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Can SMEs Productise Services to Help Increase Sales? (Part 2)

In the last post we asked the question Can Businesses Productise Services to Help Increase Sales? and we briefly covered the difference between a product and service, what constitutes a successful service, the challenges of scaling a services business and introducing the idea of productising services to scale/grow a service business. In this post we continue with this productisation theme and highlight at a high level what service productisation means and how it can help scale/grow a service business.

There are a number of things that service oriented businesses can do to help the service delivery process with future prospects before scaling issues kick in, firstly:

• Get references from satisfied clients - this will add positive testimony to the services you are offering and will communicate positive outcomes that other businesses have achieved using your services.
• Develop client case studies - These should summarise the clients problem, challenges or opportunity, your recommendations and the outcomes from the approach adopted. Depending upon the number of target audiences you have, these will help prospective clients see that you have delivered your services to businesses similar to theirs which in turn will help make them more comfortable with your proposed services offering.
• Gather service feedback - ask clients if the promise and delivery were matched, ask prospects who did not use your service why - find out how could you improve things.

These are simple first steps that help your business build up its’ credentials and this is invaluable part of the service productising process.

The harder part comes next, but once this is completed you will wonder how you ever managed without it before. Next, you have to productise the services that you offer. While this may differ slightly from business to business, the principles are essentially the same whether your business is an IT, IFA, Legal, Cleaning, Surveying, Courier, Accountancy etc. service business. Put simply, you have to map out and document how things get done in a way that captures the vision and ethos that the founder(s) have for the business. This needs to cover both strategy and tactics i.e. vision/direction and deliverables. The good news is that you are probably already doing many things right, but in order to scale you have to document your winning ways, process and communication - good and bad - so that others within your business have an agreed point of reference and clear set of methodologies that can be followed in a professional and consistent way. This is essentially cloning the founder(s) knowledge, skills and experience by documenting what is in your/their head(s).

The following example albeit quite simple in nature may help bring some context to this point of view. Imagine you are given a model aeroplane to build but there are no clear instructions. The majority of people will eventually succeed in building the model plane but will take different approaches. Some of these approaches may take longer than others, result in some parts not being used, impact the quality of the finished result or even cause the project to fail to be completed and the user to become dissatisfied. However, by providing a set of clear documented instructions the user will be guided through a “how to build a model aeroplane” journey that will result in correct assembly of the model aeroplane every time. While the above DIY model example is probably too simplistic compared to a real service businesses processes, it aims to highlight the point that with documented process/instructions the journey undertaken provides a greater likelihood of consistent, professional deliverables and results.

In some respects productising your business services is really just building and recording a repeatable service model by clearly mapping out and documenting your service delivery processes. This allows you to also document who does what and when and what communication is required at various stage of the delivery cycle. This represents the closest thing to cloning the founder(s) skills, knowledge, experience and approach which will help ensure that any vision, ethos, processes and methods that are successful and valued by clients can be transferred to, and deployed by, other team members in a professional, consistent and engaging manner.

Put simply it is like creating a set of information and instructions that will enable your team to deliver your services consistently every time i.e. it creates the right balance/mix of people, process and communication that enables you to scale your service business while maintaining quality of service and delivery.

Can SMEs Productise Services to Help Increase Sales?

In this post we briefly cover the difference between a product and service, what constitutes a successful service, the challenges of scaling a services business while introducing the idea of productising services to scale/grow a service business.

So, can businesses productise services to help increase sales?

The simple answer is Yes but it does require change!

However, before we get into the who, what, how, why and when etc., it is probably best to first try and simply distinguish between a product and a service and provide some examples of each so that we have a basis to work from and so that we can develop an understanding of what is involved in productising a service.

Typically a product can be viewed as something that is tangible right from the word go i.e. you can normally see it, feel it, use it and in many cases experience the quality, benefits and value of using it very quickly which can help drive the sales process forward. Consumer electronic goods are typical examples that fall easily into the ‘product’ category e.g. mobile phones, MP3 players, Games consoles etc.

Services however, are usually intangible at the onset and normally require the user to experience the delivery of the service first in order to be able to quantify the quality, benefits and value of the service. This can make it more challenging for services providers to engage with prospective clients as the service value and benefits are not usually demonstrable upfront. Most successful services depend upon providing the right mix between People, Process and Communication. In many cases, while service oriented businesses are small, these three elements are presented and offered in an ad-hoc way which can lead to inconsistencies in terms of service delivery, quality and therefore perceived/actual benefits and value delivered.

However, this is not to say that many service businesses don’t perform well even though the service delivered may be a little ad-hoc and inconsistent at times, in fact the opposite may often be true. The problems generally arise or become more visible when a service oriented business looks to expand or grow rapidly i.e. double, treble, quadruple turnover.

The challenges often occur in scaling the three key elements (i.e. People, Process and Communications) that enables the business to grow in a professional and consistent way while maintaining quality of service and delivery.

Many small service oriented businesses find they are initially successful because of a small number of key people - usually the business founder(s) - who live and breath the business and who apply a set of skills, knowledge and experience that enables them to deliver a quality of service that they had envisioned when starting the business. The problems come once the founder(s) become capacity bound and have to expand by hiring more people. I am sure many an entrepreneur has at some point thought it would be much easier to handle growth if only they could clone themselves. Alas this is not possible!

It is always going to difficult to bring on board new staff who will then be able to deliver your services in a way that your clients are used to getting from you, or is it? The key to ensuring that your service business can grow while retaining your vision, ethos and deliverables is to productise your services which will include your skills, knowledge, experience and approach to service delivery. Training is also important but without a service blueprint providing direction for your business and taking the time and effort to productise your services then you will still end up experiencing the same problems.

In part 2 we will consider what service productisation means and how it can help scale/grow a service business.

Is Social Media the biggest global shift since the industrial revolution?

Many brands are dipping their toes into Social Media hoping that this will create and grow brand awareness while attracting a new set of customers. There is no denying that times are changing and because of the power of the internet and mobile devices brands can now communicate in real time with their target audience(s).

While social media presents a new opportunity for brand owners the real power in these new mediums lies with the users themselves. More importantly users now have ‘Martini’ based access and control of information - anytime, anyplace and anywhere - and have the ability to vote with their feet in real time and influence a brands status and reputation. Ultimately, the users will decide who will win and who will lose while brands try to figure our how best to optimise social media to provide a trackable and measurable ROI. While everyone is trying to get to grips with this new paradigm there are some interesting facts about social media, which maybe suggest that this might just be the biggest global shift since the industrial revolution.

• By 2010, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers and 96 percent of them have joined a social network
• Social media has overtaken porn as the number one activity on the Web
• Number of Years to reach 50 millions users: Radio, 38 years; TV, 13 years; Internet, 4 years; iPod, 3 years. Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months; iPhone applications hit 1 billion in nine months
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest, between the United States and Indonesia
• Eighty percent of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
• Worldwide there are more than 200,000,000 blogs
• Eighty percent of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!
• Facebook users translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than two weeks and this cost Facebook £0
• Seventy-eight percent of consumers that use social networks trust peer recommendations
• Only 14 percent of consumers trust advertisements

Many people will be excited by the above facts while others will be scared or bemused. Whatever each of us might feel about Social Media one thing is sure, times are changing rapidly. The pace of change is so fast that some of the above information is already out of date!

We are all astronomers

Do you know what an astronomer does? Today’s astronomer is not the lone observer of past centuries. We Are Astronomers reveals the global collaboration, technology and dedication required to answer the unresolved questions of the Universe.

We Are Astronomers is an exciting new 360° Fulldome digital planetarium show launching 23 May 2009 across the UK. The show is being produced by NSC Creative with input from UK astronomers.

The project is a collaboration between Armagh Planetarium, Centre For Life, INTECH Science Centre & Planetarium, National Space Centre, Our Dynamic Earth, Royal Observatory Greenwich, Spaceport with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

We Are Astronomers is currently playing in the future dome at Our Dynamic Earth Edinburgh. Also more trailers can be found here

A Union for a’ that

‘A Union for a’ that’ is a collaborative education project for Scottish schools marking the 300th anniversary of the Union of the Parliaments in 1707. The project is funded by the Scottish Government Education Department, Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Moriarti were asked to design and produce an e-learning resource and support materials designed to support ‘A Curriculum for Excellence’, Scotland’s new curriculum that provides relevant, inspiring, and engaging education for every child and young person in Scotland.

Working closely with the National Archives of Scotland and The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Moriarti designed and produced an interactive e-learning DVD-Rom that contains a wealth of information to help children of all ages understand the Union of Parliaments. The resources include a digital booklet, downloadable teaching aides, audio and video as well as fun interactive games.

In support to this, Moriarti produced a brand identity as well as a number of support materials including a website, exhibition panels and print materials to support the workshops and other events that were being run by the partnership of Government agencies.

XCalibre Brand Development

XCalibre Communications has been delivering innovative hosting solutions to thousands of customers across the UK and Europe since 1997. Based in Scotland they have a network of UK data centres in central locations and offer a unique range of secure, reliable and cost-effective hosting services.

Moriarti created new, fresh, contemporary company and product brand identities that could be used stand-alone but also had similar attributes that they were easily identified as being from the same company.

Initially focusing on the new cloud computing solution ‘FlexiScale’, Moriarti created a complete range of off-line and on-line marketing materials in approximately 8 weeks from client brief so that FlexiScale could be launched at a major UK trade show. These marketing materials included new product branding and logo, web sites, business stationery, product data sheets, adverts, flyers and exhibition display stand.

McCowans Bonbons Brand Packaging

Another instalment in our re-working of Millar McCowans extensive portfolio of iconic Scottish confectionary brands. This time the challenge was to make McCowans Bonbons work across a range that includes Highland Toffee, Strawberry and Lemon flavours.

These all have their unique identity and it was important to update these but as the same time introduce strong family queues. If you fancy some, you can buy them here.

Millar Mint Packaging

Some more recent brand packaging design for Millar McCowan, this time for Pan Drops, Mint Humbugs and Mint Selection. Millar Pan Drops are iconic in Scotland and have been produced by Millar since 1844.

You can buy some here.

WHAM XTRM Sherbet Dip

Moriarti have just designed the brand packaging for the new Super Sour WHAM XTRM Sherbet Dip with a Blackcurrent Flavour Lollipop.

In stores now!

WHAM!

Moriarti have just designed the packaging for a whole range of brand extensions to the WHAM family of confectionery. Sour multicolour Tinglers, strawberry flavoured Power Pencils, sour strawberry Fizz Sticks and Loopy Laces are among the first of the new products to go into supermarkets in the UK.

More to come soon…