This final excerpt from a recent white paper published by Cognito iQ outlines a seven-step process to take you from strategy to execution, so you can achieve exceptional field service...

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

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Step 1 - Analyse Current Situation

The first step in improving anything is to understand the current situation. To do this you need accurate, timely data about what is actually happening on the frontlines of field service.

The principle of value stream mapping, which comes from the discipline of lean manufacturing, is a useful concept to help guide this step. Your goal in analysing the current situation is to identify value - as defined by your customers’ needs - and then to map the value stream, which is all of the steps and processes that you undertake to deliver that value. Then you can look for bottlenecks, so you can eliminate any wasteful steps. In addition, if there is data missing, you can identify ways to fill the gaps.

The analysis requires data. In recent years, many field service operations have undergone some degree of digital transformation, which for many has meant that they have gone from having limited data about field service - knowing just whether the job was done, and the customer had paid - to having too much data that they can’t analyse or make sense of. Not only is there mobile data that tracks field service technicians’ whereabouts, and progress on any task, and gathers feedback from customers, but there is also a wealth of internal data such as from ERP or CRM systems, financial data, call centre information, repair data and customer emails. Combined with data about parts and assets, some of which comes directly from IoT enabled equipment, you end up with a complex mix of structured and unstructured data, which is often hard to makes sense of.

The most effective way to identify patterns in the data is to use data science techniques such as machine learning.

For example, using machine learning in the analysis of asset and parts data enables you to take a structured approach to asset lifecycle management. If you can spot patterns in repairs and revisits, you can start to predict and prevent failures. Again, generic tools can make some headway here, but field service specific tools have algorithms that have been programmed with field service knowledge which are better at surfacing genuine opportunities.

Step 2 - Set Aligned Goals

There was a time when in many businesses, the service operation was viewed as a cost centre, a necessary, but expensive, functional department.

This view is outdated; today, companies understand that field service is integral to the business. Field service technicians are not only the face of the brand, they are able to build relationships with customers and have opportunities to generate revenues through cross selling and upselling.

In the same way, there is a growing recognition that field operations goals need to be integrated with wider organisational goals. The opportunities identified in step one need to be prioritised based on a number of factors: which can easily be actioned, which have the greatest improvement potential, which offer the greatest return on investment, which are the low hanging fruit. But overarching all of this is the need for opportunities to align with overall company goals.

Furthermore, at this stage, there is a need to understand what the ROI of change will be, and to quantify the risk of not changing. If you can put a financial value on your goals, it will help you to make the business case for the investments you will need to make, both directly in terms of expenditure on the technology to drive change, and indirectly in terms of the time you will need to commit.

Step 3 - Define Metrics for Success

 

Once the current situation is analysed, opportunities to improve are surfaced, and goals set, aligned to the company strategy, you then need to decide how to act to meet those goals.

You are moving into the tactical stage of the seven-step process, and are focusing on practical actions that you and your team can take. The questions you need to answer at this stage are:

• What are the processes, practices, controls and levers that you can alter to influence performance?
• Which metrics that support these levers, need to move to indicate improvement?
• What are the thresholds for improvement - how much do the metrics have to move?

Once you have defined the metrics and set thresholds, you can use them to define employee KPIs, and you will be ready for the next challenge which is to change the behaviour of your employees in accordance with the new goals.

Step 4 - Engage and Motivate Employees

Change is hard, and it goes better when everyone is on board. In order to ensure that employees change their behaviour and work towards the goals you have defined, you will need to have the data to monitor performance.

You probably have an instinct for which of your field workers are the best performers, but your analysis of performance metrics will give you hard evidence, and also help evaluate why they are the best. You probably also know which workers consistently fail to hit their targets. Analysis will show you what to do to help them improve –and to monitor their progress. Once you know the drivers of excellence, you can replicate them throughout the organisation, working with employees to improve skills and capabilities where needed.

It also helps if employees understand the wider company strategy and how their own performance indicators and goals align. We recommend adopting OKRs, a method used by Google to align organisational strategy with individual goals and improve performance.

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results — the process by which leaders and their teams set ambitious, measurable goals each quarter — are a critical component of how Google’s leaders managed Google’s growth from day one. By focusing on a few priorities, identifying the metrics that measure progress towards those goals, and quantifying the impact of that progress, OKRs equipped teams at Google with what they needed to think big, get alignment across the organisation, and execute on their ambitious plans.

Step 5 - Make Changes to Processes

Once you have decided on the metrics to focus on, you can begin to make changes. These changes can be at any level. They can be to processes or procedures, in which case they will require everyone to know about and follow them.

They can be to documentation, giving people new information, or to the website, to change customer behaviour. They can impact the field service technicians directly, or indirectly - the example below involved a small change to the call centre script, not to engineering processes - but it had a big impact on a key performance metric for engineers.

There are many barriers to implementing change. Even if you have employees on board and the whole company aligned around the strategy, it can be hard to know which changes to prioritise, how they will affect other metrics, how much it will cost to implement the changes, and what will be the return on investment. At this stage, modelling the likely impact is invaluable, as it will help you prioritise.

Step 6 - Observe and Analyse Outcomes

Once improvements have been implemented, the next step is to observe the impact on performance and analyse the outcomes.

As a service leader you need to have full visibility of what is happening in the field in real time, so you and your team can make adjustments and prevent incidents before they arise. Ideally you should be able to see, at a glance, the status of all your key metrics, and be alerted if any are in jeopardy as well as any variations from the plan for the shift. Short interval control is another technique used in lean manufacturing to drive improvements, during each shift; with access to field service data and analytics tools to gain insight in real time, service managers can adopt this approach. This approach is also adapted from agile software development environments which advocate testing and learning with real customers, in real time, using data to assess the impact of each change.

Also, as you make the changes, capture those that are driving improvements, as well as those that are having little direct impact, but may impact further down the line. You might want to pilot in one region, capturing what has worked and what has not. You can then use the region staff as ambassadors of change across the broader organisation.

As well as acting in real time to change outcomes during the shift, you need to be able to analyse the impact of changes over time, so you can see whether improvements have been effective and if you need to dial up changes, dial down, or try something else. You can even conduct controlled experiments by using AB testing - trying two different approaches with different, randomly chosen sets of technicians, or in different regions, to see which improvements work the best.

Step 7 - Feedback and Adjust

This is the step where the value of the data driven approach comes into its own.

Taking the outcomes of improvements, and feeding back into the data for analysis at step one creates a feedback loop, enabling you to test and learn, freeing you from having to make gut decisions, and harnessing the power of continuous improvement to get to exceptional field service.

With a continual improvement approach, the £500K or more you could save in productivity isn’t a one-off. You can use that saving to do more, or to reduce headcount in year one, and also expect to see a similar improvement and saving in years two, three and onward. The goalposts are always moving in field service, as technology advances, competitors improve and customer expectations increase, so there will always be improvements you can make, regardless of the quality of your service at this moment.

TAKING THE FIRST STEP

So now you know the seven steps, what are you waiting for? It’s easy to describe, but not so easy to do.

In reality, getting to exceptional will require you to have the following:

• high quality, accurate, real-time data
• the ability to analyse the data to gain insight, both in real time, and in retrospect
• the experience to decide how to apply the insight
• the foresight to model the impact of changes and the ROI of planned actions
• the insight to know what exceptional looks like, and to set appropriate benchmarks
• the agility to test changes and learn from the outcomes
• the leadership to drive through improvements and manage change throughout the organisation

We know that field service leaders are a talented bunch, but that is still a tall order. Fortunately, there is no pressure to take all seven steps at once. Getting to exceptional is a long-term process and just taking the first step will deliver business benefits. So how do you take that first step? Advances in technology mean that there is support available. Digital transformation means so much more than just digitising paper-based processes, or automating manual processes. We believe that all of the hundreds of decisions that are made every day in field service operations can and should be driven by data and analysis, not by gut instinct, or expediency.

For many companies, the digital transformation challenge has moved on from being able to collect the data, to knowing how to analyse it, and what actions to take. Advances in AI such as machine learning mean that we can start to automate the process of continuous improvement. The goal should be that the system can spot a problem and recommend a fix without human intervention, and then track that change through the organisation and drive adoption in the field. The future of field service belongs to those companies that can adopt advanced analytics, together with smart business approaches, to use data to drive exceptional field service.

 

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Field Service News subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Cognito iQ on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/cognito-iq
• Find out more about Cognito iQ @ www.cognitoiq.com
• Follow Cognito iQ on Twitter @ twitter.com/Cognito_iQ

Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss potential downsides to adopting a remote first-approach to service delivery and explore the potential for a hybrid model that blends on-site and remote service...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts 

WE WILL SEE A HYBRID MODEL EMERGE IN THE NEW NORMAL

In a recent exclusive white paper authored by Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, we explored a number of different aspects of the emerging conversation centred around the importance of remote first service delivery.

The white paper looked at a number of different facets of that discussion including the technology and tools required to make sure we're delivering remote service effectively and also looking at some of the pros and cons of adopting a remote first by default approach both for the service customer and the service provider.

However, as this is a fairly embryonic conversation that has only recently gained significant traction as we see a huge host of companies beginning to embrace remote service delivery as a direct result of the pandemic, Oldland invited Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer to join him on the Field Service Podcast to hear his insight and to learn from his direct experience. With Brandeleer and his colleagues at Salesforce having helped so many organisations through digital transformation journeys, it was also an excellent opportunity to disseminate some of the thinking that goes on alongside that.

In the above excerpt from that podcast, the two begin discussing some of the nuances within the conversation, particularly looking at the challenges of remote service delivery and also the potential loss of benefits to having the field service engineer on site for the service organisation.

For example, it has long been said that the field service engineer is the eyes and ears of the organisation and their being on site could be a significant loss from the service providers side of the equation.

"I think that's an interesting discussion to have because I really think that there is going to be this hybrid model..."

- Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce

“So there is an idea of the loss of the trusted advisor to consider that is for sure,” begins Brandeleer.

“Before, your trusted advisor was really just a technician on site, now I have a feeling that we will see this decrease a bit, but it's a balance. Companies must decrease that approach of having 100% of that trusted advisor relationship with the technician. Now, the balance may be 50% of that trusted relationship is done through contact on site, but 50% of that relationship is now built with the back office,” he explains.

“I think that's where this loss of the trusted advisor will be covered by other things,” Brandeller adds.

However, what about the issue from the other side of the equation, what value to the service provider lose in not having someone on-site, with a captive and attentive audience of the customer?

“I think there is nothing better than having someone on site to actually look at if there are other devices that the service provider could also service. Having a subject matter expert on there to interpret and understand how the site is working, what is the criticality of an asset against the whole system and the whole operation of the customer?

Indeed, it does seem that there are arguments in either way to the advantages of remote service delivery and on-site both for the customer and the service provider.

“Companies are getting these kind of quick fixes done via remote assistance, which is really helping on uptime,” Brandeleer muses. “However, some customers may say, Well, that was a quick fix that you did for me remotely and yes the device is fixed, but it seems like you need to send someone anyway. So when really is my problem really going to be completely fixed?”

“I think that's an interesting discussion to have because I really think that there is going to be this hybrid model where the first quick fix is done remotely – for example it could be like your pipe leaking. It might be quite annoying right now. Well, you, you do the quick fix of putting tape literally around the pipe and say, okay, for now shut down the machine, keep it like this, we will be on-site very fast.

“So somehow, yes, the leak was fixed, but it was a quick fix and now you need to really need to have someone on-site. So how can you add this discussion with customers where you say, okay, we really solve your problem completely, and when was the problem really considered as fixed completely?

“I think that's where the only way to have this kind of discussion is always going back to data.”

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss why there is foundational new thinking required as we build the new normal of field service... 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts 

THE BENEFITS OF REMOTE SERVICE DELIVERY

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News recently authored a white paper in partnership with Salesforce, that focused on one of, if not the biggest questions of the moment in our sector. Should we be redefining the value of field service delivery in an age of remote service, especially if we move to remote first as a default. It was a wide ranging white paper that looked at a number of different areas including the benefits and the negatives for both the customer and the service provider themselves.

To further add to the initial thoughts raised in that paper, Oldland invited Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer onto the Field Service Podcast, to take the conversation a little bit further. Brandeleer was able to bring his own experience and of course, the wider experience of the team at Salesforce who've been instrumental in the digital transformation of so many organisations to the table. In the above highlight from that conversation Oldland and Brandeleer discuss some of the benefits of remote first approach for field service customers.

“The safety factor is number one, and is very real, especially right now,” explains Brandeleer.

“I think it will continue even after COVID. Safety is number one in field service, in general, and having someone on-site, COVID or not, is always risky. There is always a risk for the human there doing his job.

“So in some areas we definitely think remote assistance will help, even without COVID. For example, can you just have only one person on the roof whereas before you may have had maybe two or three technicians working at the same time in a small and dangerous area when maintaining a roof top device? So there are some safety aspects that will remain I think.

“What's also going on as well with the move to remote service delivery is that, we may lose out in some instances in having the trusted advisor on site, but at the same time it does create better customer relations with the back office. Before, often the only face of the company was the technician - now I have the faces of people that are working in the office, and helping me to find issues to my problem here on site. Where that's really a benefit is that suddenly instead of having just one single person as being the face of your company, you might have an easier way to present multiple persons in front of the customer.

“Even though it's virtual, having a face to respond to you on a call is still creating this trusted relationship,” Brandeleer adds.

"This is where field service companies can really start creating new business models, where you create a real partnership-based relationship with your customer..."

- Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce

“I think the second thing that is also really important that remote assistance brings is the concept of the quick fix -  can you really quickly fix the problem right now? Then maybe the service provider will also send someone in one month, or maybe in two weeks, to fully resolve all the problems, but at least the issue is resolved for now. The concept being to try to keep uptime as high as possible and I think that's where companies need to think about how they can create a business model with that first step of remote assistance.

One challenge that I'm hearing from some customers is that it’s challenging to invoice these remote assistance calls. This is because the customer is saying ‘you didn't send a technician on site so are you going to charge me the same price? Why are you invoicing me that much?

“I think that's where you need to go back to customers and say, ‘okay, maybe we change this kind of variation and we have now a service contract review.' Perhaps one suggestion could be a subscribed contract yearly where the customer can have 20 remote assistant calls within the year and on top of that you have the regular maintenance and most probably at one point of time, even preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance.

“This is where field service companies can really start creating new business models, where you create a real partnership-based relationship with your customer. You tell them very clearly the outcome they are going to get such as the device is going to be operational for 97% of the three percent remaining is where it would be down for maintenance. This is where you are saying to the customer ‘we guarantee you this and on top of that for good service and maximising this outcome, we are going to provide you multiple ways of calling us and asking for a quick fix.

“I think that's where people really start to get into the thinking around this. It is really bringing new base line for innovation for new business models. I think that's really something which is very important too.”

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

In the first in a new series of videos where we look at field service operations and technology within different industry sectors we talk to Gary Milne, of Healthcare at Home about the important work they undertake, how that has changed since the pandemic and why dynamic scheduling engine Fast Lean Smart (FLS) has been a crucial element in their ability to meet customer demands and plan for expansion

In a new series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Appify we analyze the impact of change within the modern field service organization...

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Appify who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

Many in the Field Service industry started their company with nothing but a toolbox and sporadic house calls. Some remained a solo operation, and others went on to work for large companies, such as DuPont or Canon. People who started with nothing but a wrench are now running profitable service companies or managing massive service teams within enterprise organizations.

These people, and the organizations for which they work, service everything from grocery store refrigerators to hospital MRI machines. And, when the pandemic hit, the industry felt the repercussions. Grocery store rushes meant more frequent refrigerator repair trips. Restaurants shutting down meant fewer trips to fix a fryer or stove.

The pandemic is just one example of societal upheaval the Field Service industry may encounter. And, any time an event impacts the way society at large uses these pieces of equipment, the industry must adapt.

We hope this report illuminates possible strategies and solutions for your organization as we all navigate through these unprecedented times.

 

About the Survey:

To understand just how people are coping with the current challenge, we polled more than 250 individuals in the industry—field technicians and company owners alike—from a variety of companies around the world to take the pulse of the industry.

We classify mid-market businesses as those that employ 50-500 people. Enterprises employ more than 500 people. Nearly 41% of respondents work for an enterprise-sized firm, and 58.98%  of respondents work for either a mid-market or enterprise-size company.

Fifty-five percent of respondents are individual contributors or team leads. This group also includes respondents who have labeled themselves engineers. The group will be referred to as "field technicians" throughout this report.

 

Who Are the Business Process Decision Makers?

Parsing who is responsible for business process decisions—decisions ranging from how teams are dispatched to newly developed Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) guidelines—is the first step in mitigating any issues that hamper the delivery of services.For example, though 41% of respondents list themselves as individual contributors, 36% of respondents are themselves responsible for business process decisions. Thirteen percent of respondents are either C-level or owner or president of their company, but 25% of respondents say business owners or CEOs are responsible for business process decisions.

A slightly larger proportion of C-level people make business process decisions than there are C-level respondents in the survey. This isn't terribly surprising. Many businesses rely on executives and higher-level contributors to guide the organization forward. But, in an industry where field technicians have intimate knowledge of the job at hand, it seems reasonable to wonder whether they should have a larger say in business process decision making.

As organizations attempt to improve their decision making, they will often be tempted to purchase fix-it-all technologies and spend budget on tools that they feel will help them solve every issue. Despite the urge to fix everything at once, Field Service companies might instead determine one or two concerns to address and work their way forward from there.

BUSINESS PROCESSES AND DATA ACCESSIBILITY WITHIN FIELD SERVICE

Assuming companies have enough data to make intelligent decisions, reviewing business processes regularly should be high-level priorities for companies that wish to become more efficient.

More than one-third (31%) of respondents report that they review business processes every six months or even less frequently.

And what of the data used to inform business processes? It will be difficult to affect positive change with poor or inaccessible data no matter how frequently a company reviews its processes.

How Often Does Your Company Review Business Process Used to Service Your Customers?

 

 

A majority (53%) of field technicians rate the quality of their accessible data as either "good" or "very good." Fifty-nine percent of those in managerial roles believe their data is "good" or "very good."

At the other end of the spectrum, nearly 14% of field technicians rate their data as "poor" or "very poor." Companies will likely improve their business process decision making by coming to a better understanding of what makes poor data, poor and eliminating that information from their internal data sources.

 

How Would You Rate The Quality of Your Accessible Data?

It will be difficult to weed out low-value data if that information is not first accessible. Only one-quarter (26%) of field technicians describe their work-order data as "accessible through one single application."

Nineteen percent of field technicians describe their work-order data as either "accessible but inaccurate" or "inaccessible."

Another challenge exists. A majority (55%) of field technicians say their data is accessible but either through "a couple of apps" or "many apps."

 

How Would You Describe the Overall Accessibility to Work Order Data Which Enables You to Provide Services to Your Customers?

 

 

For Field Service organizations, data enters their systems in the form of manual data entry, paper transactions or mobile device data capture. Data types include information from invoices, work orders, parts, inventory, equipment- maintenance data, and so on. If managers and field technicians alike must jump from one application to the next to manage all of this information, it is likely they will encounter more errors and lower efficiency standards than if everyone had data accessible in one place. Technicians rely on mobile devices in the field.

But what if they enter a poor cellular coverage zone or the Wi-Fi on the jobsite goes down? What if the data input while offline doesn't sync when the device is able to connect to the network again?

Ensuring data is accurate requires a variety of different systems and devices to communicate, on and off-line. Doing so is impossible without a flexible solution that can integrate these sources and limit data-quality and accessibility issues.

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Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we discuss how to measure field service readiness.

However, www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about Field Service Management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/field-service-management
• Find out more about Appify @ appify.com
• Follow Appify on Twitter @ twitter.com/AppifyInc

Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss why it is essential to track customer preferences as we move out of the pandemic and head towards recovery... 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts 

We CANNOT UNDERMINE THE VALUE OF THE TRUSTED ADVISOR STATUS OF OUR ENGINEERS

Having recently authored a white paper in partnership with Salesforce, in which he discussed the question of whether as field service leaders we ‘do we need to be redefining the value proposition of service delivery in a post pandemic world’, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News invited Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer onto the Field Service Podcast to discuss the topic further.

The paper took a particular lens on the fact that now as a sector we are much more focused on remote service delivery, potentially even moving to remote-first as a default. However, Oldland asserts there is a balanced and nuanced conversation that needs to be undertaken here. Whilst there are huge advantages to service delivery, being delivered remotely, not only at these testing times, but also moving forward as we start conversations around uptime and quicker fault resolutions, the flip side is, are we losing the trusted advisor status of the engineer?

In this highlight from the Field Service Podcast, Brandeleer and Oldland began to tackle this question around where those nuanced differences lie.

We should not undermine the fact that the technicians while they are on-site can see things that will be very unique from the fact that they are there in person..."

- Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce

“We must also consider that some customers will just not like remote assistance,” Brandeleer commented.

“Yes, they understand the way that we do it right now for COVID-19. And at this stage it really makes sense, but you should really track the preference of your customers as well, because some customers will tell you ‘I really want someone on site, I actually miss that connection.’

“Some customers will tell you, it's fine. we can continue [with remote service delivery] even after COVID-19. With you coming in or looking at the site remotely and fixing a few things remotely. However, some customers will say, ‘well, you know what the technician is bringing so much expertise when he's on site on other topics. Maybe he can maintain one device, but there are five other devices that might be under contract, might not be in the contract - it doesn't really matter at this stage, because the technicians are always there to serve the customer and essentially help them.

“We should not undermine the fact that the technicians while they are on-site can see things that will be very unique from the fact that they are there in person. Then there is this relation of trusted advisor that will continue. It's not only fixing the problem that they have right now, it's actually quite helpful for the trusted advisor to come in the sense of actually seeing other things on site you could fix, maybe advising ‘you should actually maintain the device a bit more often’ and things like this.

"That's where I think you need to track the preferences of the customer. We need to know, is the customer happy with remote assistance? Is a customer, OK, for IoT? Does the customer prefer it if we send one technician, do they always prefer the same guy?

“I think it's really important to track preference from customers and not impose the technologies on to customers.”

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Fleet Operations, one of the UK's leading independent providers of outsourced fleet management services, is helping companies plan for an uncertain future by offering free post-Covid Fleet Health Checks at this year’s Virtual Fleet and Mobility Live event. 

From flex fleet and affinity options to grey fleet and EV adoption, the fleet and mobility management specialist will be offering bespoke advice on how fleets can be as efficient and futureproofed as possible.

Fleet Operations director Jayne Pett said: “The Covid-19 pandemic is reshaping the fleet landscape and companies are now faced with unprecedented challenges.

“Not only are companies tasked with making the switch to more mobility-focused, electric-powered, data-driven fleets, but they are having to do this at a time when resources are increasingly limited.

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS RESHAPING THE FLEET LANDSCAPE

“Immediate concerns include a need to adopt the most appropriate fleet strategies against a backdrop of economic uncertainty. Many are reluctant to commit to long-term contract hire, for example, opening the door to more flexible options including mid-term leasing.

“Risk policies and procedures are having to be reassessed to ensure driver safety and legal compliance, while trips to the office for employees now working from home may no longer be a classified as a commute, but rather as a business journey. This calls for staff employment contracts to also be reviewed to guarantee HMRC compliant mileage claims, and checks to ensure employees have the right insurance for business travel.

“At Fleet Operations, we have the insights and expertise needed to steer fleets onto the right path to adjust to the ‘new normal’ and ready themselves for the future.”

Other areas covered by the health check will include Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), fuel costs management, carbon footprint, fund options, cash and car allowances, salary sacrifice, cost visibility and streamlining administration. 

The Virtual Fleet and Mobility Live will see the fleet community come together, from fleet managers to experts and suppliers. This year’s virtual event will take place from November 17 to 19. To register, visit fleetandmobilitylive.com. 

Further Reading:

• Read more about Managing the Mobile Workforce @ www.fieldservicenews.com/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Learn more about Fleet Operations @ www.fleetoperations.co.uk
• Register for the Virtual Fleet and Mobility Live Event @ www.fleetandmobilitylive.com
• Read more about Fleet Operations on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/fleet-operations
• Follow Fleet Operations on Twitter @ twitter.com/fleet_ops

Field service leaders are not always aware of the potential for improvement, or the scale of the opportunities offered. This third excerpt from a recent white paper published by Cognito iQ offers an in-depth analysis of the three pillars of exceptional field service...

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Cognito iQ who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

whAT EXCEPTIONAL FIELD SERVICE LOOKS LIKE

In our experience, even field service operations that are working well can find 5% improvements when they set out to become exceptional, and improvements of more than 20% are not uncommon.
If you want to make tomorrow’s field service more productive, you will need to study how efficiently and effectively you have been working to date, identify opportunities to improve and act to make changes. One way to start is to compare your plan for each shift with the reality.

For example, were task durations as you expected?

• If tasks took longer than planned, you may have unhappy customers and a big overtime bill.
• If they took less time, are you paying workers who have gone home early?

If you have detailed data on how tasks were performed, you can analyse whether task durations were as expected.

• Does this vary by type of task or by type of customer?
• Does it vary by region or is the difference down to specific technicians?
• And what are the trends over time?

 

Once you have answers, you can act. If you find that you have been allowing too much time for tasks, reducing task durations in the plan will enable you to get more done in the day. But by what percentage can you reduce durations before they become too short? Also, taking action isn’t limited to altering the plan. For example, if there are some technicians who are slower than others, is there an issue you could resolve with training, knowledge sharing or technical development? Conversely if one region is performing better, does one regional manager have a best practice that you can roll out to the company as a whole?

It is the combination of many small changes of this type, and the continual feedback loop of measurement, analysis and execution that will gradually and incrementally improve operational productivity. The theory is simple - continuous improvement is a principle of lean manufacturing now widely used in other disciplines - but the reality is more complex. It is vital to know how to measure success:

• Which metrics are useful and which aren’t?
• Which can be accurately determined and which can’t?
• How metrics interact.
• How setting goals and targets will affect how employees go about their jobs.

 

For example, you wouldn’t want to drive up the number of visits per day your field workers attend, if that meant fewer first-time fixes, or reduced customer satisfaction scores. You also wouldn’t want to implement changes that increase the cost of service by more than you are gaining in productivity terms. The goal is to find a combination of improvements that act to raise standards in all areas.

Some service companies are starting to implement 'shift left', a practice adapted from software development, which moves as many tasks as possible to the left, that is, earlier in the process. The approach is becoming more widespread in IT service in particular, but can also be used by field service companies to empower call centre staff and customers to access repair and maintenance information and proactively solve simple problems without needing a technician to visit. Shift left not only improves field service productivity, but by empowering customers it can also improve customer experience and, by empowering first tier support to do more, it leaves skilled technicians with the more interesting, complicated tasks to resolve, which can improve employee engagement too.

 

Customer Experience

Field service organisations know that customer experience is important. In a recent survey, 76% said that improving customer experience was their top strategic initiative. However, it can be a long way from setting a strategic initiative to actually delivering a great experience to customers. How can you turn your strategy into tactical actions, and then ensure that your employees are acting according to your plan?

Delivering a great customer experience means paying attention to every interaction the customer has with your company, whether that is through using your products and services or via your website, call centre, billing or social media. For many customers, a visit from a field service technician is the only time they will see a representative of your company face to face, so it’s clear that a visit is loaded with opportunities to delight - or disappoint - your customer.

Your field service technicians will need more than just engineering ability and knowledge: soft skills such as communications, interpersonal skills, decision making and problem solving are all important too. Training will be key, as will empowering your field-based workers to make decisions that help the customer, even if they sometimes have to bypass official processes. If the process isn’t working for the customer, it should be viewed as a bottleneck and, therefore, an opportunity to improve. Getting feedback from your technicians will help you understand the customer experience, as they often know where the problems are with the processes.

Another approach is for senior field service managers to spend time out in the field, to experience a day in the life of a field technician, and understand the impact that complex processes, organisational bureaucracy, or a lack of end-to-end service planning can have on the customer experience.

Of course, it is even more important to get feedback directly from customers. Many field service companies add a customer survey to the visit process, whether carried out by the technician on site, or as a follow up. Typically, companies use a simple metric such as the ‘Net Promoter Score’ (NPS), a widely used technique for assessing customer advocacy. However, it’s not sufficient to just track the score - you need to conduct analysis and take action.

Analysis will help you to understand questions such as how do you turn Passive customers into Promoters? How do you leverage Promoters’ willingness to recommend you? And how do you prevent Detractors from leaving and from telling others about their poor experience? You also need to define what counts as a good NPS score. Benchmarking against others in your industry, as well your own best efforts will get you a clearer picture. And the analysis doesn’t end there. You also need to consider what to do about the customers who won’t even engage with the question and give you a score. How do you drive up participation? Additionally, you need to have a method in place for analysing the free-form comments that customers add, as this is where you will gain some of the greatest insight

A high NPS is linked with business growth. A study by Bain and Company, who developed the NPS, shows that the organisations with the highest NPS in an industry sector had more than twice the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of those with average scores. Achieving a high NPS shouldn’t be a goal in itself, but profitable organic growth cannot long be sustained without doing so.

 

Employee Engagement

Field service is all about people. If your employees are unhappy and disengaged, it’s unlikely they will support your operational productivity initiatives, or be able to deliver the exceptional customer experiences you are hoping for.

Our customers tell us that some of their biggest challenges in improving operational productivity comes not only from needing to measure, analyse and implement change, but also from knowing how to influence and guide workers to behave in the most productive way. There’s plenty of empirical evidence to back this up; study after study has linked employee engagement to improved productivity, customer satisfaction, growth and profitability, as well as a whole raft of other business metrics, including employee retention; innovation; safety incidents; product quality and defects; shrinkage and theft; and sickness and absenteeism.

Strategy expert Erica Olsen talks about how businesses often fail to implement their strategy because they don’t manage their employees to deliver on the plan. She says “High-performance organizations accomplish extraordinary results, and they do it with ordinary people. The key to achieving is to structure an organisation so ordinary people can regularly accomplish outstanding things.” The performance of the service organisation can be seen as the sum of the performance of individual field-service focused workers - from the call centre and field service technicians, through to those involved in logistics.

 

"Connected devices are reducing some of the tasks that field workers need to do, such as routine maintenance checks, but they are creating new service methods, which means that workers will need to develop new analytical skills..."

 

Working to improve employee engagement is particularly important in field service for a number of reasons. Firstly, remote workers can feel isolated, and engagement strategies can help them feel connected to the back office and part of a team, whether that is at a local or regional level, or by job specialisation.

Secondly, there is a skills gap in field service, and an aging workforce. Research shows that 50% of large businesses in the UK report difficulties in hiring, with skilled trades, drivers, technicians and engineers being among the most difficult jobs to fill. Additionally, technology is changing the skills needed on the job. Connected devices are reducing some of the tasks that field workers need to do, such as routine maintenance checks, but they are creating new service methods, which means that workers will need to develop new analytical skills. Technologies such as virtual or augmented reality are also changing the ways that workers carry out their tasks. Workers may see these new skill requirements as a threat, however companies that are good at engaging their employees see these developments as opportunities to upskill.

Filling the skills gap requires retaining older engineers by retraining and reskilling, as well as attracting new younger engineers. Field service needs to be positioned as an enticing career option, with opportunities to learn, grow and develop. Many organisations are also filling the gaps with freelance workers, so it’s important to have well defined processes so you can on-board quickly and ensure that contractors are operating to your high standards.

Given that, in the UK, we’re lagging in terms of operational productivity, it’s not surprising that we are also lagging in terms of employee engagement too: a recent survey shows that employees in the UK recorded average engagement scores of just 45% compared to 54% in France, 56% in Australia and 60% in the USA. Another shows that more than a quarter of UK employees admit they aren’t performing to their best ability at work, compared to just one in five employees in Europe. Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability, on average. No field service organisation can afford to ignore this opportunity.

 

Look out for the final feature in this series coming next week where we outline a seven-step plan to achieve exceptional field service.

However, www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Cognito iQ on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/cognito-iq
• Find out more about Cognito iQ @ www.cognitoiq.com
• Follow Cognito iQ on Twitter @ twitter.com/Cognito_iQ

Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss the importance of having the foundations of field service management tools in place before we can explore the next iteration of service management technologies... 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts 

A VISION OF THE FUTURE

In a recent exclusive Field Service News white paper written by Kris Oldland and published in partnership with Salesforce, we explored the shifting dynamics of the fundamental value proposition of service delivery in a world of remote first service delivery. However, while there was a lot of room for error in the first few months of the pandemic as we were all just grateful for the monumental efforts it took to deliver even basic service, now we are at a point where customer expectations are beginning to return.

Remote service delivery remains an acceptable delivery mechanism, however, the teething problems of some of our early initial attempts may no longer cut the mustard. Within the white paper Oldland explored some of the key technologies that are essential for efficient remote service that will meet customer expectation. As a follow up to that white paper Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer joined Oldland as a guest on the Field Service Podcast to bring his insight to the table. It was a wide-ranging conversation but in this excerpt from that episode the focus is on the tools we need to make remote service a seamless offering for our customers.

Of course, this was an area of the topic where Brandeleer was really able to bring a huge amount of direct insight, drawing upon the vast experience of himself and colleagues at Salesforce in terms of the companies that they've already directly helped with huge digital transformation projects.

"That's where I think there is still a part for technologies to still evolve. I think the whole install base little by little needs to be refreshed and evolve as well..."

Gary Brandeller, Salesforce

“I think what is critical is to do the basics, right,” explained Brandeleer.

“I think what we saw with COVID-19, was that the companies that didn't control their basics, were unable to actually react and adapt fast enough. These technologies are really, really impactful, but can only be impactful if you have the right data. They can only be impactful if you are already connecting your install base, if you're already doing warranty tracking, if you already know your customer when is calling you.

“From there, you can move little by little to a different solution. So for example, when you think about AI, there is the optimization engine that we are providing, and things like this, I guess, but I think there are other places where AI can really augment the experience of the technician in that context of ‘can we serve the customer?’ We must establish, can we use AI to offer remote diagnostics of the problem and can we find a solution?

“Ideally, you would even say, that AI if can identify one or two solution, can a human further expand on that and say ‘out of two solutions suggested by AI we should apply the first one, which can be pushed remotely via IoT, for example?” Brandeleer suggests.

“I think that's the vision of the future,” he continues before adding “Are we there? I think not yet. COVID-19 is going to accelerate that. But when you think about IoT connected devices, there are still many, many devices out there, especially in manufacturing where the install base that is pretty old, with assets still working and still being maintained. So, that's where I think there is still a part for technologies to still evolve. I think the whole install base little by little needs to be refreshed and evolve as well.”

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Gary Brandeleer on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/garybrandeleer?lang=en
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce