Business services provide non-financial support for a company’s operations and help its customers achieve their objectives. The industry includes a wide range of services such as consulting, marketing and advertising, logistics (including travel and facilities management), waste handling and staffing services. Almost every company needs these services to function, making it a highly visible and important sector of the economy.
Unlike products, which are sold to individual consumers, services are focused on intangibles such as information, expertise and time. For example, insurance is a service that provides peace of mind, rather than physical goods. Another example of a service is a car rental. These transactions are usually based on contracts rather than sales of tangible goods and thus fall under the purview of the business services industry.
Business-to-business services are transactional activities between businesses, such as a wholesaler and manufacturer or an importer and retailer. This is in contrast to business-to-consumer and business-to-government services, which are consumer-oriented.
A key challenge for business services is keeping pace with technological advances and changing consumer expectations. Moreover, there is a growing trend toward service-based value creation in which business services are used to add value to a product through new combinations of goods and services.
If you’re interested in a career in this field, you should be well-versed in your company’s products and have strong interpersonal communication skills. The high degree of collaboration and fast-paced environment can make this a demanding job. In addition, if you don’t handle stress well, a career in this industry might not be for you.