There has been considerable Mergers and Acquisitions activity amongst field service management solution providers across the last eighteen months. At the same time we have seen a rapid rise in the adoption of servitization based business models,...
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Aug 03, 2017 • Features • Alistair Sorbie • crowd service • Future of FIeld Service • Paul Massey • ClickSoftware • David Yarnold • IFS • ServiceERP • servicemax • servicepower • telogis
There has been considerable Mergers and Acquisitions activity amongst field service management solution providers across the last eighteen months. At the same time we have seen a rapid rise in the adoption of servitization based business models, which has driven a move away from traditional break-fix SLA based maintenance contracts to contracts based around guarantees of uptime and availability.
Does this provide both the opportunity and the need for the development of new breed of field based platforms - the Service ERP? Kris Oldland, FSN Editor-in-Chief, reports...
For as long as there has been Field Service Management (FSM) Solutions there has always been a conversation around how well a solution integrates with other key business systems in the B2B world it has largely been about connecting through an ERP system, in B2C the same conversation was centred around bolting on a field service solution onto a CRM.
Indeed for many years use of a dedicated FSM system could be avoided entirely either by some clever and hugely laborious recoding of the functionality of an existing tool such as SAP or Oracle for example, or alternatively some equally ingenious means of reworking existing processes and relabelling existing form fields to find a semi-workable solution.
With the advent of Cloud computing and the democratising impact of the emergence of the SaaS revenue model we have seen a far greater and more widespread adoption of FSM systems from companies of all sizes
However, with the advent of Cloud computing and the democratising impact of the emergence of the SaaS revenue model we have seen a far greater and more widespread adoption of FSM systems from companies of all sizes in all sectors.
In turn, this increased use of FSM systems has driven further product development and feature enhancements in what is a relatively small but Undoubtedly fiercely competitive sector.
Meanwhile, we have also seen service, and in particular field service rise in importance amongst the executive boards in all areas as the world begins to adapt to the twenty first century and it’s service centric, on-demand driven business models. Uber and Amazon are thrown around constantly as examples of best practice (even though the former have yet to break even apparently) in today’s data driven world, and are very much tools of their time.
Closer to home within FSM systems, indeed the gig-economy is one of a number of new twenty first century additions to the field service equation - as are challenges of an ageing workforce, dealing with a customer base more empowered and more vocal (via the joy of social media) than ever before, plus the emergence of game changing technology such as IoT and Augmented Reality.
With the investment in solutions at an all time high, we are seeing an emerging race to become the dominate platform for the increasingly lucrative and important field service sector begin to heat up with a series of FSM providers including IFS, ServicePower, ServiceMax, ClickSoftware and Telogis all being acquired - and the story in the large part is very much the same from each of them - the investment is intended to help them get to their technology (and sales and marketing) ready to take a podium finish.
This of course is driving development in terms of technology, further and faster than ever before.
Have we finally reached a point where we can see the solutions that are essentially today’s FSM systems ready to step out of the shadows of their business software cousins CRM and ERP and stand shoulder to shoulder with them as an equally valid business system?
With all the investment in the FSM sector are we reaching a point where FSM systems will no longer be just a humble add on for ERP but a mission critical service and business delivery platform within it’s own right. You use your ERP for product-based activities you FSM system for all service and aftermarket related activities with a CRM, and financial package sitting across the perhaps? Of course, the likes of Gartner and other such important acronym makers would argue (and they’d have a point to be fair) that such a system would be probably a bit more than FSM so we would need a new bunch of letters to put together.
My humble suggestion would be Service ERP (sERP) but this may cause confusion with those pesky marketeer types and their Search Engine Results Pages (hence why I went with a small s at the front), but quite frankly other than needing something to refer to in this article, I’ll let the real industry makers work that one out.
The important thing is the concept - which I genuinely think is the logical conclusion of all this talk around FSM platforms.
We are at a level now with integration and cloud technology, where things just talk to each other naturally, or at least they are supposed to and that is definitely the path we’re heading down.
With this in mind, I believe the route we are heading down will lead us to a point where companies will look at their mix of business systems and say OK my ERP is SAP (for example) and that handles my production and manufacturing side of a business.
And then my sERP/FSM system - which includes scheduling, a mobile piece (including Augmented Reality), customer management (including CSAT and other customer engagement pieces), parts management, reverse logistics, asset management (including IoT connectivity) and anything and everything else required for running the service and aftermarket side of the business - is in place to run that part of our operations.
Essentially, for a company that only offers third party service, the sERP platform could be all they need as long as it included a light CRM embedded in there as well.
From a field service management perspective there has always been a feeling that FSM has always been the bridesmaid and would never be the bride, that we would always be the slightly poorer relations feeding off the table crumbs of our close, yet infinitely more important cousins in the ERP and CRM world.
But given the rising growth in importance of service in the global business ecosystem, given the amount of Tier A companies shifting their business models, at least in part, to a servitized business model where delivery of uptime replaces traditional break-fix SLAs and sloppy service will result in direct loss of revenue – it is of little surprise that those companies offering the tools to ensure that service is delivered as efficiently and productively as possible have become a major focus for investment of late.
As mentioned above FSM is rapidly gaining in recognition as an important tool within the business software ecosystem, the question is just where will that rise to prominence end – so is the prospect of FSM ultimately being the opposite side of the coin to ERP likely?
Is it just a short-term bubble as the world realigns itself to a more service orientated future and the major ERP players re-interpret their platforms to add more attention and focus to service related activities
I recently discussed this conversation at length with Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower, one of the key organisations within the FSM sector that have recently attracted significant Private Equity investment.
It is interesting to note that as with the private equity investment in both ClickSoftware and IFS, the intention does not appear to either asset strip the technology and look for a quick buck or prime the business for a bigger sale in the near future - which is so often the case of such investments. In fact, in all three cases it seems that the goal is to plough further resources into R&D and marketing to help each respective company flourish. In the case of ServicePower it is very much a case of a boost in resources to help meet what Martin sees as their own longer term vision a lot quicker than they could have done so organically.
Indeed, Martin’s comments on the matter are almost an exact echo of what Paul Massey Managing Director, IFS and Dave Yarnold, CEO, ServiceMax told me when I spoke to them both about the recent investments within their own businesses.
Yes, the cynic in me might see the similar sound bites as nothing more than holding up a business-as-normal-here flag to allay any customer fears and perhaps even more importantly those of prospective customers. Yet, I don’t think that is the case. At the last IFS world conference, Massey (and indeed CEO Alastair Sorbie) made a big point about Field Service being one of the top three priorities for the business in the wake of investment from EQT, given they are an ERP provider with a lot of other areas of focus within their business, this in itself was a significant endorsement of the vibrancy of the sector.
Similarly, when speaking with Yarnold about why GE Digital was the right home for ServiceMax, the conversation was very much focussed around how having access to both the technology of the Predix platform but also importantly the brand power of GE to open doors at the C-Suite level of enterprise, was a significant factor.
Close to a Billion $USD will certainly be part of the reason GE Digital were able to bring the market leader of an increasingly important technology market into their fold, but one also suspects that the opportunity for Yarnold to further expand his vision and ambition for the system he and two others launched in California just over a decade ago was another fundamental element to why GE Digital was the right destination.
Indeed he even commented at the “I didn’t just want to see us end up as part of another CRM/ERP system”.
So did Martin agree with my assertions that FSM would become equally as powerful and important as CRM and ERP in the future?
“I believe so, but with a few caveats” she replied
“If you think about what a CRM does, in it’s most basic, a lot of CRMs are structured around loading in your customer data, their buying patterns, and their contacts – so if you have sales people that churn then you have all that data still. At it’s most simplistic that is what a CRM covers at the basic level. That is pretty straight forward. And if they want all of the other functionalities of a more robust CRM provider then they can pay for it from one of the million and one CRM providers.”
“It’s the same as when you think of a typical ERP - a lot of that is built around finance and accounting packages there’s a million good finance and accounting packages out there and we’re not trying to become a finance - what we are interested in is the use cases around a mobile worker.”
“Give the mobile worker the tools to do everything they need to do in their business. So that they can access what they need to know about the customer, about the asset, where parts are, what they need to do on the service contracts and so on.”
One of the big shifts that we have seen in recent years is the power of data to transform the way we operationalise our business
Of course, one of the big shifts that we have seen in recent years is the power of data to transform the way we operationalise our business as Business Intelligence platforms powered by the Cloud, IoT and Big Data give field service organisations greater visibility into both their customers and their own operations more than ever before.
At large we are seeing a seismic shift in how field service is measured, both in terms of operational and success metrics.
“That’s very true.” Martin agreed when I put this point to her.
“The field service industry really is in a state of evolution. It’s on the verge of transforming itself into both a customer centric focus looking to bring the power of customer relationship management into the field, while also incorporating technology around machine learning, Internet of Things, and more actionable insights from data.”
“That’s also what is attracting so much acquisition activity. To get to the next level, any business with field based resources must invest in technology and business process consulting to move forward. Mobile workforce management is key to any organisation performing activities away from a plant or office.”
“We are still seeing companies at differing levels of business or use case complexity, some still moving from paper or less sophisticated platforms and others ready to move beyond their current technology to the next level technology in order to incorporate actionable insights and efficiencies from emerging technologies like wearables and IoT, the power of big data, and machine learning are also now realities. Whereas in the past they were nebulous concepts, their ability to be incorporated into mobile workforce software is reality today.”
Perhaps at the heart of the current spate of rapid development within our sector is the fact that all of these emerging technologies can be combined to solve traditional challenges. Whilst they can bring value to service operations by themselves it is when harnessed together alongside existing technologies that we are seeing true leaps forward.
There is a whiff of chicken and egg in the question as to whether business models are driving a need for improved technology or vice versa
But as we mentioned earlier there is a whiff of chicken and egg in the question as to whether business models are driving a need for improved technology or vice versa. Martin also recognises this fact.
“It is key to recognise that the shift isn’t only about technology adoption, the industry is moving quickly towards a more consumer-centric model where the customer experience is the overriding measure of success,” she explains.
“KPIs like schedule adherence and mean time to schedule continue to be indicative of customer satisfaction, however, up-time, customer value, and propensity to purchase additional services are emerging as more dominant, and are increasingly where focus and resources are applied, to improve profitability.”
“Customer relationship management is about more than getting your sales people to sell to your accounts. It has to be about how you delight the customer after the purchase of the equipment or service contract so that they stay with you, and come back for more.”
“We have also seen so much investment into call centre technology, but in reality, customers don’t want to talk to a call centre if they don’t have to. So technologies which improve the experience, like self-service customer portals which offer the ability to book real time appointments, monitor status, and interact with scheduled mobile workers before and during the visit, integrated knowledge management, machine learning, and actionable insights are what drive additional or longer term revenue, driving profitability. Customer satisfaction and profitability are the new reality for field service organisations.”
So the billion dollar question for Martin and her peers in the industry is has FSM become about more than just field service now? So where does she see the industry moving now?
Indeed, where are ServicePower heading now?
“As I said, to get to the next level, any business with resources that travel beyond a given plant or office must invest in technology to move towards improved profitability and efficiency. An integrated platform is also necessary in order to not run a business in silos, but actually with the greatest intelligence related to maximising the overall performance,” she replied.
As Adam Smith said, it is about labour, capital – and now technology. Staff, parts (if applicable), and technology all need to work together for a common goal. This is also why mobile workforce technology should be on top of mind for the C-suite. CRM and ERP technology isn’t enough to have a great performing organisation if you have workers in the field”
“Mobile workforce management technology therefore isn’t only for organisations which offer field service, traditionally thought of as repair or maintenance. Any mobile worker’s productivity can be improved, the customer experience can be improved, while those traditional metrics like cost and mean time to schedule can be improved at the same time.”
“What I see often is that not only does technology have a role to play, but also equally critically, companies must be looking at business and field processes, and how to use the data within an organisation to agree actionable insights.”
The opportunity for our market is exponential - Marne Martin, ServicePower
“Mobile workforce management can be used in every one of those verticals to improve the service delivery process, improve operational metrics and delight the customer, which in turn drives additional revenue. It also when applied with the customer facing technologies as well, can bring the power of the CRM to the customer you want to retain and make another investment in your equipment or services after the point of sale. Only mobile workforce management takes your brand and your people to your current customers in a way that CRM and ERP does not.”
In conclusion she adds the final statement “The opportunity for our market is exponential.”
And I wholeheartedly concur with her on this.
We may see a few new acronyms pop up in the next few years but the future of FSM, in whatever new guise it may take, looks to be in a good place.
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Jul 10, 2017 • Features • Management • Coresystems • crowd service • resources • White Paper • White Papers & eBooks
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: Coresystems Title: 3 Traps to Avoid if You Want to Meet Your Customer Satisfaction KPI
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Coresystems
Title: 3 Traps to Avoid if You Want to Meet Your Customer Satisfaction KPI
Field Service Professional? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry subscription to Field Service News and get the white paper "Preparing for the Connected Customer" sent directly to your inbox now
Synopsis:
For field service management (FSM), one of the most crucial KPIs is customer satisfaction.
Customers who are pleased with products and services are not tempted to seek out better solutions. In effect, guaranteeing customer satisfaction is a way of building up a loyal clientele and ensuring retention...
This white paper published by Coresystems explores three traps that every field service organisation must avoid if they want to ensure that they are meeting perhaps the most important KPI in todays competitive service landscape - customer satisfaction...
There are three things to pay close attention to when measuring this KPI: speed, quality and customer engagement.
The three traps many field service companies fall into according to this white paper are:
- Trap #1 - Long wait times
- Trap #2 - Diminished quality
- Trap #3 - Feeling left out
Overview:
There are three things to pay close attention to when measuring this KPI: speed, quality and customer engagement. This white paper offers an important list of ways to steer clear of bad service traps.
1st Trap: Long Wait Times:
Time is of the essence. Time wasted – on hold, repeating information to call center representatives who have no background knowledge of the issue, waiting for available service appointments or busy technicians – feels like time stolen to customers. A survey conducted by Aberdeen group showed that 51% of those surveyed were most dissatisfied with the waiting times for appointments.
Field service management software can play an integral role in increasing service response time by:
- By integrating quick response codes (QR code) into devices, companies give customers the technology to quickly transmit all the necessary product details to service providers with one quick scan.
- By taking advantage of the latest developments in IoT, like sensors, companies can rely on predictive technology to respond to breakdowns or glitches before they occur.
- By relying on a crowd service , companies can be sure they have a sufficient workforce with the expertise needed to handle customers’ technical service issues.
2nd Trap: Diminished Quality:
According the Aberdeen group survey, when asked to list their top four (out of twelve options) reasons for being dissatisfied with customer service, 58% of those surveyed stated that it was technicians who could not solve their issues due to a lack of expertise or equipment.
Should your customer survey indicate that clients are dissatisfied with the level of quality your service technicians are providing, the most immediate response you can take is to ensure that your technicians are properly trained to perform the tasks at hand. However, it can sometimes be difficult to find experienced and highly-qualified specialists. This is where the targeted use of FSM software can have measurable positive implications.
3rd Trap: Feeling left out:
Some companies make the mistake of assuming that a customer is content to report a problem and sit back and wait for the solution to appear.
This is a dangerous assumption to make. 38% of customers surveyed reported that they were unhappy about technicians not arriving on time. They were not content with knowing that technicians were on their way, they wanted to be able to track the progress of their repairs from start to finish. They wanted access to 24-hour status updates.
They wanted to be able to report problems when they occur, and not have to wait for the limited window of opportunity during which customer representatives were available.
Want to know more? Field Service Professional? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry subscription to Field Service News and get the white paper "Preparing for the Connected Customer" sent directly to your inbox now
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Jun 13, 2017 • Features • AGeing Workforce • Augmented Reality • crowd service • Magazine (digital editions) • ClickSoftware • Digital Issue • IFS • IoT • servicemax • servicepower • Servitization • solarvista • telogis • Asolvi
Kris Oldland deliver's his editorial leader in issue 17 of Field Service News where our theme was the ever changing nature of field service...
Kris Oldland deliver's his editorial leader in issue 17 of Field Service News where our theme was the ever changing nature of field service...
Field Service News subscribers are entitled to our bi-monthly magazine in both print and digital versions. Subscription is free for field service professionals click here to apply for a complimentary industry professional subscription now and get a digital copy of issue 17 sent straight to your inbox instantly
Field Service News: Issue #17 All ChangeIt certainly seems that our industry is going through another rapid state of change at the moment doesn’t it?Now any regular readers of this column will know that I’m a big fan of change.
Not that I think change needs to be wholesale and sweeping. No I subscribe much more to the journey of continuous improvement method of change. I like the concept of constant refinement, of being in constant Beta.
As a result of such an outlook I do tend to focus on innovation quite closely, which is a happy coincidence that there seems to be constant innovation within the field service sector too.
So I often talk about changes in our industry. Changes in business processes such as the shift towards servitization or the concept of crowd service
Changes in technology such as the emergence of Augmented Reality and IOT as two highly credible emerging technologies that the field service industry must embrace.
Even, the changing skill-profile of the field engineer as an incoming generation replaces an ageing outgoing one.
But the change referred to in this edition of Field Service News is actually a completely different type of change and for once I found myself wondering if such seismic change within our industry is good for us.
“The message from almost all camps is that it is business as usual just with bigger expectations, and quicker developments. On the surface it all sounds great...”
In the last 18 months we have seen most of the big names in field service management solutions being acquired. Tesseract, IFS, ServiceMax, ClickSoftware, Telogis, and most recently ServicePower have all been bought up and that’s just a few from the top of my head.
There are many, many more.
The thing is that all of these companies had a common thread that allowed them to thrive in our industry. They were all independent companies who truly understood and cared about field service.
If I recall correctly the redesign of Solarvista a few years back took 3 MILLION lines of code, more than it takes to send a shuttle up to the space station, there are far easier sectors to enter, far easier places to make money as a software provider.
But it was the passion to help drive service forwards that was at the heart of many of these companies’ success.
Colin Brown former MD and founder at Tesseract for example came from an engineer background himself, so he got the challenges that companies were facing and was able to tailor that into a series of industry first solutions (i.e. first windows based solution, first browser based solution, first SaaS solution).
Similarly, Dave Yarnold, CEO at ServiceMax has spoken at great length about the importance of service - even going as far as to described ServiceMax once as a Field Service Enablement company who happen to use technology to do so.
And while Yarnold, remains on board in ServiceMax’s new guise as part of the GE Brand one just hopes that is infectious enthusiasm for great service delivery isn’t diluted by being in a bigger pond.
Indeed, the message from almost all camps is that it is business as usual just with bigger expectations, and quicker developments. On the surface it all sounds great and I must admit that it is fantastic to see the field service sector become such hot property globally - it’s just when so many great independent companies are bought within quick succession of each other it does make me a little nervous.
All Change maybe fine, just not at once, is all I’m asking.
Field Service News subscribers are entitled to our bi-monthly magazine in both print and digital versions. Subscription is free for field service professionals click here to apply for a complimentary industry professional subscription now and get a digital copy of issue 17 sent straight to your inbox instantly
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Apr 27, 2017 • Features • Coresystems • crowd service • Future of FIeld Service • manuel grenacher • field service
Manuel Grenacher, CEO at coresystems looks at why the predicted boom of the field service management market is set to bring workforce challenges of its own and proposes that the crowd-sourcing of field service could be the solution to these issues...
Manuel Grenacher, CEO at coresystems looks at why the predicted boom of the field service management market is set to bring workforce challenges of its own and proposes that the crowd-sourcing of field service could be the solution to these issues...
According to a recent report from Markets and Markets, by 2020 the field service management (FSM) market will be worth $5.11 billion – nearly triple its size in 2015. Major drivers behind that projection include skyrocketing customer expectations, the ever-increasing demand for enhanced productivity, and the steady escalation of field service operation costs.
Furthermore, Gartner forecasted that by 2020, two out of three large field service organisations will equip field technicians with a mobile application that drives profitability by creating revenue streams, efficiency and customer satisfaction. This is a positive outlook for the FSM market, but there’s a problem with the traditional field service delivery model that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
The exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the real-time connectivity it enables has led to a massive spike in consumer expectations for instantaneous customer service
Compounding this resource availability problem is the fact that every day the number of IoT connected devices in circulation is increasing, which further adds to organisations’ backlogs of field service requests. But what if the field service industry were to adopt a new delivery model – one that could shift the balance of technology versus technicians back to a sustainable equilibrium for organisations?
This would be the tipping point that could help organisations leverage FSM to realise the true promise of the IoT. And the field service industry need look no further than some of the forward thinking companies that lead the way in the sharing economy, such as Uber and Airbnb.
By introducing technology that enables the crowdsourcing of field service to independent, for hire field service technicians (just like Uber does for drivers), FSM software providers would be able to help their customers find those field service technicians anywhere and anytime. This would check organisations’ critical box of providing real-time customer service.
[quote float="right"]The bottom line is that businesses today need to focus as much – if not more – on stellar customer service as they do on building innovative products
Furthermore, by utilising crowdsourced field service (or “crowd service”) for IoT-connected technologies, organisations will not only be able to deliver real-time customer support, but could also provide service and maintenance before those technologies suffer an outage. For larger organisations, we see two scenarios: a “public crowd” of crowdsourced freelance-technicians and a “private crowd” of technicians within your business ecosystem such as contractors, partners, subsidiaries and corporate professionals. Imagine that: through crowd service, organisations can proactively ensure that they never face the dreaded downtime that can end up costing millions of dollars per hour.
The bottom line is that businesses today need to focus as much – if not more – on stellar customer service as they do on building innovative products, but finding the time and resources required to meet rising consumer demands for real-time service has become increasingly difficult.
With crowd service, organisations can streamline their field service operations to deliver service as quickly as the same day the customer requests it
FSM software providers are not only laying the groundwork for crowd service as we speak, but have customers deploying the technology in the real world – and many in the FSM industry, including Coresystems, expect crowd service to revolutionise the way that organisations service their customers in 2017 and beyond. So, as organisations look for a solution to the field service resourcing problem created by the IoT, they should turn to the crowd.
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Apr 19, 2017 • Features • Coresystems • crowd service • White Paper • White Papers & eBooks
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: Coresystems Title: Understanding Crowd Service Solutions: The Evolution Of Field Service
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Coresystems
Title: Understanding Crowd Service Solutions: The Evolution Of Field Service
Synopsis:
Companies looking to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to the rapid advancement of digitalization in their respective industries have long been concerned with Field Service Management (FSM).
They have reimagined their business philosophies around the conviction that customer satisfaction is a major priority and that new innovations are also shifting customer demands. Innovative CEOs and service executives know that FSM software alone will not be enough to meet real-time service expectations and needs.
They are looking to something with the groundbreaking potential to revolutionise the services industry and customer experience. They are turning to crowd service solutions. What promises does crowd service offer the field services industry?
How can you use them to improve brand loyalty? Why will they be the only way forward in the age of IoT?
This white paper outlines the premise that the only way forward is to combine field service management with crowd service technology
Overview:
The white paper explores three key areas in establishing the case for a new crowd sourced approach to field service that leverages the growing 'gig-economy' in order to meet growing customer demands whilst reducing operational costs for field service organisations.
The Service Executive Bible: What Matters Most
It is only logical that service executives would be primarily concerned with optimising the customer experience.
In fact, a study conducted to determine key issues facing service executives in comparison to other business executives highlighted how much CSOs value customer satisfaction over other KPIs.
However, with the manpower currently available to them, CSOs are running up against a brick wall. In order to continue achieving their aim of consistent customer satisfaction improvement rates, they need a bigger team of technicians and experts who can keep up with the new pace being set by the latest innovations in technology. The trend is heading towards crowd services.
It will soon be the only way to meet the demands of a growing workload.
The Evolution Of Field Service
Just as the rise of machines gave rise to more advanced and capable machines, so to have field services evolved over the years. What used to be an analog process of collecting and sharing information about customers and devices, has now become automated, and in some cases completely digitalized.
This has in large part been the response to the need for more streamlined and efficient processes. FSM software ensures that everyone is on the same page: the company, the technicians, the customers.
The white paper explores the development of FSM in depth focussing on:
- The Way It Used To Be: The Analog Approach
- Today’s Standard: Field Service Management In The 21st Century
- Where We Are Headed: Crowd Service And Predictive Maintenance
Crowd Service Technology
A crowd service is a pool of skilled, freelance service technicians who are available to respond to service calls when needed. These crowd service technicians possess the necessary IT know-how to address various technical issues. Thanks to field service management software, they also have access to internal company manuals, tutorials and videos as well as to customer and device/machine specifics for getting the job done quickly and effectively.
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Feb 23, 2017 • Features • Coresystems • Corwd sourcing • crowd service • Future of FIeld Service • manuel grenacher • field service
Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems explains the Crowd Service concept...
Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems explains the Crowd Service concept...
There has been a rapid increase in technological advancements designed to enhance our quality of life and a consistent trend towards gadgets that save us time. From checking in for flights on our smartphones to having our food home-delivered, we have become accustomed to getting things and accomplishing things as quickly as possible.
Where we stand now
Recent surveys conducted across a broad spectrum of people located in numerous countries determined that 60% of consumers defined a bad customer experience as one that involves waiting a long time for service after booking an appointment. Customers want reliable and fast service, and they want it in real-time. They are looking for convenience:
Time is Precious: Every moment spent waiting for a technician is one spent away from other important activities. Consumers do not want their time taken for granted. They expect service in real-time.
Keep It Simple: Complex booking systems that involve multiple steps or unnecessary time investment (e.g. being on hold with call centres) are a big turn off.
Freedom to choose: Customers do not want to have to fit their lives to the suppliers’ schedules.
They want the flexibility to decide which service appointment best accommodates their day.
Room for Improvement
The problem: many of the gadgets produced for our consumers, though intended to buy them a few precious moments a day, are in fact costing them even more time. Minutes lost on hold with customer representatives. Hours spent waiting for technicians to arrive. Days lost because machines have broken down and can not be repaired immediately.
61% of all field service suppliers cited ‘customer satisfaction’ as their top measure for success
When taking into account what customers really value – real-time service and their time – the current supplier ranking of priorities needs to be adjusted to reflect what would actually keep customers satisfied. Emphasis needs to be placed on optimising field service and reducing the amount of time it takes to meet service demands.
The Surmountable Roadblock
Though it is easy to isolate the best way to improve customer satisfaction, many field service suppliers still face a serious obstacle when it comes to addressing this need. Real-time service requires access to an extensive, widespread and qualified workforce. Access that many suppliers do not have.
A lack of trained and readily available personnel has always led to longer wait times and unsatisfied customers. However, the dawn of IoT is making the problem more pronounced. More and more devices are interconnected. Predictive technology is making it possible to accurately foresee technical malfunctions and breakdowns before they occur. There is a greater demand for service than ever. And yet the number of technicians that most service providers has on hand has remained the same.
The reason for this is mainly the cost factor. Hiring full-time technicians is expensive. Particularly when they are needed for short-term projects. In addition, hiring full-time service employees does not guarantee that they will be where they are most in demand. Having a full-time team member in a remote corner of the globe is not a viable business model.
However, having access to a skilled worker who could provide these same services in remote areas is. What is the solution?
The Solution Is Crowd Services
This is where the Uber-like on demand model prevails. The company created a business model that utilises untapped resources to meet an unfilled demand Receptiveness to this concept of the shared economy has given rise to the crowd service model. And it is being applied to field service management.
Companies have all the benefits of skilled labor, at a fraction of the price.
Revolutionise the Way You Do Service Before It’s Too Late!
Coresystems, with its ample experience in platform implementation and extensive knowledge of all legal aspects, is pressing this revolution forwards by providing the software that makes crowd service implementation possible.
We are on the cusp of a significant shift. If one supplier does not start adapting to real-time demands, consumers will find a supplier that does.
Now is the time to adopt the measures necessary to keep pace with IoT and the direction it is taking us. Make your service model about real-time convenience served up quick and hassle free.
When customers feel that you value their time, they will value your products. Only crowd service can deliver in real-time. Empower your ecosystem today
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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