AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

Dealing with unhappy customers, making unhappy customers happy, and making happy customers even happier are all variations on the same theme – they typically differ only by degree. In fact, it may actually be easier to make unhappy customers happy, than to make happy customers even happier.  Strategies for Growth^SM  President Bill Pollock explains...

Unhappy customers will probably want to tell you why they are unhappy – whether you already know it or not. They will typically want to get their "two cents" in, even before they allow you to speak. This is fine; this is part of their venting, and they will expect you to stop and listen as they do so. As such, this will be the proper time for you to listen and observe.

In most cases, customers have already become unhappy even before their call is taken or the service technician arrives at the site. This may be because they waited too long for the call to be answered, the tech is running late, it is a repeat call for a recent or similar occurrence, or they have just come off of a "bad" service call with the company the time before. In any case, for the first few moments, you will probably be on the receiving end of a combination of both fair and unfair accusations, finger-pointing, and the like. As always, this will be the proper time to listen and observe – before you speak.

The best way to ultimately make unhappy customers happy is to convince them that you will be working together to resolve any problems, and that you are not really working in adversarial positions. The services world is too often segregated into an "us vs. them" scenario; but, the quicker you show your customers that you are on their side, the quicker you can make them happy.

Some guidelines for accomplishing this are:

• Listen to what they have to say, and listen attentively – if they do not believe that you are paying full attention to their "story", they will probably become even less happy.
• Accept full responsibility for resolving any open issues, and be gracious in accepting blame wherever it is justified – customers will not tolerate any finger-pointing; especially at themselves.
• Explain, to the best of your knowledge, what happened, why it happened, what you plan to do about it, when it will be resolved, and how you will ensure that it never happens again (i.e., if it is something that you can help to prevent) – provide them with the guidance and assistance to prevent such occurrences from happening again (i.e., if it appears to have been something under their control).
• Just as machines sometimes require TLC (i.e., tender loving care), so do humans – treat your customers with the levels of TLC and "hand holding" they require in order to “soothe” their apparent frustrations.
• As soon as you make contact, let them know that you will be focused on resolving any open issues as quickly as possible, and to their satisfaction – let them know that you are working on their behalf, and that you will not be happy until they are completely satisfied.
• If there are any open issues remaining as you are closing out the call, assure them that you will be following-up and getting back to them with a complete solution as soon as possible – and then, follow-up as you promised.

Customers only have reason to remain unhappy for as long as the problem remains in play. However, the greater the problem, the longer it will remain “top of mind”, and the longer it will serve to plague your overall relationship with the customer.

The worst time to have your next "bad" service call with the customer is immediately following your last “bad" service call with the customer. After one “bad” experience, your performance is likely to be more closely watched and scrutinised every successive time you are called back.

However, by following these guidelines, the prospects for your delivering "bad" service stand to be significantly lessened and, therefore, you will find that it is much easier both to keep your customers happy, as well as to convert any unhappy customers into happy ones.

Field Service News has recently undertaken an exclusive research project, sponsored by TomTom Telematics to explore the standards of field service companies.

In the first part of this feature which is available here we looked at the types of technology that are being deployed amongst field service companies today and explored whether the gap is widening between the have's and the have not's in the industry.

In the second part of this series, which is available here we looked at how companies are communicating with their employees in the field and why this is such a key component of getting it right when it comes to delivering service excellence.

Now having established a baseline for the types of technology being used within the industry lets take some time to explore the standards being set by Field Service organisations before we try to identify if there is a clear and tangible link between those using technology and the levels of standards being delivered...

There is also an accompanying report to this series which you can access by clicking this link…

So what about the field service standards?

Earlier on in this series we touched on the most common complaints our respondents received from their customers, citing that of those companies using paper based dispatch notes the most common complaint by a long way (40%) was the availability of time slots.

In an interview with Field Service News, Giles Margerison, Director of TomTom telematics highlighted the need for more flexible time slots commenting

“We as consumers have adjusted our requirements to the service industry, it used to be that we would expect to have a service delivery within a day, now really we expect a one or two hour appointment window. That represents a huge challenge for the industry”

 

The findings of our research would also appear to back this up also as time slots was the joint second largest complaint for companies with 23% of the full respondent group citing this as the most common complaint. Interestingly this figure comes down to just 11% when we look at the largest companies.

This would indicate that the largest companies have the resources in places to accommodate more efficient systems, which allow for tighter time slots

Getting the basics wrong?

However, the most commonly cited reason for customer complaints was actually communication which was the most common complaint for 28% of companies. Given that there are a proliferation of means for companies to communicate with their customers this really is an area that should and could be significantly improved yet seems to be being neglected. In a piece of research undertaken by Field Service News earlier this year we looked at the types of communication field service companies were using. This research revealed that whilst the 82% offered a call centre, and 62% offered email communication less than a third of companies (32%) offered online service and just 6% offered access via an app.

This is completely at odds with where the industry needs to be. As Margerison alludes to – our expectations as consumers have changed. We live in an age where we are used to having instant access to information we need on demand. Whilst call centres and email certainly have their place, they are both slow processes when compared to web-based self-service options or online chat portals.

 

When we consider that we all work in service industries, whether it be manufacturing or medical devices, whether we visit opticians or oilrigs our core goal should always be delivering good service, and doing it efficiently.  Quite simply poor communication between ourselves and our customers should not be tolerated and this should be a key area of concern for many. The good news is of course those companies that look to investigate this within their own organisations and remedy issues around communications will very quickly be able to take a step ahead of their competitors.

In line with poor communication is poor response times, which was joint second most common complaint cited by 23% of companies. Again this is an issue that sits well with the notion that we as consumers are becoming less patient with service providers.

Cost is less of a concern than bad service

What is of particular interest is that the least common complaint is the time charged and invoiced which was a major issue for just 13% of companies. This would seem to suggest that most customers are happy to pay a fair price in exchange for good service, but the expected standard for service is coming under increasing pressure as customers rightly demand the same type of service that they get from the field service they deal with as they do from other organisations they deal with in their daily lives like Amazon for example.

As we start to look further down into the research we can see even further evidence of simple mistakes being made on an alarmingly regular basis.

For example almost half (42%) of all companies stated that they have mobile workers turn up at the wrong address whilst 5% stated this happens on a weekly occurrence. In a world where Sat Nav’s and routing software are widely used this is almost beyond comprehension.

 

Perhaps even more incredibly is that when we asked our respondents if they had ever experienced two mobile workers turning up at the same job again almost half of companies (43%) stated this had happened.

This is also apparent amongst companies of all sizes, even amongst those at enterprise level almost a third (28%) admitted to two workers turning up at the same time and a similar amount (33%) suffered mobile workers turning up at the wrong address on a monthly basis.

However, if we look at those using technology to improve their service standards we fortunately see improvements so all is not lost! The amount of companies that have a monthly address issue falls to just 13% with thankfully no weekly mishaps! Also the total of companies that never have this issue rises to 46%, which is 18% higher than the general average.

So it is clear that there is a distinct advantage for those using the technology available to them.

If you want to know more about this research then you can access the full report by clicking this link.

In the final part of this exclusive series we will take a look at the KPIs we are setting, how these match up with the service we are delivering in reality and explore one possible scenario for improving our standards within the future...

This series is sponsored by: 

Red Hat a leading provider of open source solutions, early this week announced an update to its newly acquiredFeedHenry 3 mobile application platform.

The update, featuring a new Teams and Collaboration enhancement, is an expansion to one of the industry’s leading mobile application platforms for enterprise development. The FeedHenry 3 mobile application platform brings something new to the market with its integrated collaboration and access control features that support distributed development teams working in unison across multiple application projects.

The FeedHenry 3 Teams and Collaboration enhancement includes:

• Global collaboration on mobile application projects: Multiple distributed development teams, both in-house and outsourced, can work simultaneously in FeedHenry 3 on mobile application projects, which consist of a variety of client applications, cloud applications, and services, each with their own individual Git repositories. Developers work individually but with access to relevant project-related components, increasing agility at individual stages in the application development lifecycle.
• Role-based collaboration across the application lifecycle: Multiple skills and teams, from application design, front-end coding, back-end services development, analytics, administration, and more, can work concurrently across multiple application projects bringing applications to market faster and more efficiently without impacting individual developer agility and productivity.
• Access controls for mobile projects: Configuration of fine-grained controls at individual levels of each mobile project enables ease and security of access to key project components. This helps lock functionality at different levels within the platform. For example, by setting authorised access controls, sensitive back-end systems credentials can be insulated from third-party or other developer roles, providing greater security and compliance. This fine-grained access control also encourages an API-driven and micro-services development and discovery approach, enabling ease of discovery and reuse of core components and services.
• Company-wide visibility across mobile projects: Centralizing collaboration and control across multiple skills in multiple mobile projects, across various stages of their lifecycle, enables visibility of all company-wide mobile projects. This promotes a mobile-first approach to enterprise mobility, supporting innovation and reuse.

Commenting on the release Cathal McGloin, vice president, Mobile Platforms, Red Hat stated “Enterprise mobility has matured beyond a single application, silo approach, toward a team-based, business-centric model, where multiple applications, at various stages of the application development lifecycle, are managed by different teams. Organisations are looking to improve their agility and responsiveness on mobility projects while at the same time having distributed teams and centralised policy management. Teams and Collaboration, as an integrated feature across the FeedHenry 3 platform, addresses this need, enabling a granularity of access control across different development resources, whether in-house or third-party, that promotes agility and reuse of core components.”

Chris Marsh, principal analyst, 451 Research added “With 40 percent of large enterprises planning to increase their application development outsourcing, collaboration across enterprise IT, lines of business and any external partners that may be involved is crucial. As the complexity of juggling multiple application projects and the pressure of faster development cycles increase, enterprises will look to platform vendors to offer more team-based collaboration features that provide centralised visibility and control of all application development projects across the organisation."

The third and final advert for Trimble Field Service Management's latest mobile workforce platform 'Work Management' builds on the same cutesy animation but this time the lead characters are some mischievous robots responsible for managing the data being earnestly sent in from the field. lets just say that their not exactly sharing the data in the right manner... Great end to a great series and brilliant to see some humour in the industry...

In the penultimate part of his series Service Management specialist Nick Frank takes a look for that secret magic formula that creates winning companies in field service.... 

It sounds too obvious, but companies who ‘plan’ for success, are more likely to get results from their service transformation programmes. So found Dr Wolfgang Ulaga, Professor at the IMD Business School when researching how companies transform their service business profitably.  He identified that companies who release their service potential have done so not only because they were well positioned to deliver value, but because they had an explicit and supported plan. (an interesting guy and would well recommend reading his Harvard Business Review Article on service transformation)

But why do we need a professor to tell us this!  Most well run companies have a planning cycle that lays out the financial numbers and the high level strategies to achieve their objectives. It always surprises me how many leaders of transformation believe that this is enough. It’s not!

Yes, experience says that the plan has to be clear and ‘light’ enough to inspire the team and colleagues. Yet it has to be backed by the detailed analysis which gives it credibility not only to business leaders, but also your agents of change themselves. This means the plan has to be explicit. It has to describe the detail of how strategies are achieved and most importantly it must be written down!

So managers wanting successfully drive transformation programmes should prioritise their resources, whether that be their own time or a programme manager into developing the plan. The more the stakeholders are involved, the more credible and supported it will be. The more senior management support managers have, the more likely that the resources required will be committed. But what are we talking about:

 

• Put in place strong project management resources with a governance structure and steering team that has the muscle to move many of the obstacles you might face
• Clearly define the objectives for the projects that will get you to your goal.  Each should have a kind of charter that defines the project in detail and most importantly who is responsible for what. The charter should show the expected outcomes and the impact on the business
•  Clearly define the objectives for the projects that will get you to your goal.  Each should have a kind of charter that defines the project in detail and most importantly who is responsible for what. The charter should show the expected outcomes and the impact on the business
• Plan out the investments you require and the potential timing. More and more we see companies looking to rationalise their business systems and will cost time as well as money. This is especially true in the implementation phase. So the motto is ‘Be Prepared’.
• Ensure your plan clearly identifies early wins to demonstrate success to your management and help them keep faith with the vision
• Make sure that your communication strategy is built into your plan. Often great ideas fail because the troops are not sure what is expected of them.

The last remaining piece of the puzzle is that your plan needs to be back by the decision makers of your business. It’s not just a question of a polite yes in the annual business plan review. It needs real commitment such as being part of your governance structure or taking a very active and vocal interest. If you don’t see this, be very aware!

The list could go on and on, but these are the main factors. If you are faced with planning change then at Noventum you can see what a Transformation Road map looks like, or experience developing your own by attending a Service Leadership Course .

 

Field Service News has recently undertaken an exclusive research project, sponsored by TomTom Telematics to explore the standards of field service companies.

In the first part of this feature which is available here we looked at the types of technology that are being deployed amongst field service companies today and explored whether the gap is widening between the have's and the have not's in the industry. Here in the second part of this series we look at how companies are communicating with their employees in the field and why this is such a key component of getting it right when it comes to delivering service excellence...

There is also an accompanying report to this series which you can access by clicking this link…

 

Talking to the field:

In the first part of this series we looked at three options that are important for gathering information from the field and reacting to it. The flipside of a modern field service management solution is how we communicate information back into the field. This is perhaps the most important element of an overall solution to get correct as if done well it can not only improve your companies efficiency, increase your service standards but also make your field workers lives easier. We asked our respondents “How do you inform your drivers of jobs and work schedules?” Giving the options of “Phone”, “Text”, “Paper dispatch note” “Via in Cab navigation” and “via App”.

Paper dispatch

As a starting point lets look at paper dispatch notes. Of the options given this is probably the most arduous means of delivering a work schedule for many reasons. Firstly it is dependent on your field workers arriving at a central depot or office to collect their orders for the day. A waste of time and fuel for everyone involved, and from the field workers point of view an additional hassle at the beginning of the day when they could be starting their first job. Secondly, paper based work schedules are out of date from the moment they are printed. Such a system has no option for the quick reactive response that you desire when an emergency call comes in that must become your clear priority. Fortunately only 6% of companies are still operating in this manner.

The majority (68%) of these companies still using paper based dispatch are as one would imagine in the smallest bracket of companies, although examples of companies still using such a system are to be found right up to the 151 – 300 field engineers bracket. Given that their work schedule is largely static, and it is therefore hard for these companies to react to either emergency call outs or delays either on job or non transit, it is of very little surprise that we see that the most common complaint these companies receive from their customers is missing time slots which 40% of companies cite.

Text:

The most common way of companies to notify their workers of their job schedules is by Text. This is sensible as SMS is a relatively cheap, instant means of communicating and 41% of companies use this method. It could well be that this method will ultimately be replaced by “Via App” so communication becomes part of the wider ecosystem of the companies mobile workforce management program. This is of course ideal as it allows for both additional layers of information to be included, for example the details of the last call out, even photos etc., as well as easy navigation through to other systems. Currently however only 17% of companies are using this option.

It’s good to talk…

However, there are a huge amount of companies (34%) that are still using the phone to communicate work schedules. This does have it’s positives in that it can be flexible and you can update the work schedule on the fly according to how the day is progressing however, there are a number of distinct drawbacks. Firstly there is the issue of wasting resource. Talking on the phone takes time.

Not necessarily a lot of time, but still far longer than sending messages automatically from a field service management solution. And if you add up the amount of time that takes across your whole workforce, even if it is just 10 field workers that is a lot of time being used that needn’t be. Then there is also the issue of driver safety. Yes there are a number of solutions available to allow for hands free communication, however studies from road safety charity BRAKE! Show that even hands free calls can be dangerous claiming an incredible 98% of motorists were unable to divide their time without it affecting their driving ability.

In cab nav

It is interesting to see how few companies are using in cab navigation systems to communicate with their field workers. Only 2% of those surveyed are actually using this method. One reason for this may well be the proliferation of smart phones and or tablets now being used as primary mobile devices for field workers. Indeed there is an evolving movement towards being able to use one device per vehicle such as TomTom Telematics own PRO series of ruggedised tablets, which through the use of open API architecture can provide full access to w whole range of field service and fleet management tools.

As devices like this become more prevalent then having both a standalone in cab navigation devices and another device to run your field service software on simply becomes unnecessary.

If you want to know more about this research then you can access the full report by clicking this link.

In the part three of this exclusive series we will start to explore how the technology being deployed amongst field service organisations is impacting the levels of service they are capable of delivering...

This series is sponsored by: 

 

 

The second advert for Trimble Field Service Management's latest mobile workforce platform 'Work Management' contains the same quirky humour as the first edition but this time focusses on the plight of the poor field technician who is sent to the wrong job with the wrong tools, or on his own when he clearly needs a second pair of hands. It is a genuine problem all to common in the industry and a clear barrier to improving first time fix rates. However, I must admit I laughed out loud the first time I watched this video. Just wait for the little fella to run try and fill the whole at the end...

Lincoln Property Solutions Ltd, a Properties Management Service company in Basingstoke, Hampshire, has selected Tesseract Service Centre to manage its Properties Portfolio and related maintenance and cleaning schedules.

Lincoln Property Solutions provides facilities management to improve efficiency and to ensure the buildings in their care provide the environment and services that will satisfy not only the business needs but also residential requirements of their workforce. The company relies on an experienced workforce of operatives who follow a set of schedules. These schedules used to be managed using spreadsheets, into which data would be entered manually, until Lincoln Property Solutions decided it needed something more efficient, more automated and more centralised.

Enter Tesseract, a service management software company that has already revolutionised the systems of more than 300 businesses worldwide. Lincoln Property Solutions came across Tesseract at SME14, the service management exhibition at the Facilities Show 2014 in London. Tesseract has an exhibition stand at SME every year, and this year managed to persuade Lincoln Property Solutions that utilising the facilities of Tesseract Service Centre would be hugely advantageous.

“We are looking forward to Tesseract providing us with a system to enable us to work smarter,” says Des O’Neill of Lincoln Property Solutions. “We anticipate that it will be a very successful partnership.”

As part of an exclusive series on twenty first century service management sponsored by Advanced Field Service, Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland takes a look at how to decide when it becomes unprofitable to take on a deal…

There is also an exceptional eBook that accompanies this series which you can access by clicking here

It is the perennial internal struggle that so many field service companies face. In the race to grow your service business are you at risk at accepting business that ultimately will impact your bottom line in a negative fashion?

We have all been faced with that one bit of business that could have potentially have a wider tangible benefit for our business (such as raising our profile in front of a new sector) yet the profit margin is so tight that it makes taking that business a worthless exercise when reviewed in the cold black and white figures of a profit and loss sheet. Taking a different approach to the same challenge, can the sheer effort to maintain business viability – and keep your engineers working out in the field – become an easy temptation despite the fact that it may ultimately lead to the overall failure of a business?

All too often we witness some field service businesses being tempted to take on clients with narrow profit margins, which is a very dangerous path to tread to say the least.

To build a truly sustainable business, you need to be able to focus on the jobs, contracts and clients that are most profitable, rather than trying to be all things to all clients.

So for those responsible for enduring their field service operation remains profitable it’s absolutely critical to take the time to occasionally step back and analyse your client base. Understand each of your clients (and prospective clients) and try to identify those that fit within the two following categories…

Clients who are already profitable:

• How can you quantify for them the work that you do, so that it is recognised and suitably remunerated?
• How can you keep these clients ‘locked in’ by delivering service beyond the agreed service level agreement (SLA) but without draining your resources and revenues?

Clients who could become more profitable:

• How could you better manage the time you spend on their projects?
• Can you identify where you are providing more than you agreed within the contract and budget?
• Do you have an evidence base that will support you in negotiating with clients to pay more or expect less?

Clients who are unlikely to ever become sustainably profitable:

• How could you readdress the balance and bring these clients back within acceptable parameters?
• If the evidence shows these clients are always going to be an excessive drain on resources, do you need to make the difficult decision to agree to go your separate ways in order to free up your engineers’ valuable time for more profitable jobs?

If you can gain a better understanding of each and every client’s worth to the business, you’ll be well placed to decide where to invest your resources for optimum return, both in retaining clients and also in pursuing new business. There may be that one occasional client that it could be argued will bring greater business value to your organisation even if they fall in to the latter camp. However, even these clients must be fully understood.

The potential benefits of working with such a client can and must be translated into a quantifiable figure, and that figure should be reviewed over time to see if the initial predictions are being validated. For example if you take on one client who is a leader within their field, the theory of Social Proof should lead to some others within that field joining you also. How much is that additional business worth? More importantly does it counter balance the loss leader? If the answer is no then quite bluntly you should be walking away from it all.

Making tough decisions

Admittedly, turning work away is never easy to do, but it can also free up your expensive resources to focus on where they can bring best return. This is where it becomes absolutely essential to have transparency between divisions and to train your sales force, who are almost certainly focussed solely on revenue, to begin focussing on profit instead. It is madness to incentivise an individual on revenue from a product sale if ultimately your organisation is going to lose on service revenue in the long term.

Unfortunately the sales of product and service remain isolated in so many organisations, and even today I here anecdotally of huge service contracts being bundled in for free as ‘added value’. This is a slow train to disaster and companies still employing such a quick buck style of sales are destined for failure. Such an approach should be consigned to the 80’s where quick turn over was king.

Successful businesses in the new millennium understand the long term value proposition of service, indeed the bleeding edge companies moving towards a servitization model are showing us a path that truly benefits both client and vendor. Service is the long stay foundation on which profitable businesses are now being built upon. And whilst moving to such a model requires a radical rethink of core business strategies, modern technology plays an incredibly important part in enabling this shift.

At the most basic level your service management solution needs to give you the advantage of arming you with the evidence and information you need.

As mentioned previously, there may be good reasons to bid for contracts which you know from the start will generate very little profit: a project may have particular prestige attached to it or it may extend your portfolio by taking your practice into a new market/territory.

However, before bidding for such work, you’ll want to quantify the risks and have measures in place to contain any losses so that they don’t overwhelm your business and become a bottomless pit. If you can draw on a solid foundation of knowledge of costs and time for previous similar contracts, you will have a better understanding of the commitment you are making and the potential risks.

With contracts of this nature, it is more important than ever to keep to the requirements set out in the SLA. Set clear expectations at the start, apply strong change control, and have a process to handle requests from the client for additional work.

This feature is part of a series exploring Service Management in the twenty first century and is accompanied by the excellent eBook The Service Management Handbook 2014 which is published by Advanced Field Service.

To Download your copy of this incredible resource click here and complete the brief form.

This feature is sponsored by:

Want to know more about Advanced Field Service? Check out their page in the Field Service News Directory by clicking this link.