What service risks threaten your industry?

1 Customer expectations

Customers expect high-quality, timely, and personalized service from your business. If you fail to meet their expectations, you risk losing their loyalty, satisfaction, and referrals. To avoid this risk, you need to understand your customers' needs, preferences, and feedback. You also need to set realistic and clear service standards, train your staff to deliver consistent and professional service, and monitor and improve your service processes.

2 Service quality

Service quality is the degree to which your service meets or exceeds your customers' expectations. Service quality can be influenced by many factors, such as the reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles of your service. Poor service quality can lead to customer complaints, dissatisfaction, and defection. To prevent this risk, you need to measure and evaluate your service quality regularly, identify and correct the root causes of service failures, and implement service recovery strategies to restore customer trust and satisfaction.

3 Service capacity

Service capacity is the amount of service that your business can provide within a given time and space. Service capacity can be affected by the demand, supply, and variability of your service. If your service capacity is too low, you may face long waiting times, lost sales, and frustrated customers. If your service capacity is too high, you may waste resources, incur higher costs, and reduce your profitability. To manage this risk, you need to forecast and monitor your service demand, adjust and optimize your service supply, and balance and smooth your service variability.

4 Service innovation

Service innovation is the introduction of new or improved service offerings, processes, or strategies that create value for your customers and your business. Service innovation can help you gain a competitive edge, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce costs. However, service innovation also involves uncertainty, complexity, and resistance. If you fail to innovate your service, you may lose your market share, relevance, and growth potential. To overcome this risk, you need to foster a culture of innovation, involve your customers and employees in service design and development, and test and implement your service innovations effectively.

5 Service security

Service security is the protection of your service assets, data, and transactions from unauthorized access, use, or damage. Service security can be compromised by various threats, such as cyberattacks, fraud, theft, vandalism, or natural disasters. If your service security is breached, you may face legal liabilities, financial losses, and reputational damage. To mitigate this risk, you need to implement and update your service security policies, procedures, and systems. You also need to educate and train your staff and customers on service security best practices and protocols.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?