FORMATION OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF SERVICE COMPANIES IN THE CONDITIONS OF DIGITALIZATION

In today's market conditions, digitalization as a global trend of doing business is becoming a tool to increase the competitiveness of the enterprise through the formation of sustainable competitive advantages. The article identifies the directions of competitive advantages formation of the service companies in terms of digitalization, which are related to the specifics of the service such as intangibility, variability of quality, continuity of the process of purchase and consumption, inability to save. These features of services determine the specifics of all marketing activities of enterprises, including areas of competitive advantage. The need for the consumer’s presence while getting service and the simultaneous process of providing and consuming services pose great problems for service companies to do business during the pandemic. The analysis of the existing problems of competitive advantages formation by service companies in the conditions of distribution of pandemic COVID-19 is provided. Crisis forces service companies to change its activity or to find new directions of formation of competitive advantages. The use of innovative digital marketing tools allows for "remote" communication with the consumer and becomes the only possible method of doing business in the services market at the beginning of the pandemic and during severe lockdowns. The relationship between the formation of competitive advantages and the introduction of innovative marketing tools in the field of services is considered. The directions of competitive advantages formation in the field of services are offered to be focused on features of services and application of digital tools of communication with the consumer (online consultations, chat bots, e-mail, text messaging, creating mobile applications); development of Internet trade; application of innovations in service, new delivery technologies; expanding the scope of services; the possibility of dynamic change of the position of the service, its individualization or standardization depending on the needs of the client, as well as changing the structure of services and expanding the scope of services.