement, action, and insight. All of these elements must be aligned to achieve a successful and profitable service business.
Design
Service companies must design their offering in a way that meets the needs and desires of a large and attractive group of customers. This means that they must shift from focusing on the characteristics that buyers will value to a focus on the experiences that customers want to have.
The experience that a customer has while using a service can affect the cost and quality of that service. Moreover, the experience that the customer has with the service can also influence other customers’ experiences.
Engagement
A good service offers the right level of interaction with customers to ensure that they are happy with the outcome. This is critical for achieving long-term customer loyalty. A poor customer experience, however, can cause a business to lose market share or customers altogether.
Action
Effective service delivery starts with an efficient process for responding to customers’ requests for service. This includes the development of a process for handling the initial request, a process for delivering the requested service, and a process for monitoring the service’s performance to identify and solve issues.
In addition, process owners must develop a service catalog that lists digital business services and their associated provisioning policies and service level options, including costs and ordering steps. The catalog also needs to communicate the value of each service to customers, allowing them to decide which service is most suitable for their needs and requirements.
The process of delivering digital business services must be aligned with the organization’s business goals and operational objectives. This involves identifying the core business processes and determining which ones are best supported by information technology (IT).
Use the service catalog to document how each digital business service is delivered. This will allow the organization to track its progress and evaluate how the service performs against the business goals it set for it.
Build insight through the system of action: Ensure that the business service has a system of engagement, which helps customers understand and interact with the service. This can be done through a service portal, which provides self-service capability for the business service.
In addition, a service system must connect the system of engagement to a system of insight, which allows customers to gain additional insights into how to improve their experiences. This can be achieved by connecting the service’s data elements to a systems of action, such as dashboards, reports, or other visualization tools.
