The Next Phase Of Service Innovation

As a service company, how do you approach innovation? Is it even on your radar? If not, you aren’t alone. Recent research by The Service Council indicates that the service industry in general could be doing more to drive innovation.

Astea and The Service Council presented the findings of that research in our recent webinar, “Redefining Service Innovation: It’s Time for a Change.”

In many companies, innovation resources are targeted at new product development. In service, improvement efforts tend to be focused on doing the same things faster, or improving visibility. That’s because those efforts have a clear return on investment. The benefits of dedicating resources to service research and development to create new types of services, new revenue models, or new approaches are difficult to quantify.

To get a better picture of how service organizations view innovation, The Service Council conducted a brief, 10-question survey to explore the topic.

According to the respondents, most felt that their service organization was roughly as innovative as the entire organization. Just over half (56%) considered service somewhat innovative, while another 23% considered service innovative. However, half of respondents said that their company’s innovation efforts put a greater emphasis on products, while only 25% put a greater emphasis on service innovation. The majority also lacked a dedicated service innovation team.