Background: Exel Computer Systems

The developing service industry requires improved quality through constant adaption.

Exel Computer Systems has brought increasingly sophisticated technology into the Service Management arena providing Software and expertise. There is no doubt that with skilled support, this technology will drive significant innovation into thought-leading organisations such as Triton Showers, who are prepared to open their minds to new ways of working and effectively use technological innovation. More than ten years ago Triton Showers realised that to be successful as a service-led business they had to be more agile and ready to adapt to the rapidly changing industry environment they faced.

To derive significant success from technological developments requires more than good luck, and unless companies are prepared to invest sufficient money, time and energy into getting it right, success will not follow. Most importantly the need to invest in the right staff, with the right training, equipment and business tools. But just as important is the need to join forces with a supplier who has made significant investment in developing leading-edge Service Software and can show innovation in the solution. Providing such an excellent product to a skilled workforce can bring to the industry leading edge skills, cost effective and excellent delivery, and set standards in the Industry.

Background: Triton Showers

Triton Showers has been producing high quality products since its inception in 1975, and is now one of the largest and best known in the field in the UK. In that time the company has invested in technological solutions and unwaveringly on recruiting high calibre staff to provide their customers with the best customer service possible. In addition to their success in future-proofing the technological aspects of their software solution by working closely with their software supplier and partner, they have been able to take advantage of the growing familiarity and acceptance of the technology by all their staff across  the business, to help their staff understand the needs and skills required of their new roles.

Like many other businesses over this time, Triton Showers has had to cope with a number of key changes including a shift from client-based solutions to browser-based, and from hardware-specific solutions into platform and product-independent solutions. Exel Computer Systems has incorporated all of these into their Eagle Field Service solution, taking in their stride the acceleration of technological development, the rapid and significant convergence of 'Mobile Communications', 'Browser-based software' and 'The Cloud' to keep abreast of technology, devices and software solutions across their customer's business. Triton Showers has grasped the opportunity to work with a very modern leading-edge supplier, critical in this complex environment to ensure the quality of the solution and the speed of implementation.

Preparing for the Journey

The service industry has developed markedly over the last 10 years, and Triton Showers has been at the forefront of this development; introducing a sophisticated call-centre supported by the latest scheduling and despatching software, as well as a comprehensive financial package. In the last three years, investing in developing and securing a powerful solution provided and supported by their highly skilled partner Exel, they have significantly updated their software solution onto one of the most modern platforms.

Most recently, Triton Showers have invested in mobile CRM and customer self-help mechanisms, as it has become obvious that the customer wants to use this form of communication. The key customer requirements across the industry are:

• immediate response time
• 24x7 access to self help to resolve issues themselves
• access to an engineer on line or in a forum or chat room

What has been Key to Triton Shower's success?

Working closely with Exel has provided them with a partner that has not only supplied the required Software to take the business into the future, but helped them to identify the most important profit levers within their business:

• Move from  cost-cutting to technology-driven process improvement and focus on customers
• Recognise that culture change within the organisation and across society is having more impact than specific technology devices, as the devices become more readily assimilated into the day-to-day environment
• Staff understanding the changes they have to make in their role as a result of the latest software and hardware solution
• Helping their staff at all levels to work differently, to deal with the local environment within the changing big picture.

The Challenge

Introducing a new software solution and associated hardware requires process change, so from the start there was a requirement that support staff understand the changes necessary in their role. The staff needed to accept that processes would be different and it was beneficial to get the processes stable and tested as soon as possible within the new solution:  They would have to see the big picture of the business process as well as demonstrate a local understanding.

Triton Showers has also recognised that the consumer market in which they work has changed its attitude towards the sovereignty of the customer, and that a significant shift of mind-set within the customer requires Triton Showers to work very differently, at all levels, to maintain control.

Historically, the quality of service was delivered contractually through service level agreements, ensuring the supplier would deliver within certain parameters. The agreement would be with the individual customer and not normally visible to anyone else, with the advent of Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter this situation has changed completely, and producing a very confused picture engendering significant potential for mis-communication, putting considerable pressure onto the supplier.  Included with this is the ability for the customer to broadcast their opinion of the service they have received.

The supplier has to have much better access to the customer experience through varied and reliable sources of information, including mobile CRM, so that data can be automatically collected by the hardware and software carried by the engineer, freeing the engineer to focus on fixing the customer, confident that all the data is captured correctly.  The engineer has to be trained and given the responsibility to gather customer information, through effective listening and good questioning. The engineer cannot allocate any more time to the customer, so information gathering has to be done during the fix (including up-grading customer value, providing new value and understanding issues facing the customer, their changing needs and if possible consulting on the customer’s processes to better serve them next time).

Supplier support and added value

Working closely and confidently with their software supplier, Triton Showers were able to significantly develop their customer interaction process to facilitate the capture of required information, to build up a picture of the customer in order to better respond to their needs and reduce the cost of provision while improving the quality.  In addition Eagle Field Service provided effective future-proofing to:

• Accommodate changes in technology, particularly the impact of mobile connectivity
• Deal with the growing impact of Social Media in the Business to Consumer (B2C) environment
• Ensure that Triton Showers work-force were  more comfortable with the modern platform format that Eagle could provide, in particular delivering a mobile CRM capability
• Develop the solution with Exel to provide an on-going, workable and stable solution

Conclusion

Service Manager, Graham Neve, has found working with the Exel team has considerably broadened the business calibre of his service team.  Working with Exel helped the staff at all levels in the business to understand the changes required in their role as a result of the solution, improving the way they communicate with the customer.

He believes Triton Showers are in a much stronger position thanks to their implementation of Eagle Field Service and the support received from Exel.

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