Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News is joined on the Field Service News Digital Symposium by Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director and Founder of Noventum to discuss the findings of Noventum's Remote Service Delivery Benchmarking study.

During the discussion, Rustema outlines the key data trends that emerged within their study as well as offering his deep-level insight into the meta-trends of field service and how these have shifted dramatically in recent times.

Here the two discuss if the move towards customer success management is a direct evolutionary path from customer satisfaction management.

Find out more about this study and the work Noventum undertake @ www.noventum.eu

 

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We would also point you to the excellent Service Centricity Playbook that is available over at Noventum Service Management's site which you can access on @ https://www.noventum.eu/the-service-centricity-playbook

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Further Reading:

• Read more exclusive Field Service News content from Hilbrand and the team at Noventum @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/hs-search-results?term=Noventum
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Follow Noventum Service Management on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/ByNoventum
• Read more research-based content dedicated to the field service sector @ https://research.fieldservicenews.com/
• Connect with Hilbrand Rustem on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilbrandrustema/

WBR's Laura Anne Danaraj speaks to Margerat Dizon from Globe Telecom about balancing customer demands with efficient operations.

Communication through technology has become an integral part of everyone’s life. Today, we as consumers rely on a combination of mobile phones, broadband, and wireless data to stay connected with people, look up information or for entertainment. Think of a time where you are not using your phone, computer, or dependent upon the internet… Not easy is it?

Exceptional Customer Service

Just like how easy it is to connect online with a press of a button, the telecommunication industry understands there is phenomenal value in using technology to provide exceptional customer service and to transform practices in keeping their customers happy.

I had a casual chat with our Field Service & B2B CX Asia speaker, Margaret Dizon, VP of Customer Field Services, Broadband Business at Globe Telecom, a major telecommunications provider in the Philippines. She shared her experience and knowledge in managing their field service operations.

According to Marge, “Field servicing is not just exclusive to our field service agents. It is also empowering our customers to be part of the field servicing loop all together”.

Hence, Globe Telecom is trying to get the right formula for its balancing act in managing the demands of its customers while making sure operations are efficient.

“We try a personalized approach, making sure that we are physically present vis-à-vis leveraging remote tools, remote management and remote troubleshooting. As we are currently geographically dispersed, we want to ensure we have the right capacity and the right skills set in the field so we can deliver on time and of high quality, with no repetition.”

It seems then that the key to winning customer service drills down to technology and coordination – leaving customers feeling directly catered to while optimizing digital tools. Therefore, building a strategic approach to integrate digital technologies into field service management gives a business really an edge.

With several Telcos in the market for customers to choose from, and companies competing to gain market share, does cost eventually act as a barrier to provide good customer experience?

 

"Apart from CX, in a digital first world, Telcos need to ensure customers have a good omnichannel experience to survive and thrive..."

 

 “Our cost enhances the type of approach in delivering field service to our customers. So rather than seeing it as a barrier, I take it as a way to identify and deliver the best approach based on the customer persona we are dealing with.”

Given that, some customers might need a specific type or a premium brand to provide them personalized service.

“The fact is if they feel the sincerity from us, they would see the value of the service. It does not matter whether you have the basic or premium subscription with us; we always provide the right outcome. And with that, I would say it’s not really dependent on the cost,” affirmed by Marge.

A study by PwC, titled ‘Experience is Everything: Here’s How To Get It Right stated that 42% of consumers said they would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience, and 52% would pay more for a speedy and efficient customer experience. Customer experience has become the number one aspect for businesses to focus on, overtaking price and product as the key brand differentiator.

Apart from CX, in a digital first world, Telcos need to ensure customers have a good omnichannel experience to survive and thrive in such a volatile and complex ecosystem. How does Globe Telecom achieve this?

“We plot a map of a customer journey, where all the teams are engaged and all the channels that deliver customer experience are aligned. Once we have that map in place, we make sure we follow the guidelines whether it is the type of words that we use, the timing, the approach, the type of feeling that we evoke and the manner of how we deliver their expected service. We are all aligned to the kind of journey we are supposed to deliver to them (our customers).”

It comes down to the planning and execution as shared by Ms. Dizon. As Telco’s transform from a traditional communication service provider to a digital service provider, they have to develop the ability to orchestrate customer experience that supports them at every touchpoint in order to achieve their desired outcome.   

To end our casual chat, Marge shared that attending Field Service Asia gives her the chance to gather together with fellow Field Service leaders to share their experiences, challenges and best practices. Instead of just looking out for information on the internet, she gets to secure real life applicable case studies through this summit.

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Futher Reading: 

• Read more about the Field Service and B2B CX Asia event @ https://fieldserviceasia.wbresearch.com
• Read more articles by Laura Anne Danaraj @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/lAURADANARAJ
• Read the PwC study, Experience is Everything: Here's How to Get it Right @ https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html
• Read more about customer experience in service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/CUSTOMER+EXPERIENCE
• Read more about Globe Telecom @ https://www.globe.com.ph/

Micheal Kuebel of Salesforce has been working with a number of companies to help them overcome the challenges of the global lockdowns. In this excerpt of the Field Service Podcast Kuebel identifies four key traits that he has seen emerge as common success factors amongst those companies he has seen adapt quickest and most successfully to the Covid-19 challenge.

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Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'

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Leadership, Customer-Centricity, Empowerment, Agility

There has been a lot of innovation on show of late. Of course, much of it has been born out of necessity as companies have frantically tried to adapt to the realities of a global lockdown as we deal as a planet with the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Yet, undoubtedly some companies have taken the challenges of the pandemic far more comfortably in their stride than others. Have there been some shared fundamental tenets of how those who adapted best were able to do so?

Michael Kuebel, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce has been working closely with many companies including Koenig and Bauer who were an excellent example of a company that was able to show agility and ingenuity in equal measure as they pivoted and adapted to the new scenario of a Covid-19 infested world. He certainly believes there are some shared attributes amongst those companies who showed the same levels of resilience that Koenig and Bauer did. 

"We see basically four kinds of success factors when we talk to customers and see how they master this most turbulent of markets," Kuebel explained on the Field Service Podcast.

"Number one is strong leadership. We saw that when we talk to our customers and ask, 'how did you cope with the crisis?' We saw a common thread of companies establishing a clear understanding of customers and safety first. It was a time to come up with a complex strategy, it was a time for these simple clear directives.

"For all of the companies that we worked with, there was a focus on making sure their customers remained operational, and making sure that their employees, customers, their families and the society stayed safe. They execute this latest shift through a much more focused visibility. When in the past, they were looking at reporting cycles of a month, now it's more once a day or even intra-daily visibility. They need those KPIs right now, because it's such a volatile situation.

"Also, we saw that strong leadership must also lift the company through being a role model, creating trust and of course, making fact based decisions," Kuebel added. 

 

"You need to make sure that your people are enabled, that they have the tools and they have the knowledge to make decisions when in the field..."

- Michael Kuebel, Salesforce

 

Indeed, this has been echoed through much of the reporting Field Service News has done on the topic and it does appear that there is a strong correlation between those organisations who were able to act swiftly but from a position of data-driven insight and those organisations that coped best with the lockdown scenario. Another strong link amongst such companies is also the willingness to have open and ongoing customer dialogue. 

"The second aspect I mentioned, customer centricity," concurs Kuebel.

"We see customer engagement very much in focus. For practicality reasons at this time, we all need to enable our customers to help themselves better. That way they were creating a digital journey that the customer actually said, well, that's actually even effortless for me, it works and it's helping me stay productive. That is only possible if you have a 360 degree view on the customer and that you have processes that are centred around the customer.

"Then there is empowerment," Kuebel continues. "You need to make sure that your people are enabled, that they have the tools and they have the knowledge to make decisions when in the field. I think especially this factor of empowerment has been something that I think has received an enormous boost within the last couple of weeks during the crisis, just look at the amount of companies that suddenly have home office as the new normal - that was never a plan and now it works and it will be very difficult to turn this back.

"Once you create that level of trust, and you see that people are effective, even when they are not in the office, this is something that is there to stay. However, you need to have the right tools to enable people to work with them. You need to know if you have an on-premise solution, you have no chance in virtualising a call centre overnight, but with a cloud solution, the right tools, the right knowledge and the right information, it's no big deal to do that. We have a couple of customers that were virtualising their dispatching calls and jobs literally within hours."

The final factor that Kuebel lists is perhaps the secret sauce that separates those companies who are best-in class and the rest of the pack.

"Last but not least, you need this agile mindset and an agile platform that allows you to easily adapt to basically go into these MVP (minimum viable product) situations and roll it out with the view that it's good enough to stay afloat - and then, we see we can develop from there. When I look at Koenig and Bauer for example, when I talk to them, when I talk to their management, there's a very, very clear leadership. The way that they communicate with their customers, the predominant mindset is around customer centricity, agility and empowerment. It was therefore, no surprise to me that Koenig and Bauer were one of the companies that are able to manage through the crisis relatively well."

 

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Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
• Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
• Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer

FieldAware's Field Service hub extends best-in-class customer engagement.

 

FieldAware, the leader in made-for-mobile, cloud-based field service hub solutions, and Localz, the leader in real-time customer communications and service tracking solutions, has announced a partnership to bring day-of-service communications to field service organizations.

To build better service experiences, FieldAware has partnered with Localz to expand its cloud-based field service management hub offerings. Localz On My Way complements and extends the functionality of the FieldAware offering to include automated customer communications, real-time service tracking and feedback capabilities to existing workflows.

Automated Field Service Workflows

The partnership uses FieldAware job data seamlessly integrated with Localz technology to trigger automated customer communication workflows before and on the day of service. Combining fully integrated, automated field service workflows with real-time technician tracking and post-appointment feedback reduces costly truck-rolls, improves service efficiency and increases first-time access. This powerful combination delivers double-digit improvements in customer satisfaction and profitability for service-based organizations across industries.

"Partnering with Localz allows our clients to quickly digitize their day of service operations and deliver customer experiences similar to the likes of Uber and Amazon," said Steve Mason, COO at FieldAware. "As a cutting-edge field service hub enabling field service companies of all sizes to automate processes and streamline operations, it was a natural step to incorporate a best-in-breed customer engagement solution."

"Now more than ever, B2B and B2C customers alike demand transparency and clear communication around service appointments. Our partnership with FieldAware allows us to make processes even easier for companies to get back to business while delivering frictionless experiences for end-customers," said Tim Andrew, CEO of Localz.

For more information, please contact: marc.tatarsky@fieldaware.com 

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• To find out more about FieldAware click here.
• To find out more about Localz click here.
• Read more about customer communication in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/customerservice 

New research into the digital service trends of large manufacturers shows they are lacking the necessary IT infrastructures and are struggling to meet the expectations of customers in the servitization era.

The research ,Drivers for Digital Growth in Service, was carried out by Noventum in collaboration with HSO and Microsoft and canvassed product manufacturers and technical services companies via electronic surveys and personal interviews.

Struggles with Servitization

The study comes as the influence of servitization - the sale of an outcome, rather than a one-off purchase - has prompted a move away from traditional one-off large product investments to pay-per-use and subscription models bringing a new set of customer expectations.

Customers now expect their suppliers to assist in other business goals, such as increased production and even influencing innovation and operations. To help them achieve this, the report finds, firms must adopt new business models to deliver outcome-based, data-driven services for their clients.

However, while the study showed 80% of companies are planning to deliver or are currently delivering customer business related services, 40% admitted that their current IT framework was not robust enough to fully support these new business models.

The results suggest that firms need to adopt a digital services strategy, encompassing the entire organisation in order to deliver a successful and services-based business.

The research was conducted at the beginning of 2020 before the Covid-19 outbreak and in an introduction to the report Noventum acknowledged the impact the pandemic could have on service business growth, while suggesting it could prompt a positive change in focus leading to new service-led business models. “...for the companies who have been negatively impacted by Covid-19,” the statement said, “it will be vital to adopt the new ways of working that have been learnt during the crisis and to put in place growth strategies that will ensure the survival and sustainability of the business.”

Further Reading: 

• Read the full Executive Report from the research here.
• Read more about Servitization here @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• To find out more about Noventum click here.
• To find out more about HSO click here.

Technology use in service is about attaining business needs, says Rohit Agarwal. In a world impacted by Corona Virus ensuring your tech fulfils its business case will become more prominent.
While technology is the walls, ceilings and decorations of the cathedral; the foundations that the cathedral stands on are the strategy, the people and the processes of the organisation. These three decide the entire stability of the cathedral and how well it can withstand the external forces. In this article, let’s take a dive at why understanding business needs and creating the right strategy around it is the first important milestone in any technology implementation.

How the Pandemic Drove Digital Transformation in Field Service

Covid-19 hit us hard, and by us I refer to humanity, a disruption of our daily life, economies, governmental policies and the rate of medical research. What has been one common theme of being able to the contain this deadly virus if one asks? ‘Technology’ would be one prompt answer that comes to our minds. Technology has helped us detect the virus, learn how it spreads and has allowed everyone globally to communicate about it. Technological progress and prowess seem to the definite answer to our biggest threats and challenges, but then, if I may ask, why is the country with the most technological prowess hit the hardest? The strategy to use the technology to attain defined goals or mitigate disasters is what separates a successful technology implementation from an arrow shot in the dark.

Let’s take the simplest example of Video Calling. The technology allows a grandmother and her grandchild to communicate in two distant continents seamlessly but there are thousands of video calling platforms such as messenger, WhatsApp and Skype to name a few. The reason these names come to our mind over the rest is simply because the way the technology has been implemented keeping the business needs of creating a simple intuitive platform that make it simple enough for an 8-year-old to an 80-year-old to use. The value of a Video Calling platform increases with the number of users or in technical terms ‘the installed base’. Whatsapp’s strategy has been to provide the platform free of charge to users to lure them to the platform and get them hooked on. The dozen employees of Whatsapp worked relentlessly on improving the simple platform to build users rather than trying to complicate the technology leading to an evaluation in billions when it was sold to Facebook.

 

"The failure for new technologies isn’t innovation in product or services, rather it is a missing business model in a space where customer needs are uncertain..."

 

If we narrow down to the modern corporate scenario, over the last five years we have seen technology evolve faster than our minds can keep up with it. IoT, Augmented and Virtual Reality, AI has been some of the biggest differentiators for corporations. The difference between one trying to use these technologies versus one that has been able to reap benefits out of it has been understanding the business needs, prioritising it and creating a formidable strategy around it without being blinded by all the great things that the technology could achieve. According to an article on Forbes, the failure for new technologies isn’t innovation in product or services, rather it is a missing business model in a space where customer needs are uncertain.

Let’s take Augmented Reality (AR) and see how a company could use it to improve their value proposition or just try to force the technology into practise. Acme(fictitious) is a small company in existence over the past 5 years and has been providing field service as a contractor with specialisation in packaging machines. Acme’s current business strategy is to expand its service base but cannot afford to hire very experienced technicians and the CTO believes in talent farming. Acme does a technology review to identify what kind of digital tools it can implement to upgrade its customer’s experience. The technology research shows that Augmented Reality could be used as a digital tool that would help new technicians get expert advice from the office. Instead of jumping straight into purchasing expensive AR glasses and software, the CEO, a big fan of the lean start-up methodology starts looking into building a strategy to slowly implement the technology in short loops involving the technicians and have the possibility to persevere if things go well or pivot if things go haywire. 

The CTO does an audit of the knowledge management of the company to see if relevant materials are available in easily accessible form for the back-office expert and the on-field technicians to use and it appears enough to run trials. Acme promotes its most experienced technician who is about to retire to a back-office expert role to guide the other technicians on the field. They use simple video calling with their smart phones and a tripod to keep the technicians’ hands free. Based on input from the usage, the knowledge repository is enhanced, and the feedback is taken from the technicians.

 

"The strategy, process and people are the bridge that connects the use of new technology to the upgrade in customer experience."

 

After the first 3 months, the depositories of knowledge are updated sufficiently, and the processes are set in place to allow for optimal use of the back-office experts time. After analysing the results from this time, the CTO and the CEO decide to hire 3 new technicians and assigns them to the back-office expert to oversee and guide. In parallel Acme partners up with an Augmented Services Solutions company to try the usage of Augmented glasses to run experiments on how the efficiency of the system can be further improved.

Acme manages to expand its service base, not waste money on technology without proof of value and attains its business goal. The key to Acme’s success is not the mere use of technology, but the focus on understanding business needs, creating a strategy towards these and incorporating technology along the way to attain these goals. The strategy, process and people are the bridge that connects the use of new technology to the upgrade in customer experience. In the digitalisation phase today, the ability to apply incremental changes, have a strategy that is flexible and possibility to get quick feedback has become the major differentiator for businesses. To be able to jump the chasm between new technology implementation and upgrading customer experience, organisations must build a solid bridge of strategy, processes and people.

 

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Further Reading: 

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital_transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Read more articles by Rohit @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/rohit-agarwal
• Connect with Rohit on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/rohitag1/

Many service innovations fail because they do not have a substantial and desired impact for clients. Often, customer insights and value propositions are limited to a description of features and benefits, without considering the outcomes clients desire. The best practice is to have a compelling customer story and vision as a starting point. Jan van Veen, explains how you can achieve this and (and launch irresistible advanced services)...

This customer story illustrates the challenges, common mistakes and best ways clients should solve these mistakes. Based on this insight, you can develop irresistible new advances services and compelling marketing and sales messages, even if you have limited resources.

 

The Importance of Building Your Customer Story:

Do you still see that many ideas and new advanced services do not hit the nail on the head?

• The pain points your teams discuss with their clients do not hit their nerves
• Your clients are not eager to use the new services
• Let alone that they are willing to pay extra for these services

Even though you already did:

• Voice of the customer projects
• Customer journey mapping
• Customer feedback like NPS

Develop a set of features and benefits, for example by using the value proposition canvas

The good news is

• You are not alone. 
• And it does not have to be like this.

In this article, I describe seven practical steps to build a compelling customer story. These are the best practices applied by leading manufacturers to successfully develop and commercialise irresistible advanced services.

Here is the Problem

Your clients do not recognise which of their essential problems you are solving or how your services are offering a better solution. They do not see the positive impact they get from your offerings. And often, this problem is a bigger game than just higher uptime of equipment.

The Solution

You and your colleagues already have most information at hand. It is a matter of turning this information and knowledge into a compelling customer story, for irresistible advanced services.

 

The Elements of a Customer Story

 

• For every customer segment, you should be able to describe the bigger picture;
• The relevant trends which have an impact on the business and lives of your clients. 
• The ultimate fear for your clients, caused by 3-4 dominant problems.
• 3-7 common mistakes your clients make, which cause the 3-4 dominant problems
• Related to each common mistake, your vision or the best practices to solve this common mistake
• The ultimate prize your clients will get, with 3-4 benefits

You can use this customer story in many ways;

• A pitch to your CEO or your client of 1 minute
• A presentation of 5-10 minutes
• 7-12 articles of 700 words each
• Source of insights to develop new advanced services
• Source for the marketing team to develop marketing and sales messages and marketing collateral

 

Be Aware of the Common Pitfalls

This customer story is all about your clients, not your company, products and services. I have done quite a few workshops and masterclasses to develop a customer story. In the beginning of these workshops, pretty much every team struggles to focus on the customer. The pitfall is to be stuck in;

• Use of your equipment
• Maintenance of your equipment
• Performance of your equipment
• Performance of your services

Although these insights are useful for many improvement processes and initiatives, they do not contribute to developing and commercialising irresistible advanced services. On the contrary, these insights increase biases and keep your innovations being stuck in business-as-usual.

 

Getting Started

The following 7 steps take you through each element of the customer story. Ideally, you form a small team to work on the 7 steps.

Step 1: Define the Niche/Segment

A customer insight or story should always be specific for a group of clients with the same characteristics that are relevant to the same challenges and needs they have. This could be a particular customer segment or your ideal client.

At first, it can be challenging to define the specific customer segment. This is not a problem. In that case, just move on to the next steps. In step 3 and 4, you will notice that a lot of the customer problems are not relevant to all clients and how you could segment your clients into a few groups. By then, you can jump back to step 1 and iterate.

Step 2: List 100 Customer Problems

Having this customer segment in mind, start listing all the business problems you know or think they encounter or will encounter. If you do not have a clear definition and choice of a customer segment yet, just start with 1 or 2 relevant clients in mind.

The objective is to build a long list of problems, at least 100. Use the following tactics to keep the flow of new problems going and to ensure you have a broad and open perspective;

• Do not evaluate yet. Just write the ideas. Consider it a brainstorming practice.
• Build on problems you have already listed and think of 4 directions to reframe (see the picture below) 

• Description automatically generated
• Consider different stakeholders in the business, including the CEO and the field engineer
• Address challenges and problems your clients will or may encounter in the next 3-7 years too
• Also consider external stakeholders of your clients, like their clients, other vendors, partners and distributors
• And again, avoid topics which are related to your products, services and organisation. 

 

Step 3: Cluster to 7-10 Main Problems

Now start grouping all similar or related problems. You can do this in a spreadsheet. If you are doing this in a workshop with several people, you may want to work with post-it notes.

You will probably see that there are different ways of clustering. That is perfectly fine. See what makes the most sense.

Now, it is also an excellent time to evaluate if the customer segment you chose, still makes sense. Or, in case you did not select a particular segment, see if you can recognise some sort of segmentation. If so, you can iterate the process so far and start with step 1 again.

Step 4: Further Group to 3-4 Dominant Problems

7 to 10 problems is a lot to memorise and to help to build and communicate a clear message. The magical number is 3. 4 is okay too. If you have more than 4, you will notice that colleagues and clients will not memorise all of them after a conversation.

So, the next step is to further reduce the main problems into 3 or 4 dominant problems.

Summarise these 3-4 dominant problems into one single ultimate fear, like “adapt or die” or “hard work for less financial results, with no perspective for better times."

Step 5: Define the 3-7 Common Mistakes

Next step is to identify the 3-7 common mistakes you see your clients make that prevent them from solving the 3-4 dominant problems. These common mistakes are “wrong” thinking, actions and practices of your clients. 

For example, if one of the dominant problems is “too high operational cost”, one of the common mistakes related to this dominant problem could be that your clients have a “lack of understanding of their cost drivers and cost structure”. 

You may find some inspiration in the list of 100+ customer problems you identified in step 1.

Step 6: Define the 3-7 Solutions for Your Clients

Now define your vision of how your clients should solve each of the 3-7 common mistakes. This is not about your solution or offering yet; you will cover that in one of the next steps.

This is a relatively easy step. In essence, each solution is the opposite of a mistake. Further building on the example in the previous step, your view on the clients’ solution could be that they should “establish cost management practices”. They should gather and analyse data and step by step build a structure of their costs and cost drivers so they can monitor and manage their costs. 

Step 7: Define the Benefits and Outcome for Your Clients

Finally, describe the 3-4 key benefits and the ultimate outcome for your clients if they address the 3-7 common mistakes and apply the 3-7 customer solutions you have specified. The 3-4 benefits are the opposite of the 3-4 dominant problems, maybe structured slightly different. And the ultimate outcome is the opposite of the ultimate fear. 

Next Steps After This:

At this point, you already have a tremendously valuable insight, just using the information and knowledge you already have. Next steps to make this insight and your customer story rock-solid, are to get feedback and additional ideas from:

• Colleagues in various functions (sales, marketing, R&D, other countries)
• Partners, vendors
• Distributor or dealers

and then;

• Process the new information and update your customer story
• Build variations of the customer story for the most important customer segments
• Get feedback from your clients through open and in-depth conversations
• At some point, you may want to initiate a customer research based on the insights in your customer story to validate and expand the insights
• Adjust the wording and messaging to make your customer story more compelling and attractive for external and internal use.

 

The Benefit:

Now you have a robust and in-depth insight into your clients’ needs for today and the future which offers you an “unfair” competitive advantage. You can now;

• Improve existing service offerings
• Boost the innovation of advanced service offerings
• Improve your marketing and sales messages and marketing collateral
• Advance the conversations all customer-facing colleagues have with their clients
• Improve your Customer Success practices

Conclusion:

You are sitting on gold. You and your colleagues already have a massive amount of information and knowledge about your clients. You can turn that into actionable and compelling customer insights and a customer story to boost;

• Development of your services 
• Engagement with your clients
• Commercial success of your service business

 

You can build a substantial competitive advantage, even if you do not have the budget and resources for intensive customer and market research.

All this requires is to;

• Follow the 7 steps I described in this article, ideally with a small group. You can do this in 1-2 days. You can use our job-aid with slides and assignments for this workshop (https://moremomentum.eu/worksheet-customer-story)
• Keep each other focussed on the clients, not your own business or offerings
• Be open to new perspectives

It is not about convincing your clients of the value of your services, but about letting them convince you what they need.

 

Final Question for Reflection

Which 3 common mistakes do you make when developing and using customer insights for service innovation?

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more of Jan's exclusive writings for fieldservicenews.com @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/jan-van-veen
• Follow Jan's own work with his consultancy moreMomentum @ https://moremomentum.eu/
• Schedule a discovery session with Jan directly @ https://moremomentum.eu/discovery-session

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The service sector will weather the Corona Virus storm but our customers needs will have changed so how do you operate in a post-pandemic environment? Bill Pollock talks us through the process.
For most services organisations, 2020 started out looking every bit the same as 2019 ended – full of uncertainty in an unpredictable economy, coupled with an increasingly demanding and volatile geo-political business model. Then, the world as we knew it changed dramatically – seemingly overnight – by the impact of the Coronavirus and subsequent global economic disruption. 

However, despite all of the uncertainty and volatility, it is important to remember what we all do for a living – that is, we serve our customers by making their jobs – and their lives – easier to deal with on a day-to-day basis. This is what services organisations do, and that model has not changed over the past several decades. 

What does this mean?

Time for the Field Service Sector to Stand Tall

It means that we, as an industry, still need to provide our services to our customers – but, now, even better, quicker and more efficiently than ever before. The marketplace has no tolerance for anything less than superior service and support, and if your services organisation does not already provide it, they’ll find another organisation that does! 

Everyday, businesses of all types are forced to wrestle with quickly-moving economic downturns and upheavals, staff reductions, fluctuating stock prices, an unstable global market economy, and all of the business and personal challenges that result from their ongoing attempt to make everything work together in harmony. What better can we do as an industry than to provide our products, services, and support to our customers in a fashion so well-designed and executed that we actually make their lives easier just by doing so? 

No more artificial "bundles" of services offerings or “lemon-freshened” software packages; no more late response times or missed deliveries; no more sub-par service performance; no more surprises; and no more excuses! Today’s business environment demands that services organisations get their respective acts together, manage their service delivery processes better, and provide a full complement of the types of services and support that are meaningful to customers. 

This is even more critical as ever before, as lives are literally at stake! 

But, how do we do this? There are many ways – but it will take a lot of work, and your organisation may not be able to do it all by itself.

 

An External Review of Your Customer's Field Service Needs:

First, you will need to take a hard look externally at exactly what your customers (and prospects) require from your organisation, addressing such questions as: 

• What are our customers' specific product, service, and support needs and requirements? How do their needs differ in the immediate-, short-, mid- and longer-term? 
• Does our organization's current service and support portfolio match our customers' needs? All of their needs? Their real needs? Their immediate needs? 
• Where are there gaps between our present offerings, and our customers' future needs? 
• What additional value-add, premium, and/or professional services do our customers require – but cannot get from their current vendors? (Even from us!) 

• How are the changes our customers' organisations will be going through change their needs for service and support in the future? And, to what degree? 
• What vendor options and alternatives do users presently have? What newer options and alternatives will they be looking for tomorrow? 
• Where do we stand with respect to the competition? What will it take for us to “make the cut” from a prospect's "long list" to its "short list"? How compelling are our demos? Do they reflect the proper level of criticality in today’s chaotic environment? 
• When the dust settles, where do we want our organisation to be positioned? Does the marketplace look to us as being a progressive and responsive solution provider? Or, are we perceived more as a once-progressive vendor that has become out-of-touch, or “dusty”? 

 

An Internal Review of your Field Service Capabilities:

Second, you will also need to take an equally hard look internally to determine whether your organisation's infrastructure, operations and processes are sufficiently in place to attain your – and your customers' –overall service delivery performance goals, addressing such questions as: 

• Are we organised effectively to deliver the right products, services, and support; with the right features; to the right customer segments; at the right time? 
• Is our organisational structure effective in managing all facets of the business? What do we need to do to make it stronger? 
• Do we have the right processes in place to deliver everything we promise? How can we best measure whether they are really working? 

• Are our customer support personnel adequately trained – and empowered – to support our customer base? Can they provide "knock your socks off" service? 
• Do we provide our sales, service, and tech support personnel with all of the tools they require to get their jobs done? What more do they need to become more effective? 
• Do we have all of the Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) systems in place that are needed to run our business? Where are there gaps? What “new” technologies do we need to incorporate into our existing services operations? Augmented Reality (AR)/Merged Reality (MR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Remote Expertise, etc.? 
• Are we focused enough on the customer? Is our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) approach good enough – and is it working? Are we as responsive during the current pandemic crisis as we need to be? Do our customers think so? 
• Are we tracking and reporting the right things? Do our managers have all of the data and information they need to make effective decisions? 

• Do we have a formal plan for growing our services and support capabilities along with the changing needs of our customers? How agile is our operational structure? 
• Do we have our internal act together? How can we ensure that everything we do yields the desired outcome? 

These are certainly turbulent times, and the market has never been more serious about its choices – nor more educated in its ability to distinguish between the leaders and the "wannabes" or followers. More users are getting more information – faster – about your organisation – and its competitors – than ever before. And, they’re acting quickly upon the information they receive! If your message is not adequately articulated – and communicated – to the appropriate marketplace, you could end up “dead in the water” before you know it – even if your products and services are actually better than the competition's!

The market is looking for your message, and the worst thing that can happen to your organisation is letting your competition communicate it to them first – ahead of, and instead of,you! 

Look around, and you will no longer see any underachievers or “dead wood” competing in the marketplace. They’re all out of business, or about to disappear – one way or the other. What’s left – or what will be left, once the dust settles – are solely going to be the true performers – the services organisations that both “get it” – and “do it”. Be one of the organisations that "gets it" – and goes after it!

Don't follow your competitors – follow the needs and requirements of your customers! And make sure that you utilize all of the external and internal resources that are available to you! 

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Further Reading:

• Read more of Bill's features written exclusively for field service news @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/bill-pollock
• Follows Bill's blog and his analyst work @ https://pollockonservice.com/

 

In a turbulent automotive market Japanese manufacturing giant Nissan have had to take the hard path to find success writes Laura Anne Danaraj...

The automotive industry has been going through a state of disruption in recent years challenged by consumer-centric approaches, driving transformational changes and adopting new technologies.

With so many options available in the market, automakers need to stand out amidst economic, environmental, and emotional preferences. But how? At Field Service Asia, organized by WBR Singapore, we had the privilege to interview Jamie Morais, Head of Aftersales Dealer Operations, APAC, Nissan to learn more.

Full Cycle Service Management Across OEM, Dealer and Customer

Well, apart from doing what they do best - designing and manufacturing cars, automakers have realized the importance of giving a full spectrum of services to build brand loyalty. In the case of Nissan, the Japanese automaker is working hand-in-hand with an authorized network of dealers from different countries as their partners, seeing them as an integral part of their ecosystem.

“They (dealers) are the ones who take care of the cars for the customer," Morais explained. "Therefore, what we do from our side is to come up with policies and strategies that focus on enhancing customer experience and customer’s journey. We then work with the dealers to ensure that the kind of service delivered to the customer is accomplished.”

As such, when automakers and dealers form a collaborative partnership, customer retention improves, brand loyalty is achieved and customer engagement process is standardized. This in turn influences the overall market share gained.

However, some relationships have often been fraught with friction, as automakers appear to be occupying the passenger seat, with dealers engaging with the customers directly. How then does Nissan manage expectations and delight customers in this situation?

“Well, it’s only a challenge if you don’t put yourself in your customer’s shoes." Morais continued, "If you do put yourself in your customer’s shoes, thinking from a customer’s point of view, it becomes a delight. If you can achieve or exceed you customer’s expectation, you are already building loyalty. Our focus now is customer retention, in order to build what we call a ‘family’ of Nissan owners.”

"To minimize disruption, predictive maintenance can be performed while equipment is operating..."

Since dealers manage customer relationships, they are in the best position to build trust and personalize experience, thus, seen as enabler rather than a hindrance, a partner rather than a competitor. For Nissan, getting the buy-in of the dealers to deploy their strategies is a priority. When both manufacturer and dealer have the same goal, training and development is next to ensure that what the frontliner is saying and acting are according to the designed strategy.

And one of the strategies include embracing technology to satisfy customers, which as we all know influences the customer’s perception of the brand, and decision to buy. What kind of projects involving technology did Nissan have in place for their customers then?

“We are working on this project for ‘last mile, first mile’." Morais responded. "After you buy a car, you would then need servicing. The question is when. So instead of waiting for the customer to call you for servicing, why not call the customer instead. You are predicting when the car is going to need servicing. And, this requires technology. For us (Nissan) to be able to communicate with the car – like an indication when it needs servicing, the car should inform us of its problem first.”

To minimize disruption, predictive maintenance can be performed while equipment is operating. The transition from a reactive to a predictive mindset enables automakers to respond to the warning indication the moment it is received. Going the extra mile to provide high quality aftersales, enables manufacturers to reinforce their ties with their customers through a satisfying experience.

"Automakers should adapt to their customer’s preferred communication channel..."

Nissan is also going digital when it comes to customer interaction. With the prevalence and ease of mobile phones and tablets, Morais believes customers are after non-verbal communication these days. Looking at how customers currently interact with them, service appointment and engagement process are done without opening their mouth, but all in the palm of their hand. And with this, automakers should adapt to their customer’s preferred communication channel to make information readily available through these commonly used platforms.

“When they come in for a service, actually coming in and bringing the car to us, we try to make the process more convenient, making sure that the time that they come in to the time they go out is the shortest possible, with least disruption to their regular routine,” he said.

Convenience is key in fueling high quality aftersales; and should be infused into every single customer experience. Automotive industry is no exception when it comes to dealing with the ramifications of customer’s expectations. These expectations have a profound effect on brand loyalty, and are crucial in firming up purchasing decisions. No longer separated by dealers, automakers have to collaborate with them in bringing the brand closer to their customers. 

Finishing, Morais shared the benefits of attending Field Service Asia, how it gives him the chance to not only discover the latest technology in the market at present, especially when it comes to aftersales service, but also engage with like-minded people.

 

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If you want to learn more about digital transformation in your business or on how to engage with your customers, then make sure you attend Field Service & B2B CX Asia . 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about digital transformation in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital_transformation
• Read more about Customer Satisfaction @ www.fieldservicenews.com/Customer_Satisfaction
• Read more articles from Laura @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/laura-danaraj
• Find out more about Field Service Asia @ fieldserviceasia.wbresearch.com
• Follow Laura and the Field Service Asia TeaM on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/fieldserviceap