Business strategy: zoning in on services

06/06/2022

Everyone wants their business to be the best, but you must remember that failing to plan is planning to fail!

As outlined in our previous blog, you should know where your business is now, as well as where you want it to be in five years.

But how will you get to that stage?

To get to where you want to be, you must look at each element individually, which will guide where improvements can be made.

To start with, look at your current services and envision what stage you want them to be at.

What opportunities and threats are there?

Before setting a plan in motion, you should conduct another SWOT analysis to focus on your current services.

For example, you should ask yourself what the strengths and weaknesses of the services that you currently offer to inform you of how to become the best.

Exploring your opportunities will give a good indication of how well customers’ needs are being met, along with whether you could expand your services to fill a gap in the market.

Things that could threaten your business must also be considered, such as who your competitors are and what their services and pricing strategies are.

Your business must be well-equipped to cope with fluctuating market prices to ensure it doesn’t get left behind.

Should you introduce a new service?

When there is an opportunity to expand your share of the market, it can be tempting to jump at the chance.

However, there is an important balancing act between offering lots of services and offering good ones.

If you aim to provide a high-end customer experience, you are unlikely to want to expand your services to include low-cost services which use mainly automated processes.

This presents a dilemma of whether to offer services that more people would be interested in or specialise in areas that are relevant to your current customers, which will be influenced by where you want to be in five years.

Once this has been decided, you can consider your action plan to get there.

When specialising in a new sector, you will need to either develop the expertise needed or hire people who can provide these.

Of course, offering a new service will also incur costs, especially if specialist equipment (such as vehicles, machinery, or systems) is needed.

So, you must evaluate whether introducing new services or making improvements to your current services would be the best option to reach your goal.

Steps to improve your current services include upskilling your current staff through training programmes and acting when customers request changes.

The next aspect of this strategy, which is clients, will be discussed in more detail in our next blog.

Need advice on your business strategy? Contact us.