A Career in Business Services
Business services are a broad category that covers a wide range of sectors, including technical services and professional services. They contribute to 11% of EU GDP and are critical for European competitiveness, as they play a central role in the “servitisation” of manufacturing.
Service-focused companies employ about 420,000 people and have annual revenues of $950 billion, according to Dun & Bradstreet First Research. They offer a variety of services, from administrative work to marketing and sales.
Depending on your skill set and interests, a career in business services can be an enjoyable and rewarding opportunity. You could find yourself providing services to a diverse client base and interacting with colleagues from all over the world.
You might also have the chance to work in a field that’s new and undiscovered, such as cybersecurity or data science. You could find yourself working in a high-tech, start-up environment, or even one that’s still relatively traditional and recognizable, such as a law firm or bank.
The best way to find out if this is the right career for you is to learn more about what it means to be in this industry and how it’s different from other types of businesses. You can do this by taking a free virtual work experience with a company in your field of interest.
Types of business services
There are three main types of service businesses: business-to-business (B2B), social, and business-to-consumer. These types of companies help other businesses with a flat rate or hourly charge for services such as assisting them in achieving their goals, reducing costs, or increasing output.
They can also be specialized, such as providing financial advice or helping with legal matters. Unlike products, which are usually sold directly to customers, services need to be created and enforced through contracts before they can be exchanged for payment.
Creating a business service is a complex process. It involves defining and mapping a digital business service, developing processes for managing incidents, requests, and fulfillment transactions related to that service, and using that information to continually improve the delivery of that service.
Create a service catalog and communicate it with customers, describing provisioning policies, service level options, cost, and ordering steps for each digital business service. This will enable customers to quickly understand and navigate the service they’re seeking and ensure that your organization can meet their technical and organizational requirements.
Manage incidents and requests, including resolving them as rapidly as possible. This will allow you to focus on customer success and prevent your business from becoming bogged down with issues that don’t require a higher-level of involvement.
Provide customer support, including ensuring that customer inquiries are answered promptly and that the customer is satisfied with the response they receive. This may involve resolving customer tickets through a knowledge base or by phone.
It is important to remember that your customers are a valuable resource and should be a key part of every decision you make as a service provider. They can help you define strong use cases for your business services. Moreover, they can give you the most helpful feedback about how your services are functioning.