Business
A supplier does not hand over finished value; value comes into being inside the customer's own processes, when they use what they bought. So a seller's real job is to support those processes, not just to deliver a product.
A firm finds new things to offer by looking at what the customer is trying to get done and adding help to those activities. This is how a product maker can turn itself into a service provider.
To meet a customer's long-term needs, a firm must offer resources and activities beyond the core good or service it sells. The core product alone does not sustain a relationship.
A relational approach works only if the firm truly intends a relationship and the customer also wants one. When the customer is just after a single deal, relationship efforts are wasted.
Customers judge service quality by the gap between what they expected and what they actually experienced. The same service can feel excellent or poor depending on what the customer was led to expect.
A supplier can only take part in creating value with a customer at points where the two actually interact. Where there is no contact, the customer creates value alone and the supplier has no influence on it.
Buying, using, creating value and marketing are not separate steps handled by separate departments. They are intertwined, so every interaction that helps the customer get value is also marketing.
Under a service logic, a firm organises itself starting from the customer's needs and processes rather than from its own production. The goal is value for both sides, not one side winning at the other's expense.
Because a service is produced and consumed at the same moment, customers form their judgement during delivery, not only afterward. There is no finished product to inspect and fix before the customer sees it.