Growing Negative Services

Negative services relate to events most people hope they will not have to deal with: toothaches, leaky roofs or collision repairs, for example. Because the events that trigger the need for negative services are not everyday occurrences, many people are not equipped to diagnose the needs or to make informed judgments about the solutions required; furthermore, even after the service has been provided, most people are in a poor position to judge its quality or the price they paid for it. Negative services are offered by many kinds of companies in many industries, including health care, insurance, household repair, pest control, ambulance use and so on. Even companies that are not primarily negative-service providers have negative-service aspects to their offerings. Companies hoping to build positions in negative services face two major challenges: 1. how to access inexperienced customers who are not in a strong position to evaluate the service being provided and may have a poor idea of its cost, and 2. how to organize and deploy their services to meet customer needs when demand is unpredictable.