Sam Klaidman, Founder and Principal Adviser at Middlesex Consulting, analyzes the role of the Field Service Engineer as the customer's trusted adviser in his new article for Field Service News...

In a recent whitepaper Beyond Remote Service: Is now the time to redefine service delivery? Author Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News presents a number of compelling arguments that support the notion that Augmented Reality will not only change Field Service delivery, but the long-term outcome will be good for customers and service organizations.

However, neither Kris nor other current authors discuss what will happen to the Field Service Engineer’s role as the customer’s trusted adviser.

What Is a trusted adviser?

There is a significant difference between customer experience and a trusted adviser. Customer experience deals with all the aspects of how the customer interacts with the company, their products, advertising, people, and processes. A trusted adviser is someone in the company who customers reach out to when they want honest, unbiased opinions about aspects of the company’s products, processes, or people.

In most B2B companies, people generally accept as fact that field service engineers are customer’s trusted advisers. I believe that every FSE with more than a few years’ experience in their company has been asked at least once:

• “Is the new XXX worth buying to replace my old one?”
• “Should I install the latest version of the XXX software?"

And the customer expects, and usually receives, an honest answer with supporting reasons. Also, the first thing that a person who becomes a service customer learns is “don’t give your FSE a tough time or complain to their boss unless it is a significant issue!” They want to make sure the FSE trusts the customer and they expect to be able to trust the FSE’s recommendations.

How will remote support change the FSE's role?

Remote support is the enabler of self-service. The customer who has the proper skills and tools can work with the remote technical support person and perform many of the FSE’s tasks as long as spare parts are available. This new process cuts down on the need for the FSE to actually visit the customer’s site to fix problems. The FSE role changes to concentrating on big projects like installation, major upgrades, infrequent troubleshooting of difficult problems, or uninstalling equipment.

Therefore, the key questions are:

• “If self-service becomes the accepted business model, will using merged reality (MR), augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) systems remove the FSE as a trusted adviser?”
• “Will our B2B technical support professionals fill the trusted adviser role?”

Why is the FSE a trusted adviser and not the technical support engineer?

The pre-COVID interaction between FSE and customer is quite different from the interaction between technical support and the customer. To help understand these differences, it is useful to look at the following table that compares how customers view our FSE’s and technical support engineers with and without using MR/AR/VR.

However, if the FSE role changes to a few face-to-face infrequent interactions spread over a number of years, then the earned trust will not continue.

Who will replace the FSE as the customer's trusted adviser?

From the perspective of the service organization, the preferred choice is the technical support professional. But will technical support replace the FSE? Probably not. There are two reasons for this conclusion:

1. There is no continuity between technical support and customer. Tech support customers require a rapid response and as a result, calls are usually handled on a first-come-first-served basis by the first available operator.
2. There is no chance to create a lasting relationship because of (1.) above and because trust is usually earned from multiple face-to-face interactions.

And if not technical support, then who will take on this role? Possibly either sales or customer success.

Sales has a big obstacle to overcome. Historically salespeople were seen as being “coin operated.” The perception was that their recommendations were designed to increase their income. While today many salespeople place the customer’s best interest above their own, it will take a long time for the earlier image to be removed from people’s minds. And with customer success teams replacing sale for aftermarket upselling and cross selling, the salespeople may never get the opportunity to reset expectations.

Customer Success has a real opportunity for a few reasons:

1. They are relatively new so the do not carry any baggage
2. They are trained to work as consultants
3. They collect and use customer data to help increase the value derived from using the product and also for demonstrating the advantages of using what CS recommends
4. They are assigned to accounts and charged with building lasting relationships
5. Some under-utilized FSEs are likely to transition into customer success roles. They will bring their consultative skills and existing relationships along with them.

Therefore, in my opinion, the new customer trusted adviser will be someone from the Customer Success organization.

Key takeways

1. With self-service, field service will no longer remain as the customer’s trusted advisor
2. For B2B technical support, the people who call them are trained and know the limits of their competency
3. Sales will be unlikely to replace field service as the customer’s trusted adviser
4. Customer Success will probably succeed field service as trusted adviser
5. The career path for many FSE’s will be into Customer Success

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive FSN articles by Sam Klaidman @ www.fieldservicenews.com/sam-klaidman
• Find out more about Middlesex Consulting @ www.middlesexconsulting.com
• Read more articles by Sam Klaidman on Middlesex Consulting Blog @ middlesexconsulting.com/blog
• Connect with Sam Klaidman @ www.linkedin.com/samklaidman