Service industries make up the third largest sector of the global economy. Unique in the fact that no tangible goods are produced, these industries rely heavily on the quality of customer service they provide to succeed and differentiate themselves within the marketplace.
Constantly faced with increasing costs, it is important for service providers to focus on ways in which to improve their ability to better serve customers, streamline processes and ensure efficient operations in order for their business to remain both competitive and profitable.
Even considering the wide variety of services offered and customers served, businesses in the services industry have similar data collection needs. From direct activities at the point of sale, to tracking goods and services rendered, it is important that service companies operate at peak efficiency to provide the high level of service that their customers demand. Often too, in addition to tracking progress, materials, and services performed, it is important to manage information directly related to the individual customer. Customer preferences, special requests and records of their past activities often need to be collected and maintained to facilitate current orders and to anticipate future business. Bar code scanning can provide the means to make data collection and maintenance, fast, easy and accurate.