Characteristics of Service Organizations

Services lie at the hub of economic activity in the United States. Service jobs account for almost 80 percent of total U.S. employment. As such, we say that the U.S. has a service economy. Within this service economy, the term service has several meanings when paired with other words. For example, a service firm is defined as one that derives more than 50 percent of its sales from providing services. RCA's service revenues now exceed its revenues from electronic manufacturing. A service package is a bundle of explicit and implicit benefits performed with a supporting facility and using facilitated goods. When you eat at a fast food restaurant (supporting facility), you may purchase a hamburger (facilitating good) that someone else cooked for you (service). The service concept is the perception and expectations of the service itself in the minds of the customers, employers, shareholders, and lenders. The service system is the equipment, layout, and procedures used to provide the service and maintain quality and delivery standards. The service revolution relates to the shift in the United States to a service economy and the proliferation of service automation.
A service operation is an open transformation process of converting inputs (consumers) to desired outputs (satisfied consumers) through the appropriate application of resources (family, material, labor, information, and the consumer as well). More simply, services are economic activities that produce time, place, form, or psychological utility. A meal in a fast food restaurant saves time. A meal with a date in an elegant restaurant with superior service provides a psychological boost. Wal-Mart attracts millions of customers because they can find department store merchandise, groceries, gasoline, auto service, dry cleaning, movie rental, hair styling, eyeglasses and optical services, and nursery items all in one place.
The U.S. economy consists of sectors producing goods and services. The goods-producing sector