Drop servicing is being touted as the preferable alternative to dropshipping – and it is preferable from a financial point of view, with a few caveats.
First: when times are bad, it’s generally easier to sell goods, not services.
(Score one for dropshippers.)
And second, drop servicing demands far more skill and acumen than shipping.
As a drop servicer, you’re going to be an agency manager (for all intents and purposes), making your money off the “service arbitrage” you can generate between buyer (client) and worker (freelance staff who execute the tasks) – whereas anyone can buy and sell in dropshipping.
But does drop servicing have genuine novelty and, more importantly, value?
Yes, drop servicing can claim some legitimate novelty (and certainly value), but should you be paying someone to learn all about it?
The short answer is: heck no!
Here’s everything you need to know about drop servicing – for free.
Drop Servicing vs Drop Shipping.
Drop servicing currently exists outside of the classic marketing and advertising sphere, with more solid examples found in other arenas.
IT support is a classic example, where companies like Computers In The City are dealing with known tech, known apps, and known outcomes expected of the goods and services they use. It wouldn’t be unusual for prospective clients to secure IT support from Computers In The City online.
In comparison, drop servicing is exclusively online, whereas those who come close to the model in their existing business still offer real-time liaison and premises – usually in a centralised location – to accommodate workers and clients.
Starting your own drop servicing business is harder outside of more familiar arenas, but it’s as simple as setting up a dropshipping business.
As dropshipping sells goods, drop servicing sells services.
Perhaps you’re a writer, an accountant, a marketer, or even a coach or trainer. These are all industries amenable to drop servicing, as you can sell those services digitally.
There’s no need for in-person client liaison, and a high level of accuracy and satisfaction is possible working remotely. While it’s still preferable to have a website depicting your services and successes, you can start drop servicing from free platforms, with LinkedIn considered “the best” for drop servicing.
Now is the time for drop servicing, as the massive push of people online by global lockdowns has made even established online businesses rethink and better optimize their services.
If dropshipping sells goods, drop servicing sells skills.
It’s about people: chiefly, your connection with co-workers, and your management of their performance towards the end goal of producing whatever the client wants, on time and as specified.
You’ll need to get your ducks in a row with remote staff, client liaison, and management of both staff and customer relations if you want to succeed as a drop servicer. Your online presentation needs to be seamless across platforms, too. Wherever prospective clients find you, they need to experience the same professional profile and offer.
You can hang with friends on Tik Tok, but on platforms where business is possible, you need to make it possible.
As any freelancer can tell you, that takes some setting up and subsequent monitoring, but it is crucial.
In drop servicing, all anyone will know of you before paying you a deposit is what they see of you online. That view tolerates no dodgy details, so make sure you look good, legitimate, and authoritative online.
Everywhere.
Drop servicing is all about, well, service.
In drop servicing, you take orders and dole them out to other freelancers of various types, depending on the nature of the work.
If you’ve worked in digital marketing, you’ll realise that your experience has given you a mighty handy list of fellow freelancers who can be called upon to execute the tasks you sell to clients.
Of course, while a bit of charm and persuasion is needed in any drop servicer, the drop service model is simple:
- Fish for work
- Hook your prospective client
- Provide a quote (making sure you allow for your markup), and
- Deliver it after your remote worker completes it.
In essence, you’re an agency traffic manager and skim off every job to pay yourself as the owner of the business.
Here’s a golden truth: provide good service, make money.
As simple and as easy as drop servicing seems, providing service isn’t for everyone.
Your personal disposition might make you lean heavily towards dropshipping because you don’t enjoy people and like the way everything runs on autopilot after a dropshipping sale (that you weren’t even present for, anyway!)
This is important: if you’re not a people person, drop servicing is going to grate on you and, most importantly, you won’t make any money!
Drop servicing isn’t for everyone.
The bottom line?
Drop servicing is about people.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like people, and those who don’t.
(That’s something you can’t bluff.)
Assuming you like dealing with people – and know other skilled professionals who can flesh out your drop servicing agency’s offer – you can do very well with drop servicing.
The marketing and all other aspects of the business are just as per any other business. Marketing needs to be copious, client and supplier liaison swift, and your results professional.
Assuming you get those right, you’re in line to make money from drop servicing.
You don’t need to pay anyone to tell you that!