New technologies in the service sector. Development and creation of new services. The role of the service sector in the modern economy The service sector has developed in

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Introduction

The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that our modern society cannot be imagined without services and, as a result, without the service sector, which is one of the fundamental societies and a service specialist needs to be well versed in the structure of the service sector, to know the main points of each direction of the service enterprise.

Every day we consume services and sometimes, without knowing it, we provide them to other people. Provision of services to each other, production and consumption of services is what distinguishes us from our primitive ancestors, who did not have the concept of services in general. Our civilization, in the course of its transformation, has defined a special niche for the service sector, without which a civilized society can no longer do.

The life of a modern person, one way or another, is connected with services. After all, trade in services includes the provision of communal benefits, communications, banking, wholesale and retail trade, transportation, insurance, legal, medical, educational services, etc. The quality of services depends on the income of the state and the profit of firms, comfort, safety, and the welfare of consumers.

The connection here is direct and obvious: quality services attract attention, make people want to use them in order to make life easier. The gradually emerging positive situation in retail allows consumers to compare one service to another, and also pushes competitors to provide constantly improving services while ensuring their quality. The need to develop the service sector requires a significant restructuring of the population's consumption structure, a significant increase in the share of services and a reduction in the share of material consumption. It is necessary to radically improve the quality and culture of service, expand the network of relevant enterprises, increase the volume of sales of services, introduce their new types and forms.

The purpose of my test work is to understand the general concepts of what the service really is, what specific features it has, to cover the whole concept of the service sector and consider what features of its functioning.

The specific tasks of the control work are to:

Using the example of our society to show what role the service plays in general, basic concepts;

Highlight the specifics of the service sector;

Understand the service industry schema;

Consider the features of the service sector in the modern world

The objects of research of this topic will be the service sector, a society in which there is an interchange of services on different conditions, as well as directly the relationship between a person and the service sector in modern society.

1. Service industry. Basic concepts

Every day, leaving home, we begin to come into contact with the social environment, consuming, producing, and of course using all kinds of services. Sometimes we cannot touch or somehow materially feel the service. However, in our world, the concept of service has a wide range of definitions. One of which implies that a service is an expedient activity, the result of which is expressed in a useful effect capable of satisfying one or another human need, which can initially be an object of supply and demand in the market.

A service is an expedient activity, the result of which is expressed in a useful effect that can satisfy a particular human need, which can initially be an object of supply and demand in the market. Service has a wide range of definitions. In general, services are usually understood as a variety of activities that do not have an explicit material form.

first, they are invisible;

secondly, they cannot be stored;

thirdly, the production and consumption of services, as a rule, coincide in time and place.

This determines the peculiarities of international trade in services in comparison with international trade in goods.

There are two types of services:

services that are mediated by proprietary. They are related to consumer goods (tangible);

services not related to tangible products. Their action is directed to a person or to the conditions in which he is, their production is inseparable from consumption (non-material).

International tourism is a specific service industry.

The specific features of international trade in services include:

Regulation within the country by relevant legal provisions;

The absence or presence of the fact of crossing the border by a service is not a criterion for its export;

Services are not stored, they are produced and consumed at the same time;

The production and sale of services are under greater state protection (in most countries they are in full or partial state ownership) than the sphere of material production;

International trade in services has a major impact on trade in goods;

Not all types of services, unlike goods, can be traded (services for personal consumption).

In general, services are usually understood as a variety of activities that do not have an explicit material form.

The difference between services and goods in material form is that,

they are invisible;

not amenable to storage;

production and consumption of services tend to coincide in time and place.

The huge difference between a service and other goods is that the service is not tangible, that is, it cannot be touched or touched. The seller can only describe the benefits that arise from the provision of this service. The difficulty in working with services and their consumption is that it cannot be stored in time, and also the time of production of a service usually coincides with its consumption. A service can be provided only when an order comes or a client appears.

As a result, the next feature of the service arises - the inconsistency of quality. This problem can be avoided only by introducing certain service standards. In the international understanding, these features of the service are taken into account when separating trade in goods and services.

There are two concepts of service, the first is private, that is, actions in relation to another person aimed at satisfying his needs. The second concept is considered already in the context of economic theory. According to this theory, a service is all sorts of goods provided in the form of activity, as well as goods that can be produced, consumed and transmitted at the same time. In order to separate services, they must be classified.

In 1964, the scientist Stanton divided the services into the following 10 groups:

1. services for the provision of housing;

2. Family service (home renovation, landscape maintenance, residential cleaning, etc.);

3. rest and entertainment;

4. individual sanitary and hygienic services (washing, dry cleaning, cosmetic services, etc.);

5. medical and other health care services;

6. private education;

7. services in the field of business and other professional services (legal, accounting, consulting, etc.);

8. insurance and financial services;

9. transport services;

10. services in the field of communications.

Currently, this classification has undergone some changes and now the classification of services occurs according to UN standards, in which services are divided into 160 different types and 12 main sections:

1. Business services - 46 industry services.

2. Communication services - 25 types.

3. Construction and engineering services - 5 types.

4. Distribution services - 5 types.

5. General educational services - 5 types.

6. Services for the protection of the environment - 4 types.

7. Financial services, including insurance - 17 types.

8. Health care and social services - 4 types.

9. Tourism and travel - 4 types.

10. Services in the field of leisure, culture and sports - 5 types.

11. Transport services - 33 types.

12. Other services.

One of the most important patterns of economic development around the world is the relationship between economic growth and the increasing role of services in the national economy. This is reflected in an increase in the share of labor, material and financial resources used in the service sector.

With the development of society, the growth of productive forces, a certain development of the service sector takes place. There is an increase in employment in this area, an increase in the technical equipment of labor, the introduction of more and more advanced technologies. Currently, the role of services, as one of the most important sectors of the economy, is very large and relevant. This is due to the complication of production, saturation of the market with goods of both everyday and individual demand, with the rapid growth of scientific and technological progress, which leads to innovations in society. All this is impossible without the existence of information, financial, transport, insurance and other types of services. Also, services are an integral part of trade in goods (especially technically complex), since the sale of goods requires an increasingly developed network, which consists mainly of services provided during the sale and after-sales services.

In the conditions of development of market relations, as well as economic and political cataclysms occurring in our country, there are significant changes in the service sector. Under the current crisis circumstances in Russia, the volume of services specifically inherent in the market economy (banking, financial, insurance, real estate, legal) is significantly increasing. The range of services related to the management and maintenance of public authorities and law enforcement agencies has increased. With the integration of the country's economy into the world economic space, the development of import and export of services takes place, the emergence of fundamentally new technological foundations for the functioning of a number of services, including information.

There is an increasing expansion of the foundations for the reproduction of market and non-market services. At the same time, market services are gaining an increasingly significant share in the total volume of services.

According to international statistics, over 40% of foreign investments are invested in the development of the service sector, which confirms the relevance, interest and vision of the prospects for the development of this sector of the economy.

2. The structure of the service sector

In world economic practice, the service sector is usually differentiated into two subsectors:

Production of material services

Production of intangible services.

The production of material services includes transport, housing and communal services, and trade.

The production of intangible services, in turn, includes education, health care, social services, art, management, insurance, etc.

What is the difference between these subsectors? If we consider the connection directly between the production of services and the material object, then the following differences can be seen. In the production of material services, this process is inextricably linked with the material object. For example, trade changes the ownership of these very material objects, so transport changes the location of the object. However, in the production of intangible services, the material object is more divorced from the production process itself. In the latter case, most often a person acts as an object. All these differences do not always clearly distinguish between material services and non-material ones. An example is tourism, since it includes transport services and excursions at the same time. This means that in this situation, material and non-material services can be used in one type of service in the service sector.

It is customary to refer to the service sector (industry approach):

Trade (wholesale and retail);

Catering and accommodation services

(hotels, restaurants, etc.);

Transport;

Communication and information services;

Services for the supply, procurement and storage of material and technical resources;

Credit, finance and insurance, real estate transactions and other services to ensure the functioning of the market;

Education, culture and art;

Science and Scientific Services;

Healthcare, including physical culture and sports;

Household maintenance services (services for the maintenance and repair of housing, industrial and household and communal services);

Personal services (non-production, household services, hairdressing salons, photo studio services, shoe shine, etc.);

Public administration services.

This sectoral classification of the service sector operates in many countries, including Russia.

F. Kotler, as the founder of marketing theory, proposed to classify services according to the following criteria:

First, are people or machines the source of the service? Among the services, the source of which is a person, there are those that require either the presence of professionals (catering, consulting on management problems), or qualified specialists (waiters), or unskilled labor (janitorial work, lawn maintenance). Among the services the machine serves as a source are those that require either automatic machines (vending machines), or devices operated by relatively low-skilled operators (taxis), or equipment operated by highly qualified specialists (airplanes, computers).

Secondly, is the presence of the client obligatory at the time of rendering services to him? If the presence of a customer is mandatory, the service provider should consider the customer's requests. So, the owners of restaurants beautifully decorate their establishments, soft music sounds in them.

Third, what are the motives for the customer to purchase the service? Is the service designed to meet personal needs (personal services) or business needs (business services)? Typically, service providers develop different marketing programs for personal and business service markets.

Fourth, what are the motives of the service provider (commerce or non-profit) and in what form are the services provided (individual or public services)? The combination of these two characteristics results in service systems that are completely different in their type.

It is also possible to classify services according to other criteria:

a) by the amount of capital costs;

b) by the degree of qualification of the performers;

c) by the complexity of technological processes;

d) according to the social status of the clientele (individuals and legal entities).

In the literature, you can also find the division of the service sector into three sectors:

tertiary - infrastructure (transport, communications, electricity and heat transmission);

quaternary - distribution and exchange (trade, insurance, finance);

five-fold - social and managerial (management, science, education, health care, art).

2.2 Service industry evolution

The next aspect that needs to be considered when studying the topic of the service sector is the evolution and development of the service sector from ancient times to our times. At the earliest stages of human development, the service sector already existed in its various manifestations. As progress developed and new types of material production appeared, the service sector also improved. Deep transformations of the social consumption system gave an even more powerful impetus in this direction.

The very first manifestation of the use of the service sector in the social structure of society was noticed in primitive society. For example, in each tribe there were leaders, they were in some way administrative subjects, that is, one of the areas of administrative activity of the service sector. Shamans and priests also provided social services. The army, in turn, provided property protection services. Historical sources indicate that in the ancient society there were already such spheres of services that were very similar to modern ones. For example, there was trade, transport, education, art, army, health care. Until the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, these areas were improved and communications, management, marketing, audit, and insurance were added to them. With the onset of a new era of human development in the context of high technologies and a scientific and technological boom, the industrial economy is being replaced by a post-industrial one. This entails an increase in the production of services per capita.

However, until the mid-20th century, the service sector was considered a secondary part of the global economy. People with a low level of education were mainly employed in this area. The reason for this was the misconception that the service sector does not bring sufficient income to the economy and is not in demand among the population. During the Soviet era, the service sector developed very slowly compared to Europe and the United States. Only after the scientific and technological revolution did the service sector begin to occupy a significant place in the economies of many countries. It is no coincidence that the post-industrial era is rightfully called the service era.

Improving the living standards of people, as well as the formation of the economy to a new level, has made it possible to increase the production of intangible products. The Second World War had a very negative effect on the development of the service sector, since at that time industrial production became the main sphere of the economy. In the countries on whose territory the hostilities were conducted, the material base of the service industries to one degree or another was destroyed and after the war did not meet even the greatly reduced needs. In the post-war period, the outstripping development of the service industries was largely resumed, and the position of this sector in the economic structure is steadily expanding.

In the middle of the 20th century, the United States breaks out into the leaders in terms of the level of development of the service sector. However, not only the United States is investing heavily in this sector of the economy, but also in developing countries there is a sharp increase in the service sector. From all of the above, we can draw the following conclusion. The service sector, having come a long way of development and undergoing many changes, is currently at the same level, and in some countries even higher than sectors such as industry and agriculture. The most important regularity in the evolution of the service sector is that it does not develop in isolation from material production in the integration of these types of activities, and the effectiveness of a modern economy depends on the depth of integration.

3. Features of the service sector in the modern world

By itself, the concept of service provision provides for special attention to a person from a psychological point of view, as a client. To direct your attention to meeting needs, to be prepared in advance for a difficult situation in the service process, since each client is an individual. Any request and desire must be fulfilled for the high-quality implementation of the complex, since any discrepancy or omission in working with the client entails a negative label on the entire reputation of the serving object or subject. Therefore, most modern service companies have rules.

Firstly, all employees of the company are focused on the implementation of the main business process of the company - high-quality customer service. Secondly, for quality satisfaction of client requests, employees who directly deal with clients must go to the level of one-on-one interaction - a personal, not impersonal approach to each client, but starting, oddly enough, with a properly learned role.

The service sector has a number of distinctive features and work mechanisms that cannot always be strictly classified, since changes in customer demand, the emergence of new services, as well as a high level of variability of consumed intangible goods dictate new trends and force to revise the old rules in serving consumers of certain other services.

We can only summarize the main features of the functioning:

Firstly, unlike goods, services are produced and consumed mainly simultaneously, and are not subject to storage. This gives rise to the problem of regulating the supply and demand of services.

Secondly, services are often opposed to products, although the role of service in industry is increasing, which can include equipment repair, after-sales service and other services related to the sale of goods. It can be said that in many cases there is a product element in a service, just as there is a service element in the sale of a product. The close interweaving of the sale of goods and the provision of services makes it difficult to distinguish and record services.

Third, the service sector is usually more protected by the state from foreign competition than the sphere of material production. Moreover, in many countries, transport and communications, financial and insurance services, science, education, health care, utilities are traditionally in full or partial state ownership or are strictly controlled and regulated by the state. The import of services, according to the governments of many countries, can pose a threat to national security and sovereignty, so it is regulated more strictly than trade in goods.

Conclusion

sphere of service society

In conclusion, it is worth emphasizing that the service sector itself is young and is being modified at a tremendous rate. Currently, the service sector is one of the most promising, rapidly developing sectors of the economy. It covers a wide range of activities, from trade and transport to financing, insurance and brokering of all kinds. Hotels and restaurants, laundries and hairdressers, educational and sports establishments, travel agencies, radio and television stations, consulting firms, medical institutions, museums, theaters and cinemas are all part of the service sector. Almost all organizations provide services to one degree or another.

Despite some of the features of this area, which complicate the work with the client, throughout the world over the past 20 years, there has been a high growth in labor productivity in the service sector. The concept of "services" in the mass perception is increasingly identified with a complex of high-tech and intellectual business and financial services, as well as with the branches of science, education and health care. The wave of renewal has also captured traditional industries: trade, transport, personal services, recreational industries, etc.

In addition, the very concept of "service sector" is, without exaggeration, all-encompassing. It includes household, medical, legal and many other services, that is, it does not just affect all aspects of people's daily life, but makes it truly high-quality, complete. For this reason alone, it would seem that the service - in the broad sense of the word - refers to those areas of business that do not require special support from outside. After all, people are ready to pay money for the services provided to them, and sometimes considerable ones.

The service sector, as we already know, refers to the tertiary sector of the economy, but in conclusion it should be emphasized that the advanced development of the tertiary sector, and especially the production services sector, is an inevitable condition and prerequisite for the civilizational transition of the economy to a market, post-industrial stage of development.

Bibliography

material service society

1. Belyaev MI, "Miology". Moscow, 2000

2. Demidova L.S. "Service sector of the USA: factors of dynamics acceleration", Moscow, 2005.

3.Kulibanova V.V. Marketing: Service activities. SPb., 2006.

4. Kulibanova V.V. Service activities. SPb., 2007.

5. Morozova E.Ya., Tikhonova E.D. Economy and organization of social and cultural enterprises. SPb., 2005.

6. Pesotskaya E.V. Service marketing. SPb., 2000.

7.Portal of the market of consumer services - www.marketcenter.ru

8. Rodionova I.A. "World economy. Industrial sector ", St. Petersburg, 2002.

Tarushkin A.B. "Institutional Economics", St. Petersburg, 2004

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The service sector is one of the most promising, rapidly developing branches of the knowledge-based economy. Services are purposeful human activities, the result of which has a beneficial effect that satisfies any human needs.

Services are various types of human activity, as a result of which material benefits are not created, and which belong to the non-productive sphere. At the same time, the service sector is an important part of the real sector of the economy.

Modern economic theory reflects the new economic reality. The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century are characterized by the newest structure of post-industrial production. It has a number of distinctive features:

The latest production is capable of ensuring the massive satisfaction of the entire range of actual and future needs;

The modern economy includes two complementary spheres of production: material (creates material wealth) and non-material (creates spiritual, moral and other values \u200b\u200b- works of spiritual culture, art, science, etc.);

A special service sector is organically included in modern production.

Service is a kind of purposeful activity, the useful result of which is manifested during work and is associated with the satisfaction of any need. The role of the service sector in a modern economy is determined by the following conditions:

New jobs are constantly being created in the service sector;

The service sector is increasing its share in the country's gross domestic product;

At the expense of the service sector, the time for servicing the household is reduced, which increases the quality of life of the population.

Households and firms are demanding more and more services, more complex and higher quality services. The increasing role of services in the household has various reasons.

The following main factors can be identified to increase the role of services in the life of a modern household:

growing abundance;

striving for a better quality of life;

increased free time;

urbanization, necessitating new services (eg security);

demographic changes leading to an increase in the number of children and older people who need many services;

socio-economic changes, such as the emergence of families where husband and wife work, lack of personal time, etc .;

the increasing complexity of consumer demand, leading to an expansion of the very set of required services (for example, in personal financial affairs);

Technological changes that improve the quality of services or create new types of services (for example, in the field of medical care, cable TV, receiving data over a computer network).

The growth in demand for services from firms and institutions is driven by growing complexity, internationalization and the complexity of their management. Specialized service firms are being created (eg, temporary assistance, conflict resolution), as well as complexes of needs in such well-established service industries as advertising, accounting and reporting, consulting, information systems, investment banking, and market research. More sophisticated products and better technologies affecting firms' value chains require a growing range of design, management and repair services. The internationalization of competition fosters the growth of the services needed to support trade and the management of geographically dispersed enterprises (such as communications and recruitment). Changes in technology and governance are creating entirely new service industries.

Any product of labor produced for sale is a commodity. Hence, the services sold in different markets appear as an independent and very diverse group of goods.

The main role of a service as a product is the ability to meet the needs of customers. The main difference between a service and a physical product is as follows:

Any service is a process. The use of the term process allows a distinction to be made between services and physical goods, which by their nature cannot be a process;

People are an integral part of our services.

There is a tendency to diversify the service sector in the world, when many previously isolated types of services are combined under one company. A whole complex of them is offered, which increases the competitiveness of this company, weakening possible risks. Thus, banking, stock exchange and intermediary services merge into a single complex of financial services. Or, for example, there is a combination of various services within a transport company, such as life and cargo insurance, mail delivery, tourism.

The growing role and influence of the service sector on the economy has caused the need for research in order to classify services and determine the characteristics of marketing in this specific area. Today the following characteristics of services as goods are known and widely used:

intangibility;

inseparability of production and consumption of services;

inconsistency of quality;

inability of services to store.

Intangibility means that it is impossible to try, demonstrate, see a service until it is received. Intangibility causes problems for both the buyer and seller of the service. It is difficult for a buyer to understand and evaluate what is being sold before the purchase, and sometimes even after. At the same time, the intangibility of services makes life difficult for their sellers. The seller can only describe the benefits that arise from the provision of this service. Although there are services when the client cannot appreciate the benefits after receiving them. The intangible nature of the services makes pricing and promotion difficult. A service is inseparable from its source, while a material product exists independently of the presence of its source. A service can be provided only when an order comes in or a client appears. Some experts believe that this is the most important factor that makes a service truly a service and distinguishes it from a product.

The indissolubility of consumption and production of services creates a special form of "consumer production". In this case, the consumer pays the cost of the service in advance, before he gets the opportunity to assess the level of satisfaction of his needs. This necessitates strengthening consumer confidence in the service provider. The impossibility of consuming a service without a manufacturer imposes restrictions on the development of sales activities. Sales divisions in the service sector in practice merge with advertising and propaganda departments, and their functions are reduced to stimulating the sale of services in various consumer segments. The inclusion of the buyer in the production of the service means that the seller must take care of what to produce and how. The last task is especially important. How bankers, insurance agents, lawyers, doctors and hairdressers behave when selling their services will determine the likelihood that the client will return more than once. Therefore, the correct selection and training of personnel is very important.

Variability in the performance of services is an inevitable consequence of the simultaneous production and consumption of services, as well as the fact that people are an integral part of the service. To reduce the variability of services, it is necessary to identify the causes of this phenomenon. Most often this is due to the qualifications of the employee, poor training and education of personnel, lack of competition in this area, lack of information and communication. Another very important source of service variability is, of course, the customer himself, his uniqueness. This explains the degree of customization of the service in accordance with the buyer's requirements.

To reduce the variability of services, longstanding service companies develop and endeavor to maintain a service standard. A service standard is a set of mandatory rules for customer service, which are designed to guarantee a set level of quality for all operations performed. The service standard establishes formal criteria by which the level of customer service and the performance of any employee of the firm is assessed.

This can be, for example:

service time - 85% of clients should not stand in line for more than 5 minutes;

handling complaints and claims - the number of complaints should not be more than 2 per month per employee, for each complaint the client must receive an answer;

the maximum waiting time for an answer by phone and other formal criteria up to the requirements for employee clothing;

requirements for paperwork, letters, business papers, announcements. Well-designed, well-written business papers speak of respect for the client and the level of organization.

The quality control system is the protection of the service standard. To ensure quality control, an organization must:

Allocate funds for attracting and training qualified specialists;

Continuously monitor the level of customer satisfaction through a system of complaints and suggestions, as well as customer questionnaires.

An important distinctive feature of services is their immediacy. Services cannot be saved for later sale. And if the capacity for services exceeds the demand for them, then income or cost of services is lost. If demand exceeds supply, then services, like physical goods, cannot be taken from the warehouse. Fluctuations in demand are inherent in all types of services. It can change depending on the season, from the days of the week. The inability of services to store requires the development of a strategy that matches supply and demand for services:

setting differentiated prices, discounts, using other incentives, it is possible to shift part of the demand from the peak period to the quiet period;

an increase in the speed of service, including due to automation, allows you to work with a large number of clients;

the introduction during periods of peak demand, as an alternative, additional services (coffee, magazines, etc.) that will help ease the waiting time for the main service;

to service an additional flow of clients, it is recommended to train staff in combining functions, as well as to hire temporary employees.

Based on the above analysis of a service as an economic category, the following conclusion can be drawn. Services are various types of human activities that do not create material goods and are related to the non-production sphere. Service quality is a very complex socio-economic category. In the broadest sense of the word, it reflects the equivalent ratio between the socially necessary expenditures of the producer's labor and the personal, individual time of consumption of a person, which, of course, contributes to the release of the individual's time intended for creativity. In a narrow sense, the quality of services characterizes the success and efficiency of interaction between service providers and service consumers.

Features of the service market

At its core, the service market, which develops according to the laws of a market economy, is a kind of a commodity market and, at the same time, has a number of specific features, which determines a special approach to business and marketing activities designed to meet the demand for services.

The features of the services market are seen, first of all:

in the high dynamics of market processes (the provision of services is aimed at directly meeting human needs);

in territorial segmentation (forms of service provision, demand and conditions for the functioning of service enterprises depend on the characteristics of the territory covered by a particular market);

In a high rate of capital turnover (one of the main advantages of a business in the service sector, which is a consequence of a shorter production cycle);

in high sensitivity to changes in market conditions (a property due to the impossibility of storing, storing and transporting services, as well as the temporal and spatial coincidence of their production and consumption);

in the specifics of the organization of the production of services (with greater mobility, small and medium-sized enterprises that are producers of services have ample opportunities for flexible response to changes in market conditions);

In the specifics of the process of providing services (personal contact between the manufacturer and the consumer, on the one hand, creates conditions for the expansion of communicative ties, and on the other, it increases the requirements for professional qualifications, experience, ethics and general culture of the manufacturer);

In a high degree of differentiation of services (associated with diversification, personification and individualization of the demand for services, it is considered as the most important incentive for innovation in the service sector, since the complex structure of demand causes the emergence of new, non-standard services, the search for a new service becomes a permanent process, which receives more and more development as market demand saturates);

In the uncertainty of the result of the activity for the provision of services (the result of the activity for the provision of services, which in many cases is subject to the influence of various qualities of the manufacturer, cannot be predetermined with sufficient accuracy; the final assessment of the result is possible only after the consumption of the service).

The role of the service sector in modern society

Services are economic activities that directly satisfy the personal needs of members of society, households, the needs of various types of enterprises, associations, organizations, social needs or the needs of society as a whole, not embodied in material form.

One of the most important patterns of economic development around the world is the relationship between economic growth and the increasing role of services in the national economy. This is reflected in an increase in the share of labor, material, financial resources used in the service sector. With the development of society, the growth of productive forces, a certain development of the service sector takes place. There is an increase in employment in this area, an increase in the technical equipment of labor, the introduction of more and more advanced technologies. Despite this, over the years, services have hardly been studied by the theory of international economics. This was partly due to the difficulty of defining the very concept of services, of which there are a great many.

Trade in services is also widely developed, as well as international trade in goods (in the material sense of the word). International trade in services has its own specifics:

Intangibility

Invisibility

Inseparability of production and consumption

Heterogeneity and variability of quality

Inability of services to store

It is because of the intangibility and invisibility of most services that trade in them is sometimes called invisible exports or imports. However, in this case, there are many exceptions. Usually, services do not have a materialized form, although a number of services acquire it in the form of computer programs on magnetic media, films, and various documentation.

In contrast to goods, services are produced and consumed mainly simultaneously and are not subject to storage. In this regard, the presence abroad of direct producers of services or foreign consumers in the country of production of services is required. Unlike transactions with goods, they are not subject to customs control. Services can be capital-intensive and knowledge-intensive, industrial in nature or personalized, unskilled or require a very high level of skills for the performers. Not all types of services, unlike goods, are suitable for wide involvement in international circulation, for example, utilities. The service sector, as a rule, is more protected by the state from foreign competition than the sphere of material production.

Service enterprises do not produce capital goods or goods. They offer services: banking, construction, retail, education and health services.
The service industry encompasses a wide range of activities, which include: public administration at the national and local levels, health care, education and science, transport and distribution of goods, including retail trade; professional services - accounting, banking, legal and insurance; utilities - water supply, gas and electricity; the entertainment industry, including television; as well as hospitality, catering and tourism.

international tourism - a specific industry (type) of services, international movement of people or travel, which is a specific category of international trade. By its features, international tourism resembles labor migration, but there is a significant difference in goals. The purpose of tourism is recreation and entertainment of people in a limited period of time, although recently a significant part of specialists combine business (official) travel with recreation in other countries. Travel services in international trade are a kind of "invisible commodity", whose characteristic feature is that it becomes an important, and sometimes the only source of income for many developed and developing countries.

In the developed countries of Europe and North America, as well as in Australia and Japan, the majority of the labor force is employed in the service sector, far exceeding the percentage of workers in all other industries combined. In the Netherlands, 78% of workers are employed in the service sector. For comparison: in India the figure is 38%. In poorer countries this proportion is even smaller (for example, in Niger, agriculture employs 85% of the workforce, while industry and services account for only 15%). Since the end of World War II (1945), the service industry has been the most rapidly developing industry in developed countries. Their economy is now called a service economy. The United States was the first country to form such an economy.

A characteristic feature of the service sector is that this sector is generally labor-intensive, that is, it cannot be mechanized “indiscriminately”. Therefore, it provides more jobs than other industries. As a rule, work in service does not require much physical strength, and therefore many more women are employed in it than in other industries.

In some service industries, especially catering and recreation, work is often seasonal, offering temporary employment opportunities.

So, we can say that over the past two decades, the service sector has been one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the world economy. Therefore, this topic is gaining such relevance today.

(service) - a sphere of the economy where goods are produced, the useful effect of which is manifested in the very process of their creation.

The production of economic (limited) goods is divided into two areas - the sphere of material production and the sphere of services. In the first sphere, the consumption of the created good is separated from its production, in the second, it is combined.

For example, the labor of producing a loaf of bread by itself does not satisfy any human needs (with the exception of the need for labor), the consumption of bread will occur later and elsewhere; on the other hand, the lecture by the teacher immediately satisfies the students' need for knowledge.

Up to the 20th century. the service sector was generally excluded from production. Thus, the famous English economist Adam Smith directly pointed out that the wealth of society depends only on productive labor - the work to create material wealth. He referred to the services of such professions as "priests, lawyers, doctors, writers ... actors, clowns, musicians, opera singers, dancers, etc." (Smith A. Research on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations... T. 1.M., 1935.S. 279). This view of the unproductiveness of the service sector was adopted by Marxist political economy, and then by Soviet statistics.

In developed countries already in the 19th century. began to understand that the service sector, although it does not directly produce material goods, but creates the fundamental conditions for this production. Therefore, in modern statistics (including Russian), the service sector (tertiary sector) is considered as a full-fledged part of production, equivalent to agriculture (primary sector) and industry (secondary sector).

Zhiltsov E.N., Kazakov V.N., Voskolovich N.A. Economy of the paid services sector... Kazan, 1996
Demidova L.S. The service sector in the post-industrial economy... - World economy and international relations. 1999, no. 2
Service sector: problems and development prospects... TT. 1-3. Ed. YV Sviridenko. M., 2001
Klikich L.M. Service economy: problems of methodology and analysis... Ufa: BPAU, 2004

Find "SPHERE OF SERVICES" on

The need for management in the service sector. Management concept. The main stages of the evolution of management. Marketing management concept. Specific features of the service sector. Service management model. Service characteristics and their impact on the management system. The main problems of management in the service sector and ways to solve them.

A radical reform of economic management is the basis of the market transformations carried out in Russian society. The reform fundamentally affects the service sector, which, like any other field of activity, objectively needs management. Governance is the targeted impact on the service sector in order to focus it on meeting the needs of people, increasing operational efficiency and ensuring an acceptable level of profitability.

The quality of management predetermines both the results of the service sector and the choice of ways and means of achieving them. The role of the management of the service sector is also important in promoting the growth of the efficiency of social production by creating conditions that free up the time of the population and favor highly productive work.

In connection with the implementation of the policy of ensuring social priorities, when a person moves from the periphery of the economic interests of society to their center, the role of the service sector increases significantly, and at the same time the requirements for the organization of its management.

The twentieth century has experienced a powerful influence of management on all aspects of the life of society, organizations and people. It was during this period that management emerged as a science that was able to generalize the rich practice of management and developed sound recommendations for its improvement. Numerous and diverse in their approaches and content, theories and schools have significantly expanded the concept of management as an independent area of \u200b\u200bknowledge and the possibilities of its application. Therefore, the principles, forms and methods of management have spread from the sphere of business organizations to institutions of science, education, healthcare, religion, they are actively used in art and politics, which was considered almost impossible quite recently.

Management, as a practical activity, originated about seven thousand years ago. As a science, management began to form at the end of the 19th century and went through several stages in its development.



First step (end of the nineteenth century - 30s of the twentieth century) - individual fragmentary studies in the field of enterprise management become the basis for the formation of scientific schools and directions; management is becoming an independent science and a separate type of business activity, as well as the separation of management from property.

Second phase (30s - 60s) - management is based on the economic foundations of a rigid vertically integrated management system with a clear distribution of responsibilities between departments and performers. The study of the problems of labor motivation, the human factor, the influence of groups on the behavior of workers has acquired particular importance.

Last, third stage (from the 60s to the present) is characterized by the fact that an informal, flexible management system prevailed, based on a horizontally integrated motivational model using mainly divisional departmentalization. Much attention began to be paid to the study of ways to enhance the behavior of people in the organization.

In addition, in the mid-50s, signs of chronic overproduction began to appear in developed countries, the market was oversaturated with goods. In such conditions, production could no longer develop in the direction of unlimited self-growth. It became necessary to develop a different strategy. Economics, which previously traditionally focused on the sphere of production and solved the problems of increasing the efficiency and modernization of this sphere, responded adequately to these changes, regardless of the influence of the sphere of consumption on it.



The theory of marketing received wide practical application during this period. Marketing development had a direct impact on the management of the firm. Close interaction of marketing and management led to the emergence of a new term "marketing management". The most important principle of the marketing approach to company management is the target orientation of all elements of the production system, as well as the production and social infrastructure serving this system, to solve problems arising from a potential consumer of goods and services brought by the company to the market.

The marketing concept of management is of particular importance for enterprises and organizations in the service sector, whose activities are directly focused on customers (consumers) and significantly depend on their requests.

The marketing focus of management is the main, but not the only distinguishing feature of modern management. In order to find out other features and problems of service sector management, it is necessary to briefly dwell on the specifics of this area of \u200b\u200bactivity and its difference from the sphere of material production.

The service delivery system, according to B. Karlof, is similar to the production and distribution system in an industrial company, although it is often presented in a completely different form. And the service management system, according to G. Assal, is similar to the goods management system.

At the same time, there are a number of specific features of the service sector that distinguish it from the sphere of material production:

1), as you know, the services themselves have characteristic features (intangibility, heterogeneity, non-persistence, inseparability of service provision from consumption). Services are often opposed to products, although, according to P. Doyle, “pure goods and services are rather a scientific abstraction. Most of the sales proposals are various combinations of tangible and intangible elements. " As Professor T. Levitt writes: “There are no service industries as such. It's just that some industries have a higher share of services offered than others. Everybody provides services. " Thus, the majority of manufacturers provide customers, along with goods, with services for delivery, repair and maintenance, insurance, consulting and personnel training. In addition to transporting passengers, the airline offers them lunch, drinks, magazines and newspapers. " This opinion is shared by B. Karlof, who points out: "The concept of a company operating in the field of intangible production should be used with some caution, since the production of many industrial products is currently accompanied by the provision of a wide range of services." To resolve this apparent contradiction, one should refer to the classification of services proposed by G. Asssel, according to which all services are divided into services related to goods, services based on the use of equipment and services based on human labor. The characteristic features of services increase and are most pronounced as the transition from the first group of services to the third;

2) not only the types of services are diverse, but also the organizations that can provide them: government agencies (education, healthcare, transport, information and other services), commercial organizations (banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, etc.), as well as non-commercial structures (provision of charitable, entertainment, educational and other services);

3) services are provided not only by specialized industries and service companies, but also by industrial enterprises (product delivery, repair and maintenance, insurance, consulting and training of personnel, etc.). As P. Doyle points out, “many manufacturing firms are actually service businesses. About half of production costs are attributed to the purchase of services (eg advertising, transportation, financial services). More and more employees in manufacturing firms are engaged in design, marketing, finance, after-sales service, rather than in the production of goods ”;

4) services are focused both on individual consumers (for example, medical institutions, catering establishments, consumer services for the population) and on meeting the needs of firms and other organizations (for example, the provision of business services: technical, accounting, auditing, legal, etc.);

5) a direct relationship exists between the growth of incomes of the population and an increase in demand for various services, for example, allowing one to get rid of routine duties (cleaning the house, cooking, etc.) related to leisure activities (art, sports, recreation, etc.).

The listed features influence the formation of the management system in the service sector.

Service management model, proposed by B. Karlof, looks like this (Fig. 1.1).


Form

Fig. 1.1. Service management model.

The service management model starts with a market niche (market segment) and then, moving counterclockwise, leads to the concepts of "service concept", "service delivery system" and "image". The image is viewed here as a tool of information that management can use to influence the staff, customers and suppliers of resources, the perception of which the company and its prospects for its development affects the firm's position in the market and cost efficiency.

The culture and philosophy of the company are of paramount importance, with their help the management controls, supports and develops the social process, carried out in the form of delivery of services that benefit customers. Along with the organization of the delivery system and the development of a realistic concept of services, the culture and philosophy of the company are the most important factors for long-term efficiency. It is within the culture and philosophy of a company that the values \u200b\u200band morale that underlie its vitality and success are shaped. Therefore, the formation of the philosophy and mission of a service company will be considered in more detail when studying the functions of management.

When developing a service delivery system, and therefore a management system, a number of factors must be taken into account:


These differences in the service sector make the management of operations in the service sector, according to V.D. Markova, a more difficult matter than in industry from the point of view of ensuring efficiency, and also determine the specifics of management in this area.

The main reason for the particularities of service sector management is the nature of the services themselves.

The process of providing services differs from the process of production and sale of goods in many ways, which determine the presence of features of management activities in organizations in the service sector.

So, intangibility services, which makes it difficult to demonstrate to consumers the intended result and quality of service provision before the start of their service, requires special attention of managers not only to the customer service process itself, but also to other factors that indirectly indicate the quality of the service and are significantly less important in manufacturing industries: location and the interior of the premises, the convenience and design of equipment, the appearance and behavior of employees, the mode of operation of the organization.

Heterogeneity services leads to the fact that their standardization is difficult and sometimes impossible. Therefore, the methods of planning, motivating and monitoring the activities of employees, traditional for the production of goods, based on the use of norms and standards, are not always acceptable when serving consumers. The quality control of the service is becoming especially difficult and requiring special approaches, since it depends not only on the material and labor factors of the organization, but also on a specific client.

One of the main problems of service management is created by non-preservation services that do not allow you to easily and quickly respond to changes in demand by creating stocks. This problem is less noticeable for services with a relatively stable demand: room cleaning, audio equipment repair, etc. However, for services characterized by the presence of peak demand during the day, week or season - transport, medical, spa facilities, etc. - non-persistence of services leads to a sharp decrease in the efficiency of activities due to downtime of employees and equipment during periods of decline in demand and lost income during periods of its peaks, which forces managers, when making management decisions, to look for ways to reduce the impact of this problem, use methods of statistical observations that help determine the volume and the structure of demand for services.

Since the provision of services inseparable from their consumption , before the heads of the organization, specific tasks are set related to the participation of the consumer in the process of rendering the service - training the personnel to be attentive, sensitive to consumers; creating favorable conditions not only for the directly served client, but also for others, for example, those who are waiting in line; building an effective control system that allows you to separate the results associated with the work of employees from factors due to the characteristics of the client. Many services are provided in the direct presence of consumers, therefore, the chosen mode of operation of the organization should be convenient for most clients. The level of customer involvement in the service process varies in different services from high (in healthcare, education) to low (in telecommunications). This, in particular, is related to the specificity of management methods in the provision of various services.

Thus, the main characteristics of services, management problems and ways to solve them can be presented in the following form (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1

The main problems of management and ways to solve them

Service characteristics Management problems Ways to solve problems
Intangibility Lack of goods; a service is an act or an experience. Difficulty in providing reference materials: the provision of services involves risks for the client. The service cannot be demonstrated: it is difficult to differentiate offers. No patent system: free market entry for competitors Stimulating satisfied customers, recommending them to friends and acquaintances, identifying opinion leaders and encouraging them to use the company's services. Development of tangible landmarks, indicating a high level of service: the appearance of the premises, equipment, employees, brand advertising.
Inseparability of the provision of services and their consumption Consumers participate in the process of providing services. Involvement of customer groups in the service process: the problem of control. The service company is represented by its personnel: the perception of the company is determined by the attitude of the client towards its employees. Terms of Service are the hallmark of the service provider. Difficulty expanding service providers: the need for networking. Teaching staff to effectively communicate with clients: the art of listening, understanding the emotional state of another person, and polite behavior. The presence of premises that make it possible to simultaneously serve large groups of consumers. Fast service: core operations need to be streamlined and nonessential work eliminated from service delivery. Creation of a network of branches: the company has the ability to open standard service modules, for example, using franchising.

Continuation of table. 1.1

Service characteristics Management problems Ways to solve problems
Heterogeneity Standardization of services is difficult because their characteristics are largely determined by consumers. Service quality control problem: heterogeneity of service conditions. Investment in personnel selection, motivation and training. Service optimization: automation of the service delivery process, detailed job descriptions, careful control. Individualization of service.
Non-preservation Services cannot be stored: there is no inventory. Peak load problems: low labor efficiency. Difficulty setting prices for services: problems with pricing. Differentiated pricing. Acceptable waiting conditions. Increase in demand outside of peak periods. Using the pre-order system. Switching to part-time work. Redistribution of work. Customer assistance (encouraging customer participation). Separation of services.

The peculiarities of management related to the main characteristics of services determine the main problems that face the leaders of service companies. Of all the variety of problems listed in Table. 1.1, the most important are those related to the human factor, which plays a primary role in service enterprises, namely:

quality control;

achieving high productivity;

personnel Management.

The very concept of "quality of service" is ambiguous. This is due to the specifics of services and their main characteristics, which complicates the management of the quality of services. As a result of studies conducted by foreign authors, ten criteria for evaluating services by consumers were identified, of which the first five take into account the quality of the results of the provision of services, and the last five - the quality of the service process.



The main criterion for consumers' judgments about the quality of services is their compliance with expectations. If the perceived quality has exceeded expectations, the consumer will be satisfied with the service. If the results of the service did not meet his expectations, the client will remain dissatisfied. The main task of the company's management is to ensure the quality of services that meets the expectations of the consumer.

The gap between expected and actual quality of service can occur for various reasons. Knowing and eliminating these causes will enable the management of companies to improve their performance. The main reasons can be named:

· Managers' misjudgment of customer expectations. The gap between expected and perceived service quality often occurs when management does not even try to find out what consumers expect from the company's services;

· Misconception about the quality of services. Even if management correctly evaluates customer expectations, managers are often unable or unwilling to channel company resources to fix the problem. For example, many organizations that accept utility bills, banks, shops have an unsuccessful mode of operation for customers, which has not changed for many years;

· Poor quality of service. The quality of services may not meet the standards or requirements of consumers for various reasons, but most often due to the fact that the company's employees who directly serve clients are not motivated enough or are unable to complete the task due to their low professional and qualification level. The reason for the low quality of service may also be the lack of an appropriate material and technical base, for example, diagnostic and treatment equipment in institutions providing medical services;

· Inaccurate advertising. Advertising that overstates the quality of services leads to a decrease in their perceived quality and customer disappointment. the result does not meet consumer expectations. If the level of service is deliberately exaggerated, the likelihood that even a high-quality service will receive a negative rating increases.

To solve the listed problems of quality management of services, the company's management must:

1) develop the right strategy: determine the target market and the most valuable characteristics of services for consumers;

2) always follow high standards of service;

3) conduct a thorough and detailed preparation of measures to improve the quality of services:

Establish high and measurable performance criteria for the company;

Conduct training and incentives for employees;

Develop labor productivity control systems;

Conduct consumer surveys, checking the compliance of services with established criteria;

4) deliver only real promises to consumers.

One of the most significant problems in the service industry is associated with low productivity. The objective reason for the complexity, and sometimes the impossibility of measuring the volume of services and labor productivity in service activities, is due to the absence of a tangible result.

The value of labor productivity in the service sector is based on the interaction of three factors:

1) a high degree of consumer involvement in the service process makes it difficult to standardize and automate this process;

2) services, as a rule, are characterized by high labor intensity;

3) non-preservation of services often leads to the emergence of excess capacity of the company.

An important management problem is the relationship between productivity and quality. For example, the productivity of a doctor increases with a decrease in the rate of patient admission. But the inevitable consequence of this is, as a rule, a decrease in the quality, and, consequently, the efficiency of the service.

The main ways to increase labor productivity without reducing the quality of services can be:

1) division of activities according to the degree of contact with the consumer.

Different types of services imply a different degree of consumer participation in the provision of services, for example, in medical and educational services, the degree of customer involvement is very high, in the provision of postal utilities, telecommunications, etc. services - it is much lower. Many services include both high and low customer contact activities, such as air check-in and baggage dispatch; work of the bank operator directly with the client and processing of information on accounts; work of a pharmacist with a client and preparation of medicines.

The manager should divide the phases of the service process depending on the degree of customer involvement in them. At those stages of the service process that do not require close contact with consumers, it is necessary to increase productivity by streamlining and speeding up the process. At the stages of direct interaction with the client - to increase labor efficiency without reducing the quality of services;

2) pipeline approach to service.

This approach involves the automation of manual labor (for example, automatic car wash, the use of vending machines, ATMs), as well as the use of systems that reduce the number of service personnel (for example, supermarkets, fast food restaurants).

Until recently, such technological solutions were applied only in relation to those services that gave a standard result, but given the constant technological progress, the growing awareness of consumers about technologies and systems, it can be concluded that the pipeline approach to service is already being applied, and in the near future will be widely used for those services that are performed in accordance with the individual requirements of customers. An encouraging example of this is the diagnosis and surgical treatment of patients at the Eye Microsurgery MNTK;

3) increasing the degree of customer participation in the service process.

An effective way to increase productivity is to transfer customers to partial self-service: direct, unaided, international and long-distance telephone calls; cleaning up dishes in some catering establishments; equipping hotel rooms with household appliances that allow customers to make tea or warm up breakfast, etc.

Such innovations are based on knowledge of the needs and characteristics of customer behavior. Managers need to conduct preliminary testing of innovations, explain their benefits to clients in such a way that they would gladly accept the activation of their role in the service process;

4) establishing an equilibrium between supply and demand.

The main reason for the discrepancy between the company's production capacity and the demand for services is the lack of persistence of services. The main ways to increase labor productivity are:

· Reduction of peak demand, which can be achieved by differentiated pricing, a system of pre-orders, increased attention to customers who have to wait for services in line;

· Increased supply flexibility, which can be achieved by introducing part-time work, consolidating services from several companies, and making more efficient use of equipment and personnel during periods of increasing demand.

Special requirements in the service sector apply to personnel management. Unlike production, where people influence the substances and forces of nature, the object of influence in the service sector is mainly a person with his needs.

In the management of services that involve a high degree of customer involvement, the highest priority should be given to the attitude of company employees towards customers. It is important for the management of the company to form such norms of behavior of employees that would orient them towards respect for the needs of customers, i.e. to use such an interesting socio-psychological phenomenon as the "clientele" type of behavior of employees in "hot spots", where their direct meetings with clients take place.

In a person, two principles are always fighting: rational and emotional, which is important to consider in the relationship between a service worker and a client. When a client enters the office, first of all, it is necessary to create an atmosphere of cordiality, care and goodwill. Here professionalism, tact and courtesy of employees are important, especially those who are the first to meet the client. If the client is greeted with a friendly smile, offered a cup of coffee or tea, and asked a few neutral questions, then a certain positive attitude is formed. In addition, the employee of the firm gets the time and opportunity to evaluate the partner and choose the desired direction of the conversation.

A very important role is played by what the employee says about the company and its services. Staff must understand what is being sold and what benefits it can bring to the consumer, i.e. the professional training of the staff is very important. For example, in a shoe repair shop, the inspector and the foreman must explain to the client that very good glue is used in the work: waterproof, durable, universal, as it glues leather, plastic, synthetics, etc., so the repaired shoes will last for a long time.

In other words, the company's employees must be able to tell the client that it is here that he will receive high quality services. But the professionalism of the service personnel is not so much about convincing the client, but about the fact that this conviction itself comes to him from information about the company and from experience in using the services. It is the client's independent awareness of the uniqueness of services in terms of quality, availability, usefulness, duration, etc. - the strongest means of attracting him.

Employee behavior adequately shapes the company's image. In this case, there is no need to artificially create it.

Foreign experience, which is beginning to be actively used by Russian firms in the service sector, has developed a number of recommendations for the application of the client type of employee behavior.

In order to attract a client, you must:

· Take into account the composition and homogeneity of buyers;

· To introduce original services;

· Carefully think over the reference and information policy (instructions, descriptions, diagrams, addresses and phone numbers of warranty workshops, etc.);

· To provide the appropriate design of the retail space and offices;

· Make discounts to regular customers;

· Introduce new forms of service (for example, field service, participation in fairs, service on orders, etc.);

· Constantly expand the range by updating services;

· Require compliance with the relevant norms of behavior from the employees of the company (constant search for new ones, study of customer requests and their adjustment);

· Be "open" to clients.

The overall structure of customer-centered behavior in a firm includes a number of elements.



The given example is one of the fragments of the "clientele" behavior of the personnel of a company providing services.

The "anti-client" type of behavior of the firm's personnel gives an answer to the question: "How to push away a client?" This is facilitated by:

· Keeping the range of services unchanged;

· Lack of guarantees for clients;

· Incompetence of staff;

· Unsightly appearance of service items (for example, wrinkled clothes, not ironed "tablecloth - napkins" set);

· Cramped and crowded in the trading floor and offices;

· Lack of services (furniture assembly, computer adjustment, delivery of bulky goods to the address, etc.);

· Inflexible prices, no discounts;

· Lack of consideration of consumer requests and infrastructure of the region in which the services are provided (for example, opening an atelier for tailoring exclusive models of clothing in a city microdistrict, where mainly low-income groups of the population live);

· Inconvenient for clients mode of operation of the company.

The "anti-client" type of behavior can also manifest itself in the business communication of the company's employees. The client can be put off by such situations:

· The previously agreed price by phone changes when the client appears at the office;

· Failure to fulfill the assumed obligations;

· Branding on dirty, untidy overalls;

· Poorly executed branding;

· Absence of name and designation plates on the doors in the office.

The client can be alienated by the employees themselves in such situations:

· Instead of showing interest in the client, they try to "get rid of" him;

· Employees do not introduce themselves and do not have corporate identification marks;

· In an oral or telephone conversation, there is a rush;

· The client is asked to call back without explaining the reason;

· Instead of a “living person” (a company employee), the client hears the “voice” of the answering machine, which blocks feedback;

· Employees refer to being busy;

· Employees are looking for information for a long time or do not fully possess information.

Thus, the described situations indicate the high demands placed on the personnel of the service sector. Along with professional skills, employees must have the basics of knowledge of psychology, aesthetics, morality in order to more fully meet the needs of customers, a deep understanding of their tastes and desires. And for this, they must be appropriately motivated. The importance of personnel management is also increasing due to the fact that the proportion of human labor in the service sector is much higher than in production, and the increase in the volume of services is achieved mainly by increasing the number of employees, and not by organizational and technical.

The considered features and problems of service sector management affect the implementation process of all management functions. If the laws, patterns, principles and methods of management are practically the same for production and the service sector, then the main functions of management (planning, organization, motivation, control) have the specifics of their manifestation in various fields of activity. Therefore, in the following sections of the textbook, we will dwell in more detail on the characteristics of management functions and the peculiarities of their manifestation at enterprises and organizations in the service sector.

s test questions

1. What is the evolution of management systems and what is modern management?

2. What is the essence of the marketing management concept?

3. What, in your opinion, is common in production and service management?

4. What are the main reasons that determine the features of the management of enterprises and organizations in the service sector?

5. List the most important characteristics of services that distinguish them from products, and explain their impact on the characteristics of management in the service sector. Give examples.

6. Describe the main problems of the service sector.

7. Try to define the quality of the service.

8. What are the main factors influencing the quality of the service? Give examples of the influence of certain factors on the quality of the results and the service process.

9. Using the example of a specific company providing services, consider the reasons for the insufficiently high (low) quality of customer service.

10. What actions should managers take to effectively manage service quality?

11. What are the main problems of labor productivity management in service enterprises?

12. Describe with specific examples the main ways to increase labor productivity in service enterprises.

13. What are the most important problems of personnel management in the service sector and ways to solve them?

— Questions for discussion at the seminar

1. The service sector: state and main problems of its development: The need to manage the indication of services.

2. Characteristics of services and their impact on the management system.

3. Modern problems of management in the service sector, ways and practical experience of their solution.

Ñ Basic concepts

Service industry, service management, marketing management concept, service management model.

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Service planning

Planning: essence, purpose and building blocks. Features and tasks of planning at enterprises in the service sector. Forecasting and its purpose. Objectives in a service organization: their functions and classifications. Mission and philosophy of the service provider. Strategic, tactical, operational and operational goals. Organization goals tree. The principles of effective goal setting.

Types of service planning and their classification. Strategic and current planning. Factors affecting the composition and structure of plans in the organization. Principles, stages and methods of planning in service industries.

Planning and goal setting in service organizations

The content of management in the service sector, as in other areas, is revealed in its functions, which arose as a result of the division and specialization of managerial labor. The process approach to management assumes that management is not some one-time action, but a series of continuous interrelated actions called management functions. It is now generally accepted that four basic functions apply to all organizations: planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling.

Planning, being one of the main functions of management, allows to ensure the effective functioning and development of the organization in the future, to reduce uncertainty. Decisions made in the planning process form a complex system within which they influence each other, therefore, they need to be mutually linked to ensure their optimal combination in terms of the most full use of the organization's potential and the opportunities that open before it.

Distinguish between planning in a broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, under planning understand the decision-making process associated with setting goals and objectives, developing a strategy, allocating and reallocating resources. In a narrow sense - planning is the preparation of special documents - plans that determine the specific steps of the organization in the implementation of its goals. Plan is called an official document that reflects the final and intermediate goals of the organization and its divisions, as well as the methods and timing of their achievement. In the conditions of market relations, plans are not given to enterprises from above, but are developed by them independently. The plan becomes the basis for the activities of organizations of all forms of ownership and size, since without it it is impossible to ensure the consistency of the work of departments, monitor results, determine the need for resources, and stimulate the labor activity of employees.

Planning in the service sector has a number of features that complicate the work of drawing up plans for the activities of the relevant organizations. These features are due to the specifics of the services themselves and the processes of their provision. If in material production there is a rigid fixed connection between economic factors (for example, the time norms for all work performed, the consumption rates of raw materials and materials), then in the provision of services, such a connection is more flexible. At the same time, the use of norms and standards is difficult or impossible, and the relationship between economic or technological factors is largely determined by the consumer of services, his preferences, tastes, and capabilities. At the majority of enterprises in the service sector, it is difficult to accurately determine, and, consequently, to reasonably plan the total volume of services provided. Natural indicators are unacceptable for this because of the diversity and incomparability of individual services, and cost indicators are due to the lack of an objective monetary value for a number of services and work performed (in education, health care, etc.) Since the activity of service enterprises largely depends on the volume and the structure of demand for the services provided, planning in such organizations, in contrast to manufacturing, has a more probabilistic nature and solves several problems.

Ensuring the purposeful development of the organization and all its structural units.

Timely recognition of future challenges and service delivery opportunities. Development of specific measures aimed at supporting favorable trends or containing negative ones.

Coordination of the activities of structural units and employees of the organization for the provision of services.

Creation of an objective basis for effective control, allowing to evaluate the organization's activities by comparing the actual values \u200b\u200bof the parameters with the planned ones.

Motivating the labor activity of employees by presenting the degree of fulfillment of planned targets for the provision of services as the main object of incentives.

Information support for employees. The plans should contain information about the goals, timing and conditions of work for the provision of services to consumers.

Within the framework of the planning function, sub-functions are distinguished: forecasting, goal setting, etc.

Forecasting is called a scientifically grounded prediction of possible directions for the future development of an organization, based on available practical data and on assumptions regarding the dynamics of development of objects or processes. Forecasting is designed to solve the following tasks:

Scientific foresight of the future based on identifying trends and patterns of development;

Determination of the dynamics of economic phenomena;

Making forecasts showing possible directions for the future development of the organization;

Determination in the future of the values \u200b\u200bof the final parameters of the development of the organization, as well as its behavior in various situations on the way to achieving the goals.

The importance of forecasting is increasing due to the fragility of services, the impossibility of storing them, which creates problems in responding to fluctuations in demand. In the service sector, forecasting is usually performed to anticipate the dynamics of needs for specific services. For example, an increase in unemployment in the region may serve as a basis for the assumption of an increase in demand for employment services, and a decrease in the price of new cars - a decrease in demand for auto repair services. If the forecasting is performed qualitatively, then the resulting forecasts can serve as an initial basis for planning. Thus, the stable work of health care is facilitated by plans formed on the basis of forecasts of fertility and mortality, the epidemiological and ecological situation, forecasts of the receipt and expenditure of funds in this industry.

The basis of the plans of any enterprise is its goals. Under aim organizations understand the end state or result towards which their activities are directed. In the management system of organizations in the service sector, goals perform several important functions.

1. The goals reflect the philosophy of the organization, the concept of its activities and development, the place and significance of this organization in the service market.

2. Objectives reduce the uncertainty in current service delivery activities. They become guidelines for the organization as a whole and for individuals, help to focus on the most important actions, thereby increasing the volume and quality of services provided and reducing unnecessary costs for them.

3. Objectives form the basis of criteria for identifying problems, making decisions, monitoring and evaluating the performance of service delivery.

The goals of the activity that are set at enterprises in the service sector can be classified according to several criteria (Fig.2.1)

Fig. 2.1. Classification of goals in service organizations

In addition to the indicated signs of classification, the goals can also differ in the degree of coverage, in the timeliness of setting, in rank, in the degree of attainability.

The system of goals of any organization is based on its mission, which is a fundamental, unique goal that distinguishes this organization from others of the same type and defines the scope of its activities. The laws of a market economy require each organization to formulate and disclose its main goal, which gives an idea of \u200b\u200bits necessity and usefulness for society as a whole, the environment of the organization and its employees. The theory and practice of management have not yet developed universal rules for formulating a mission. Therefore, there are many different approaches to the content of such a goal. However, at the current marketing stage of management development, especially for service organizations, the most important requirement is to focus on the interests, expectations and values \u200b\u200bof the client. The mission statement of a service sector organization may contain the following information:

The most important services provided;

Intended consumers of services;

Geographic scope of activity;

Service quality concept;

Pricing concept;

The main technologies used in the provision of services, the degree of their uniqueness and progressiveness;

Company image, desired public reputation, etc.

As a rule, the mission does not include all of these components, but the most significant of them. For example, the mission of a fast food restaurant chain might be to provide residents and visitors of the region with high quality food at affordable prices with fast service. The mission of the organization may include its philosophy, reflecting the credo of existence, the supreme principles of activity. Philosophy includes the basic economic, social, environmental, ethical values \u200b\u200bof the organization's management, its ideas about the meaning of the firm's activities and the role of specific services in the development of society. For example, the well-known firm Mary Kay Cosmetics stated that "the company's philosophy is based on the golden rule: a spirit of participation and attention where people in a good mood give their time, knowledge and experience." The CEO of McDonald's many years ago proclaimed the slogan that became the philosophy of this organization: "Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value." One of the domestic banks formulated its mission, taking into account the philosophy of the organization: "Promoting the establishment of business in Russia by providing a wide range of banking services, high quality customer service and effective development, taking into account the interests of shareholders, customers and employees."

Strategicthe organization's goals are set by senior managers and focus on critical common issues. They are aimed at solving promising large-scale problems in the provision of services that qualitatively change the activity or image of the organization. So, the strategic goal of a travel company may be the transition within a certain time from international tourism to domestic. Tactical goals are set primarily by mid-level managers and focus on the main activities required to achieve strategic goals. An example of a tactical goal within the framework of this strategic goal can be the acquisition and re-equipment of two local tourist bases during the year. Operational goals are formulated by middle and lower level managers, they are associated with the functioning of individual divisions of the organization and are aimed at actions and work necessary to achieve tactical goals. For example, to achieve this tactical goal, an operational goal can be set: conducting a comparative analysis of local tourist bases proposed for implementation within two months. The operational goals set for specific performers are sometimes called operating .

As a result of establishing interrelationships between goals and their hierarchical subordination, a “tree of goals” of the organization is formed, in which large “branches” (main corporate goals) depart from the “trunk” corresponding to the mission. From these "branches" there are smaller ones that correspond to their goals. Thus, a "crown" is formed, which can "branch" many times. The constructed "tree" clearly demonstrates the mutual subordination of goals, shows which auxiliary goals must be implemented to achieve a specific goal (Fig. & 2. 2).

Based on the period of time required to achieve the goals, they are divided into long-term , mid-term and short term . Medium-term and especially short-term goals are characterized by greater than long-term, concretization of the results provided for in them. The period of implementation of goals of each type depends on their level. Most of the strategic goals are long-term, tactical - medium-term, operational - short-term.

Technological goals are related to the improvement of the technologies used by the organization, that is, the way services are provided. Thus, one of the technological goals may be to increase the level of computerization of customer service. Production the goals provide for the provision of a certain volume of services, improving their quality, increasing the efficiency of activities. Marketing goals are related to entering certain sales markets, attracting new customers, etc. . Economic goals are focused on achieving the financial stability of the company, increasing profits and profitability. Social the goals are related to the creation of favorable working and rest conditions for employees, increasing their educational and qualification level, etc. Administrative goals focus on achieving high organizational manageability, discipline among employees, and work consistency. Other goals in terms of content may include scientific and technical guidelines, etc.

Fig. 2.2. Goal tree

Goal setting precedes the development of plans, which, in essence, are tools to achieve the set goals. The quality of plans and the results of their implementation depend on the correct setting of goals. Successful implementation of the functions of goals is possible if a number of principles are observed.

Reality of goals.

Correct formulation of goals. Goals should be short, specific, and time-bound. Whenever possible, the goal formulation should contain quantitative parameters.

Flexibility of goals. If necessary, the goals should be amenable to adjustment.

Compatibility of goals. The goals of the organization should not be contradictory to each other, but, on the contrary, mutually supportive and ensure the provision and development of services. Consistency should be ensured both vertically, that is, between goals at different levels, and horizontally, that is, between the goals of different areas of the organization.

Verifiability and reward for achieving goals. This requirement is related to the need to assess the degree of achievement of service delivery objectives and to stimulate the corresponding activities of employees.


Types, principles and stages of planning

At enterprises in the service sector, various types of planning can be implemented, which differ in purpose, level, subject, etc. (Figure 2.3)

Fig. 2. 3. Classification of types of planning in service enterprises

Strategic planning is to define the mission of the organization, form a system of goals and strategies for activities in the service markets.

Current planning may include tactical and operational. The main task of tactical planning is the choice of means to achieve the intended general goals of the company. At the same time, the personnel policy, methods of providing basic services, the general financial policy, and the general marketing strategy are determined. Operational planning is aimed at developing specific programs of action to solve the problems of the organization, disaggregated by years, quarters, months and days. In the course of developing operational plans, decisions are made on how to operate the operating system of the enterprise depending on the changing demand for its services, how to provide the processes of providing services with resources with minimal costs, how much to attract employees, etc.

Strategic and current planning differ in many ways (Table 2.1)


Table 2.1

Comparison of strategic and current planning

Signs Strategic planning Current planning
Management level Mostly the highest level All levels
Basic orientation On problems For a period of time
Problems Weakly structured quality Well structured quantitative
Signs Strategic planning Current planning
Uncertainty High Low
The essence of planning Focus on innovation, strategic adaptation to the external environment Integration orientation, coordination of the internal environment.
Target criterion Building the potential for success Realizing the potential for success
Planning horizon Emphasis on long-term, partly on medium and short-term planning Emphasis on short and medium term planning
Planning units Strategic business units All functional areas, departments and employees
Granularity Enlarged study Detailed study
Background information Organization policy, external environment Organizational strategy, internal environment

Long term planning focuses on an extended time period (from 1 year for current plans to 10 or more years for strategic ones). Time horizon for mid-term planning ranges from several months for current plans to 3-5 years for strategic ones. Short term scheduling is designed for a period from several days to one year, respectively.

Nomenclature-thematic planning in the service sector is the formation of plans for the development of the company, defining measures for updating the range and content of services provided, increasing the competitiveness of services, improving the technology and organization of the processes used in their provision. The main complex of work on this type of planning should be carried out by marketing specialists. At the same time, it is recommended to use a service package model that includes:

* basic service;

* support services to promote the main;

* supporting services that make the main service more attractive, valuable, different from the one offered by competitors.

Resource planning includes calculations of material, labor and financial resources required for the implementation of specific services. This type of calculation includes financial planning, budget planning, drawing up business plans, etc. An important component of planning is the development of pricing policy. The pricing process, hindered by the intangibility of services, must take into account the following factors:

the basis of the service;

the degree of individualization of the service;

the process of customer assessment of the quality of service.

Scheduling involves the determination of the scope of work, the workload of departments and performers, the construction of work schedules for individual performers, departments, specific services, equipment load schedules, the distribution of work by periods. This type of planning in the service sector is associated with greater difficulties than in the field of material production. Services, unlike goods, are provided to the consumer in real time and often require the presence and participation of the client. The duration of the service is often unknown in advance, since it depends not only on organizational factors, but also on the characteristics and needs of a particular consumer. Therefore, the schedules for many services (medical, cosmetic, restaurant, etc.), as a rule, are based on the average time workload of staff, premises, equipment and suggest possible adjustments upon receipt of individual orders. During periods of falling demand, scheduling may include changes in business hours, free or discounted services, etc. During periods of peak demand, the plans may include measures to streamline queues (pre-registration, increase the comfort of waiting for customer service) It is much easier to draw up scheduling for services with relatively stable, predictable demand (urban public transport, telephony, intra-company services) or not requiring attendance client (repair, cleaning, washing).

Service enterprises can implement and functional aspect planning. In accordance with the division of labor adopted in the organization, differentiated plans are drawn up for individual functional areas: operations (main activity for the provision of services), personnel, finance, supply, etc.

The planning level reflects the granularity of the plans. Depending on the size of the organization, its organizational structure, as well as on the chosen planning concept, its independent objects can be individual employees, their groups, certain types of services or specific orders, the organization as a whole and its divisions.

Planning for repetitive activities carried out in standard situations. In the service sector, such planning takes place when developing a traffic schedule or doctor's appointments. But even in such cases, it is recommended to leave "windows" in the plans for non-recurring, unforeseen situations. Planning for non-repetitive activities is carried out to solve new, specific problems. For example, this kind of planning is done in travel agencies to organize a special individual route.

The composition and structure of a service organization's plans are influenced by several factors, including
- direction of activity and scope of services provided;
- organizational structure of the enterprise;
- the composition and nature of the processes used to provide services;
- the size of the organization and the scale of its activities, etc.

The high quality of the plans being developed is facilitated by taking into account the scientific principles of planning. A number of them are especially important for service enterprises.

Principle scientific validity involves the use of modern information technology, the use of methods of optimal planning, experimentation, as well as progressive procedures and methods of service delivery. Principle complexity means the systematic linking of all plans developed at the enterprise. Principle continuity considers planning not as a single act, but as an ongoing process, in which, as a result of periodic renewal of plans, long-term calculations for the provision of services are combined with short-term plans. Principle coordination involves the coordination of plans "horizontally" between the divisions of the enterprise or various types of services provided, and the principle integration - "vertically" between its levels. Principle profitability requires that the effect of using a service delivery plan be greater than the cost of preparing it. Principle flexibility assumes the ability of plans to respond dynamically to changes in internal and external factors, as well as to maintain the necessary reserves. Principle participation requires the maximum possible participation of employees of the organization in the work on the plan, since this approach causes more activity and productivity in its implementation.

The planning process is one of the most important processes in a service company. Regardless of the type of plans, there are three main stages in the planning process.

I. Stage task setting includes identifying and analyzing the problem associated with the provision of services, while determining the initial prerequisites and target values \u200b\u200bof the planned parameters.

II. Stage development plan involves the formation of possible solutions, an assessment of the identified alternatives based on their analysis and comparison of the predicted consequences with the target parameters, as well as the choice of the best alternative.

III. Stage implementation of the planned solution consists in communicating the planning decision to the performers in the form of specific planning tasks, norms, standards, indicators.

All planning processes are closely related to each other and form a specific planning cycle.

Service planning methods

The main planning task in service organizations is to find the optimal solution to the problems associated with the implementation of the services offered. Currently, there are several ways of making plans or planning methods for such organizations: regulatory, experienced, balance sheet, network and others.

 

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