service

Service is an act or performance offered by one party to another in exchange for value. Unlike tangible goods, services are typically intangible and are often consumed at the point of delivery. Services can be informational, professional, or experiential, including sectors such as healthcare, financial services, education, hospitality, transportation, and maintenance. In modern economies, services account for a large share of activity and employment, and many offerings combine goods and services into bundles.

Key characteristics of services include intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability. These properties complicate measurement, marketing, and quality control, because the provider and the customer often participate in the service delivery and outcomes cannot be stored or returned like physical products. Service quality commonly depends on the interaction during the service encounter.

Service delivery and design focus on processes, people, and technology to shape customer experience. The idea of service-dominant logic treats value as co-created with customers rather than embedded solely in outputs. Managers use frameworks such as service quality or customer satisfaction models to assess performance and align incentives.

Public services—such as education, health care, safety, and infrastructure—address collective needs, while private services cover discretionary or commercial activities. Economies increasingly emphasize digital and knowledge-based services, including software as a service and cloud-based offerings, which extend reach and scalability.