Jim Baston, Principal Consultant at BBA Consulting asks if there really is a difference between selling to and serving out customers if the approach taken is both moral and methodical?

How do you view the efforts of your field service team when they make proactive recommendations to your customers to purchase products or services?  Do you view these activities as “selling” or “serving”?  How you answer this question will have a significant impact on the results of their efforts.

 

Perspective

Most service managers that I talk to tend to speak about the product and service recommendations by their field service teams in selling terms.  It is interesting to note that most of these service managers say they are disappointed with the results of their initiative. I suggest that a major cause of their lack of success is because of the self-limiting nature of their perspective.  Here are the five reasons why a “selling” perspective can significantly limit our success.

Opportunistic/Short-term Focus. 

When the proactive recommendations made by our field service team are seen as selling they become “add-on” activities and we tend to see them from an opportunistic perspective.  “While you’re there have a look for other things that we can sell to that customer.”  We miss the opportunity to see the service value in the activity and include it into our overall service strategy.

Skills Development is Focused on Selling. 

When we view the activity by our field team as selling in nature, then it is natural to look to sales training to upgrade their skills to handle the new expectations.  Although these are important skills and can be helpful in many cases, they aren’t the only skills or even the most important.  The field service professional’s ability to build trust and maintain credibility is more important. 

Our customers will not act on a recommendation if they don’t trust the field engineer, regardless of how skilled the field engineer is in selling.  And, unfortunately, if we simply teach our field service team to sell, they may come across more like salespeople and actually diminish the amount of trust they have with their customers.

The Field Team Does Not See Themselves as “Salespeople”

Most field service professionals that I have met do not see themselves as salespeople.  Many actually resent the term being applied to them.  If they do not see themselves as salespeople, how do they react when we ask them to “sell”?  Chances are they will feel that the request is outside of their core responsibilities and will either fail to act as requested or only do so “if they have time”.

Measurement is Limited to Selling Activities. 

When we regard the field team’s role as selling, then we will tend to limit our measurement of the success of the initiative to factors such as overall revenues, small project work vs. contract base, number of proposals by field engineer, etc. Although it is prudent to measure these things, this limited focus may cause us to miss key measures that will impact our long-term success – for example, customer satisfaction and customer attitudes.  Measuring only sales related activities may also cause us to reward behaviours that encourage unnecessary “selling” activities that may also erode trust.

Difficult to Promote as a Differentiating Service. 

Many service companies that view the field service team’s proactive efforts as “selling” fail to capture and communicate the value of this activity to their customers. These firms typically don’t mention to their customers that they are encouraging their field team to look for more opportunities. After all, how do you communicate the value from the customers’ perspective of the fact that your field engineers are actively looking for more ways to make more money from them?

Let’s go back to the question I asked earlier: How do you view the efforts of your field service team when they make proactive recommendations to your customers to purchase products or services? Here are some questions to help you evaluate your own perspective. Do you:

• Replace the words “selling” and “sales” with the words “serving” and “service” in your discussion of the proactive efforts of your field service team?
• Position your field team’s proactive efforts as a service and ensure that each member clearly understand that their efforts are an integral part of the service that they provide and why?
• Use your tools and employ processes and systems to support the field team’s proactive efforts in the same way that you have tools and systems to support the other services that they provide?
• Talk about work generated by the field on how it serves the needs of the customer (rather than how much revenue it has generated for the company)?
• Talk to your customers about the proactive efforts of your field service professionals and how it benefits them?
• Ask your customers about their level of satisfaction about the value of the recommendations they have been provided by your field service team?
• If you answered “no” to two or more of the questions, perhaps a little more self-reflection is in order.

Engaging the field service team in promoting products and services can provide a valuable service for our customers and create a significant and sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive service market.  We may be limiting our own success however, if we perceive these activities as selling rather than serving.

Our industry has seen a sea of change in recent years driven by technology. Wave upon wave of innovation has changed the very way in which we approach service delivery. In these fast changing times, maintaining a personal touch should be the rock upon which your organisation anchors itself writes Jim Baston...

If you are in the service business, then you know just how much technology is changing the way service is being delivered. Just about everything to do with field service has been impacted by technology innovation and it is revolutionizing the way we do business.

Technology has allowed us to improve efficiencies and to get a more accurate picture of the effectiveness of our business practices. It has improved our ability to diagnose and solve problems. It has facilitated the sharing of expertise with less experienced employees. It has also allowed us to empower our field personnel. Most of these changes have been good for the customer, for us and for our field teams.

But the adoption of technology takes resources – primarily time and money and because of the sea of technological innovation we encounter everyday, it is easy to lose focus on the personal touch of service – the simple interactions that our field service professionals have with our customers and which contributes to the overall customer experience. This comes at a time when it is now that we need that personal touch the most. This is because the implementation of the latest technology is increasing the relative importance of the softer skills of the business – the personal touch of our field service team with our customers. Technology is creating a shift in the relative importance between the “soft” and “hard” skills of service and soft skills are winning out. This is not to suggest that soft skills were not important in the past – they certainly were – just that they are more important now.

Shrinking Competency Gap
Emerging technologies in the field service business are reducing the competency gap between top service professionals and less skilled service providers. The result is that it is becoming harder to differentiate on technical skills. With remote diagnostics, artificial intelligence, visual reality and embedded information in the serviced equipment, the field service professionals rely more on the new technology to troubleshoot and repair and less on their experience and technical expertise. This opens up the door for less experienced individuals who use these same diagnostic tools to give comparable levels of technical service. This means that, even though it is highly competitive now, it will become even more so in the future.

Customers will have an increasingly difficult time distinguishing between service providers based on technical competence. Service professionals and service organizations alike will have to rely more on the service experience that they create when interacting with a customer to differentiate them from their competitors. The basis of competition will shift from who is doing the best job of servicing the equipment, to who can create the best service experience while doing the job. This is not to say that technical competence will go by the wayside. Obviously, it won’t. Technical competence is and will remain critically important.

Providing a positive interaction without the ability to solve the problem is not a sustainable service strategy. But as technology levels the playing field between service professionals of different capabilities, technical competence of the individual and the organizations that employ them will become less of a factor of differentiation.

"It is becoming harder to differentiate on technical skills..."

Limiting Personal Touch
Technology can limit personal contact opportunities with the customer. For example, when problems are diagnosed and repaired remotely, we save both the customer and ourselves time and money. That’s a good thing in that it gets the customer back on line more quickly and reduces the cost to service. However, it also creates a lost opportunity to expand our personal relationship with the customer. If that is the case, how does the customer distinguish us from our competitor who can provide a similar service?

It may be tempting to use technology to avoid the customer. Although this is something that service providers have been grappling with for some time, it is no less prevalent today. Why spend time explaining the work completed when the details can be sent to the customer at a touch of a button? Why not use email or texting to share information rather than picking up the phone? As a field service professional, this approach may improve their efficiency in the field, but it may not contribute positively to the customer’s overall service experience.

It’s All About Maintaining a Personal Touch
The winning service organizations of the future will be the ones that can find ways to maintain a personal touch while implementing the efficiencies that technology provides. They will clearly define the service experience they want to create and invest in the processes and soft skills training of their field service team to achieve it. Perhaps the best way to avoid allowing the sea of technical innovation drown out the personal touch in service, is to create a clear picture of the service experience you want your customers to feel and have clearly defined expectations of the nature of all interactions with your customers to achieve it. Technology can be evaluated, at least in part, in how well it facilitates these interactions. Here are some questions to consider.

• Do you have a clear picture of the service experience you want your customers to enjoy?
»» Can you describe how you want customers:
»» To think about you?
»» To feel about you?
»» Can you articulate what you want your customers to say about you

• Does everyone in your organization share this picture?
• Have you translated this picture into action?
»» Do you have clear expectations about how your team interacts with the customer in order to deliver this service experience consistently over time and across the organization?
»» Do you provide soft-skills training to ensure everyone has the skills to create the defined experience?
»» Do you provide coaching and reinforcement of these skills to help your team adopt and maintain the behaviour change you require?

• As managers, do you model the service experience through your words and your actions?

• When you consider new technologies, do you evaluate how its adoption will contribute to your ability to deliver your service
experience as part of your assessment?

It’s a thrilling time for service – full of change and new experiences. The future is really quite exciting. The challenge for service providers will be to maintain a personal touch with their customers while adopting new technologies to ensure their continued service leadership. This challenge can be summed up by the direction often given by a manager that I worked for many years ago.

When confronted with “I just don’t have time to get everything done. Which do you want me to do, this or that?”, he would typically answer “Both”.

Jim Baston is the President at BBA Consulting Group Inc.

Jim Baston outlines some key considerations for companies looking to improve the service of their sales by fostering a proactive approach to selling service amongst their field service engineers.

Proactive Service® is a term I use to describe the proactive efforts by field service personnel to promote their company’s products in services to help their customers achieve their business goals. It is an excellent way to differentiate your service and stand out in today’s ultra-competitive environment.

If you encourage your field service team to look for opportunities to promote your services, here are seven questions to ask yourself to help you ensure that you are getting the most from your efforts.

1. Is opportunity identification part of your service deliverable?
This is the most important question and is the biggest determinate of overall success. When the subject of field service personnel promoting services comes up, it is often viewed as a selling activity that is in addition to regular service work. This is unfortunate since when our field team take steps to uncover opportunities that they feel will benefit the customer in some way, they are providing a valuable service – a service as valuable as their ability to maintain the equipment in top running condition.

As a service, the act of finding new opportunities is not an “add-on” activity for the field team to do “while they are there”, but an integral part of the field service person’s expected service deliverable. Our field teams have an obligation to bring forward ideas that will help the customer achieve results they may not have thought possible. When we take this perspective, it becomes easier to win enthusiastic support from our team of field service professionals. From this perspective, it is also easier for us to recognize the importance of implementing specific tools and processes to formalize this “opportunity identification” role. (See Question 4 below).
How well do you integrate business development by your field team as part of your service to your customers? 

2. Do your technicians recognize the valuable service they provide by making recommendations to help their customers be more successful?
Many of the service professionals that I have met do not see their role as a salesperson. They tend to leave sales activities to the people with the expense accounts and fancy cars. What these service professionals fail to see is that, with a service perspective, we are not asking them to sell at all.

By identifying and speaking with the customer about the actions that the customer can take that will help them improve operational performance, reduce costs, improve tenant satisfaction, etc. is a valuable part of the service.

This is important because, it will be difficult to get enthusiastic engagement from your team if they don’t see their proactive business development efforts as part of the service that they provide. They may give it lip service, but it is unlikely that they will put their hearts into the effort.

How about your service team? What do they think of your expectation for them to promote your services? Do they talk as if their efforts are a sale or a service?

3. Do you “talk the walk”?
Language is important. Your team will scrutinize what you say in an effort to understand what you mean. For example, if you tell everyone that their proactive efforts is a service but you talk about it as if it is a sale, then they will think that your service idea was just for show. Or if you reward individual team members for their “sales” efforts but do not put emphasis on the “service” they have provided to the customer, your words will not be consistent with your purpose.

How about you? How do you describe the proactive efforts of your field team? How well do you talk the walk?

"Many of the service professionals that I have met do not see their role as a salesperson..."

4. Do your processes support your business development strategy?
There are implications from this approach on the processes used to support business development activities by technicians in the field. Because lead handling becomes just as important as lead generation, the successful firm will have to ensure that they have a failsafe process for handling leads from the field and following up on them in a timely manner.

What processes do you have in place to help the field service professional uncover opportunities? What questions do you require them to ask when they arrive on sight that might reveal problems that you can address? What steps can they take before leaving?
Think about your processes around the proactive efforts of your team. Are they consistent in quality and scope with the processes and systems you have in place to support the other services you provide?

5. Does your field service team have the skills and knowledge to deliver on the strategy?
Skills development is an integral part of the strategy. Service technicians will have to become as good at interpersonal skills as they are with their technical ones. They will need to be comfortable in speaking with the customer about their ideas and the benefits of taking action. Service management will need to be skilled at coaching and in opportunity management. Training on these interpersonal and communication skills will drive improved learning and skills adoption.

Knowledge is also critical. How well does your team know about the various products and services you offer and how they benefit your customers? You might be surprised by the answer. In my experience, there are gaps in the field team’s knowledge about their company’s capabilities. If the field service person doesn’t know of a product or service or if they do not know enough about it to engage the customer in a high level conversation about it, they will not bring it up to the customer.
What about your team? Do you ensure they have at least a conversational knowledge about all of the ways you can help your customers?

6. Do you tell your customers what you are doing? If you were to add a new service to your portfolio, would you tell your customers about it? Of course you would. So, if your field team is providing an exceptional service by using their knowledge and expertise to identify ways to help your customers be more successful why not tell your customers?

We should tell our customers this, just like we would tell them about any other service that we offer that would benefit them. Perhaps the conversation might look like this:

“We have encouraged our field service team to use their knowledge and expertise to identify opportunities to help you achieve your business goals. If they identify an opportunity that will benefit your business, would you have any objection if they bring their ideas to your attention?”

Do your customers know what your field team is doing through their proactive efforts and how it benefits them?

7. Do you measure the effectiveness of your efforts beyond revenues? If you engage your field service team in the promotion of your products and services, chances are you measure the increase in revenues. What additional business have we won that can be attributed to the efforts of the field team? But, if these proactive efforts are a service, shouldn’t we expect more results than simply improved sales?

What about customer satisfaction and retention? If a customer sees value in the proactive efforts of our team, should we not expect to see improvements in these areas? How about the amount of unplanned emergency work as a percentage of the contract base? If we take proactive steps to help our customers avoid unexpected failures, would it be reasonable to expect to see a change in the relationship between unplanned and planned work? And what about our customers’ level of satisfaction with the proactive efforts of our field team? Are they comfortable with their proactive efforts?

When it comes to assessing the impact of the proactive efforts of your field service team, what do you measure? What do you manage?

There is a tremendous opportunity to differentiate our service from our competitors through the proactive efforts of our field service professionals but unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we may not be achieving the results we had hoped when we embarked on the initiative – either for ourselves or for our customers.

Asking questions to help us reflect on our efforts may give us some insight to improve our effectiveness and further increase the level of service we are providing our customers.

Jim Baston is President of the BBA Consulting Group Inc.

As Jim Baston continues the serialisation of his excellent service orientated book Beyond Great Service our protagonist Charlie begins outlining the solution to the sales and service equation to his team of service engineers...

If you're new to this series then you can catch up on the story so far by clicking here

Last time, Charlie introduced the strategy to the service team. This time he presents the details.

Great, then let’s examine the actual strategy in more detail.” Charlie powers up the projector again and moves to the next slide. The slide says:

Charlie reads from the screen and then advances to the next slide.

“Let’s talk about what we need to do to deliver an ‘exceptional experience that is valued by our customers and differentiates us from our competitors’,” suggests Charlie.

“The first bullet simply means that we have to do our jobs well; like responding quickly to a customer’s needs, fixing the problem right the first time, showing up promptly, doing PMs as scheduled, cleaning up after our work, etc. All the things that people actually pay us to do.”

“The second bullet refers to the interpersonal experience the customer has over and above the technical work that we do. It is the positive attitude, the welcome smile, the way we interface with people in the workplace, and all the tiny but important interactions we have with our customers or their customers/ employees/ tenants/patients/etc. during the course of our work.

The last bullet is a catch-all to remind ourselves of the importance of continual follow-up, and how such a simple act can help reassure customers they have made the right decision to work with us over any of our competitors.“Perhaps the critical bullet here is moments of truth. Each time we have an occasion to interact with the customer: a visit to the site, an email, a follow-up phone call, a casual meeting in a coffee shop, it’s an opportunity to reinforce in the customer’s mind all the positive reasons why they do business with us, through what we say and write and how we act. It’s the moment we have to help the customers say to themselves ‘That’s why I do business with Novus’.”

“The third bullet is the topic of our discussion today. It’s going beyond doing our jobs pleasantly and professionally and in a responsive and attentive manner. It includes our efforts to proactively look for ways that the customer can make improvements to their operations, and then take the time to discuss these recommendations with the customer.”

“The last bullet is a catch-all to remind ourselves of the importance of continual follow-up, and how such a simple act can help reassure customers they have made the right decision to work with us over any of our competitors."

“So, what do you guys think? Can we add real value for our customers while differentiating ourselves from our competitors in this way?”

Angus stands up. Charlie is surprised and more than a little concerned. It looks to Charlie as if Angus is going to walk out of the room. If Charlie can’t get Angus on board, then the whole initiative is lost, or at least, greatly compromised.

“Charlie, in all the time I have worked for this company, this is the first time that management has talked about business development by putting the customer first. Usually, the question is: ‘What other services can we sell to our customers?’ i.e. what can our customers do for us? What you’re asking, that is if I hear you correctly, is: ‘What can we do for our customers?’ The results might be the same—more sales—but the motivation is quite different. I like it!”

Charlie is thrilled. Getting Angus on side is a big step forward. A couple of other people offer opinions, and they’re along the same lines as Angus’. Angus remains standing and Charlie can feel a big “but” coming . . .

“But . . . ,” complies Angus. “Saying the right words is a lot different than doing

the right things. How are we going to make this work?”

“Yet another good question, Angus.” Angus smiles and takes a bow as the room breaks out in applause.

As Angus finally sits down, Charlie says, “We have a lot of work to do. Here is a summary of what we need to do from my perspective. Perhaps you guys might think of some additional things.” Charlie discusses the bullets on the next two slides:

Charlie goes through the steps in detail and answers questions as they arise.

He points out that since this initiative is driving the overall customer experience, then everyone who has contact with the customer must participate, not just the technicians.

Since this initiative is driving the overall customer experience, then everyone who has contact with the customer must participate, not just the technicians.Although the techs play a large role in this, they must be supported by the entire organisation.

Everyone who has contact with the customer; from technician to the accounts receivable person, all contribute to the overall experience and therefore must be in sync. That is why point number four references ‘all customer-facing personnel’.

After answering a couple of more questions, Charlie sums up by saying,

“Thanks everyone for your input today. I am really excited about what we are doing and I sense that you are too. Ken and I will get to work on the next steps. In the meantime, if any further thoughts come to you on this issue, please let Ken or me know.”

“Also, please be proactive in discussing with the customer those things you feel would be in their best interests to implement and work with us to ensure that they are properly followed up until we can bullet-proof the opportunity management system.”

With that, Charlie hands the floor over to Ken to discuss this week’s safety item.

Thinking about your business:

Is your business development strategy clearly tied to your overall plan to provide each customer with an exceptional customer experience?

Does everyone know what they need to do to deliver on your strategy?

Are support functions aligned to facilitate the efforts of the field team?

Next time Charlie seeks feedback from one of his ex-customers.

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Who are the most influential people in the global field service sector that you need to pay attention to in 2017?

The Field Service News #FSN20 is our list of the individuals we believe will be key influencers in our industry across the next twelve months. Those included in the list have been selected by our own panel of industry insiders, who were given the simple criteria of identifying people who will have a significant impact on field service thinking.

However, more than just an annual list of 20 individuals the #FSN20 has grown since it’s launch to become a true celebration of excellence and innovation within our industry.

There are some familiar names and some new faces on this years list and as always we don’t expect everyone to agree with our selection – at it’s heart the #FSN20 was conceived as a tool to get everyone in our industry thinking about who it is that they have come across in the global field service sector that has made them think, who has made them question the accepted paradigms, who has inspired them to do just one little thing more in their own day to day role.

The #FSN20 is not just about the list our panel has put together. It is about fostering discussion that celebrates the unsung heroes of the field service sector. So look out for the online version of this list as well to take part in the debate.

But for now, ladies and gentleman and without further a do, in no particular order, we are pleased to introduce the #FSN20 of 2017…

 

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Click here to see page one of the 2017 #FSN20

 

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Nick Frank, Founder and Managing Partner Si2 Partners

Having worked as an international consultant for over 6 years, Nick founded Si2 Partners last year bringing a new approach to consultancy by offering services on demand.

Nick’s focus is on service strategy development, servitization business models, ecosystems, innovation management, service operations and service business development. He works with companies in a diverse range of industries including engineering, high volume manufacturing, equipment manufacturers and technology. A regular columnist in the trade press and a excellent speaker often to be found at industry conferences, Nick also plays a pivotal role in organising the conference sessions for the UK not-for-profit group The Service Community.

 

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Michael Blumberg, President of Blumberg Advisory Group, Inc

Michael Blumberg is the President of Blumberg Advisory Group and is a recognised expert in Field Service and Reverse Logistics in High-Technology industry.

Michael’s thought leadership, service system planning and strategy formulation are cited as having helped many organisations increase profits and he is a prolific author publishing a number of well received projects including white papers and educational video projects.

 

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Aly Pinder, Director of Member Research & Communities, The Service Council

In previous editions we had a rule that we would only include one person per organisation within the #FSN20. However, ever since Aly moved from the Aberdeen Group to The Service Council, we knew we would have to repeal the rule, as both Aly and Sumair are industry heavy weights in terms of analysis of our industry.

In his new role he will be looking to further enhance the already well established research projects undertaken by The Service Community and his addition to their team makes The Service Council one of the most important groups in the entire global field service sector.

 

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Tom Heiser, CEO, ClickSoftware

It may perhaps be unfair to comment that when Heiser took the reigns of the field service management software stalwarts ClickSoftware the company was perhaps at it’s weakest point in some years, indeed they remain a leading provider of field service management solutions at the forefront of the industry.

Yet, based on the sheer level of dominance that they once held and in light of the ever increasing quality of the competition in the field service management space, Heiser had little time to find his feet in the world of field service if he was to ensure the ClickSoftware brand remained as synonymous with delivering service excellence as it had to date - particularly in the natural uncertainty that an acquisition by a private equity firm can potentially cause. 

However, having seemingly spent little more than a few hours in his own office for the first six months as he flew around the world meeting analysts, influencers and customers alike Heiser certainly appears to have not only established a firm grasp of the industry at large but also where the future for field service management technology lies and under his guidance the outlook for the iconic ClickSoftware brand appears to be on a very positive footing once more...

 

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Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower

With their next generation platform Nexus now firmly established within the market place ServicePower have re established themselves as a key company within the FSM solutions sector under the vision of Martin.

However, it is her focus on R&D that really continues to drive Service Power to the forefront of their sector. With a number of patents including a one focussed on quantum annealing that will see them developing cutting edge technology for the foreseeable future. Martin is also a very highly respected speaker on the international field service circuit

 

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Jim Baston, President of BBA Consulting Group Inc

Baston of BBA Consulting is the proponent of Proactive Service, and is a master when it comes to understanding the delicate relationship between service and sales and how companies can maximize that relationship to enhance profits. Author, Speaker and Consultant Baston is an intelligent and experienced leader within his field whilst being a true gentleman and pleasure to talk to, to boot.

 

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Kevin Jones Managing Director Computer Product Solutions, Panasonic Europe

Panasonic remain the undisputed leaders in the rugged space with the ToughPad and Toughbook brands synonymous with rugged computing. The Panasonic ToughBook20 is the worlds first fully rugged detachable and could just be the most perfect device for field service to date being both a tablet and a laptop.

Jones has spent a decade with Panasonic and has total responsibility for the entire ToughBook / ToughPad Products and Solutions in Europe, including Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Operations whilst also sitting concurrently on the board of Panasonic Manufacturing.

 

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Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax

Within less than a decade Yarnold has taken ServiceMax from start-up to being purchased by GE late last year for close to a Billion Dollars.

However, the meteoric rise of ServiceMax wasn’t solely about the technology. Yarnold has a true passion for the service and that passion has filtered down and shone through at all levels of the organisation, which was perhaps the secret source that put them at the top of the sector - having been recognised as the leading FSM solution provider in the most recent magic quadrant report.

Now as part of GE Digital, Yarnold has even bigger visions of how ServiceMax can play a role in building an operating system for the entire industrial sector of which service will be a key component.

Big ambitions?

Yes. But Yarnold is a man that could possibly just do it.

 

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Click here to see page three of the 2017 #FSN20

 

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