The Services Industry is growing tremendously because of the generation trends that find value in the experience rather than the product. Times have changed, so have people’s expectations, and today, we have to adapt to a world that relies heavily on service-based companies.
As the leader, operator, or employee of a services business, you will find the following article very interesting and will be able to use that knowledge to deal with your business pain points and needs in a service-based industry context.
Did you plan for growth?
One thing that we constantly seem to underestimate is the rate at which our business grows. The majority of businesses are growing and it is important to take a step back and assess whether the business processes and management tools can support this expansion. In fact, according to Mavenlink’s study, the top business priorities in 2019 were (by order of relevance):
- Win new clients
- Improve the profitability of work
- Growth among existing clients
- Expansion into new markets
These priorities require a good and stable infrastructure capable of promoting growth and streamlining processes. The factors that can affect accomplishing these objectives for a service-based company consist of:
- Employees
- Margins
- Revenue
Therefore, it is crucial to have good visibility over these factors to make the necessary changes according to your business needs.
Did we get it right so far?
Keep reading.
You’re not alone
The main challenge every service-based company has to face without any control over is increasing competition. Services are not tangible which makes them easier to imitate and success depends solely on the customer experience. What can you do? Make sure to study the competition and offer your customers a personalized unique high-quality experience that differs from your competitors. If you need help, you can ask our professional Kantata (Mavenlink) consultants.
Think about how you can impress your customers
Clients’ expectations keep increasing. Whenever you can impress them, you have won their trust, and their loyalty. It’s important to stay up to date with the latest trends and think of new ways to deliver a certain service to make sure your customer is getting value out of doing business with you. When we talk about expectations, we refer to the speed of delivery, the quality of work, but also the cost. Offer your customers the ability to gain visibility on the progress of the service with Mavenlink and you’ve already set the bar higher for your competitors while impressing your customers.
Your common (shared) challenges
As a service-based company, Big Bang can relate to common challenges that occur in the services industry. These include:
- Exceeded budget
- Delivery schedule delays
- Low utilization rates
- Lack of resources with the right skills to tackle a project
The influencers of the above-mentioned challenges happen at 3 levels: project management, resource management, and collaboration. According to the Mavenlink report, in terms of project management, it’s important to manage customer expectations, get the right skills on the right projects, and price projects accurately. To do so, you need good visibility over your resources’ skills, your customers, and your project tasks.
As for resource management, it is critical to have a good understanding of your staffing needs, your resources across multiple projects, but also your unplanned project changes.
Finally, in terms of collaboration, the most important factor is to be able to have access to information and have a centralized view over all the different systems in place while making sure you reduce the number of unnecessary meetings.
To reference our very own implementation, Big Bang encountered a few challenges at these 3 levels and was able to get better visibility over their processes by implementing Mavenlink.
Delegating and distributing the work
At the end of the day, we all have a common goal: Customer Satisfaction. In order to preserve and retain your customers, you must answer all their business needs and you exceed their expectations. Although sometimes your resources are not enough, do not discard the idea of getting a third party (contractors) involved remotely. In fact, according to the study by Mavenlink, the use of contractors is a competitive advantage for 66% of businesses, and a network of contractors is very important to critical for 74%.
This is especially interesting for the newer generation who appreciate working remotely. Being able to do so will help you impress your customers and keep them as happy as they can be.
What about technology?
According to Mavenlink, the biggest challenges with current technology infrastructure are:
- Manual work to compile
- Lack of visibility between systems
- Concerns about data accuracy
Therefore, it is important to have the right technology that will solve all your challenges and at the same time deliver real-time data and visibility. The right solution will centralize your data, integrate between different systems, automate tedious processes (reducing manual work), and increase data accuracy and quality.
In conclusion, as a service-based company, it is time to take action to make sure you support and promote your growth in the best way possible using the best tool possible. Allow us to accompany you through your journey by providing our expert advice for your business management needs and helping you optimize your processes and plan for success by implementing the right solution for you.
Ready to take the next step? Reach out to us today for a free assessment.
This article was inspired by the Mavenlink 2019 State of the Services Economy Guide used as a reference for all numerical and qualitative data. Get your copy here.
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