AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

We are currently running a research project aiming to build a picture of what the field service engineer of 2022 will look like.

What tools we he use? What skills will he need?

The research is being run in partnership with field service management providers ServiceMax and thanks to their support we have been able to run a prize draw for those who have taken part in the research and we are pleased to announce the following winners so far: 

• John Mackrell, Business Change Manager, British Gas
• Neil Taplin, Operations Director, Arqiva
• Stuart Morris, Support Specialist, Glory Global
• Toin Jansen, Service Director, Tennant
• Bill Taylor, Engineering Services Manager, CDW
• Erik Huysmans, Service Manager, AGFA

Emails will be sent to each of the individual winners listed above across the next 24 hours so congratulations to each of you! So thanks to all of you have entered and taken part in the research to date.

 

---

 

If you are not a winner - don't worry there will be one more draw this time next week once the research is closed - and if you haven't taken part yet then you can complete the research here and upon completion you will be able to enter the prize draw* - with prizes including £50 Amazon Vouchers plus tickets to field service conference Maximize Europe (worth $250)

 

---

 

*Prize draw entry available to field service practitioners only (i.e. Field Service Management Professionals or senior IT and Business Leaders working for an organisation that operates a field service division. 

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...

This issue our topic is the relationship between Service and Sales and our experts are Nick Frank of Si2 Partners, Michael Blumberg of Blumberg Advisory Group and Jim Baston of BBA Consulting

In the first instalment of this topic our experts answered the question "It is often said service technicians are the greatest salesmen – what are your views on this?" the second time out the question was Is there a difference between selling service and selling products? and last time around the answered the question Is incentivising service technicians to “sell” opening up new revenue streams or putting their “trusted advisor” status at risk?

Now for the final question of this important topic...

 

---

 

What impact does the rising uptake in outcome based services have on the relationship between service and sales?

 

---

 

Selling outcome based services requires greater collaboration and communication between service and sales than ever before. Service needs to understand and support the solution that the sales force crafts for the customer.

The sales force needs to have a clear understanding of the capabilities of the service team to craft the right solution.

Basically, service and sales must work as a team. In addition, the service organisation must be proficient at sales so they can add-on additional services to better meet outcomes as these opportunities present themselves.

 

---

 

Outcome based services require one of the most sophisticated sales processes as the deliverable is a business outcome, not a well-defined ‘thing’.

Hence the whole process of defining the outcome and configuring a profitable delivery model is very different from a transactional product based sales process. The implications of switching to outcome based business models will challenge almost every aspect of the organisation in terms of mind-set & culture, skills & capabilities and processes & tools.

As the service organisation is such an integral part of the commercial success, it must be closely involved in the sales process from two perspectives. The first is to ensure that within the co-creation process that a delivery model is developed which profitably dovetails into the customer’s operations.

Secondly and probably more importantly, during the sales/co-creation process , to have people within the discussion that convinces the customer that you are the right business partner to deliver an outcome based contract.

 

---

 

In outcome based services, the service company generally is providing an agreed to outcome for a set fee and therefore takes the risk for delivering on their promise at a cost that they can profit from.

Any recommendations for improvements in delivering on that promise more effectively will typically benefit the service company rather than the customer. In these cases, therefore, the results of the field service professional’s efforts are internally focused.

Sales, however, remains externally focused. Their role is to bring more opportunities to the service organisation.

Therefore, the relationship between service and sales can be summarised as follows: In outcome based services, sales is responsible for generating the top line revenue by increasing the number of contracts whereas service is responsible for enhancing the profits on that revenue by improving their efficiency at delivering on those contracts.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

There was some absolutely fantastic conversation amongst the Florida sunshine here at the Field Service USA fuelled by the excellent presentations, workshops and technology on show.

As we set our selves ready for the day two here are my picks of the days must see sessions for those lucky enough to be with us on site today here in Amelia Island.

 

---

 

8:55 - Today's Smart Building: Optimizing The Users Experience Through The Innovation Of Intelligent Services

Larry Walsh, CEO & President,KONE Americas gives us some excellent insight into smart buildings, that may sound like something from the future but is already here today - and the impact on service is set to be wide reaching.

 

---

 

2.10 - Panel Creating Competetive Differentiation Through Connected Products

I'll be chairing the Enhancing Service Value stream myself across the afternoon and at 2.10 I'm very pleased to be moderating a panel discussion looking at the benefits that connected products can bring with Bill Belleville, Director E Business Solutions, JLG Industries Amar Parmar, Senior Director, Professional Services, Wind River and Gregory Ratcliff, Director Lifecycle Management, Vertiv.

 

---

 

3.50 - Help Huddle: Service Parts and Pricing

Getting service parts and pricing correct is a perennial challenge for a number of companies so this should be a great session for those looking to share best practices and learn from their peers in how best to get this aspect of your service operation on track.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

The great and good of the USA field service industry have arrived here at the Omni Amelia Island Resort, which remained miraculously untouched by the devastation wreaked on the Florida coast only a week ago. With the local news channels reporting the ongoing efforts to get the State back on track, there are sure to be some challenging and busy times for field service engineers working across the region.

And here at the Field Service USA (fall edition) conference the attendees are equally busy discussing how they can improve their service efficiency, whether it be for meeting extreme demands in times of need such as we have witnessed in the wake of Irma, or simply to ensure that customers ever increasing demands are not only met but also exceeded when operating in more normal circumstances.

Field Service News is onsite and will be reporting from the event and each day we will be publishing our pick of three of the sessions those lucky enough to be with us here on site really must attend.

 

---

 

10.50AM - Building the Infrastructure for an effective Self-Service Program

Self-service has been an increasingly important part of the service portfolio for some time now. Here in this workshop Hiren Dalal, VP Global Customer Success and Suport and Christine Morin, Program Director, Knowledge Services of CA Technologies discuss the key steps to build the infrastructure to utilise self service effectively.

 

---

 

1.50PM - They're coming R U ready 4 Millennials?

The workforce has never before seen a shift in thinking, culture and beliefs from an outgoing generation to an incoming one more so than that of the Baby Boomer's leaving and the Millennials coming in. Millennials enter the market with a completely different mindset and require completely different tools of motivation. Tom Vorin, VP of Customer Services ISCO International gives us his best advice of how best to be prepared for a Millennial workforce in this workshop.

 

---

 

4.00 PM - Exploring how and what we communicate + How we can do better

Whether it be with our customers, with our technicians or with our senior executive board, communication is key to successful field service management. In this toolbox talk hosted by Scott Wooden, Card-Monroe it will be interesting to see how various companies ensure that they communicate successfully across all channels.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

In the Big Discussion we will take one topic, bring together three leading experts on that topic and put four key questions to them to help us better understand its potential impact on the field service sector...

This issue our topic is the relationship between Service and Sales and our experts are Nick Frank of Si2 Partners, Michael Blumberg of Blumberg Advisory Group and Jim Baston of BBA Consulting

In the first instalment of this topic our experts answered the question "It is often said service technicians are the greatest salesmen – what are your views on this?" and the second time out the question was Is there a difference between selling service and selling products?

and now onto the third question of the topic...

 

---

 

Is incentivising service technicians to “sell” opening up new revenue streams or putting their “trusted advisor” status at risk?

 

---

 

Technicians represent a ready and available channel for generating incremental service revenues.

After all, they are at the customer site almost every day.

However, service technicians may become over-zealous or pushy about selling, and jeopardise their “trusted advice” status, if they lack proper sales training or if their performance measurement system and company culture are too focused on sales.

 

---

 

A sales professional is a very different person from the service expert in terms of how they think and what motivates them. The service person is more motivated by relationship and recognition of their skills and it is this that allows them to develop the trust-based relationships that make them so special from a commercial perspective.

Companies should use this relationship to increase value, but be aware that as soon as the balance swings from supporting customer success to earning a sales commission, this trust immediately evaporates. To be successful, the question of incentives is critical yet very contextual to the business environment and company culture. Rarely is sales commission the answer as service peoples are not typically sales animals.

Usually having incentives through management objectives or even reward and recognition will encourage the desired behaviours without risking the Trusted Advisor relationship

 

---

 

I am very wary about incentivising service professionals for making recommendations. When we provide commissions or other forms of compensation for selling services to the customer, it sends a message that promoting a service to the customer is an act outside of their normal job.

We are asking them to provide “something extra”. It’s the “while you are there” approach. If making recommendations that will benefit the customer are perceived as an “add on” activity, then this suggests that service professionals can opt out. As I indicated above, I see promoting services as a service itself and therefore as much a part of the job as everything else that they do. Incentives can also encourage the field service professional to make recommendations for the wrong reasons (to get the commission as opposed to acting in the best interests of the customer).

Evidence also suggests that incentivising can actually discourage the type of behaviour it was intended to boost. Daniel Pink’s book Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Books, 2009), provides a wonderful and often counter intuitive account of the impact of extrinsic rewards on employee performance.

Finally, what if the customer asks? What does the field service professional tell their customer if asked if they are getting compensated for make the recommendation? The customer may feel uncomfortable if the technician answers yes. How would you feel if you found out that your auto mechanic was commissioned on all parts sold?

 

---

 

Look out for the final part of this series when we ask our panel "What impact does the rising uptake in outcome based services have on the relationship between service and sales?"

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

In this sample from the Field Service News webinar Field Service System Overview: Microsoft Dynamics for Field Service and the eBECS added IP Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News hosts a Q&A session with the session presenters Michael Smythe and Alice Walton.

 

---

 

Want to know more? The full webinar is available to Field Service News subscribers only - but if you are a field service professional then you can apply for a complimentary subscription now on the link below and we will send you links to access the full webinar as a thank you for your application!

Apply for Field Service News subscription now by clicking here

 

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Almost a third of businesses (31 per cent) admit being slow to adopt technological innovations, according to a new study¹ by TomTom Telematics.

The finding has been compounded by the revelation that a third (32 per cent) still use paper to store business-sensitive information and that more than half (53 per cent) use spreadsheets.

“Slow or late tech adopters risk falling behind the curve and, as a consequence, potentially damaging their competitiveness,” said Beverley Wise, Director UK & Ireland at TomTom Telematics.

“Effective long term digital strategies and the integration of technologies into core business activities can hold the key to simplified processes, helping improve operational efficiency, productivity and sustained levels of growth.”

The research among senior managers at 400 UK businesses¹ found that despite the admissions, 82 per cent still believe it’s important to use the most up-to-date technology.

Cost was cited as the biggest barrier to tech adoption by 36 per cent of those businesses surveyed. Sixteen per cent said they faced difficulties introducing new systems while 15 per cent said there was a lack of time to invest in research and implementation. A further 11 per cent said they faced resistance among workers.

“Companies should look beyond the short-term pain of any initial outlay – an investment in business technology that is implemented and used effectively can result in a significant and swift return on investment,” added Wise.

“Clients that have adopted advanced telematics systems, for example, have demonstrated returns after just three months. Moreover, the right technology partner should be able to offer the requisite support to help minimise any business disruption and help ensure easy and timely implementation.”

 

---

 

¹The study was conducted among senior managers in 400 companies with five employees or more.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

Whilst The Automobile Association (The AA) might be a trusted brand that is better known for Roadside Assistance, the renewed growth of the Home Services business is now benefiting from end-to-end field service management software supplied by Solarvista, which includes a full integration with PartsArena Pro.

This gives The AA engineers mobile knowledge management technology like never before. Reviewing performance since its initial launch in September 2016, the statistics confirm just how positive this move has been.

PartsArena Pro was uniquely developed to drive efficiencies in the UK heating service industry, using Infomill’s AnswersAnywhere platform. This innovative platform can create a knowledge management tool for any industry worldwide that suffers from an unproductive “knowledge gap” between manufacturer and parts information, and the field service engineer out on site.

As an integral part of the Solarvista field service system, PartsArena Pro is now supplying this critical knowledge to The AA’s Home Service heating engineers, via offline Windows mobile devices. They can access the latest data and information such as exploded diagrams, parts codes and manufacturer technical manuals whilst out in the field.

This facilitates a speedy and accurate parts search coupled with the ability to add parts lists directly into the job for automated ordering, reducing engineer and back office effort and markedly improving ‘Second Time Fix’ rate.

The AA Home Services business currently has directly employed heating and plumbing engineers out in the field and their performance since the installation of the new Solarvista system with PartsArena Pro included has been significant:

• Overall productivity improvement of 15% (this is continually rising)
• 17% improvement in ‘First Time Fix’ rates
• PartsArena Pro specifically improving ‘Second Time Fix’ rates
• 8% reduction in time on site
• Tasks per shift improvement of 15%
• Reduction in calls made to the contact centre by 20%[/unordered_list]

“In the age of self-service and automation, delivering fully integrated systems to the benefit of our members, employees and business alike was a critical requirement within our transformation project.

The integration between Solarvista and PartsArena Pro that we have developed supports our engineers in resolving our members’ home emergencies as effectively and quickly as possible; and more of them per day, whilst also delivering a world class experience to our members.

The project has delivered significant improvements to both ‘First and Second Time Fix’ rates, significant improvement to our engineers’ productivity, whilst also enabling our engineers to very quickly and accurately order parts and book their own return visits face-to-face with members via their mobile devices. Additionally, their own core van stock of parts auto-replenishes without anyone having to place orders,” says Ash Cripps, Home Services Business Systems Manager, The AA plc.

Paul Allen is a heating and plumbing engineer for The AA. Shortlisted for the business’s upcoming Engineer of the Year award, he has this to say about PartsArena Pro: “Using PartsArena Pro has become part of my routine when servicing or repairing appliances to either get part numbers, fault finding charts or specific servicing routines that certain manufacturers ask for.

The time and money saved by not having to phone manufacturers or merchants for parts numbers or technical information is just one of the benefits of this software. The installation manuals and detailed diagrams make doing the job so much easier, which reduces the time spent on each job, helping you to get more visits completed in your working day.

 

And you also have the confidence that the part you have ordered will be the correct one as you can see it clearly in the diagrams. Most parts also have a photo in the information to help you identify them accurately. It is great to not have to pick up the phone to order parts or arrange any return visits.”

PartsArena Pro is a very successful example of how knowledge management technology can make a significant contribution to the productivity and efficiency of a business, reducing operating costs, increasing profitability and enhancing customer service. The trend for field service software companies to integrate this type of innovative software into their systems is enriching the service available to many organisations operating in the heating service industry, whilst giving field service software operators a distinctive competitive advantage.

Meanwhile, Infomill is talking to businesses in other industries about how the AnswersAnywhere platform can present a ‘game-changer’ to productivity, as Jonathan Ralphs, Infomill CEO explains: “We’re delighted that PartsArena Pro is part of the performance success of The AA’s Home Services business, delivering enhanced customer service to homes across the UK. The project very clearly demonstrates the potential of PartsArena Pro and indeed our AnswersAnywhere platform, from which it is built. Infomill can create an innovative knowledge management tool for any industry worldwide that suffers from an unproductive “knowledge gap” between manufacturer and parts information, and the field service engineer out on site.

Service technicians need the right knowledge at their fingertips to make informed, accurate and quick decisions; increasing their level of productivity significantly. To achieve this is a distinct competitive advantage and that is exactly what AnswersAnywhere can do.”

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature

SyncronTM, a leading provider of cloud-based after-sales service solutions focused on empowering the world’s leading manufacturers to maximise product uptime and deliver exceptional customer experiences, have recently announced the launch of the After-sales Excellence Forum, a complimentary, half-day event aimed at helping manufacturers unlock hidden revenue opportunities and achieve new levels of customer satisfaction through optimised after-sales service.

It’s no secret the world is changing, and it’s changing fast. Multiple demographic, economic and social trends are pushing manufacturers to transform their after-sales service organisations, and shift from a reactive, break-fix model to maximising product uptime. This event aims to help companies embrace this change to achieve new levels of financial performance, customer loyalty and competitive differentiation.

The agenda specifically includes:

• How to leverage after-sales service as a growth and profit lever
• A deep-dive into how optimised service parts inventory greatly improves service operations
• Challenges facing after-sales service professionals, and how to overcome them

“We are thrilled to welcome the UK’s leading manufacturers to the After-sales Excellence Forum,” said Gill Devine, VP of Sales, EMEA at Syncron. “We are bringing together some of the top after-sales service experts to share strategies and tactics for how to successfully navigate today’s changing world. We aim to give manufacturers the confidence to take their after-sales service operations to the next level, increasing both financial performance and customer loyalty.”

The complimentary event will be held at The Icetank in London on 12 Oct. Representatives from Syncron, Servispart Consulting and IAAF will lead the day’s discussions.

To learn more about the event and register, click here.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature