Re: Service Identification
dslman,
Products are services with or without goods. Goods you can see and touch. Every other aspect of your product is service.
Services are consumed at their points of delivery although their effects may be long lasting.
Organizations may design their services to differentiate their products (make their relationship with customers more valuable to customers) and make their products less of a commodity and less price sensitive.
Services common to all products include:
- Anticipating customer needs
- Welcoming customers
- Helping customers to understand their requirements
- Responding to customer inquiries
- Forming contracts
- Informing customers of any changes
- Delivering products
- Obtaining payment
- Measuring customer satisfaction
- Maintaining the relationship
All these common services are processes that should engage the customer. The product of each of these processes is how the customer feels towards the organization. Services lacking quality may stop customers from buying the organization's quality goods.
Note the continual improvement cycle implied by 1 thru 10 above.
When the customer imposes their design of the goods required, the supplier may not need to design the good, otherwise we see another common service process:
n. Designing goods (and services)
...needed by the customer.
In summary, whatever affects the way the customer feels about the organization is a service. Services should be adjusted to fit with the capability of the customer, for example, too much advice may insult a capable customer.
Google "blueprinting services" for more information.
John
