Service Abbreviations

Originating from the Latin term servitĭum, the word service defines the action of serving (being subject to/ being helpful to someone for any reason, doing what that person wants or asks for).

The concept also makes it possible to refer to public services that are paid for by taxpayers through fees or taxes, and to the provision of services provided with a view to satisfying some need as long as they do not consist of the production of material goods .

In the field of economics and marketing, a service is the set of activities carried out by a company to respond to the expectations and needs of the customer. Therefore, the service is defined as a non-material good. As such, suppliers/service providers do not normally handle large raw materials and benefit from reduced physical restrictions. On the other hand , your main value is experience. It is worth remembering that service providers constitute what is known as the tertiary sector of the industry.

Of the various characteristics of a service that make it possible to differentiate it from a product, we will highlight intangibility (a service is something that cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard or smelled before the purchase itself), heterogeneity (two similar services never are identical or the same), inseparability (production and consumption are partially or totally simultaneous), perishability (a service is something that cannot be stored) and propertylessness (buyers of a service acquire the right to receive the respective provision as well as the right to use, access or lease the thing acquired, but not its ownership/possession).
However, when it comes to differentiating between product and service, it is generally simple to identify each one. However, bringing to light the concept of each is something that many have done and there are several explanations.

One of these explanations is that a product concerns a tangible good, which can be transferred from person to person. It can be something physical or digital, like an audio or digital book, for example.

A service, on the other hand, refers to something that cannot be transferred, but is consumed by the customer in parallel with its realization, that is, the customer pays for the service while using it, for example, we can mention subscription services.

But it is often not so simple to distinguish a good from a service in situations as in the previous subscription example. Because while a subscription service is a service, it gives the customer access to a product, such as a subscription to a magazine.

The simplest way to identify a service is to think of the following: a service cannot be stored or transported.

For example, an electric energy service cannot be stored, because, even paying for it, this service only exists as long as someone is using the energy supplied by the electric company.

The same goes for transport services, computer service, delivery service, service provider (company that offers internet access services), customer service services, banking services, medical services, among others.

List of Acronyms Related to Service