AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Mark Glover

In an exclusive interview with Field Service News, Bill Pollock reflects on the key findings around Customer Satisfaction from the latest Strategies for GrowthSM benchmarking study and reveals that there is plenty of room for improvement...

A question was raised recently at the Field Service Summit held in Warwick where the theme for the conference was moving into an experience economy. It is a question that is often at the top of mind for Field Service Executives, particularly when they are surrounded by so many of their peers, who are all seemingly ploughing ahead with customer engagement programs.

The question went along the lines of “Whilst I can see the benefits of improving customer satisfaction for my customers, how can I translate that into something tangible that my board might actually buy into?’

One man, who has fielded this question many times both when speaking at such events as well as in his long and illustrious career as an analyst to the field service sector, including in his role as a columnist for Field Service News, is Bill Pollock, President of Strategies for GrowthSM.

“It sounds like an easy question, but the reality is that it’s not an easy question to answer at all,” he explains.

The reason for this Pollock outlines is because when in fact Customer Satisfaction (CX) is actually an end product and the net result of a number of other strategic actions or exercises that the services organisation takes. To put it bluntly, CX is not what you do first, there are a whole bunch of other, more tangible tasks that sit in the strategic line ahead of it.

“You don’t achieve customer satisfaction first and then take strategic actions to improve processes and procedures and policies, etcetera, and so forth. It works the other way around,” Pollock explains.

“Now that doesn’t mean to say that once you attain the desired levels of customer satisfaction that doesn’t lead to other things - it absolutely does. But think about how you’re doing business, it’s a journey, it’s a continuum. And if you look at customer satisfaction on that continuum it might be two thirds or three quarters or the way towards the end but it’s not the end onto itself, there’s more that follows.

“When you look at customer satisfaction, that’s mainly a dependent variable rather than an independent variable by which I mean if you update and streamline your service delivery processes, if you acquire a new and upgraded or more powerful and robust field service management solution.

“If you can take steps to eliminate silos and other bureaucratic obstacles within your own organisation that tend to slow down the time it takes for you to deliver services to your customers, and ultimately tick them off.

“If you can train your field technicians and provide them with the latest technologies and mobile tools. If you can provide your customers with portals whereby they can initiate work orders and track the status and order parts and escalate problem scenarios solutions... then you will likely end up attaining higher levels of customer satisfaction.” “So you take those strategic actions first. And then what happens is it leads to more customer satisfaction.”

One of the things that makes Pollock such a well respected voice in the industry is that he is able to draw extensively not only on his own experience but also on solid data that his organisation collects every year within their annual Benchmarking studies. Reflecting on such trends across the last few years he is able to forensically piece together a detailed picture of how field service organisations are behaving both in the US and in Europe.

“What we saw [in 2018] was a dip in customer satisfaction across the European continent, down to 78%,” he explains.

“This was down from about 82% or so the year before. In our latest survey, 2019, the customer satisfaction rating for the total respondents, UK, Europe and North America and the Far East, it’s gone back up from 81% last year to 84% this year.”

“Customer satisfaction is mainly a dependent variable rather than an independent variable..."

This would at first perhaps indicate a course correction of European companies who had started to let the increasingly crucial CX metrics slide. However, Pollock believes there maybe an alternative explanation.

“Last year appears to be a year of transformation, a year of recalibration, a year for stepping back, seeing what needs to be done and then starting to do it. And this year is the year that the fruits of that labour have begun to take place,” Pollock says.

“Now you look at something like that and you say, “Hey, well, that’s really good, it’s improved.” But you don’t want your auto mechanic or your brain surgeon to only have 80% customer satisfaction,” he says with a wry smile.

He is of course correct, as the old adage goes the enemy of excellence is good enough. So what steps does Pollock suggest for companies seeking to go from merely good to great.

“Once you take the steps that I talked about just earlier and you have attained higher levels of customer satisfaction, then the road forward from there gets even trickier, even muddier,” he explains.

“When we ask organisations, ‘Do you measure customer satisfaction?’ 67%, two thirds in our current survey, say, ‘That’s what we measure first.’ That’s two points higher than total service revenue and five points higher than total service cost. 

“They look at customer satisfaction before they look at anything else. And that has been the number one KPI that respondents to the surveys look at in every survey we have ever done. Field service, warranty management, reverse logistics, you name it, that’s number one.

“Now customer retention was only measured by 30% of service organisations last year. So 67% versus 30%. Why is there that discrepancy? Well, because it’s pretty easy to measure customer satisfaction. You get a good qualified third party objective to conduct the survey. They ask the right questions of the right audience, they tabulate it the right way, no errors, you’ve got customer satisfaction measurements.

“How do you measure customer retention? The easiest way is when your company goes out of business because it hasn’t had high enough customer satisfaction and you lose all your customers. You can say, ‘We had a high level of customer retention yesterday and it’s zero today.’ So there are many surrogates to measure retention, but it’s very, very difficult.”

There are of course, ways and means of doing so, particularly in this age of social media and customer sentiment analysis, but that is a topic for another time. After all, as Pollock suggests there is still plenty of scope for improvement in CX metrics first.

Does the service industry have an image problem? The lack of young people actively choosing to pursue a career in the sector suggests it might. Mark Glover meets Cheryl-Anne Sanderson, a trail-blazer determined to change the narrative when it comes to hiring the next generation of service professionals... 

One of the challenges staring service full in the face is the growing disparity between those leaving the industry and those coming in. Many voices in the sector have expressed concern at this alarming future trend, yet there seems to be little action when it comes to addressing the issue. 

Cheryl-Anne Sanderson is the Operations Director at G4S and a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast where she shared some employee statistics attached to a contract she is currently working on, where employee demographics reveal 70 per cent of that workforce is over the age of 50 and, worryingly, only 10 per cent under 30. “I find this absolutely bonkers,” she says with typical candidness, “I like to think I’m still young myself, but I fell into my industry. It was pure luck that someone got hold of my CV, but I think we dumb it [field service] down quite a lot, we don’t make its sound attractive. If you look at field service and if you ask most people what it is,” Cheryl-Anne says, “they would say ‘it’s a man in a van’, which doesn’t sound sexy at all.” 

Cheryl-Anne with a fiery Welsh enthusiasm is passionate about her job and passionate about the PR needed to change perceptions attached to it. 

Perhaps young people do perceive the sector as the image of a ‘man in the van’, but as she tells me with enthusiasm, service and FM is so much more than that. “It’s a demanding role. No day is ever the same. If you’re a regimental type or person who likes routine, then this might not be for you. You need to be flexible, willing to work above and beyond at times but by doing that you actually get a lot out of it as well.”

Worryingly though, it seems that promotion of a new role in service, perhaps an entry level position, is simply advertised and left to pick up interest on its own, published on a bland FM job-site, rather than firms pro-actively visiting the pool of potential candidates through job fairs or colleges to extol the virtues of the opportunity. 

Cheryl though, having done just that – visiting schools and job fairs - and communicated the diverse nature of a role in service or FM is often met with enthusiasm after their initial concern. “It’s about people’s perception and fundamentally about spreading the word, making it sound interesting and exciting and setting the scene,” she says.

"You need to be flexible, willing to work above and beyond at times but by doing that you get a lot out of it..."

We discuss the impact of personal engagement in service, how the role of customer interaction and satisfaction is playing more of a key role than technology. “I think in some aspects, we’ve sort of lost the customer service touch through the technology and digitilisation, which is really important in bringing innovation to the table,” Cheryl-Anne offers, “but at the end of the day you’ve still got to sell that innovation. If you don’t get on the same level as the customer and deliver that engagement then from a customer’s perspective, they can think it’s rather robotic.”

I suggest this shift could be used in changing perception of the industry, that service is about human engagement rather than complicated algorithms and technical components, making it more attractive to young people, Cheryl agrees but brings it back to delivery of the message. “Let’s go out there and spread the word,” she says. “You can look at a job description on an advert, but until you really speak to the people and go through the interview process, do you really know, whether you as the individual will want the job.” 

It’s obvious there needs to be a change in perception of field service for young people to be attracted but it seems stagnant in making this happen. Influence needs to come from the top, with large companies willing to get out among colleges, universities and job fairs; perhaps even needs committing to some wide-spread pledge or campaign. 

In Cheryl’s experience however, the best intentions are frustratingly never followed up. “I really think it should be within people’s 
objectives, that we allow our staff and we allow our current leaders to go out there and inspire and to attract the new people into the environment. It’s about going back to basics and putting some governance around it. People say we should do a charter, make a commitment,” she pauses, sighing almost, “but we never follow it through.” 

Regaining her enthusiasm, she continues: “You look at field service; one day you could be processing something in logistics, the following day you could dealing with an event.” A pause again. “It’s everything.”

To Cheryl it is everything and to new entrants joining the sector they should feel this way too, but the message has to come from the sector as a whole. So, to the rest of the industry; it’s over to you. 

Let’s make this happen.

Company announce blockchain-led service platform with warehouse features.

With this addition to its blockchain-based platform, Serve have created a new paradigm in smart logistics and complete customer satisfaction. Reducing the distance between the warehouse and end-user improves the order fulfillment experience for all participants by shortening delivery times and reducing costs.  Businesses can now expand their footprint without the added infrastructure. Integrating this technology into Serve’s award-winning platform furthers its goal of becoming a global engine for commerce and last-mile logistics.

 

"Our mobile warehousing system distinguishes Serve in the modern, on-demand delivery and logistics industries,” says Serve’s CEO Shahan Ohanessian. “With the increased efficiency and optimization this brings to our delivery processes, businesses will be able to provide big-box capabilities and order fulfillment services to customers everywhere.”

UK and South Korean businesses to pilot 5G technology on Seoul subways.

A new UK / South Korea 5G competition has been launched by UK Digital Minister Margot James to help prepare the UK for a future 5G rollout. Businesses are now being encouraged to apply for a unique opportunity to trial new content and services on South Korea’s transport networks.

The UK and South Korean Governments are funding a £2.4 million project to support businesses in the two countries and develop 5G technology. The project will live test content and services on the Seoul metropolitan subway system.

5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity, providing speeds up to 20 times faster than current 4G technology.

The trials will enable businesses and researchers to investigate and address a number of user and technical challenges that are crucial to the future roll out of 5G. These could include: Augmented Reality (AR) experiences in busy public spaces, giving tourists and commuters a dramatic new insight to the city and the way in which they experience it; optimisation of traffic management systems, to better manage commuter flows, reduce overcrowding, improve safety and better protect the environment; and providing uninterrupted infotainment services for commuters such as interactive content, video streaming and gaming, with more reliable and faster services across the subway network. 

Digital Minister Margot James said: "We want the UK to be a world leader in 5G services, and this collaboration with South Korea will create new opportunities for UK businesses abroad and encourage more inward investment. The UK has a huge pool of 5G scientific research and engineering talent, and I would encourage all businesses in this field to enter this innovative competition."

The funding competition is part of the UK’s 5G Testbed & Trials (5GTT) Programme, which aims to maximise the opportunities for UK businesses, especially SMEs, to develop new 5G applications and services for both domestic and global markets. It is a key part of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy - making sure that the UK has the right infrastructure in place to be a world leader in new 5G technology.

The deadline for applying is 1st June and the competition is being managed by UK5G on behalf of The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Jan Van Veen discusses why manufacturers unable to innovate their business model risk falling behind their competitors.

 

In this special episode, Deputy Editor Mark Glover, speaks to moreMomentum's Jan van Veen who urges firms to take advantage of servitization and digitilastion and avoid stagnant business as usual behaviours.

Click here for material complimenting Jan's podcast including diagrams and charts. You can also contact Jan about any of the content raised in this recording and to find out how to get involved in Jan's new book, mentioned in the podcast, then click here.

Cost and performance analysis for fleet and mobility managers has become quicker and easier thanks to an innovative new reporting suite from outsourced fleet management specialist Fleet Operations.

MOVE Analytics provides companies with customisable dashboards, at-a-glance reports and trend analysis charts to help control costs, improve fleet and mobility decision-making and the business bottom line.

Users can access a wealth of business intelligence – generated either nationally or internationally – from high level summaries to detailed cost and performance breakdowns. Data can be reviewed at the touch of a button for any area of spend and operation, over any requested timeframe.

“MOVE Analytics saves companies time and money by offering smart, bespoke, reporting and immediate visibility into their operational performance,” said Fleet Operations Managing Director Richard Hipkiss.

“An intuitive software interface provides user-friendly insights into everything from lease acquisition, depreciation, fuel spend and carbon footprint to road tax, vehicle maintenance, utilisation and travel expenses. By doing so, it enables companies to make smarter, data-driven, decisions.”

Data can be consolidated and reported back, 24/7, from any business source of relevance to cost or performance, or from any part of the fleet supply chain.

This allows budgets and mobility allowances to be benchmarked against a variety of performance parameters while total cost of fleet ownership data can be benchmarked for either individual vehicles or an entire fleet.

Smart modelling algorithms, incorporating accurate assessments of the complete lifecycles of company vehicles, generates accurate cost forecasting calculations, enabling fleet and finance teams to make considerable time-cost savings.

Furthermore, inbuilt API functionality means business intelligence can be seamlessly integrated from any other back office software, such as accounting or CRM systems.

MOVE Analytics offers the highest standards of data security, with Fleet Operations holding both ISO9001:2015 and ISO27001:2013 accreditations for quality and information security management systems.

The number of insurance telematics policies in force on the European market reached 10.3 million in Q4-2018.

Copperberg’s Thomas Igou reflects on some of their most recent research that outlines how although most companies within the field service sector on a program of digitalisation to leverage emerging technologies to improve the efficiency of their service operations both in the office and out in the field, almost half of companies cite adapting current IT infrastructure for Future Digital Strategy as one of their biggest challenges...









Field Service Organisations today would like to move into predictive maintenance, connect the back office to the front and augment knowledge virtually to field technicians through digital devices to boost productivity, increase profitability and stay ahead of the competition.

However, according to the Copperberg Research’s Annual Field Service Report conducted with over 120 FIeld Service DIrectors in 2019, 42% of the respondents listed adapting current IT infrastructure for Future Digital Strategy as one of their biggest problems. There are so many technologies to implement yet having a unified IT infrastructure for these systems and platforms is no easy task, and can make or break a Digital Strategy if the data between systems cannot speak to each other.

With the advent of numerous sensors, faster data capturing and transmission, sorting, processing and making use of all the data can be a big challenge requiring a massive investment in upgrading IT departments. Most companies in the field service domain are just getting started on the digital journey where going fast could be useful, but the important question to ask is if it is worth going faster than your customers? Or, is the best approach to take is one of step by step collaboration with partners, suppliers and customers. According to the survey, the next big challenges according to 30% of the field service directors is deciding on the digital transformation tools along with workforce planning and scheduling (32%). However, the important observation from the survey is one about change management.

To be able to implement the digital tools and keep pace with the industry, change management is crucial, which has to trickle down from the company strategy through the top management to the field service engineers. Michael Porter famously said, ‘’Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different’’.

Industrial organisations are fighting their own internal struggles of moving away from the traditional transactional business model they have been running on since their p77 inception towards a different one more adapted to today’s Experience Economy based on partnerships, value creation, subscriptions, outcomes and productivity. 53% of respondents in the survey claimed that only top management makes the decisions which could be a double-edged sword in today’s dynamic industry.

Strategies have been imperatively flowing top-down in organisations but might offer a challenge to adoption at the bottom level as they will be the ones using the deployed technology. Most leaders today are discussion preventive maintenance and some about building machines that will not break down avoiding maintenance operations and associated costs. 31% of the industry is still stuck in reactive maintenance which is concerning given the plethora of tools, case studies and resources available to move into proactive maintenance are available and have been publicised over years now.

Having the field service workforce motivated to pitch into the companies strategies will lead to motivated technicians. Top management has to involve the technicians when deciding on new digital tools, continuously train them and have the technicians help each other to understand the new technology.

This will help the younger technicians learn from experienced ones and also make the older technicians easily ask the young workforce on adapting to the new technology, bridging the competence gap. In the Survey, 80% of leaders rate their field service workforces adaptation to new tech, helping each other and providing feedback as average with only a very small number rating it as high. Competence Development of Field Workforce tops the list of priorities for field service leaders in the next 5 years.
Jim Baston, of BBA Consulting Group Inc. has a different take: ‘‘It is interesting to note the growing place that technology plays in field service. With remote diagnostics, artificial intelligence and visual reality, as well as embedded intelligence in the serviced equipment, the technical competence of the service person, will become less important. As they rely more on their tools to troubleshoot and repair and less on their experience, it opens up the door for less qualified individuals who will be able to give comparable levels of technical service.’’
In conclusion, to connect all three aspects of digitalisation, strategy and competence management, Adam Neale of Arqiva group states, ’’We will see a significant reduction in the number of highly skilled Field Engineers. We will be more low-skilled with 3rd line support assisting with technology such as Augmented Reality. Without great employee engagement, you will not succeed. Your employees build your customer reputation which can be positive or negative. If they were engaged with what your company does each and every day, then they will deliver high standards.’’
The quantitative survey conducted by Copperberg Research had over 125 respondents reflecting the state of the current field service industry. Field Service Organisations are trying to balance the growing customer expectations and associated challenges that implementing new digital tools are bringing along. The survey brings to light the major challenges the industry faces, the tools that will be important to implement in the next 5 years along with addressing the needs for Field Service Engineers.
The survey is divided into three chapters: Digital, Workforce and Strategy to streamline the needs in these three spheres complimented by insights from industry experts. 
You can download the report here.

Fast Lean Smart (FLS) customer, British Engineering Services (BES), have been crowned winners of The Forum's ‘Innovation award for Enterprise Planning’ at The Customer Strategy & Planning 2019 event. BES, who use FLS' scheduling and route planning software FLS VISITOUR also scooped the award for overall Innovation of the Year 2019.

 

The Forum is an an independent body supporting the contact centre industry since early 2000 and is a supplier-independent and work across all industry sectors to provide specialist support for contact centre and planning professionals.

Widely recognised as the ‘go-to place’ for support teams and business leaders, the team of independent experts offers advice, support and training, helping many organisations develop the capability of their support functions through bespoke learning and development, accreditation, qualifications and standards benchmarking.

 

Each year applications are submitted to the body's for industry awards in specific categories. Aftter FLS introduced BES to The Forum and the company submitted an application directly for the ‘Innovation award for Enterprise Planning’, which you can read below.

The winners were selected by a team which included 12 experienced industry practitioners, many of them previous winners or finalists. Judges visited each of the shortlisted organisations, and then assessed them against a strict set of criteria.

The BES submission: “The power of planning”

How flexible resourcing and strategic use of planning helped them stand out from competitors on service and create a new, one team culture that’s doubled sales and raised month-end service by 50%.

The catalyst for transformation at British Engineering Services was creating a new company, separate from RSA, seizing the chance to stand  out in the market and deliver on ‘making Britain a safer place’. Capacity planning was fundamental, alongside outside expertise with VISITOUR scheduler from FLS. Reliability comes from effective end-to-end planning, delivering the highest quality inspections, on time, every time – an exceptional customer experience. Engineer surveyors remain a key part of the planning process and lifestyle flexibility has been a massive win too. It’s created a customer-driven and flexible mindset and removed traditional territorial boundaries. This is a human organisation that everyone feels part of. Three years on and the evidence is clear – sales up 100%, customer retention up 15%, huge cost savings and delivering the best service in the market.

Key Results

• Customer retention up by 15%
• Cost savings c10-15%
• 50% reduction in wasted downtime in 2018
• 74% improvement for ‘on or before’ SLA for the largest clients
• 100% rise in sales performance in 2018
• The best service in the market

British Engineering Services is the UK’s biggest independent engineering inspection, testing and certification company. 450 highly qualified Engineer Surveyors perform 2.8 million inspections each year, supported by Planning Team members using online reporting systems and FLS VISITOUR scheduler.

You can download the slides here and watch a video of the case study here.