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May 9, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

Field Service Used to Be Easy: How Spencer Technologies Uses Data To Adapt

May 9, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

Field Service Used to Be Easy: How Spencer Technologies Uses Data To Adapt

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Founded in 1972, Spencer Technologies has grown to become a global company with more than 500 employees and 200 technicians throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe. The company provides project management and technology services to support retail stores and multi-site organizations.

I had the honor of interviewing Rudy Goedhart, Business Intelligence Director at Spencer Technologies recently at the IFS 2019 InFocus Group customer training and education event. Spencer has been an IFS Field Service Management™ (IFS FSM™) customer for more than seven years and Goedhart’s role is focused on leveraging the data the solution provides to make the company more efficient and to keep its customers happy. Everyone in the room chuckled when Goedhart exclaimed, “Field service used to be easy!” What he went on to explain is that historically, customers were really happy to hire Spencer in to do a job, have the work completed, and receive a bill. Period. Over the past couple of years, those expectations have evolved dramatically. “In today’s always-on world, customers demand insight. We realized about 18 months ago that we weren’t giving them enough information – they wanted more from us, and we needed to better use our technology to deliver,” says Goedhart. “Customers want to know, at a glance, how we’re performing against our SLA, how long the technicians have been on-site, the reason for any delays or re-visits. They want to check in continuously to get that status update and know everything is happening as planned.”

The Foundation for Critical Visibility

IFS Field Service Management™ (IFS FSM™) intelligently manages Spencer’s overall service lifecycle, helping the company to optimize all processes and touch points and deliver seamless service while placing its focus on customer satisfaction. With IFS FSM, Spencer can connect project, work management and task execution in the field as well as centralize the management of resources, projects, and associated requirements while reliably capturing field data remotely. Spencer has the ability to specify service deliverables including response times, coverage schedules, bill schedules, PMs and escalation rules. With IFS FSM as its system of record, and through using the customer portal functionality, Spencer is able to provide its customers with the continual flow of information they’ve come to expect.

3 Critical Data Applications

Goedhart categorizes Spencer’s use of data gleaned from FSM into three equally important categories: internal, customer-facing, and to minimize vulnerability. Internally, Spencer communicates progress on key KPIs continually at all levels of the organization. “We use the lobbies functionality of FSM to deliver the appropriate data to each function: leadership sees a certain set of data, technicians see another, and shipping and logistics functions see yet another,” says Goedhart. “Each view is customizable, but the point is that at every level of the organization, insights from the system as it relates directly to key KPIs are being communicated on an ongoing basis. This ensures we are all aligned as a team on what’s most critical at any given point as well as how we’re performing as individual functions and as a company overall. This level of visibility has helped us to avoid numerous escalations, which saves us time and money and keeps our customers happier.” The customer-facing data is what is newer for Spencer, born out of those increasing demands for information. Through reporting and the customer portal, depending on customer preference, Spencer is able to use insights from FSM to keep its customers in the know on what is most important to them. “All our customers have real-time visibility into our FSM system of record with real-time reporting,” says Goedhart. “Being able to deliver the level of insight our customers want using FSM has become a competitive differentiator for Spencer.” Finally, Goedhart notes that data has come in handy in terms of the company being able to protect itself and minimize vulnerability. In the instances a customer issues arises, one that perhaps historically would’ve resulted in a loss of billable hours, Spencer now has the evidence of service delivered to fall back on as needed.

Words of Wisdom

Goedhart shared some valuable insights with the crowd based on what he’s learned in the last 18 months as Spencer has taken on this mission to better serve its customers with data. First, he urges you to consider the value of the data you’re sharing – whether internally or externally. “If you’re sharing data, whether with employees or customers, it absolutely has to be both meaningful and actionable,” says Goedhart. “If it isn’t, it’s just noise – and that noise will cause confusion and frustration.” Finally, Goedhart suggests taking control of the narrative around data with your customers. “Make suggestions and offer choices instead of asking open-ended questions,” he says. “If you tailor the information to each specific customer and start over each time asking what is needed, it will cause a lot of wasted time and energy. Customers are coming to you because you know the business – show them that by offering them what they need. If you can anticipate needs and offer solutions that fit those needs, 99% of the time your customers will be happy with the standard offering you’re suggesting. But you have to control that narrative – otherwise you open yourselves up to too much input and not only endless but unnecessary customization.”

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May 6, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

A People-Focused Approach to Technology Strategy

May 6, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

A People-Focused Approach to Technology Strategy

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By Charles Hughes

We like to think technology can solve any problem and improve any bottom line. But have the newest TVs ever made us smarter than good, old books? Why is it that after almost 50 years of aerospace technological advancement, it is still incredibly hard to fly a human to the moon? Technology alone is rarely the entire solution.

Technology needs to match the problem and fit the human using it. Nowhere is this truer than in a field service organization. The field service technician is the most important and most complex piece of a field services support model. Therefore, as the center of the services ecosystem, technology needs to be built around them. No system or application can replace human decision making, intimate customer knowledge, and an intuitive ability to satisfy customers’ needs. Done right, with proper training, technology can be a force multiplier. But it starts with people doing their job well. Military leaders use the term “force multiplier” to describe the effect of adding a capability to a team that exponentially improves the likelihood of success of the mission. Sometimes technologies demonstrate how a whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. When army infantry units are given mechanized vehicles, their maneuverability and speed are greatly improved, allowing the unit to cover more ground more quickly. Now add an armored company to the mix and you have increased firepower allowing the unit to defend or attack more aggressively. An army of 100 can challenge an army of 1,000 less well-equipped soldiers.

How To Use Technology As a Force Multiplier

Technology can be a force multiplier for your field services organization, but only if your team understands that tools do not substitute for service, they merely enable it. Moreover, technologies require training and acquired skills. Like a military unit, you must develop a well-trained team of professionals that are dedicated to the mission of delivering outstanding field services support to their customers. Develop that underlying culture of service first, and then start overlaying technology to increase the service power of the team. Field services organizations that look for a silver bullet to solve their service capability problems quickly find themselves automating poorly-designed processes, masking a training issue or resource constraint, delivering poor service more quickly and at an unnecessarily greater cost. You can provide a poorly-trained field technician a mobile device and it may make them more effective than not having one, but you won’t see the same jump that you would if you gave that same device to a well-trained and capable field engineer. Training and skills yield the return on investment, not the mobile device. Giving a scheduling engine to a poorly trained field technician will only get them to the next appointment, not prevent appointments that would have been unnecessary had the problem been fixed on the previous meeting. Having integrated inventory management and ordering empowers poorly-trained field technicians to order unneeded parts more efficiently. You will quickly find that investing in the training and development of your people provides a greater return on your technology investment. Once you understand the capabilities of your team, you are better positioned to deploy technology to create new service offerings, increase service levels, and generate more capacity. Develop an integrated roadmap that starts with a foundation supporting the long-range vision. For example, if your field technicians are not mobile, consider a mobility system to get them started. Determine if your mobility strategy (short or long term) should include schedule optimization, workflow management, inventory management, and data analytics. Should you purchase an off-the-shelf solution or develop one internally? Should you roll out a major release or used a phased approach? Seek to understand how your people will utilize and adjust to the technology. Don’t assume all team members will welcome technology with open arms. Capable team members may feel they don’t need the technology while less capable team members may fear the technology will expose their weaknesses. You may discover there is significant training or a culture shift that needs to occur within the team to prepare them for technology. The particular needs of each field service team may differ but consider your service offerings in conjunction with your technology choices. Now you are ready to develop a cohesive technology strategy and see a higher return on investment. Don’t forget the impact on your customers when developing your technology strategy. Technology tools that make life easier for your field technicians should not make it more difficult for your customer. Anything you deploy that makes it easier for the customer to request and receive service or stay updated on the status of their service request should be well received. If your solution causes the customer to change how he does business or requires incremental effort on their part, then be prepared for unhappy customers. Technology may seem the panacea to what ails your organization, and it can be an effective force multiplier, but don’t let it become a band aid for a systemic issue in your organization. Take steps to ensure your people are capable of effectively utilizing technology to improve their service delivery capabilities. This people-focused technology strategy will give you the edge on your competition and maximize your return on investment.

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May 2, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

My Top 3 Observations from Field Service Palm Springs

May 2, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

My Top 3 Observations from Field Service Palm Springs

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Last week was spent in sunny Palm Springs taking notes on the top-of-mind trends and themes among service leaders at Field Service Palm Springs 2019. There was great energy at the event, a very well-done production by WBR. I had the opportunity to connect with old friends and make some new and I was fortunate to participate in and listen in on some interesting sessions. Before this week of post-travel catch up gets away from me, I wanted to share three points that I found notable at the event.

#1: The Elevation of the Service Industry is Apparent

One of the things I noticed most is how much more of a conversation this year’s event was among attendees. In year’s past, you’d have a handful of really innovative organizations up on stage talking about their initiatives – and a whole room full of attendees looking up at them thinking, “huh?” Maybe not quite – but this year there was a stark contrast to the division among leaders and laggards at the event. Rather than many learning from few, everyone was learning from one another.

This change illustrates the elevation of the industry – the fact that overall, service is becoming more strategic, competitive, and for many organizations a key differentiator is exciting. This evolution resulted in delegates that were all somewhere along this service transformation journey, and all active participants in the exciting conversations happening at the event.

#2: All Paths Lead to Servitization

Servitization was arguably the key theme of the event. The idea that companies can no longer just sell and service products, but rather need to level up and begin providing outcomes and experiences was front and center in the event’s content and conversations. The vast majority of those in attendance are in full agreement that this is the future and are at varying points on the journey of figuring out how to master this within their organizations.

Sub-topics under the general theme of servitization included the criticality of customer centricity and exercises like customer journey mapping and VOC (voice of the customer), how best to communicate new offerings to customers, the challenges around how to charge for new/different services, and the need to adopt the latest technologies to be able to keep pace with customer demands.

#3: Some Topics are Timeless

Over and over again at the event the themes of change management and soft skills came up – truly in almost every conversation I was a part of. I know it can seem like these are topics that have been covered time and time again, but they are critical to what the attendees are looking to accomplish, and it was clear organizations of all sizes in all industries still struggle with these aspects.

If you think about it, it makes sense – there is a greater, deeper change at play in this industry than ever before. Organizations aren’t just asking employees to adopt a new tool – they’re asking that, but along with adopting an entirely new way of doing business. One that involves new and different interactions with the customers, and therefore necessitates more sophisticated soft skills.

Each of these observations from the event – and more – demand their own deeper dive, so keep an eye out for more coming soon.

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April 29, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

How to Get Service Workers to Use the Technologies at Their Disposal

April 29, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

How to Get Service Workers to Use the Technologies at Their Disposal

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By Tom Paquin

WBR’s Field Service USA Conference is an excellent opportunity to connect with business leaders, check in on old friends, and get a feel for how the industry is changing. I’m certain that there will be quite a bit of digital ink spilled on the topics uncovered at the event (We’ve already had a bonus podcast episode recorded while there), and there are quite a few things worth unpacking in the coming days and weeks. One thing that stuck with me throughout my conversations was that many service leaders are struggling with getting their technicians to actually use the systems that they’re supposed to.

This dilemma is obviously as old as technology itself (arguably older). There’s a 1999 Harvard Business Review case study titled Rich-Con Steel, still routinely used in MBA programs today, that serves as a cautionary tale for companies training and implementing new IT systems. In it, a tacked-on and poorly-vetted solution is ignored by fronline workers, inciting inaccuracies that ripple throughout the business, from order management, through inventory, and customer service. In real life, this ultimately led to the decline and bankruptcy of the Richards & Conover Steel Co., a Kansas City institution founded in 1857. The company’s building has been repurposed into luxury lofts. A cautionary tale, indeed. We’re 20 years removed from the failures of Rich-Con Steel, of course, and technology-adverse companies no longer have the luxury of doing nothing. This is especially true in service, where a break-fix mentality is increasingly rejected by customers, who expect little to no downtime, and rapid resolution when it happens. Fancy new technology investments can lay the groundwork to help organizations compete, but the resounding refrain from executives was that down-the-line execution was failing. This was true in a variety of technology categories, but for many, the failures seemed to stem from two specific pieces of tech: Augmented Reality, and Field Service Management itself. For service firms adopting AR, the issues seem to stem from a combination of tech limitations and workforce failures. On some remote job sites, techs lack the cellular connectivity for their AR solutions to work properly. More often, though, when they’re in need of support, many executives made it clear that their technicians go straight to phone calls, and leave it there. AR utilization failures can cause slowdowns, but failure in utilizing service management systems properly can lead to data inaccuracies that can impact business effectiveness catastrophically. When techs don’t log service appointments properly, delay or neglect part usage, or don’t take advantage of internal systems for invoicing, you suddenly and dangerously lose all visibility into how your business is run. One service leader indicated that he, manually, started and ended technicians’ service appointments for them in his system when he saw them reach a job site. That’s no way to run a business. With those problems in mind, here are a few things that can help smooth over your tech’s relationship with business systems. These may not be the right fit for everyone, but taking a step back and reevaluating your approach could save your company a lot of anxiety in the long run.

Pilot Programs Need to Be Exhaustive

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again—Don’t just pilot new systems with your leading technicians. Also pilot them with mediocre performers, and, ideally, some new techs as well. This will give a much better vision of how systems can, and will, be implemented, both at different levels of tenure, but also at different skill levels. This will also help you build a practical implementation plan, especially when it comes to more abstract tools like AR. For example—If nine out of ten techs show no performance improvement through a specific job, but AR decreased onboarding time by half, that gives you a pretty solid business case for deploying AR as a training utility first, then further iterating for on-site opportunities.

Rollout Should be an Event

I’ve been in companies where rollout of a new system is part of a one-hour meeting, or done so piecemeal over the course of eighteen months. The former leads to technicians feeling unprepared and unsupported with new technology, while the latter allows employees to lean on old systems, often causing efficiency drags and inconsistent reporting. So—new technologies should accompany, generally, a week of initial training and shadowing. Use your pilots as player-coaches, form breakout sessions, and immerse the staff in your tools. Articulate the personal value for them—time saved, easier processes, access to better information. From a business process point of view, it may seem horrifying for the company to train for a week, but an upfront time investment pays dividends in the long-run.

Let your Techs Know Where They Stand

This is simple visibility. Technicians will be more inclined to use tools if they see others are using them, and they are given a gauge on their own performance. This is also a great way to glean some more value on reporting tools built into the hardware and software that you buy, by turning some of those reports towards the front-line workers most impacted by them. I would not advocate making utilization numbers, time-on-task, or repair times necessarily points for disciple, but they can be used as an opportunity for re-training.

Make Automation your Friend

Let’s think about our service leader from earlier, who manually started technicians’ appointments when they reached a job site. It would take virtually nothing to automate that task—A notification that a technicians received on a job site that says, “You have reached your job site. Would you like to begin your service appointment?” This brings them into the application, rather than doing the work for them. This baseline will only be built upon as more sophisticated AI processes automate more and more simple, repeatable functions. This is but one example.

Listen

Your technicians are not lazy, technology-adverse, or incapable of learning. A technicians’ hesitation to adopt a system derives from their desire to offer the best service possible, and the fact that they, the technician, have the best understanding of how to do that means that there’s a great opportunity to hear from them. Don’t just include them at the pilot stage, bring them into the decision-making process. Understand the worst part of their job. Invest in solutions that solve those problems, and you’ll have a team that respects your decisions, and uses your tools. It’s not hard, but it definitely requires more than simply buying a piece of software.

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April 25, 2019 | 2 Mins Read

The Key To Digital Adoption: Make It Personal

April 25, 2019 | 2 Mins Read

The Key To Digital Adoption: Make It Personal

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By Greg Lush

In this series thus far, we’ve discussed various aspects of how to ensure digital transformation success. Last time, we talked about the importance of building a positive digital reputation – and one of the keys to doing so is to make it personal for your employees.

If you look back at the legacy of software deployment within organizations over the last couple of decades, with a keen focus on transactional systems, practitioners learned how to adapt their habits into the constraints of the software system. It really wasn’t until valuable applications came into the mix in the last few years that this position has been questioned. Now, more than ever, we need to look at it through a different lens if we are to achieve success in building our digital reputations. Although maybe a bit unusual for some here are some suggestions to get you started on making your adoption practices personal:

Lead by example. As with many things and articulated earlier in the series, a community, each in their own way, must demonstrate consistent use of the new valuable As everyone learns at their own pace it is not important the level of competency demonstrated, instead positive signals that the transformation is important to everyone.

Digital coaching. Often, with modern digital tools, adoption is not the core functionality of the software. Instead how to connect these tools with individuals daily work habits drive a change in behavior. Digital coaching starts with a discussion, followed by suggested tools to leverage. We remove the challenge for user to correlate their needs to functions within often unknown and/or complex toolsets. As the tools deliver immediate value they are commonly expanded by the individual or the team.

Typical uses:

  • Individual or team often utters “if I could only” …
  • Progressive users with the desire to be more productive
  • Output from business improvement or ideation meetings

Value:

  • Personalizes adoption
  • Immediate increase in personal and team productivity
  • Builds user confidence

From apps to outcomes. It is simply amazing to watch the transition as individual’s dependency on the “I believe button” falls off. The efforts put forth within your organization, in some cases for months and months, building and fortifying your digital reputation have paid off in spades. You will know that you’ve arrived and are ready for the next phase of the hierarchy of digital adoption when your transformation cycles stop naming applications and began listing transformation elements. Instead of your practitioners feeling the burden of determining which valuable application in the cloud platform will serve them best, they are now thinking about how these tools can help them reach their digital potential.

For me, and why you see the greatest amount of detail within the digital reputation section, is the realization that without a good digital reputation you will never achieve adoption. For those of you scoffing at that statement, true business transformation through these wonderful, value packed applications, will always be just out of your reach.

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April 22, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

Finding the Starting Point of Successful Servitization

April 22, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

Finding the Starting Point of Successful Servitization

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By Annick Perry

In the ever-changing environment that service businesses operate, there are many potential transformation initiatives available. But from all these potential choices, which are the best options to start with? Is there any low-hanging fruit that can help a service business to accelerate growth? Let’s look at the most effective practices that most successful service transformations typically start with.

Understand Your Customers’ Service Needs

It’s of critical importance that you understand your customers in order to quickly identify their needs and business challenges and be able to propose the right services. Due to the frequently intangible nature of the service business, customers often need help to articulate their service needs. The more effective the needs exploration phase, the more likely a customer will feel that they are understood and that the right services are being proposed. Most successful sellers will have developed their own “mental” customer segmentation model, with the typical needs, benefits and recommended solutions. It pays off to assist the broader sales team with good research and training to fully understand customer service needs.

Understand How Your Customers Buy Services

Your ability to sell depends on your ability to understand your customers buying journey. Do you have to train your field engineers to act as trusted advisors? Have you identified the moments at which a customer typically buys during a product life cycle? Or perhaps you have to work closely with the product sales force to sell a product as a service? Having a clearly defined sales strategy aligned with your customers’ preferred way of buying will make your entire sales force more effective.

Turn Average Sales Teams Into High Performers with Better Sales Methods

Sales teams that deliver average results often lack a good approach to selling services. The fundamental difference between selling services and products is that in the case of services, the discussion always starts with what the customer’s challenges are and never with the service itself. However, more often than not, product sales people typically focus on matching a customer’s documented needs with the product on sale. In the case of services though, most customers do not know that they have a need for services, or they may have given up on finding solutions for challenges that they assume cannot be solved. There are several proven service sales methodologies and you need to make sure that your sales people fully master the chosen method.

Let Your Top 10% Sales People Share Their Best Practices

Turn your entire service sales staff into high performers by providing them with sales tools that leverage the best practices of your top performers on a daily basis. A service sales guide written with the help of your top performers can really make that difference. In order to achieve this, you need to understand what your top sales people do so well, and research your customers and map the customer needs of the different types of customers with actual solutions. Such a sales guide can make your entire sales force excel, while the top is even getting better as they learn from sharing their best practices.

Make Everybody A Trusted Advisor

From the top of the company down to every front-line employee, companies should be able to gain the trust of customers and guide them towards whatever brings the best value to the customer. Our research has identified the categories of skills that are particularly important:

  • Situational knowledge: Being able to relate to the customer and identify their issues and pains
  • Capability knowledge: Know what capabilities you have that can solve the customer’s issues
  • People skills: Behavioural, communicational and observational skills are very important, as well as being able to understand verbal and non-verbal cues
  • Selling skills: Understanding the process of how you sell something and possessing negotiation skills

The changes needed to take place in order to compete in the service economy of the present and the future can be plenty for an organization. The way to realize them is to start with what can be actually achieved and overcome the challenges ahead.

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April 19, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

3 Ways Today’s Technologies Help Field Service Organizations Mitigate Risk

April 19, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

3 Ways Today’s Technologies Help Field Service Organizations Mitigate Risk

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Much of the conversation around technology investment for field service centers around two critical objectives: optimizing the customer experience and maximizing efficiency. There’s an important third aspect at play, though — how leveraging today’s technologies can help field service organizations mitigate risk.

In an increasingly competitive landscape, the need to minimize risk and vulnerability is imperative. Here are three ways in which today’s technologies can assist field service organizations in protecting their businesses.

1: Knowledge Capture & Transfer

If you rely on a incredibly experienced, highly knowledgeable and skilled team of field technicians or dispatchers to keep your operations running smoothly and to ensure your customers’ needs are met, you are putting your company’s long-term success at risk. As field workers and dispatchers age out and retire, letting those employees take immensely valuable tribal knowledge with them will cause measurable pain that is easily avoidable.

Today’s leading service organizations are putting tools in place to capture and transfer tribal knowledge, to take control of the information that is historically housed only in employees’ heads. This can take the shape of an optimized scheduling and dispatch solution, which replaces the dependence on highly knowledgeable manual dispatchers and instead builds the knowledge base within the technology so that the organization itself retains control. We also see the introduction of more sophisticated knowledge management solutions, which ensure that insights gleaned over the years of experience your most tenured technicians have are captured and can be more easily (if not easily) passed on to younger, less experienced workers.

2: Documentation & Proof of Service

In a world of endless information, documentation of work performed is becoming essential. Most customers today demand a detailed report of what took place during a service visit they are paying for, and you better be able to provide it. Even if they don’t demand this sort of insight automatically, they will inevitably have questions that they expect answers to. Having a proper service management system in place that allows your technicians to effectively document the service visit and work performed not only gives your organization greater visibility, but it provides what’s becoming customary information for your customers.

Where this ties in with mitigating risk is when an issue arises. Solid documentation and proof of service data can save your behind in a situation where your customer is questioning or debating the work performed. Being able to easily provide a detailed overview of what work was conducted, when, how, and why will help your organization to avoid such issues, often enabling you to recoup billable hours and defend paid services.

3: Safety

Last but certainly not least, today’s technologies help you to keep your dispersed workforce safe. From mobile devices to fleet tracking solutions, the ability to protect mobile workers is greater than ever before. Workers that at one point would have been checking in daily, even weekly, are now connected all the time, in real time. This helps companies to monitor safety and quickly respond to any risks, which is particularly important for organizations with workers operating in dangerous conditions (like oil and gas or mining) or performing service on heavy machinery (such as elevators or other large equipment).

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April 15, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

Managing Information Sources: A Services Marketing Roadmap

April 15, 2019 | 5 Mins Read

Managing Information Sources: A Services Marketing Roadmap

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By Bill Pollock

Acquiring and mastering customer and industry information should be a core competency for field service organizations. The success of these organizations rests primarily on their track record and their ability to "sell" new service concepts to distributors and customers, using sound data from a variety of credible sources.

To be successful, services organizations need to implement comprehensive and efficient processes for utilizing customer and industry information. Specific strategies need to be developed for acquiring and managing customer information, research resources, and Web-based information services. Successful services organizations will also be counted on to develop specific strategies for tapping into each of these sources in an effective and efficient manner.

There are three major categories of information for which services organizations need to efficiently manage their respective service portfolios:

  1. Harnessing Customer Information
  2. Grasping Market Trends
  3. Tracking Industry Leaders

Harnessing Customer Information

Each company, by the nature of the products and services it sells, as well as its channels of distribution, has a very specific customer set. No amount of industry research can substitute for the knowledge gained by dealing interactively with your customers. Only in this way, can you be assured that your service offerings are in tune with your customers' needs.

Participation in the sales process is an excellent means for staying in touch with customer needs, requirements, preferences and expectations. Services organizations that do not proactively engage with customers at some level with respect to cross-selling and upselling end up “wasting” an enormous amount of information; not to mention the goodwill of the services sales force. In an ideal model, services organizations should have regional or channel-specific marketing representatives whose role is to support the services sales process. There should also be some built-in processes for field technicians to, at the very least, build a foundation for selling specific components of the services portfolio to the customers they regularly support. As such, these individuals should ultimately become a vital source of input into the overall services portfolio development (and marketing) process.

Secondly, services organizations should have a process in place whereby they can query front-line service personnel who actually come into direct contact with customers on a near-daily basis. Today, an enormous amount of information about customer wants and needs is being lost because there is no venue by which field service and tech support personnel can channel this information routinely to services marketing. To put it bluntly, in too many cases, nobody is asking them for their input.

Third, services organizations need to push aggressively to make sure the information they require is being captured in the call tracking and Field Service Management (FSM) solutions used by their organizations. They should also have been involved in the process of promoting these solutions, and should lobby to ensure that the information logged in these systems will be comprehensive enough to be useful for future analytical purposes.

Finally, services organizations should put in place a regular means for soliciting customer feedback on wants and needs, etc. For example, many organizations carry out follow-up calls to check on customer satisfaction after a service case is closed. Rarely do these calls ask the question: "What other services do you need that we are currently not providing?"

Grasping Market Trends

On face value, understanding larger market trends and forces can be accomplished by subscribing to well-known market research sources. Research firms such as Gartner, Forrester, IDC and many others provide periodic market trends and analysis studies based on interviews with large numbers of customers.

While these reports are extremely valuable, especially when developing long-term plans, they need to be scrutinized and cross-checked. Research performed by large industry firms can sometimes be too broad to serve as a predictor for any given sub-market. For example, research statistics on the overall growth of the IT services market may or may not be granular enough to help predict how demand for services will fare in an emerging market such as pest control services. It is often necessary to engage specialized research firms (like Strategies For Growth℠) to conduct research in specific niche markets. When done routinely, this type of research can be tailored to produce the desired data without breaking the budget.

One of the common pitfalls services organizations fall into is subscribing to a single service for all of their research needs. Because of funding limitations or simply due to lack of awareness, these organizations will most likely not be exposed to research conducted by other firms. In order to remain effective, services marketing organizations should adopt a three-pronged approach with regard to available research offerings:

  • Subscribe to one service as a primary research source, assuming one can be found that focuses sufficiently on your company's relevant marketplace. If not, you may also need to retain an independent firm that specializes in custom market research.
  • Purchase a small number of selected studies from other research firms on an "a la carte" basis when they address specific areas of high interest (although this approach my ultimately become too expensive to sustain). Alternatively, commission a boutique research analyst firm to investigate niche areas of high interest.
  • Keep tabs of the findings of yet other research and analysis organizations by gleaning high level summaries and commentary which appear on the Web, or in the trade press.

Tracking Industry Leaders

A smooth-running services organization develops efficient processes for scanning industry events, news and reports. There are several approaches to this task, including:

  • Having individual service marketing staff read industry periodicals, Blogs and posts. However, this approach tends to be the least effective simply because service management is generally extremely time-constrained and cannot justify spending its time leafing through trade journals et al. For example, in the IT industry alone, there are dozens of trade journals that report on service and support issues.
  • Traditional clipping services have been used as a source for staying on top of industry announcements and competitive moves. However, these services typically deliver too much "paper" and not enough filtering. And they may often be irrelevant or outdated. As a result, gleaning through clippings has become an esoteric task generally relegated to the corporate Public Relations (PR) department.

The most promising approach appears – at least in principle – to be Web-based information delivery services. The Internet has made it possible for services management to receive targeted industry information “pushed” to them practically in virtual "real time."  Every day, there may be hundreds of relevant posts that can be filtered, screened and pushed out to the organization’s designated parties.

In order to be successful, services organizations need to take the lead in acquiring and distributing relevant information to interested parties. They also need to be able to develop a strategy, processes and a budget for acquiring these critical types of information.

The result should be a custom mix of relevant information streaming inbound on a continuous basis from a variety of sources, ultimately in support of the organization’s field, sales, marketing, manufacturing and services teams.

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April 12, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

The Many Brains Behind AI in Service

April 12, 2019 | 4 Mins Read

The Many Brains Behind AI in Service

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By Tom Paquin

Last year, I wrote an article in which I compared AI in video games—a phenomenon that’s been around for over 40 years—with AI in business applications—a comparatively new development. In it, I used the example of a two-brained approach to AI development. One “brain” manages an operational task, while the other manages a customer-focused task. I argued that this, ultimately, is what AI in service should look like.

In exploring the most recent developments in the Service Management space as they work towards more AI-powered systems, we can begin to see this come into fuller view. In doing so, it’s become clear that AI, as it will exist in the future of Service, will consist on significantly more than two interlocking brains.

To understand how this multi-tiered AI model will work, we need to understand how AI embeds itself into service management software today.

Let’s start by defining AI. AI is less like a piece of software itself, and more like a complex, open-ended programming language. The main difference between AI-powered functions and traditional programming is whereas traditional programming is designed around generating specific output based on specific input, AI programming is specifically designed to create unique output, based on multiple factors, in response to input. As more data sources are made available to the AI system, the output my change in ways that the programmer would not have initially considered. This allows AI-powered applications to “Learn”, grow, and, ultimately allows for programs and systems to provide much more dynamic output than a programmer could build into a system on their own.

So, what does that look like today? In service, it looks like optimization systems built into certain applications. For instance, your routing system may improve over time as it learns routes, traffic patterns, and times to complete jobs in order to more effectively automate scheduling. Or your Customer Experience system will improve to the point that it’s able to recommend customer service solutions based on what, previously, has netted the highest NPS.

These things all exist today, in one way or another, and each represent a single, little, AI brain. This is phase 1 of AI penetration into Field Service, and is already helping organizations streamline operations and eliminate the needs for backoffice staff to handle simple jobs. Phase 1 will conclude when these systems of automation reach a point of reasonable maturity, and, more importantly, organizations start looking at ways that central operations will automate themselves.

Phase 2 will of course be that centralized system; a brain that automates how all of these individual systems work together. Here’s an example: A sensor-enabled device indicates that asset has been running to the point that it’s time to schedule maintenance. The central AI system takes that AI brain’s analysis, and uses it to schedule an appointment. The routing system’s brain then dispatches a technician, offering a concise service window based on previous performance. It provides the customer with updates. Upon job completion, it checks with the inventory system, and invoices appropriately. All repetitive tasks are automated, allowing staff to focus on complex engagements, the act of service, and customer engagement. We’re not there, yet, but this is the future. A central brain working with dozens of AI systems embedded in dozens of apps, playing into each other, developing a common language, and executing on service before a human could input their name.

Sure, this is the future, but it behooves organizations to begin looking at these things today. To that end, there are three major things that organizations should be focused on:

  • Evaluate what AI systems you have today. Since those sub-brains that will inform the overall AI brain that runs operations in your business exist in so many applications today, it’s important to take stock of those platforms. Are the AI systems in place performing at an optimal rate?
  • Evaluate the integrity of your connected devices. If you work in an asset-intensive business and you’re not collecting and synthesizing asset data, then you’re way behind the curve. That’s not the only connected element of a service organization, of course. How about vans, warehouse inventory, and, importantly, your mobile workers.
  • Evaluate the overall connectivity of system processes. For the connected AI of the future to manage all of your systems efficiently, your systems need to connect to one another. Does your routing system speak to your order management system? Does your inventory management speak to your fleet management? Interconnectivity is no longer a nice-to-have. The AI-powered future calls for a unified system.

With these things in mind, you will be on the right path to set yourself up for AI success.

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April 9, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

Q&A: Exploring The Correlation Between Engaged And Productive Employees

April 9, 2019 | 3 Mins Read

Q&A: Exploring The Correlation Between Engaged And Productive Employees

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator, Future of Field Service

Juan Cruz, Jr. is the Senior Manager, National Field Services, at Fresenius Medical Care North America. In his role, Juan Leads and manages 6 district field service managers and 55 field service technicians. He’s recently championed a title change of his field team to more accurately reflect the evolving profession, implemented field service KPIs to measure field performance and efficiency, and developed third party SOP to manage the vetting, onboarding, and performance of third-party service providers. One of the aspects of his role that he’s most passionate about is ensuring that his workforce is highly engaged to maintain optimal productivity and customer experience. Here Juan shares with us his thoughts and advice on employee engagement.

Nicastro: Why is employee engagement so important to you and to Fresenius?

Cruz, Jr.: Employee engagement is important for several reasons. First, you have a workforce that is productive – and there is a direct correlation between engaged and productive workers. Disengaged employees will only give you the minimum — just enough to get by — get their work done and go home at the end of the day. With an engaged workforce, you are getting the best ideas and input that can propel a team and organization forward. Engaged employees are also more collaborative. They want to work together for the benefit of the clients, company, and each other. For Fresenius, it is also important because we have several initiatives from product launches to technology deployment over the next couple of years, and we want to be to be excited and ready and eager to learn about the products and technology to ensure that the launches and implementations are successful and as glitch-free as possible.

Nicastro: How have you witnessed a lack of employee engagement causing negative effects?

Cruz, Jr.: I have personally seen the effects of disengaged workforce – work is delivered, but it is not of the highest quality, which causes rework and lost time. Disengaged employees are also not responsive to business needs. There is no urgency in their step, which can have a trickle effect to other parts of the organization. Also, I have seen just the abrasiveness with which disengaged employees work with members of other teams. Disengaged employees have a difficult time working with others because they believe that they are being taken advantage of, or there is no benefit to them in the working relationship.

Nicastro: What are your methods for ensuring your employees are engaged and satisfied?

Cruz, Jr.: Communication is the key to anything that is worthwhile. One of the things I do is take pulse surveys every once in a while to get the team engaged in decisions that need to be made. But even more importantly, taking action on the survey responses and letting the team know that action has been taken or in some cases that an action cannot be taken. If employees see that they are not getting feedback on their feedback, or that action isn’t being taken, they will become disengaged and no longer want to participate. Also, I include employees in discussions with other departments so that there is collaboration between different teams and business functions. A lot of these cross-functional discussions not only build trust with other parts of the organization, but also allow team members to contribute outside of their core responsibilities.

Nicastro: How do these efforts pay off?

Cruz, Jr.: When you have an engaged employee, you have an engaged mind. You also have a situation where ideas and creativity are being fostered, and the ideas that come from your frontline workforce can be transformational for a service business. Engagement also increases collaboration across different teams and parts of the business. As a manager you can make better use of your team, from being tactical to being more strategic, and operate with better productivity.

Nicastro: What advice do you have for others on improving employee engagement?

Cruz, Jr.: My biggest advice would be to proactively solicit input and advice, and really listen to what people have to say. Be intentional in getting advice, feedback, and ideas and implement those contributions where appropriate. Ensure you have a 360 loop where the employee is aware that their contributions were not in vain. Also, be an example to others. Leaders need to set the example of being engaged in their work, with other people, and other teams within the organization.

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