One of the key areas that was discussed heavily in a recent Field Service News Think Tank Session was whether the move towards remote first as a default a key part of the new normal?

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The Pros and Cons of a Remote First Default Approach to Service Delivery 

As is always the case with the Think Tank Sessions there was robust discussion with the pros and cons of such an approach both put forward. For some around the table including Konica Minolta’s Ged Cranny the shift to a remote first approach was not only likely but also potentially a necessity.

For others in the group including Siemens' Tony Chapman, the conclusions were less certain.

As Chapman commented during the session, “the value for me in the engineer is the knowledge. By that I mean it is not just the knowledge of the product, it is knowledge of the product and the process that we delivered to a customer - then you have to devolve that to a remote service.

“The benefits of that type of knowledge for the customer are that you get the expertise on hand. The question is how much does value does the customer see in that expertise?”

What we saw begin to emerge from this Think Tank session was the start of a new conversation within the field service sector, or perhaps more accurately an increased urgency to assess a conversation we have been having for some time, but where the balance of importance has suddenly been shifted as a result of the global pandemic.

"It all revolves around what have you sold to your customer? Are you fixing downtime? Or are you selling uptime?”

- Coen Jeukens, ServiceMax

Do we need to guide our customers towards understanding that remote first is the way forward and start having firm conversations about the value of uptime and quick issue resolution over on-site presence? Yet, many customers will still see the value of having an engineer on site – something that is a fundamental part of where their value perception of field service delivery lies. Where do you sit on that?

Perhaps the answer lies in some form of halfway house as is often the way in both life and business. Perhaps, in a world of remote first as a default approach to service delivery, the physical presence of an onsite engineer becomes a premium service offering?

“There are two elements to it this conversation,” mused Coen Jeukens, Vice President of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax during the detailed debrief session held on simultaneously on the Field Service News Digital Sympoisum and ServiceMax’s executive circles webinar series.

“On the one hand, it all revolves around what have you sold to your customer? Are you fixing downtime? Or are you selling uptime?” Jeukens continues.

“If you are selling the fixing of downtime, then I think the customer is really going to continue seeing the value of the technician being on site. If the technician isn't on site anymore and you start fixing the issues remotely then it is a completely different value proposition.

“On the other hand, if you're selling uptime, for the customer, it doesn’t really matter whether you do it with the technician on site or remote. In fact, maybe fixing it with an remote type of service has a lesser impact on the downtime of the customer. Therefore, I think you first have to know what the customer is buying.”

"I always would always take into account service is not only a matter of let's say metrics, I also see that service has a human element to it..."

- Coen Jeukens, ServiceMax

However, there as most service leaders will note, there is often more to the longevity and success of a service contract than just the cold hard metrics. There are always countless examples of customers who truly value the rapport of the field service engineer, the human interaction that will be lost within a remote services fix.

As Jeukens comments, “I always would always take into account service is not only a matter of let's say metrics, I also see that service has a human element to it. I do see that there are a lot of customers out there who really value seeing of a technician on site - especially when the technician on site is not only fixing the product, but if the technician is also ‘fixing’ the customer by providing additional services such as how they could better utilize a piece of equipment. For that you really need human interaction.

“Depending on what you're tasking your technicians to do, fixing the downtime or selling the uptime, or even fixing the customer, I think we you will see a hybrid model emerge. However, I definitely see that a lot of companies who have been reluctant in allowing remote connectivity or remote service because they always saw a fear of connectivity, the firewall, etc. - I think a lot of those customers right now see that they have to reassess the fear of opening up a chat channel in the firewall versus their need for uptime,” Jeukens adds.

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