What a service signal carries
Scope, deliverables, delivery model and the boundaries of the work — the fields that let a buyer judge fit before contacting you, and why services need different ones from goods.
A service signal runs on the same machinery as a product signal — same fields, same publishing path, same moderation. What differs is what you put in them, and that difference is the whole job.
A buyer evaluating goods asks what is it. A buyer evaluating a service asks what exactly will you do, and how will we know it is done.
Scope is your specification
Where a product lists dimensions and materials, a service lists the shape of the work. Use the same structured specification fields for it, grouped the way a buyer thinks:
| Group | Fields that belong in it |
|---|---|
| What is included | The deliverables, named individually |
| What is excluded | The adjacent things people assume and you do not do |
| How it is delivered | On site, remote, hybrid; at your premises or theirs |
| Timeline | Typical duration, lead time to start, milestones |
| What you need from them | Access, information, approvals, materials |
| Completion | How both sides know the work is finished |
Exclusions are the most valuable field on the page
Scope is defined by its edges. A buyer who does not know what is excluded assumes it is included, prices you accordingly, and is disappointed at exactly the wrong moment.
The field people always skip
What you need from the client. Nearly every service overrun traces back to something the buyer was supposed to provide and did not know about.
Site access, a named decision-maker, existing documentation, sign-off within a stated window. Saying it up front is not defensive — it is the difference between a project that runs and one that stalls in week two.
Deliverables, not activities
"Consulting" is an activity. "A written assessment of your current setup, with a prioritised list of recommendations, delivered within three weeks" is a deliverable.
Buyers cannot compare activities. They can compare deliverables, and the supplier whose listing names them is the one that gets enquired with.
Coverage
Where you will actually work. A service listing without a geography produces enquiries from places you would have to decline.
If the work is genuinely remote, say so — it widens your reach honestly rather than by omission.
Evidence
The service equivalent of a datasheet:
- Certifications and accreditations, attached rather than asserted
- Method statements or process documents where they exist
- Insurance and compliance documents where your work requires them
A buyer choosing between two service providers with identical descriptions picks the one whose claims are checkable.
Terms
Warranty on a service means something different from warranty on goods, and buyers still want to know: what happens if the work is not right. Rework, a remedy period, a defined support window.
State it. Unstated, it is assumed to be nothing.
What a good service signal looks like
Where the rest is documented
Publishing, moderation and the guarantee that your approved listing stays live while an edit is reviewed are shared with the other signals — see Publishing and moderation.
Getting found works the same way too: categories, tags, searchable specifications and reach. See Getting found, which applies here unchanged.