AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Mark Glover

Chris Mean, COO at Columbus UK, says a fully integrated field service programme drives customer satisfaction. Here, he outlines what you need to know and what you need to do to to stay on top of your service delivery.

Gartner research suggests that by 2020 70% of organisations will cite customer satisfaction derived from integrating field service as a primary business benefit. But how, and even more importantly, where can field service be integrated into a company’s operations in order to reap these customer rewards? This article outlines the key elements that enable companies to increase their service revenue while keeping associated costs at a minimum, and explains how field service can be seamlessly put in place to add value to business operations.

The path to field service success starts with understanding the key aspects that contribute to both boosting service revenue and controlling service costs. These elements need to be implemented well and are an essential first step for any organisation considering how to integrate field service into existing business operations and systems.

Provide relevant warranty information
If a business has a largely manual warranty claim process, this is likely to result in ‘warranty leakage’ – where a warranty service is unintentionally provided beyond the remit of a business’ warranty program. This is typically due to limited visibility of accurate warranty data – from the perspective of management in terms of where warranty costs are likely to occur, and from a field service engineer’s point of view regarding what is covered by warranty. The implementation of technology and business insights in the form of auto-entitlement warranty checks are important, as employees benefit immediately from relevant warranty information whenever required.

Offer service flexibility
Considering how a business typically segments existing customer markets, the service offered to each segment and how customers consume products is key to identifying new target markets. It is essential to remember that a customer’s business expectations are built on their personal experiences as a consumer, particularly in today’s connected, always-on world. Flexible service offerings will ultimately enable businesses to enter new market segments.

Capitalise on sale opportunities
Perhaps the most obvious way to increase service revenue is to take advantage of positive interactions with customers. Each time a customer service agent or field service engineer has a strong conversation with a customer represents a potential opportunity to up-sell – but agents and engineers must have the necessary tools to identify these opportunities. Whether it’s selling additional products during a service visit or selling an extension or improved warranty package, it is essential that employees know what products are available and recommended, have stock readily available if it is a physical item and can process transactions at point of sale.

Fully integrate mobile devices
The quicker each field service engineer can close and approve a customer work-order, the more a business can speed up cash flow. Engineers must therefore be equipped with mobile devices that enable immediate customer approval and closure or work-orders, but more significantly these devices must be fully integrated into the existing accounts receivable system to automatically generate customer invoices. With better integration of commerce platforms this allows for payments to be taken instantly.

Better manage inventory
Having business insights into overall part consumption, by job or product, can reduce inventory levels. The key for businesses to effectively manage their inventory is to ensure that they have the right parts on hand or have visibility of nearby stock on another van to improve ‘first time fix’ rates. This also helps determine which parts are fast moving or failing and allows a business to centrally stock the right levels.

Optimise service schedules
Optimising scheduling and on-the-fly routing are another necessity for a business that employs a high number of field service engineers and as a result handles shorter service calls. When routes are optimised this has great benefits in terms of headcount and fuel costs. Implementing on-the-fly scheduling engines allows businesses to react to real-world situations such as cancellations, urgent appointments, delays and traffic to ensure a high level of efficiency and customer satisfaction is maintained.

Where exactly in a value stream can field service help?
For businesses to achieve the true customer benefits that come with connected field service they need to know exactly where it can be integrated to add value to business operations. There are four main areas where its influence is most effective:

1. Repair
If a machine is broken, a service technician makes a field visit to resolve the issue. The repair may be covered by warranty or incur charges because of the time and parts consumed, but this is where field service is advantageous and cost-effective – problems are fixed at the first time of asking, in real-time. A business that can provide a service that is timely, when the customer requires it, is key to gain a competitive advantage.

2. Maintenance
Moving beyond customer expectations of timely maintenance and repairs, businesses can now shift towards offering maintenance on a predictive basis. Using smart IoT devices, machines can automatically inform both the business and customer that a malfunction is likely to occur and that maintenance is required. This is an especially valuable aspect of field service because breakdowns and operational downtime are reduced.

3. Installation and commissioning
This applies to products that need to be installed by a service technician. Once a product has been installed, the technician will run several tests to ensure the machine or device is fully operational –the commissioning process. For businesses operating in the B2C world, flexibility at this stage is especially important because customer expectations have changed – they expect to be able to purchase a product and schedule its installation at a convenient time for them in one, unified transaction.

4. Business consultation
A field service visit can also include a critical analysis of a business and its customer demands – it isn’t always a hands-on appointment with a machine or device. It is important that a business is connected in a feedback loop with its customers to better understand their requirements and further enhance future business operations – particularly because customer satisfaction is now considered the most important aspect of field service ahead of price and quality.

Flawless field service: A strategic enabler for customer satisfaction
To achieve an end-to-end, unified customer experience, an effective field service solution spanning repair, maintenance and installation and commissioning should be implemented.

During all stages of the field service customer journey, businesses need to make sure their field service engineers are empowered and able to identify and execute sales opportunities, as well as having the ability to capture customer feedback.

This is how businesses can consistently benefit from the revenue potential that comes with integrated field service, while ensuring customers are satisfied because they are getting the experience they have come to expect.

UCC Coffee, the leading total coffee solution provider, is using Aeromark’s real-time multi-lingual Service Management platform to deliver fast, effective service to its customers. 

The company provides a market leading Total Coffee Solution to some of the industry’s leading foodservice, hospitality and retail companies including restaurants, pubs, QSR, contract caterers and grocery multiples.

In the UK, a team of more than 160 specialist coffee engineers, use smart-tech to look after all aspects of commercial coffee machine care; from full-service maintenance to reactive callouts.  UCC Coffee’s customers rely on the company both for exceptional coffee quality, consistency and to ensure their equipment is always available; any downtime must be resolved in the fastest possible time. 

Using Aeromark’s real-time service management platform has enabled UCC Coffee’s operations team to achieve a consistently high first-time fix rate.  

UCC coffee has also recently extended its service capability to manage planned and reactive maintenance for its pan-European customers. “Providing world class service to our customers, underpinned by smart technology, is central to our market leading Total Coffee Solution for foodservice, hospitality and retail businesses across the UK, Ireland and, in Europe,” said Elaine Swift, Regional Director (Northern Europe), UCC Coffee.

Using dynamic, automated multilingual workflows, Aeromark’s real-time, multi-lingual Service Management platform enables companies to manage the unique challenges of operating a field service workforce across multiple regions while delivering the best possible service, regardless of location.

The service request lifecycle is streamlined from start to resolution; providing complete visibility and a full audit trail of customers’ equipment, service history, stock consumption and engineers performance. Uniquely, once a service call is scheduled for a European location all job information is automatically translated to the engineer’s local language. 

UCC Coffee’s service centre receives requests via phone, email and self-service portal forming the work queue from which planners quickly and easily create service team schedules using multiple scheduling options.

Schedules are optimised to real-time, providing planners with a visual view of the status of jobs as the day progresses.  They can see at a glance when service calls are completed quicker than expected and can add additional calls to an engineer’s day.  Equally, if jobs overrun, work can be reallocated to other engineers, ensuring customer service levels are met and service efficiency is maximised.

Intelligent workflow translation automatically moves jobs designated for engineers in European locations to the relevant language workflow with job details, job sheets and related forms presented to engineers in their local language; streamlining and standardising service delivery.

 

Customers of UCC Coffee can also submit service requests directly into UCC Coffee’s work queue, via a portal; giving the customer unparalleled visibility and control and increasing the efficiency of the service supply chain.  A true example of a service ecosystem and partnerships powered by technology.

Localz, the software business helping large organizations transform the day of service, has chosen to join Amazon, Apple and Google and open its first US office in the rapidly expanding tech ecosystem of Culver City.

Localz began operations in 2013 and the development team are headquartered in Melbourne. Its operational platform enables real-time tracking of the service technician, accurate ETAs and simple two-way communication. Localz  “On my way” messaging increases customer satisfaction and improves first time access rates, resulting in massive cost savings for the companies who deploy it.

“This is a huge milestone for us,” Tim Andrew CEO / co-founder  said. “With a rapidly growing customer base in the US,  we needed to establish a physical presence. We have clients located on both coasts and also in the mid-west. We were attracted to the growing pool of tech talent in LA and it’s good domestic and international transport links.We believe that the field tech ecosystem in the US is facing increasing challenges in meeting rising consumer expectations while also seeking to make operations more efficient. We’re here to help companies thrive, not just survive on the Day of Service.”

“Localz makes it extremely easy to see real-time activity in the field, communicate and react with multiple stakeholders. The solution is resonating with Field Service companies who want to elevate their customer experience” says Alex Wise Regional Vice President of Sales for Localz.

Findings from the Deloitte Consumer Tracking Survey has revealed the UK consumer confidence index is -8 per cent; down four percentage from this time last year. Customer experience expectations, however, show no signs of slowing, with over half of UK consumers feeling more loyal towards brands that show a deeper understanding of their preferences and priorities. This means that now more than ever, businesses will be focusing on providing a seamless digital customer experience, optimising customer engagement.

While technologies like AI and automation will be critical for businesses to remain competitive in these times of such low consumer confidence, it is important not to overlook the importance of in-person human interaction. Retailers with omnichannel strategies retain an average of 89 per cent of their customers, according to Teleperformance DIBS, and any businesses failing to focus directly on customer experience will struggle with customer retention.

Rajnish Sharma, from Teleperformance Digital Integrated Business Services, comments: “With people so worried about their personal finances in the increasing economic uncertainty, it will take a lot more than just a good product or service to persuade the average consumer to hand over their cash.  Consumers are looking for frictionless, hassle-free and personalised customer experiences. In fact, in the next year the customer experience will be more important than product and price. To remain competitive in these times of economic uncertainty, businesses need to be available to provide round-the-clock, real-time service – at the consumer’s convenience. While AI bots are widely being introduced to improve engagement and streamline communication, it’s important to note that human interactions are not just cognitive, but social and emotional.”

Cloud-based software firm will purchase Israeli tech outfit to boost service offering.

Salesforce will acquire Click Software in a deal worth $1.5 billion that is expected to complete in the Autumn.

The acquisition will boost Salesforce's service offering, Service Cloud, which, according to the company's June financial statement, has earned the company $1 billion in revenue.

Salesforce's Bill Patterson says that end-uses will ultimately benefit from the purchase. “Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers," the EVP and GM of Service Cloud commented.

Israeli outfit Click Software were founded in 1997, going public in 2000 and were purchased 15 years later by private equity firm Francisco Partners for $438 million.

What is the one key question you would advise a field service director to ask an Augmented Reality vendor when potentially seeking a solution to implement within their business?


JOHN BISHOP, PRESIDENT, LIBRESTREAM
There will be many questions the field service director will be asked by colleagues, customers, or supply chain partners. Addressing the questions upfront is very important and the AR vendors should all be able to answer them. For example, you need the answer to questions like ‘how do you handle privacy issues’? Or, more basic than that, ‘when I move beyond the pilot phase, will IT let me deploy?’

We felt it was important to identify the common challenges we’ve experienced with customers during deployment. We worked with customers and analysts to develop the Remote Expert Industry Guide. 

Our longevity in the AR space has made it clear that sharing video or capturing data digitally can be a touchy subject, especially when end customers are involved. Field service directors and their colleagues need reassurance that the vendor they choose can provide the solution.

STEPHEN JEFFS-WATTS, PRODUCT MANAGER, SERVICE MANAGEMENT, IFS
“What areas of my service delivery organisation will be affected by deploying AR technology and how do I manage change effectively to ensure successful adoption of your product?”