In the service industry, scaling a business requires a strategic approach to delivering consistent, high-quality experiences to customers across all locations and interactions. Unlike physical products, services are intangible, but by standardising the processes, customer experiences, and service delivery, you can significantly enhance operational efficiency, increase customer satisfaction, and achieve scalability.
However, product managers in the service industry face significant challenges - 56.4% cite competing organisational objectives, 50.8% struggle with time constraints, and 35.0% lack role clarity. Despite these obstacles, a fully optimised product manager can increase company profits by up to 34.2%. Given that 80% of product managers engage in design-related activities, the importance of standardising services cannot be overlooked.
What if you could scale your business seamlessly, creating consistent, exceptional experiences for your customers, no matter where they interact with your brand? How would it feel to know that your service is always delivered with the same quality and care, allowing you to grow without compromising your values?
1. Consistency in Service Delivery
In the service industry, customer satisfaction relies heavily on a consistent experience. Standardising a product ensures that every customer receives the same high-quality service, whether they're visiting your flagship location or a branch in another city.
For example, if you run a bank or consulting firm and standardise your client onboarding, service protocols, and communication practices, you'll create a consistent experience that builds trust and loyalty. This consistency strengthens your brand and supports customer retention.
2. Operational Efficiency
By standardising a product, you streamline operations, cut redundancy, and improve efficiency. For example, standardising the account-opening process in banking or the project-scoping process in consulting helps optimise time and resources.
With clear, consistent procedures in place, employees spend less time navigating service delivery and more time serving customers. Standardisation increases customer throughput, reduces delays, and ensures smooth, efficient service every time.
3. Improved Training and Onboarding
When you standardise a product, training a growing workforce becomes faster and more efficient. Clear, standardised protocols and well-documented procedures make it easy for new employees to learn and follow consistent service methods.
Standardising customer interactions speeds up onboarding with clear expectations and training materials. This approach ensures that new hires meet the same high standards as experienced staff, reducing inconsistencies and maintaining service quality.
4. Enhanced Customer Experience
Customers expect a consistent level of service when they engage with your brand. Standardising a product ensures that customers know what to expect, which helps to build loyalty and trust in your business.
For example, if you run a chain of fitness centres, standardising the member onboarding process, personal training sessions and communications ensures that every customer receives the same high quality experience. This reduces variability and ensures a reliable, consistent experience every time they interact with you.
5. Quality Control and Continuous Improvement
Standardising a product helps you establish a framework for maintaining service quality. This allows you to set performance metrics and service standards, ensuring employees consistently meet expectations, such as standardised response times or issue resolutions.
With standardised processes in place, you can identify areas for improvement and apply these changes across all locations or teams. This ensures consistent service delivery, enabling your business to scale effectively while maintaining high-quality standards throughout its growth.
“Without standards, there can be no improvement.” - Taiichi Ohno
6. Facilitates Scaling to New Locations
When expanding your service business to new locations, maintaining consistent quality can be difficult. Standardising a product creates a clear, replicable model for new locations to follow, ensuring a seamless expansion process.
Standardisation allows you to replicate service procedures, marketing strategies and customer experience protocols in new locations. For example, a standardised financial planning process in banking ensures that clients receive the same level of service and expertise, regardless of branch or consultant, fostering trust and efficiency.
7. Cost Efficiency and Profitability
Through product standardisation, you can achieve cost savings in many areas. By using the same service protocols, you can better forecast staffing, equipment, and material needs, helping to avoid overstaffing or shortages and improve efficiency.
Standardisation also allows you to negotiate better bulk pricing with suppliers, enhancing your bottom line. As processes become more predictable, you can identify and eliminate inefficiencies, reducing waste and lowering operational costs while your business continues to grow.
8. Better Customer Data and Insights
With a standardised product, consistent data collection is achieved at each stage of the customer journey. Standardised feedback forms, surveys and tracking systems provide consistent data, making it easier to analyse and improve service delivery.
Consistent metrics allow you to track performance trends and identify gaps, enabling data-driven decisions as your business scales. With this insight, you can refine your service, improve marketing efforts, and personalise customer interactions based on valuable feedback.
9. Brand Strength and Market Positioning
Branding in the professional services industry is about delivering a consistent customer experience. By standardising a product, you ensure that your brand is presented consistently, creating a strong, recognisable identity that customers can trust across all touchpoints.
As your business expands into new markets, a consistent experience reassures customers that they will receive the same quality they have come to expect. This consistency drives loyalty, builds trust and supports long-term growth, especially in markets where customers may not be familiar with your brand.
10. Supports Automation and Technology Integration
To scale your service business effectively, you must standardise a product and its processes. With standardised procedures, technology, such as online booking systems, chatbots, or automated billing, can be integrated more efficiently and scaled smoothly.
Standardisation enables you to automate repetitive tasks, collect customer data, and streamline communication. As a result, you can improve operational efficiency, reduce errors and grow your business while maintaining a consistent service experience across all touchpoints.
I don't look at standardization and innovation as opposites. I look at them as bedfellows. To improve something, you must standardize it enough to study it, and determine results, and then ask, 'can we do it better?' - Dr. Robert Collins
Product standardisation is a powerful strategy for effectively scaling your service business. By creating consistent processes, you not only increase customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, but also streamline staff training, improve data collection and strengthen your brand.
Standardisation reduces variability, helping you to maintain high quality service delivery as you expand into new locations and markets. Standardising your offering allows you to optimise resources, improve profitability and integrate technology more seamlessly, all of which contribute to long-term business growth.
Focusing on standardisation sets the stage for a scalable and sustainable business model that ensures consistency, drives customer loyalty and positions you for success in a competitive marketplace.
How could you apply the principles of standardisation to enhance your service delivery?
Take the time to fully understand the nuances of your service before you standardise. Identify the key areas that truly impact your customers' experience and ensure these are aligned across all touchpoints.
Standardisation doesn't mean rigidity - it's about creating flexible frameworks that can be replicated successfully. Approach it with patience and adaptability, and don't be afraid to make adjustments along the way as you learn more about your business needs.