Product and service boundary

Traditionally for a product company the user journeys that were focused on were the ones accrued during the usage of the product. With barriers to entry in a lot of marketplaces high, a company need only be better than its competitors to win customers. Bad reviews were localised and complaints were made by mail or over the phone.

This has changed with the advent of large numbers of people connected with (relatively) high speed connections to the internet. Customers can get in touch by email or social media and expect responses instantly. Bad reviews are global and can disseminate quickly. Add further the lower barriers to entry into digital markets (and a lot of non-digital ones) and simply beating the competitors is no longer a strategy as the number of competitors is much larger.

In order to keep loyal customers companies must now consider the whole user journey and think before and after the purchase, offering a whole solution much more similar to a service than a product.

Moving forward

This new wave of customer expectation also brings with it the opportunity to provider greater value. The products you provide can offer lasting value in connected ways integrating with other services. This is a paradigm shift from random transactions to on-time regular value creation, customised to the individual.

In this new model the line between product and service is thin, and companies can use this as an opportunity to better serve customers and keep up with their rising expectations.