depending on the time during which the service is performed and even depending on the place where the service is performed. The consequence is a variation in the quality of the service. Depending on these factors, the service provider may deliver an excellent service or a catastrophic one. The manager’s objective is to control these factors as well as possible, based on the knowledge of the customer’s expectations, in order to ensure the most consistent level of service possible.
2.3.3.2. Managing service quality
B2B service contracts often include performance objectives in order to limit the risk of heterogeneity. In the context of a B2B service, the manager can act in two directions. The first is to work on the service process to ensure that all the elements of this process that can be formalized, and, therefore, likely to be standardized. This is similar to the principle of operation sheets, like a worksite preparation sheet, for example. The other line of work concerns the service employees, a strong factor of heterogeneity in a large number of service situations. It is then up to managers to make their teams aware of this reality and to support them in order to neutralize this drift.
2.3.4. Perishability
2.3.4.1. Lack of stock
Because of its intangibility and also because it is consumed at the same time as it is realized, the service cannot be stored. This is the interpretation of the perishability of the service.
The consequence is that, over a given period of time, a given service unit has only a given capacity to perform services. At its maximum capacity, a new business opportunity cannot be seized by the service provider. On the other hand, the unit may find itself under capacity at a given moment due to a lack of contracts, leaving a certain number of employees unoccupied. It is obviously these two extreme situations that managers must anticipate in order to avoid them as much as possible.
2.3.4.2. Managing the service capacity
In a B2B context, there is also the notion of seasonality to which is added the reality of economic fluctuations specific to the activity of particular sectors of activity. Service providers working directly with the oil sector, particularly on research and development, engineering and even works and maintenance assignments, were quickly and strongly affected by the drop in the price of a barrel of oil in the second half of 2014 and the spring of 2020. Political, economic, regulatory and health factors can quickly affect the manager’s unit activity in a positive or negative way. A diversified client portfolio in terms of industry sectors is an excellent hedge against these types of contingencies.
But there is a situation in B2B that is just as delicate for managers, when a loyal customer asks for new services when their unit is at maximum capacity. The risk of disappointment, misunderstanding or even loss of customer loyalty is high. Outsourcing may appear to be an option, but it also has its risks. If managers have no real room for maneuver to respond to the client, they can only count on the strength of their relationship and their proximity to the client to limit the latter’s disappointment.
Box 2.3. Testimony of Bernard Greder (Managing Director of the Ortec Group)
The Ortec Group is a French company providing services to the industrial, public and tertiary sectors. It is present in 24 countries and employs 11,000 people. It provides its clients with innovative and responsible solutions to support them in their various design, implementation and development projects
A service environment is essentially different from a production environment by the immaterial nature of the offer. In this respect, service is a perception, an appreciation specific to a particular sensitivity. Many variables will interfere in the perception of the quality of a service. This immateriality makes the client particularly sensitive to the various tangible proofs associated with the service. A poorly maintained and untidy construction site induces negative perceptions in the client, whereas new, modern work clothes, worn with pride by the field staff, will reinforce the provider’s brand image. Moreover, in services, because of their intangible nature, there are many opportunities for development and innovation.
The human element is also an essential characteristic of service activities. People are at the heart of service. The service is provided by men and women who arrive at work each morning in varying degrees of fitness, perhaps worried about a child who has been ill during the night, or tense on certain days due to difficult transport conditions. The service rendered to the client will necessarily be impacted by these personal conditions. The service will be different every day, since every morning it is a new construction site that has to be started, with a different customer, in a particular environment, with organizational, technical and human constraints that are always specific. While the world of production is one of series, duplication and repetition, the world of service is one of variability, where adaptability and responsiveness are essential. The human factor cannot be reproduced identically. For a product as for a service, high standards, rigor and organization are essential skills, and the human qualities of the collaborators are precious resources for any company. Nevertheless, this human dimension is prevalent in services because it contributes to the realization of the service.
It is then up to managers to take the full measure of the human dimension of the service by making it resonate both within their team and in their relationship with customers. On the one hand, the human dimension of service makes managers dependent on their team. If they are not supported by their team in responding to market requirements and competitive issues, then they will not be able to do anything on their own. They have no other choice but to unite all the components of their team around them, in order to release the value of the service. By becoming the leader of their team and developing one’s communication skills, they will be able to exercise a natural authority and inspire the necessary confidence so that their colleagues follow them on the path of customer and service requirements. On the other hand, managers will have to build and maintain a quality human relationship with their client, which will be the cement of trust. Beyond the service rendered, the client becomes attached to his or her service provider because he or she feels listened to and understood, that an interpersonal chemistry has been created and that a feeling of sympathy has been experienced. It is this relationship of trust that will make the client want to collaborate with a manager and his or her team in particular. The client trusts not only the professionalism of the manager and his or her team but also the quality of the relationship, solidified by transparent communication and the willingness to maintain a dialogue.
Customer orientation, in the service industry, is fully realized in this attention to the human being. Operational efficiency and economic performance are obviously the sine qua non conditions for a manager’s success, but nothing is possible in service, and especially in B2B, without this customer orientation. And yet, the manager is not really prepared for this requirement and this service culture. The company’s mission is to accompany the employee in his or her assumption of responsibility, in order to bring him or her to be a true customer-oriented manager in the service industry, beyond the mere mastery of a trade. Human investment must complement material investment. Investing in people means recognizing the contribution of each individual to the creation of value and competitive differentiation, sending clear signals of recognition and sharing the fruits and results of the group. The Ortec Group supports all its employees through career paths built in the spirit of the group, which reinforce the feeling of belonging and attachment to the company. Field personnel are motivated and valued by internal training courses that reinforce technical skills and structure a level of professionalism. In addition, management training courses accompany employees throughout their career development. However, the manager must develop his or her own curiosity, in order to trigger the customer relationship, and be willing to question himself or herself, in order to maintain this relationship at the highest level. By being able to intervene at different stages in the life cycle of
