Francesco Sardu

 

The Service Revolution:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we are surrounded of services that manifest themselves in several forms, since when we wake up till the end of the day. For instance like retail, banking, transportation, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment and so on. Services belong to our daily life so deeply that we take their existence for granted, unless our satisfation fails.
The tertiary sector obviously is not something new, even in the past services have been designed in some ways.
Now however, there is more attention to this field because approximately the 75% of the worldwide GDP is based on services, and it represents the 69.2 % of total employment.
In the other hand, globally 87% of people believe business should place at least equal weight on business and society and just 28% of people believe business is performing well in addressing societal issues (Source: 2012 Edelman goodpurpose Study).

That means many customers are not totally satisfied by both the quality and the value of the services they get.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This gap represents a huge opportunity to improve services thus becoming a topic of discussion in the world of consumers, organizations, politics and economics.
This post industrial phase is named service revolution and basically the focus has been moved from products to services.
This shift is the consequence of a saturated market based on products where the only solution to survive has been to direct products in a new forms of differentiation in order to win the competition.
 The answer has been to associate the product to the service, thus providing it with a new added value.
The evolution of the social demand of final results that in economy is quantifed in terms of consumption behaviors of families (individuals) can be determined following two diferent dimensions:
- The categories of final results (the needs to be satisfed);
- The way the final results are achieved (the alternative solutions chosen)

With respect to the evolution of the categories of final results generally the economic development brings individuals to move from primary needs to more sophisticated and diversified needs (desires).

Consumption behaviors are moving from primary need to more diversified and subtle needs. At the basis of this empirical observation of the economic change there are hypothesis of a hierarchy of needs, stating that human beings try to satisfy basic needs first (feeding, shelter, security..) and then move to the secondary ones such as comfort, sociality, culture, entertainment.
The last trends show how is important to understand the real user needs in order to satisfy their high expectations that are rapidly expanding.
Thus service companies are looking for greater differentiation and competitiveness; depending on sensitive and emotional aspects, linked to human nature, behavior, and cultural backgrounds.
Moreover the technological development, especially the "dematerialization" of some products such in telecommunications and information sectors have accelerated this process.
The products now become the new platforms where to use facilities and services, for instance like a smartphone and all the applications around it. The results is that many companies today are exclusively focused in the creation and delivery of services.