In difficult economic times, consumers tend to focus on products they need in order to survive and prosper, while cutting back on services that are seen as extras. This is when it becomes especially important for service businesses to refocus their marketing efforts and work harder than ever to make sure their customers know how much they value them and the services they offer.
Business services are a variety of tasks and activities that help maintain business operations, but do not produce a tangible product. For example, information technology is considered a business service because it assists numerous other business services such as procurement and finance. Business services also include warehousing and shipping.
The primary difference between goods and services is that a person cannot stock or hold services; they must be delivered immediately when they are needed. In addition, services are often more unpredictable than goods and may require more customer involvement because the end result is not always clear at the time of delivery.
As a result, it is important for service business owners to understand how to price their services and how to manage the costs of running a business. A successful business plan will include a detailed description of the types of services that the company will provide, as well as a target market. Unlike a product business, where it is common to describe the target market as “everyone”, a good service business will describe their ideal customer in detail.