Definition: Product service management is a marketing function that focuses on developing a product or a service according to how the market evolves. It involves a continuous evaluation of their attributes in order to improve or change the items accordingly.
What Does Product Service Management Mean?
For businesses it is very important to maintain its products and services flexible enough to react quickly to market shifts. This is often achieved by implementing a process of regular review where the company receives feedback from customers and improves what needs to be adjusted, according to the information received.
A Product/Service Manager should be constantly aware of the environment status, by creating tools that interact with customers directly, to understand their behavior and preferences. It also involves keeping an updated database of price, specifications, warranty conditions and other important descriptions about the business portfolio of products and services.
On the other hand, companies with online presence also devote special attention to produce attractive offers, advertising pieces and testimonials to create more engaging platforms for customers. This function is also crucial for the product and service development funnel, since it will provide important data to create new versions of the product or add-ons.
Example
BabyPlace.com is an online website that sells clothing, equipment and other products for nurturing and baby care. The company also provides assistance for first-timers and inexperienced parents through a call center where professionals advise them on certain topics. They recently hired Jim, a Product/Service Manager, who will be in charge of keeping prices, offerings and product images within the website properly updated, working closely with the Web Team.
On the other hand, Jim will also review sales trends and call center interactions to identify market opportunities for the company. During his first months, Jim identified a potential market for a service called “Mom’s Schedule”, a service that reminds moms about important items on their baby’s agenda like visits to the pediatrician or day-care visits. This service was developed after an effective Product/Service Management function identified the need from the calls received by the company at the call center.
