The service sector currently represents more than 50% of the economy, operating as a market with considerable growth, especially in developing countries where the trend of increasing purchasing power allows the transfer of activities previously executed by the customer or company to third parties.
Realizing this market niche, marketing is increasingly directing its efforts to make the sale of services—”intangible items”—possible, with strategies focused on all other tangible aspects “visible to customers’ eyes,” such as company image and reputation, sales force service, fair pricing, delivery, and quality. In other words, making the intangible tangible.
Some companies today consider themselves customer-focused, spending their resources on developing new products and services, but when they launch into the market they merely offer these products and services without truly knowing their customers, their needs, or what they really want. A large part of these products and services turn out to be true burdens with low growth and market share.
We know that customer demands and the number of competitors have increased in recent times; actions that previously did not influence purchases, such as comparison, referral, and choosing between companies and service providers, now interfere with winning the order. Therefore, attention must be directed entirely toward the customer. Listening to them is no longer enough; companies involved in the new era of Marketing 3.0 are already perceiving the customer as a human being, where the key concept shifts from differentiation to valorization.
Customer-focused service marketing enables companies to have the necessary feeling to perceive all these scenarios and deliver to their customers exactly what the market desires.
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