The service industry is growing at a significant rate and is one of the largest influencers of the global economy, with the global professional services market alone expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% by 2022.
Various sectors of the service industry are expected to see rapid growth over the next 5 years due to emerging trends that are likely to shape the sector for the foreseeable future. For example, for management, scientific, and technical consulting services, there has been an increased focus on digital transformation, particularly by consultancies. This is evident by the large number of acquisitions of companies specializing in digital transformation by consultancy firms. Moreover, with the dynamic shift of remote working, companies are fueling the need for software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-based services to innovate on their customer experience and adjust to their needs.
Despite the massive potential for future growth in numerous sectors, there are plenty of challenges ahead for the many service industries. Due to increasing competition, traditional consulting firms are facing increasing competition on multiple levels. The foremost challenge comes from the technology-oriented firms in the field of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence — technologies that are fast penetrating global businesses. The continued rise of local consulting firms, low-cost boutique firms, and niche firms is further adding competition in the local market.
In this article, we will elaborate on some of the major trends and challenges expected to impact various sectors of the service industry.
What is the Service Industry?
Before we dive into the future trends and challenges of services, it is important to define the industry. BizVibe’s platform contains more than 2.5 million service companies which are segmented into 40+ categories. Each category is being transformed by its own set of trends and challenges that will greatly influence the direction of the service industry in the coming years. Below we will discuss the trends and challenges influencing some of the major categories in the service sector.
Accommodation and Food Services
Emerging Trend – Adoption of Modern Technologies for Automation
The food service industry is adopting several automation technologies to improve efficiency and customer experience. Restaurants across the world are experimenting with voice-activated smart kiosks, robot servers, and the use of drones for food delivery.
Major Challenge – Impact of Pandemic on Restaurant Industry
The amount of footfall to restaurants has been reduced due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Customers are discouraged from dining in at restaurants due to the lockdowns and restrictions existing across countries. The work-from-home situation is also reducing the number of people who are eating from restaurants. Many customers are preferring homemade food due to safety and hygiene reasons. This situation has put severe survival pressure on restaurants.
Elementary and Secondary Schools
Emerging Trend – Shifting from STEM to STEAM
For a long time, the education system revolved around the STEM approach (science, technology, engineering, and math). However, the popularity of the STEAM approach to learning is increasing considerably now, where the “A” stands for arts. In this context, arts include the creative aspect of learning, often translating into creative thinking and innovative ways of learning.
Major Challenge – Shortage of Teachers
Elementary and secondary schools require well-trained professionals who can impart high-quality training and knowledge on critical subjects. However, schools have traditionally found it difficult to hire a sufficient number of adequately trained teaching professionals. The outbreak of pandemic has further impacted the availability of teachers across the world. This lack of trained professionals impacts the quality of education, as well as the costs that schools have to incur.
Administrative, Support, Waste Management, and Remediation Services
Emerging Trend – Rapid Growth of E-commerce
Retailers are shifting to e-commerce for B2B transactions, as it is convenient, reduces turnaround time (TAT), and simplifies the procurement process. Moreover, B2C e-commerce has continued its growth trajectory, further helped by the pandemic outbreak. The impressive growth of the e-commerce sector continues to create opportunities for business support services such as online customer service centers, barcoding, presorting, and consolidation of parcels.
Major Challenge – Work-from-Home to Affect Future Demand
Many organizations are expecting work-from-home culture to become a norm in the long term. This situation will keep the demand subdued from office goers and business travelers for several business support services such as dictation, translation, transcription, secretarial work, mailboxes, answering services, document duplication, and reprography.
Service Industry Companies on BizVibe
BizVibe’s platform contains more than 2.5 million service company profiles which are free to view. Each profile consists of in-depth company insights, comprising 50+ data points, including full industry trend and challenge analysis for 40+ service categories.
BizVibe company insights help provide answers to questions such as:
✓ How will industry challenges impact specific geographic regions?
✓ In which regions will emerging trends be the most prominent?
✓ What are a company’s major product and service offerings?
✓ Who are a company’s key executives and what are their roles?
✓ How is a company positioned financially?
✓ Who are a company’s major competitors?
✓ What is the risk level of doing business with a given company?
✓ What is the latest company news?
Additionally, BizVibe enables users to connect with service companies and includes a feature that allows companies to send and respond to RFI/RFPs directly on the platform. There are profiles of service companies from over 200 countries on BizVibe, with free access for users to discover, analyze, and connect with these service companies.
View Service Companies in 200+ Countries
