Competitive Advantages in the Service Industry

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Maria C del Rosal How can technology become a competitive advantage in services? And what should a service organization do to create a competitive advantage through technology? List examples. Let’s define first what is competitive advantage. Essentially a competitive advantage answers the question, “Why should the customer purchase from this operation rather than the competition?” A competitive advantage is often a single key element that gives an edge to a business beyond what the competition has or does. Nowadays, technology is continually changing the rules of competition, rendering many traditional business strategies and processes obsolete. Regarding the question how can technology become a competitive advantage in service, the answer is complex because the number of technologies emerging is enormous, but at the same time simple because all of them tend to provide the same objectives. - Emerging technologies provide opportunities for creating new, high margin products and services, as well as enable companies to gain new levels of speed, agility and cost savings. - Technology in services provides dematerialization, virtualization, advanced mobility, product intelligence, advanced networking, interactivity, globalization and convergence can be used to drive innovation and advantage to maximize the customer experiences. - Technology helps to provide key advantages to business in engendering customer loyalty by improving customer service with websites, e-mails, and communications in general, and software. Some examples of creating competitive advantage through technology in the service industry: - With websites, businesses provide links where customers can answer their own questions or seek answers from others. - Using email to improve customer service and more quickly respond to certain needs or help requests. -

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