Business services are various tasks and activities that help maintain a company, but do not result in the delivery of a tangible product. Examples of business services are information technology, which supports numerous other business services like shipping and procurement, or training services, which help employees develop the skills required to perform their jobs. Many companies offer a variety of business services and the demand for them continues to grow worldwide.
In addition to providing value, the key to success for a service-based business is its ability to differentiate itself from competitors. To achieve this, a service business must get four things right:
1. Delivering Quality: This means the company must ensure it can consistently provide its customers with the same high level of quality regardless of the time of day or whether an employee is on vacation. This requires investing in training and hiring the best people for each role. It also requires developing a customer-centric culture that encourages employees to deliver exceptional customer experience at all times.
2. Providing Consistent Pricing: A key challenge for most small businesses is offering consistent prices. They must charge enough to cover their costs, but not so much that they drive away consumers. Fortunately, there are several ways to do this, including bundling services, offering seasonal discounts and using technology to increase efficiency.
3. Providing In-House Resources: This allows companies to save money by avoiding the need to hire external providers and frees up internal staff for more important projects. It can also improve productivity by allowing employees to work on tasks they are highly skilled at or enjoy doing most. For example, some companies provide in-house animal control or pest extermination services to handle occasional infestations. Others provide maintenance service professionals to fix faulty appliances and equipment. Still, others offer in-house tech support to assist employees with computer issues.
4. Making It Easier: This refers to simplifying the process for obtaining business services and reducing transaction costs. For example, implementing an online portal where companies can easily order and pay for supplies or transportation is an excellent way to make it easier to obtain business services.
In general, business services are a subset of economic services. However, the main distinction is that they are primarily sold to other businesses (business-to-business or B2B) rather than end consumers (business-to-consumer or B2C). For example, a car manufacturing company would perform B2B transactions with wholesalers for parts like tires and rubber hoses. In contrast, a service firm like an IT consulting company would typically only sell its services to other organizations. For this reason, it is often classified as a business service. However, some experts argue that a more accurate definition is to consider all types of service as being business services. This article explains the reasons for this distinction.