2 different categories come to mind.
H&R Block or other tax preparation services.
The second is restaurants. This may seem like a product more than a service but I think it truly falls into the category of service, especially if you look at the national chains. Think Applebee's, TGI Fridays etc.
The reason people go to these places is because of the experience they receive. The franchisors have created a system that generates nearly identical results nationwide.
The first thing you need to do is figure out what makes your service superior to others out there, then you need to figure out how and why this is the case. From there you need to document it and make sure that you have a mechanism in place to ensure compliance.
Granted that is a huge amount of work, but the basic premise is quite simple. You want all of the people you hire to do things more or less the way you would do them.
I like to use the term “packaged” services, but I think it’s essentially the same thing you’re referring to when you say “productized” services. I think Mark’s suggestion of H&R Block is a great example.
A good packaged professional services offering has these characteristics:
1. Addresses a specific business challenge or set of related challenges that is experienced by many (or enough)
2. Service delivery follows a more prescriptive approach
3. Accomplishable within a known, finite timeframe
4. Can be offered at a fixed price
5. Has defined outcomes/work products for the buyer
The process of packaging a service is, roughly:
1. Identify a set of capabilities or services you deliver (or can) that are in relatively high-demand and target a common challenge
2. Define a standard, repeatable process for addressing the chosen business challenge along with the specific work products (interim and delivered)
3. Decompose this process based on the main payoff events to the customer to define one or more packaged service offerings
4. Identify prospect characteristics and specific candidates/targets
5. Market the service offering and test your pricing model
6. Deliver, learn, and improve
There’s obviously a lot more behind each line item and it isn't necessarily linear. This is a favorite topic of mine. So, reach out via Clarity if you’d like to discuss!
"Productize" refers to the process of developing or altering a process, idea, skill, or service to make it marketable for sale to the public. Productization involves taking a skill or service that has been used internally and developing into a standard, fully tested, packaged, and marketed product. For example, a consultant might productize their expertise by creating a product or service based on that knowledge. However, productization is not the same as the production of a good or service.
Productization does not necessarily involve a physical good. Productization can involve taking a capability, intellectual capital, or knowledge and transforming it into a product or service to offer to customers. The customers could be within the same industry or an entirely different one. Services may be productized, packaged, and sold just like physical products.
For example, a marketer could write a "how-to" book for new entrepreneurs that would teach them how to market their business or a web designer could create an education webinar series on how to design web sites. Productization is a key strategy in creating and running a service-based business.
Productization of a Service: Productized services can also be packaged and offered as subscription-based services. Those that are freelancers and entrepreneurs might generate their income from providing a service such as writing or business management. The expertise could be productized into a course to teach how to write a business plan. In short, productization typically involves an offshoot business from the knowledge, equipment, or systems needed to run the primary business. Productization also involves packaging a solution for a customer and making it a standard offering so that profits can be enhanced. In other words, a consultant who performs one-on-one advice could productize the expertise used daily into a do-it-yourself-kit and sell that product. The productization process means each customer would get the standardized product or service offering. As a result, more products could be sold with less labour time or resources involved–boosting profitability.
Many services can be productized into an enterprise that can be scaled, delegated, and automated to create a sustainable, recurring revenue stream. In creating a productization strategy, the product must solve a recurring problem for customers. The service offering must also be something clients would pay for on a recurring basis.
Formulating the terms of the business include defining the conditions for how the services are rendered while keeping the workload at a sustainable level. For example, a consultant or freelancer might offer services on a one-to-one basis and therefore, only have a limited amount of time each day to earn a living. Productization allows for a standardized method of creating, producing, and distributing the creative or intellectual capital being offered to current clients. The goal is to take an internal expertise and package it in a way that it earns additional revenue without a lot of added cost or labour time with increases in sales.
Good examples of Productized Services are as follows:
1. AUDIO / VIDEO EDITING
Cashflow Podcasting by Ben Krueger. Podcast editing as a service. You record the content and they do the rest. How it works: Record your content, send in the raw files, editing team takes out the mistakes, producers add professional polish, and final episode is uploaded into your podcast hosting account.
2. BOOKKEEPING/ACCOUNTING
3 Wise Bears by Gurpreet Sandhu. They believe in stress free accounting and have experts prepared to advise via monthly payment plans. The packages include your own dedicated accountant who will get to know you and your business. They specialize in working with contractors, freelancers, and small one/two person businesses.
Bench by Ian Crosby and Jordan Menashy. Packaged monthly bookeeping services. Every plan comes with a dedicated bookkeeping team to handle your monthly books and simple software to let you keep track of your financials.
Zenkeep by David Willson and Jonathan Willson. Family owned business focused on making bookkeeping a zen experience for business owners. Their most popular package includes: weekly bank reconciliation, monthly management reports, unlimited transactions/month, dedicated team, support, AR/AP reconciliation, and cash flow management.
3. CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION / ANALYTICS
Black Light by Travis Northcut. Conversion optimization for membership sites. 90 day program includes analysis of your conversion funnel to identify problematic areas, set up of key performance indicators (KPI) to track results, data tracking and split-testing to make provable improvements that raise your conversion rate.
Brass Tacks by Chris Vannoy. Analytics audit service. The process: Skype call, thorough breakdown of your current analytics infrastructure (including any blind spots you may have), custom report with complete documentation of improved analytics dashboard, and closing Skype call to go over the results.
Custora by Corey Pierson and Jon Pospischil. SaaS platform designed to help online retailers better understand and market to their customers. Their platform creates specific reports to help you optimize your adwords spend for customer lifetime value, measure the value of each social network to your business, and prioritize which ad networks & affiliate partners are driving customer growth.
Draft Revise by Nick Desabato. Draft Revise is a high-touch UX consulting service for websites. Monthly deliverables include Visual Website Optimizer report, heat tracking, click maps, A/B testing, and a summary of the most important points of your site’s user experience.
Kudu by Luke Kennedy – The best Google Adwords experts picked from around the world. How it works: Get matched with the best AdWords expert for your business, you and the expert discuss your goals, they create a free tailored advertising plan, and you start advertising.
Traffic Powerup by Kai Davis. Search engine optimization for e-commerce stores. Focused on white-hat strategies to increase your traffic and earn your business high-quality, relevant links. Offerings include: “Website X-Ray” - pick apart your existing SEO strategy and provide an actionable report for improvement. “Website X-Ray: Express” - similar to the above with a smaller scope focusing on keywords.
Website Rescues by Kurt Elster. Turn your Shopify store into a revenue generating machine. In one week they diagnose the problems with your site, fix them, and boost your conversions for 1/20th the cost of a typical redesign.
4. CONSULTING / COACHING
Dr Alexis Shields by Dr. Alexis Shields – Online natural medicine consultations. How it works: choose your preferred consultation type, pick date/time for your consultation, complete the new patient intake form, have your consultation. Deliverables include: detailed assessment of your blood work (if available), follow up summary email of consultation, individualized health action plan, and a link to recommended natural medicines.
Superfast Business by James Schramko. Site offers productized coaching, website and traffic services for the internet business entrepreneur. Each major offering has smaller services underneath with full step-by-step explanations to set client expectations.
Website Copy Review by Joanna Weibe and Lance Jones. Structured review of your website copy. Deliverables include: 60-minute video review of the most prominent pages on your site, transcript of the video review, copy suggestions (headlines, pricing tables and hero sections), and a 30-minute post-review call with Joanna.
5. CONTENT WRITING
Audience Ops by Brian Casel. End to end content marketing structured in three tiers. All packages include monthly reporting. The most advanced tier produces a blog post, email newsletter, and social media promotion and each week.
Ghost Blog Writers by Dayne Shuda. They write blog posts that bring target customers to your website. How it works: discovery process learns about your company, industry and customer. The setup process provide titles and a blogging schedule. The blogging process includes writing, optimizing, and scheduling your blog posts.
My Content Sherpa by Philip Morgan. Monthly guidance for technical firms looking to improve content marketing and marketplace positioning. Specific packages can include content creation, marketing automation implementation, or strategic direction.
6. CREATIVE DESIGN SERVICES
Boombait by Joel Parent – They design icons to get your app noticed among your competition and trigger people to click on them. There are three core packages and all include 3 concept sketches, 1 killer app, icon, unlimited revisions, all relevant icon sizes, and original Photoshop document.
Cafe Create by James Olden – Clearly explained, fixed priced creative design packages. They have a range of services including digital campaigns, responsive web design for mobile and tablet applications, email marketing, display advertising, affiliate marketing, brand strategy & positioning, print & direct marketing collateral.
Correlation by Jane Portman. Get the undivided attention of a seasoned creative director to bring your software business to life. Every month includes a consultation, review of past month’s activity, and priority of new targets for the upcoming period. Specific design deliverables can include web pages, interface ideas, branding concepts, whitepaper layouts.
Design Possum by Scotty Truong. It's like having an in-house designer without paying a hefty salary. The basic business service is monthly and includes designing new graphics or creating them from scratch. It covers one brand with an unlimited number of tasks. Their services are designed to attract a small number of long-term clients.
Rocking Book Covers by Adrijus Guscia. Service includes: discovery questionnaire, consultation, book cover design reflecting your story, 5-10 day turnaround, client feedback, and final approval.
7. ONLINE CHAT
Help Flow by Jon Tucker. Simplified online chat as a service. Once you signup, they study your website and the competition. The onboarding call is used to ask very specific questions that only you can answer about your business. After the launch, they continue to update their knowledge base about your company with minimal input from you. The objective is to constantly learn and help your visitors with the most complex questions, without taking a lot of your time.
8. PERSONAL FINANCE
Wealth Enhancers by Finn Kelly – Wealth Enhancers is a boutique private wealth management and financial advisory practice specializing in providing tailored advice and financial services to “Gen Y” small businesses and busy professionals. The services come in the form of a membership and include a discovery session, action meeting, implementation period, coaching sessions, and interaction with other new members.
9. TRAVEL
Abroaders by Erik Paque and A.J. Dunn – Offers a set process for researching international travel. Personalized assessment shows you how many flights you can get per year, how much money you'll save, and if business/first class is a possibility.
10. WEB DESIGN SERVICES
Chalet Engine by Mark Lawrence – Web design & hosting for the ski niche. They only work with the ski accommodation niche so their service packages are extremely focused. Service involves a 7-day launch and a fully managed website including hosting, updates, backups, and security.
Landing Page in a Day by Jarrod Drysdale. He will write, design, and code a custom page for you in 24 hours. Begins with a Skype meeting, you provide the essential details, and he creates a beautiful landing page with custom copy, logo, and graphics.
Tourism Tiger by Matthew Newton. Websites for tour operators. How it works: initial call to understand your tour business, website build via their unique system, and customization to match the exact feel of your business.
Undullify by Sukey Gaven. – Undullify is a worldwide team of graphic designers offering unlimited graphic design services. Their most popular package includes unlimited number of tasks, unlimited revisions, one day turnaround, dedicated designer, dedicated account manager, design support, and advice.
WPTheory by Adam Clark. Your website launched in a day. Pick your WordPress theme, customize it to your brand, upload your content, and launch it...in one day. It’s a simple one-day service that combines consulting and a done-for-you are offering.
11. WORDPRESS SUPPORT
WPCurve by Dan Norris. WP Curve empowers business owners to build their business without worrying about WordPress. You submit the job via email and WP curve finishes the job on the same day. 24 / 7 access to talented developers focused on maintenance, support & small jobs.
WP Motion by Benjamin Perove – WP Motion was founded on two principles: deliver the best WordPress migration solutions and operate with integrity and transparency. They have taken one of the most challenging technical problems, migration, and turned it into an easy to consume service.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
