What are the characteristics of the service?

In this definition, the so-called necessary means and methods can be through direct contact or indirect contact; It includes both non-material means and methods, such as labor or physical strength, wisdom, knowledge and soft technical means (such as consultation or suggestion, organization, management, mediation and arbitration). ), as well as material means, such as goods, tangible tools, machinery, equipment and all necessary natural objects and finished products, but not including the manufacturing industry. Of course, the above material means can only meet the needs of the parties through non-material means and methods.

The needs of clients include: obtaining tangible tools and means (including goods, equipment, machines or others) from them (organizations, enterprises, etc.). ) needed when solving problems; Obtain intangible tools and means (experience, intelligence, knowledge, information or other abilities) needed to solve problems; Make them (them) directly get the help or care they need; Make them feel convenient, comfortable, happy and satisfied. The first two are to enable the parties to acquire the ability to solve problems, so that they can solve problems independently; The latter two are that the service subject directly helps the served object to solve the problem. It is worth noting that the tangible tools needed to solve problems actually serve intangible tools and meet other needs. In short, customers' needs include material needs, spiritual and sensory needs, and the need to improve their own abilities.

In short, service in a broad sense is aimed at meeting customers' needs, so it includes not only the process of providing tangible products and intangible "products", but also the process of providing products formed by the integration of soft and hard technologies. That is, service is the process of solving (satisfying) the needs of service objects. According to the research of generalized technology, process technology belongs to the category of soft technology. Of course, the means and methods to meet customers' needs include not only hard technology and soft technology itself, but also natural and artificial products. Therefore, service is a special soft technology, a technical process, in other words, the essence of service is a soft technology, a process technology aimed at meeting people's material needs, spiritual needs and psychological needs and improving their ability to solve problems.

It is meaningful to define the attributes of services from the perspective of soft technology. The backwardness of service industry is directly related to people's backward service concept. In the past, few people regarded the method and process of service as technology, and more people regarded service as a non-technical factor and an "auxiliary department or catalyst" for the development of primary and secondary industries.

Studying the method and process of providing service as soft technology is not only conducive to in-depth study of the essence of service and service innovation, but also many new problems in service economy, including the standards of service methods and intellectual property rights, can be explained theoretically. In addition, the service industry and the manufacturing industry are increasingly penetrating each other, making it difficult to distinguish them. Its essence is the inevitable result of the integration of soft technology and hard technology in the process of serving the innovation of hard technology and hard technology industry, or in the process of improving their intelligence by using the achievements of contemporary hard technology. At the same time, according to the broad innovation framework, we can establish the concept of service innovation system, systematically study and solve environmental problems that encourage service innovation, such as policies, standards, laws and intellectual property rights in the service field, including patents of business methods, and further promote service innovation.