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Your field service engineers are the most important element of your entire workforce. Your entire company's reputation in their hands. Your field service engineers are the public face of your business and in many cases, they may be the only representative of your company that the customer ever sees.

In this feature adapted from Advanced Field Service's Service Management Handbook 2014 we look at 7 wtools you should be applying to arm your field engineers to defend your reputation and deliver field service excellence

You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

Your reputation, spread by word of mouth or increasingly through social media and online reviews, is founded on the experience your customers have of your engineers. Unfortunately, customers seem more likely to broadcast a negative experience than a positive one, especially in the consumer or domestic service sector. Some disgruntled customers have even taken to posting video blogs of their experience of poor service. A video goes viral; word spreads like wild fire; and your reputation is permanently damaged. So how can you equip your service team to build your company reputation?...  

Arming your team

 

1. Free Engineers to do what they do best -  A happy engineer more often than not results in happy customers. What motivates them best is using their time in deploying their skills rather than in endless form-filling.  Consider ways to free your service team from the routine dross that saps their time and motivation, and empower them to be more productive and efficient.

 

1. Talk to your workforce - It may seem obvious, but communication with your workforce, holding regular face-to-face group meetings on the status of the business and sharing any development plans will all help build a work team ethos, visibly improve productivity and make individuals feel valued and part of the bigger picture. Consider holding workshops between management and the workforce to maximise the knowledge of the entire company and boost morale.

 

1. Make your engineers your eyes and ears - With their close, on-the-ground contact with your customer base, even the most junior engineer can be a source of intelligence, such as feedback on how your customers regard your products and services: are they generally happy or are there murmurings about changing their supplier or service provider? Your field team is also a valuable channel for communicating your vision of service quality and also for publicising forthcoming product updates or new releases.

 

1. Encourage self monitoring - Some service companies are using modern technology such as GPS tracking to weed out the worst instances of misconduct among their engineers. Others are adopting a more complementary method where their engineers choose their priorities and self-monitor their performance, an enlightened approach that can pay dividends. Whatever you decide, consider the culture of your organisation. You may choose a halfway stance – after all, you don’t want to be seen as Big Brother, but it’s likely you’ll need some sort of process in place to support your growing business.

 

1. <Information: the vital tool in your engineers’ kit -  It’s essential that your engineers have the right tools for the job, and not only their physical toolkit, to arrive on-site fully armed and hit the ground running. They need information about the product, such as parts, diagrams, nature of the problem and known workarounds, as well as information about the customer, including their service history and essentials such as their contact details and location. In addition, alert your engineers to any issues that the customer has, such as a recurring problem with a particular product, so that they can handle the situation with all due sensitivity.

 

1. Mobilise your team - Information should also travel in the reverse direction: from the engineer back to base. Using their mobile device, engineers can send the customer’s sign-off back to the call control centre, along with any photographs or other supporting evidence, and details such as time to arrive on site and time to complete the job. This information can be sent immediately to the contract manager to provide an instant report. A mobile solution is also a useful way to record exceptions to your usual high standards. In some cases, your engineer may be prevented from getting to the root of the problem. Was the equipment inaccessible due to a physical obstruction or the machine being unavailable for servicing? A photo will provide supporting evidence should there be a query from the customer at a later date.

 

1. Room to grow - To keep staff retention to a maximum, it makes sense to build a happy and rewarding work environment where employees can flourish and grow. A clear and defined development strategy and regular career mentoring is likely to make employees more inclined to stay at a company. Mixing up experienced engineers with new engineers will also speed up the learning curve and give individuals the opportunity to advance.

 

 

Want to know more? You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

 

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You may or may not have spotted it  but over the course of the year in my series of features for Field Service News I have been writing a series of articles that describe and outline a framework of the critical attributes and understanding required to deliver a successful Service Business.

Why? Most managers find it hard to know where to start, because service transformation involves every single aspect of a business.

In other words it's a complex process, with many possible pathways to being able to deliver sustainable growth. So we created the service business model to provide managers with a holistic view of how to break the business challenges into smaller bite size chunks which they can action.

I wanted to illustrate these chunks through real case studies that I have experienced. This final article pulls it all together into a coherent story.

The 50,000ft Birds-Eye perspective

In our 1st article en-titled ‘Where to Start’ we described four key elements companies should understand in order to develop a service business.

1. VALUE: Do you know the value you can create for your customer, and what your own organisations strategy is for turning it into profit?
2. GO-TO MARKET: Can you innovate, design, develop, market and sell service propositions?
3. SERVICE DELIVERY: Can you deliver services consistently, profitably and to the level of customer experience you intended?
4. PLAN: Do you have a detailed explicit plan to drive change that is supported by your leadership and your people?

This is a good start, but how do you get into the detail? We went on to describe nine best practices case studies that provide some insights into how to achieve the balancing act required to develop a profitable service business.

1. Know your CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY(s)

We reviewed how Husky, a leading manufacturer of capital equipment mapped out their customer journey through the product lifecycle to understand the specific 'moments of sales' when the customer was open to the services being proposed.

This insight is often the 1^st step to truly understanding how your customer’s business operates, and where you can make a difference. Many companies have an intuitive feel for their customer. Many more would do well to bring some analysis to their ‘gut feeling’, to uncover the attractive target segments and quantify the value add of all the stakeholders in the value chain.

2. Define your strategy for CORPORATE VALUE MANAGEMENT

In ‘Ouch! Getting the profit/cost centre call wrong’ we highlighted the importance of understanding your own companies objectives. What is your business model to make money?

How does your strategy translate into organisational design? What are the systems and processes you need to manage value? It is not only about the numbers, but your culture and also your capabilities. In particular the ability to manage knowledge.

 

We illustrated this through looking at how different companies have tackled the question of service being a separate P&L and when this has successfully brought focus to their service transformation.

The point is ‘Know Yourself!’. This is the key to discovering how you will reach your goals.

3. CUSTOMER PERCEPTION OF VALUE

In our 3^rd article, ‘Finding nuggets of customer gold’, we discussed that there is no point understanding the customer journey and your own business strategy if you can not define the value you can deliver to your customer’s business.  This is probably the most basic building block for developing the service value proposition.

Through the case study of Yokogawa, we saw how good insight into this value does not always come through the sales team. Indeed using a number of different methodologies can lead to surprising results. In this example they found customers wanted much closer technical relationships to boost the OEE of their plant. On the face of it, this simple insight was the enabler to really innovate for customer value.

4. PROPOSITION DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT

‘Services that speak to their customers’ moved us away from VALUE and onto the GOTO MARKET strategy. We discussed how leading companies nearly always have a formal stage-gate type process to design and deploy services.

But that services are different from products, in that the use of prototyping and agile design techniques is more prevalent, because the upfront investment is not so large. We looked at Yokogawa as an example of how by looking at your websites language you can discover for yourself, whether your corporate culture is more INSIDE-OUT and product orientated, or more OUTSIDE-IN and focused on customer value.

 

Studies such as Noventum’s ‘Drivers of Growth’ earlier this year show that the more driven a company is in seeking inputs from it’s customer’s, the more likely it is to achieve higher growth rates of 10% or more.

5. SERVICE SALES MODEL

The second important component of a GOTO MARKET strategy is the Service Sales model. Here we are using Sales in the broadest sense of the word, including not only the front line sales team, but also the sales support teams, all customer touching employees and marketing. They all contribute to selling service!

So in ‘Service Sales; How difficult can it be?’, we heard the experiences of a leading equipment manufacturer in the Packaging Industry, as they ramped up their Service Sales. The key lessons from the Head of Bobst’s Service Business Unit were:

1. Time: spend time with Product Sales explaining the contribution of services to their success.
2. Focus, Focus, Focus: through dedicated Service Sales and Marketing teams
3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: it’s a major cultural change
4. Patience: it takes time and commitment to develop the relationships in order to get results

An important message that becomes clear, is that there is no one Service Sales Model that guarantees success. It very much depends on the context of your industry, people and markets.

6. SERVICE DELIVERY MODEL

Having a clear view of VALUE and a GO-TO MARKET strategy is not enough to create a sustainable business. In our 6^th article ‘Don’t Lose your Service Shirts’ we began to explore SERVICE DELIVERY, often so critical to delivering profitability. First we looked at the five core components of the Service Delivery mode:

• End to End business processes
• Service management practices
• People competencies
• Performance management systems (KPI’s)
• IT Functional requirements and Master-data management

We described how Bobst were able to standardise seven different brands and sets of service processes into one global ’Book of Standard’s’ in only three months.

Their vision was to build a Standardised Back-Office, which could be customised for the different needs of their global customer base. This was achieved using a methodology that broke their business down into small standard, best practice components, and then rebuilt the processes with these standard components.

A bit like lego bricks. This methodology, which is used by leading technical service businesses such as Xerox and Siemens, allow the business to deeply understand & define the business needs. This is vitally important before deploying new technologies that automate the processes, bring transparency to data and help companies manage their knowledge.

7. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Successful service delivery is all about the your people. So in our 7th article ‘Why Dutch firm Hutten are happy to stand out from the Crowd’, we looked at a very innovative approach based on happiness.

They undertook a programme to promote the values of happiness, collaboration, transparency and sustainability across their organization, suppliers and stakeholders. The result was significantly improved productivity. An unusual approach , but it underlines the importance of people and communication in any business.

8. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The final aspect of Service Delivery is to ensure the customer experience is what we intended when we designed our services. Ten years ago, this was usually an intuitive process within the B2B world.

A good example being how our people look or how they answer the phone. As our economies have become more Knowledge & Experience centric, customer experience has become a critical outcome to be designed, managed and improved. In ‘Is your service organisation looking inside out or outside in’ we explored different methods for gaining insights into Customer Experience. We looked at how one Medical equipment manufacturer went further than their standard Net-Promoter-Score survey’s and undertook in-depth interviews at different customer touch points.

The results were very uncomfortable. The challenge for the company was to, take the observations at face value and action them. Not easy for an organisation, if you have an internally focused technology culture.

 

The awareness of customer experience as an important element of fulfilling the Brand promise has led to leading companies introducing more formal Service Design processes and developing Service Design professionals.

9. PLAN

In our final article, ‘The Winning Plan’, we see how leading researchers have proved what most managers already know. Without an explicit documented plan, that is fully committed to by the leadership and the people, all the efforts on ensuring VALUE, having a robust GOTO MARKET strategy and an excellent SERVICE DELIVERY operation will go to waste. What needs to be done simply will not happen.

So if you have not guessed it yet, the value of this type of Service Business Model is to help managers see where are the priorities. Transformation and change is complex and not everything is possible at once. So to be able to see the wood from the trees and navigate the way to the destination is critical to success.

This Service Business Model is explored in more depth during Noventum’s Service Executive Leadership Courses. For more information use this link to our website www.noventum.eu

The Internet of Things is rapidly gaining momentum and is moving from hyperbole to reality. Gil Bouhnick, VP of Mobility at ClickSoftware looks at why IoT will become indispensable in the world of field service... perhaps sooner than we may think...

With the Internet of Things (IoT) virtually any object now can have the capability to either process, store or transmit data. From infrastructure to the human body, the connected world provides the opportunity to use sensors to generate information that can be monitored, analysed and acted upon. However, while the IoT is still finding its feet, there’s no denying the positive impact it can have moving forward – not just on businesses but for customers too.

For businesses, the potential is extensive and there are already many examples of connected devices that are set to revolutionise industries. The field service space is anticipated to be one of the early adopters, largely because it currently depends considerably on human mediation between machines, meters and managers.

 

With IoT the opportunities here are vast, ranging from devices that help the emergency services in search and rescue operations to energy companies using predictive technology and smart alerts to help identify problems as early as possible, even preventing them in some cases.

Machine-to-machine communication has been used in the field service industry for years. However, IoT has the capabilities to expand beyond this one-to-one level of communication, sending “smart alerts” to a whole network. For example, an alert may be triggered when a sensor exceeds its temperature threshold. Through this information, the sensor would be able to decide the next steps – whether this can be fixed remotely and if not, to allocate the most suitable worker for the job. The ‘smart’ alert would be able to advise what tools are needed for the job, the skills required, the estimated time it will take to fix and most importantly, how urgent it is.

Whereas smart alerts are essential for notifying workers to issues, the real value is predictive technology. With the IoT and cloud-based services, remote machines and equipment can send status updates, location information, and other condition-based, servicing data. This enables companies to locate machinery and figure out how to get to it with the correct replacement parts and the right technicians to resolve issues before failures occur.

 

An example of this is if a sensor identifies a crack in a waste-pipe and feeds this back to the control centre. By alerting that there are signs of erosion, a technician could get to the site and repair the pipe before it bursts. As well as this helping to prevent such issues occurring but it also cuts down the number of inspections that are needed meaning that workers can focus on more urgent repair work.

Not only does predictive technology benefit the business and technician, this also has a huge impact on the customer experience. For example, being able to lessen the number of power cuts or even keeping the customer updated on the progress of getting the power back on.

By identifying issues as early as possible and being able to allow resources to focus on more urgent areas can make a real difference to the overall experience. Customers have come to expect an instant response to potential issues and with the increased use of social media, a company’s reputation can suffer if they are not able to respond in an acceptable time, along with the consequences of missing any service level agreements in place. Pre-empting customer complaints is the next evolutionary stage in improving customer service and predictive, smart technology is one of the tools that can help businesses make that next step up and avoid potentially losing over a third of their customers due to poor service.

Driving the IoT, is the use of mobile and smart devices which have steadily become a key part of remote field service. The emergence of wearable technology has the tools capable of taking remote working, communication and convenience to a whole new level.

 

Combine that with IoT and status messages and updates can be sent directly between machines and the devices worn by technicians, all while they are on the move and keeping their hands free. No longer will technicians working in complex situations have to risk taking their phone out to read a new notification. Actions can now be sent straight to the wrist or smart glasses making them easier to read and act upon, increasing the experience for the worker.

While it is unclear what the scale of adoption of IoT will be, (Morgan Stanley has estimated the number of connected devices will reach 75 billion by 2020, whereas Gartner believes it will be much lower at 26 million), what we are seeing is significant investments in the technology. Take Germany for example, it has poured huge sums of money into what it calls ‘Smart Factories’ that are able to fetch and assemble components without further human inputs. At the same time, Google has paid $3.2 billion for Nest Labs which produces thermostats that can be remotely controlled by smartphones and other connected devices. Here in the UK, the roll-out of smart meters in homes is another step for IoT transitioning from theory to reality.

Whether it is changing how a field technician repairs something or how they work and communicate with people back at the office, the IoT is set to change how the person using devices and systems spend their day. It’s still early days for IoT but it seems to be only good news for the industry, bringing benefits for employees, businesses and the customer.

 

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Today, the ultimate goal of field service excellence is to respond quickly to customer needs, whatever they may be and it takes four criteria to meet this goal: Be on time, allow enough time to do the job, have the right skills and bring the right equipment. Trimble Field Service Management's General Manager John Cameron explains more...

For the mobile technician, an increased importance has been put on their role to the overall success of the organisation, as they are quite often the only interaction a customer will have with the business. This has led to the search for new ways to empower technicians and equip them with the right tools that allow them to excel at their jobs, through improved communication, collaboration, data sharing and integration.

 

Recent research from Aberdeen Group[1] found that 82 per cent of field service organisations identified mobility as a strategic initiative for the service operation in the next 12 months, as a tool to empower the field with real-time intelligence to make decisions and resolve issues to better serve the customer. Companies that understand how to strategically leverage mobility solutions stand to drive efficiencies, improve customer service and benefit from a more profitable bottom line.

 

With field-based work becoming increasingly complex and time-sensitive, more and more businesses are beginning to focus on the proliferation of mobile solutions, integrated with back-end field service solutions, to help manage field operations and provide the mobile workforce with the real-time knowledge needed to make better, more intelligent decisions while in the field.

The Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) has huge potential for the field service industry. It enables devices that are equipped with sensors, hardware and software to be networked together through the internet, where they can communicate with one another and send and receive data. Machine-to-machine (M2M) technology is already helping field service companies to find out about issues before they occur through this development but the IoT is said to go beyond M2M and represents the ‘next generation’ for field service, connecting not just with machines but with systems, people and other things.

For example, IoT allows field service companies to gain greater insight into the status and health of their assets remotely, enabling a smarter approach to proactive and preventive maintenance. Sensors can be integrated into their devices in the field which can yield a huge amount of data on diagnostics, measurements, temperature and overall conditions, all of which is instrumental in preventing equipment failure, scheduling maintenance and improving safety. The same principle applies for condition-based maintenance. Businesses will be able to become better at it as they will have access to more and better information in the first place.

Mobile apps

There are a number of different approaches a business can take in order to create a mobile application strategy, one of the most common being to develop them internally with mobile app development tools. At its core, mobile applications provide technicians with the ability to share, store and view job data while out in the field, offering them a virtual link to the back office that helps to inform and empower them.

 

Having full visibility of a field operation is a key success factor and mobile applications that can offer visibility into the status, location and performance of field assets (technicians, parts, equipment etc) help technicians considerably in getting to the right place at the right time with the information they need to do their job correctly the first time. A number of mobile applications on the market today also provide added value to the field worker by enabling them to easily locate and contact nearby co-workers if they need assistance on a job or require advice on solving a problem. By having the tools to work more collaboratively, resolution is more likely to be reached first-time, helping to increase worker productivity and effectiveness.

 

The plethora of information offered through mobile applications can include previous work history of jobs and upcoming work details. For example, if a technician is en-route to a customer, a quick look at service history on a mobile phone can inform them that the customer has complained multiple times to the helpdesk about a product/equipment failure. This is vital information that can help the technician approach the customer with more care, helping to maintain a good customer service. Furthermore, when a technician reviews and accepts a job within a mobile application, the mobile devices’ navigation tool can help them find the most efficient route. Helping to reduce fuel consumption and travel time. From a service perspective, the technician can then pull up the customer’s details and call them to confirm when they will be arriving on-site.

Mobility solutions: What to choose?

There are a multitude of mobile devices on the market today that help technicians get to the right place on time, fix the customer’s problem the first time, and move on to the next task. The problem field service organisations face is choosing the right technology for their field based workers.

Ruggedised devices continue to evolve as mobile technology improves and have proven successful in helping field workers to complete their daily tasks. Such devices can be used in the harshest of environments and enable scanning packages, diagnostics, checking customer records, invoicing and delivery confirmation, among other tasks.

As the lines between consumer and business technology continue to merge, non-rugged tablets and smartphones have also broken into the field service marketplace. Tablets tend to be larger than smartphones and therefore engineers may find it easier to view and input job details. At the same time, smartphones offer the portability factor.

The ‘Bring Your Own Device’ debate has received much coverage in the service sector and has arguably been dubbed as being the only way forward for businesses looking to compete effectively and offer the most efficient customer service and increased employee satisfaction.

 

Simply, ‘Bring Your Own Device’ refers to employees having the ability to connect their own technical devices, such as smartphones, laptops and tablets, to their company’s network instead of using a device owned by the company. Uptake of BYOD had been relatively slow in the field service industry but recent years have seen an influx of workers bringing their own personal devices into their work environment to use in their everyday jobs and the advantages, both to the organisation and the employee, are significant.

 

For the field service organisation, it creates new opportunities for the business by increasing the number of tech-savvy and mobile-application users in the workforce. For the employee, they have taken a personal choice to use the technology and are familiar with it. This in turn will lead to increased satisfaction and productivity whilst eliminating the need for technical support and training costs for the business.

Mobility solutions: Capturing the insight

When a field service organisation deploys a mobile strategy, the wealth of data captured around technician performance, customer data, vehicle location, work order status etc. is not enough to make intelligent business decisions. It is how that data is analysed and turned into usable information that is what will really make a difference. For this reason, data captured through mobile devices must be tied into other systems within the organisation’s technology infrastructure, if not it will get lost. Indeed, Aberdeen Group found the top strategic action for 62 per cent of best-in-class field service organisations to be to improve data integration between the field and back office systems[2].

Aberdeen Group’s research also found that best-in-class field service organisations are 49 per cent more likely than peers to integrate data from mobile devices with back-end systems, such as ERP and CRM[3]. This integration will then allow other departments, such as sales, marketing and engineering to benefit from the field insights captured and maximise its value.

 

For example, customer and equipment data has the ability to spark insights into new products, services and campaigns, which benefit the organisation in revenue opportunities. This interaction also helps customers get access to products and services that will help improve their productivity and business goals. Service is ultimately a partnership between the customer and the organisation and without the use of captured data, the opportunity to evolve will be lost.

 

Ultimately, having a mobility strategy in place allows for better empowerment, data sharing and collaboration out in the field. For the field worker, they are provided with the best possible support and are able, themselves, to make use of the real-time information and knowledge to make the right decisions while on the move. As a result, they are better positioned to resolve issues first-time and deliver the best service they can.

For more information on how to drive an agile, dynamic field service operation through the adoption of mobile solutions, download Aberdeen Group Senior Research Analyst Aly Pinder’s recent report, Empowering the Mobile Worker with Real-Time Insight and Data Integration, here.  The report provides insight into how top performers provide technicians with the right information in the field, integrate data captured in the field with back office systems (via mobile apps) and excel at delivering resolution and not just a response.

[1] Aberdeen Group, Empowering the mobile worker with real-time insight and data integration, 2014

[2] Aberdeen Group: Service Mobility: The right technology for the tech, 2014

[3] Aberdeen Group: Service Mobility: The right technology for the tech, 2014

Why is it that, in a time of unprecedented innovation in phone technology, all field service mobile apps are the same? Ian Mapp, Director at Wyser Stewart throws down the gauntlet to app developers...

Not precisely the same, of course. But, essentially they all try to solve the challenges faced by mobile engineers/technicians in the same way. If you look at the websites of companies that supply such applications – and there are plenty to choose from, too many to list here – you will find the descriptions almost interchangeable.

They all claim to increase productivity by replacing the reliance on paper-based forms, reliably integrating with office-based systems, eliminating errors and speeding up processes; improving cashflow by removing delays in producing the final invoice and reducing customer disputes. Sure, there are differences in details and variations in the technology platforms that are supported, but they are almost identical in capabilities. Plus, delivering indistinguishable experiences for the user.

 

It seems that the biggest innovation right now is who supplies the device – the company or the worker! To BYOD, or not to BYOD. It’s 2014. Is that best we can do? Really?

Smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, with market penetration in the UK this year estimated somewhere between 70-80%. And each of them has amazing computing capability, and a bunch of ‘smart’ features that make them very powerful devices. The biggest challenge when rolling out mobile applications is often user resistance to changing their working practices, but we don’t exploit those capabilities or make it very attractive when all we offer our engineers is a replacement for filling out forms.

“Okay, if you’re so clever, what do you suggest?” I hear you ask. And it’s a fair question.

The design for today’s apps mostly started out as automated equivalents of paper systems, as has been mentioned. And that is true of most administrative software products. Take a manual procedure, tweak it a bit and write the resulting re-engineered process into code. Bingo! A faster version of what worked before, more reliable, more consistent and leading to more work being done.

But, what if we started from a clean sheet and made smartphone capabilities intrinsic to the design of a new model for mobile workers? What might that look like? Now, I am by no means a software developer so some of this may not be practical, but I am an enthusiastic smartphone user and this does not seem at all far-fetched. Here are some ideas for a (better) day in the life for an engineer, using M/App (our imaginary mobile app - sorry, couldn’t resist it!)

 

It’s 07:45, and Sam’s phone chimes. Sam has been checking the news headlines and is already logged into the phone – possibly using a fingerprint for security validation. M/App knows, from a calendar entry, that Sam is scheduled for a shift starting at 08:00 and offers a simple prompt, “Ready to start your shift Sam?” with Yes/No/Snooze options for a response. No logging in to an application, no menu choices to be made, just a single button press (or voice input).

The software interrogates Sam’s scheduled jobs and checks for any delays on the journey to the first one. There are none, and at 08:02 M/App gently reminds Sam that he needs to start his daily vehicle check, in order to set off in time for his first appointment. The checklist is on-screen as soon as the phone detects movement outside to the van. The vehicle check requires input from Sam, but once that is finished, the app is expecting that travel will begin to the site and will not require any further response if it detects movement at speed – indicating driving – on a reasonable route to the first destination.

The phone detects that Sam is out of the vehicle, and based on GPS signals, prompts for confirmation that Sam has arrived on-site. He may only have parked nearby and needs some time before he truly arrives, or he may have unrelated tasks to perform – like returning a call to a manager – and so a positive acknowledgement is required.

Depending on the quality of the data about the machine to be serviced, it may be possible to use the latest in-building positioning technologies to determine when Sam is ready to begin work. Irrespective of that detail, M/App will always default to a prompt about the next expected step in the process.

 

For example, asking “Are you ready to start work on the xyz machine?” with Yes/No/Snooze options is simpler than asking for a ‘Start Time’ to be input in HH:MM format. And streamlining the data input demands will also encourage Sam to record what he is doing in real-time, further improving the flow of data back to the office and the decisions to be made about new priority jobs, and dynamically rescheduling for overruns and delays.

The workflow will progress through the necessary actions to complete the job, using any sensors or features of the device than can provide knowledge that enable the app to intelligently determine what is happening and what should happen next – clock, camera, touch screen, accelerometers, GPS and Wi-Fi for positioning, other installed apps or OS facilities.

I am not suggesting that everything will flow simply from step to step without variation – that would not be realistic – but in many industries and job types there is a definite pattern to the individual activities and M/App suggests the ‘line of least resistance’ for the engineer to follow. That’s what we call best-practice, isn’t it?

M/App is always active in the background, trying to ensure that the schedule can be met. For example, Sam starts a task with a ‘standard’ time of 60 minutes. After 30 minutes, the app checks for travel delays and detects a problem, with a hold-up of 20 minutes and a late arrival predicted. The app prompts Sam for an estimated completion time, he confirms 30 minutes, and informs the central system of the upcoming problem. That allows the scheduling system to determine the best course of action. A decision is made and the change to his schedule is communicated to Sam’s device while he continues to work, meaning that he can immediately move on to the right next job – avoiding the traffic hold-up. That improves the productivity of his shift, and means more satisfied customers at the end of the day.

The application is “nudging” Sam to carry out the tasks and jobs in the order that the centralised scheduling system has determined to be optimal, by requiring the lowest level of effort to follow that plan. However, Sam may be able to override that, and carry out work in a different sequence – one of his own choosing. But, it will mean more inputs, choices and manual navigation by him to achieve those overrides.

[quote]How can we use the power of a smartphone to unobtrusively assist our engineers in their daily work, enabling them to focus on delivering service to our customers?’

The underlying design principle of M/App is not ‘how can we get our engineers to fill out the head-office mandated forms better?’, but ‘how can we use the power of a smartphone to unobtrusively assist our engineers in their daily work, enabling them to focus on delivering service to our customers?’. It’s a simple change in approach, but that switch somehow changes everything.

 

So, come on application developers, the market is ripe for some innovation. Over to you.

Earlier this year Field Service News reported that Germany's leading pay TV company Sky Deutschland had been able to double their field service engineer productivity after implementing Fast Lean Smart's (FLS) FLS VISITOUR scheduling and FLS Mobile solutions.

Now in this exclusive interview with Lydia Otto, Director Field Service and Supply Chain, Sky Deutschland we look at this success story further including what attracted her to working with FLS in the first place and how the project has played out... 

Ms Otto, Sky is incredibly popular and, without doubt, the synonym for pay TV. How do you explain its huge popularity?

LO: Sky offers its customers first class entertainment whenever and wherever they want it. This includes award-winning series very soon after US transmission and only on Sky, access to the latest blockbuster films, high-quality kids channels and exclusive sports coverage, for instance all games in the Bundesliga and Champions League.

The multiple functions of the Sky+ hard drive receiver and the mobile service Sky Go allow our subscribers to become their own TV directors – both at home and when out. Moreover, as a leading innovation integrator we are always good for a surprise; tweaking and inventing products, online services and formats. Needless to say, our customer service also plays a key role.

In 2011, you decided to introduce a central scheduling system for your service engineers and, within this context, to implement the scheduling software FLS VISITOUR and the mobile solution FLS MOBILE. What were the actual reasons for this decision?

LO: While redefining the field service strategy in 2011 it became clear that we would have to expect an increase of orders in the short term. We wished to receive the “right” orders. In other words, to only be called out when the in-home service actually creates a real added value, prevents further calls to the customer service centre or stops customers from possibly terminating their contracts.

The expected increase in volume also meant that we needed an IT system for our scheduling activities. The key objectives were to standardise route planning, enhance productivity, increase back office efficiency, cut the time to process orders and reduce the amount of time engineers spend on the road.

 

What were the criteria used to select FLS VISITOUR, i.e. FLS as your software-partner of choice?

LO: Besides our demands for increased field service efficiency, the licence model appealed to us, since it ensures the scalability of our intentions for the coming years. Moreover, the tool was fully compatible with our corporate hardware, which meant no hardware had to be purchased and the software was implemented with very little effort on our part.

From your point of view, which demands had to be met by the appointment and route scheduling software? Have these demands changed over the past three years? If yes, how has FLS VISITOUR and FLS MOBILE helped you?

LO: The demands that had to be met were: Simultaneous use by various end users, optional interface to the customer management system, presentation of various order types (problem solving vs. installation), consideration of different working time models, output of a route plan with graphical representation and connection to mobile end devices.

[quote float="right"]The demands placed on scheduling software have not changed fundamentally, but they have become more detailed, e.g. adherence to the prioritisation of orders in the graphical representation or the mapping of service partners with available time

As a company, Sky continues to grow and this brings new challenges in terms of efficiency and productivity for our field service and customer service department. As such, the demands placed on scheduling software have not changed fundamentally, but they have become more detailed, e.g. adherence to the prioritisation of orders in the graphical representation or the mapping of service partners with available time. Transferring orders to service partners at the click of a mouse is also desired. The next two or three years will present us with a whole host of other interesting topics, e.g. real-time or GPS planning or interconnecting further partner networks.

 

How has Sky profited specifically by using FLS VISITOUR and FLS MOBILE? And which corporate figures illustrate this benefit most effectively?

LO: Since the beginning of 2011 all the relevant key figures for Sky’s field service have improved. We have seen a 72% increase in productivity, while reducing the processing time and journey times by 42% and 41% respectively. By the way, since introducing FLS, we have been able to process three times as many orders with the same number of back office staff.

According to a number of independent surveys, Sky delivers the best service. This is definitely something you can be proud of, while at the same time acting as an incentive to maintain this high level and to drive up customer satisfaction even further. What are the cornerstones of this excellent service and which goals need to be achieved in order for you to improve your service?

[quote float="left"]We must offer an exceptional service that goes beyond simple installation where subscribers receive real added value

LO:Sky has been continuously investing in customer service staff, technologies and processes for many years. Our aim, particularly in the area of in-home service, is not just to install receivers and to solve technical problems, but to seize the moment and turn it into a ‘wow’ effect. We must offer an exceptional service that goes beyond simple installation where subscribers receive real added value and discover everything they wish to know about the world of Sky from the comfort of their own living rooms. We carry out regular quality calls to seek direct feedback from customers. Satisfaction > 92% (Top 1&2) with the technical customer service shows we are on the right track to ensuring Sky customers have the best possible experience.

 

Meeting the individual needs of your customers and their service demands is a particular challenge you face in the battle to attract further subscribers and to reinforce your position in the market. How does Sky go about satisfying these needs and wants?

LO: Five years of Sky mean five years of continuous growth and 3.813 million subscribers by the end of the second quarter of 2014. As we see it, there is no such thing as ‘one big reason’ why someone should choose Sky. There are most probably hundreds of small considerations to take into account. But at the end of the day it boils down to three things: Provide your customers with the best and most exclusive programme and let them decide when and where they wish to view it. Invest in innovation and surprise the viewers and, of course, offer exceptional customer service.

How did your scheduling and in-home service staff react to the implementation of FLS VISITOUR and FLS MOBILE? How much convincing and change management did it take? Has introduction of the software led to greater staff satisfaction?

LO: In the long run, the introduction of the software delivers significant improvements for our field service division both office based dispatchers and field service engineers. [quote float="right"]as with all changes, a certain amount of convincing and change management was needed

However, as with all changes, a certain amount of convincing and change management was needed. Whereas previously it was in the hands of the field service engineers to schedule their own daily appointments, this is now the responsibility of the dispatchers. Initial obstacles were quickly overcome and all the other challenges, such as mobile device training or preparing the basic scheduling parameters, were dealt with relatively easily.

 

Adopting new corporate software usually involves an implementation project, which is often met with a fair amount of scepticism by companies and staff alike. How did you experience working with FLS as the project partner during the implementation phase? What are your expectations with regard to the level of support provided by a software developer after implementation?

LO: FLS is a partner that not only underpins the way we operate our business on a daily basis, but also with whom we can discuss individual development steps and continuously adapt the system to our needs. Furthermore, we perceive FLS as a project partner who, whenever necessary, provides us with support that actually goes beyond the contractual terms of service. We are extremely happy with the direct personal advice and support, as there is always a dedicated point of contact available.

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Field Service News recently undertook an exclusive research project, sponsored by TomTom Telematics to explore the standards of field service companies.

Across the last three features we have taken a close look at the findings of this research In part one which is available here we explored what technology was being deployed and identified a the have's and the have not's of the industry. In the second part of this series, which is available here we expanded on this by taking a more detailed looked at how companies are communicating with their employees in the field and why this is such a key component of getting it right when it comes to delivering service excellence.

In the third part we began to see patterns emerging that indicated a clear link between the levels of service a company can deliver and the technology that they employ. You can find this feature here 

Now in the final part of this series we will look at exactly where field service standards are falling flat, exploring if there is a disconnect between our own perception of our service and our customers before drawing conclusions across the research results as a whole...

There is also an accompanying report to this series which you can access by clicking this link…

Measuring field service worker productivity

As we saw in the last segment of this series if we were to put together a report card for how our customers view service standards amongst field service companies then we would probably be looking at a ‘could do better’ scenario for the field service industries as a whole. [quote float="left"]Did those working in field service believe that their organisation at least was hitting the right notes of success when it comes down to meeting service expectations?

 

But how does this compare to how we measure our own field workers productivity? Is it a case that our customers expectations are rising rapidly and we are yet to adjust to these new demands? Did those working in field service believe that their organisation at least was hitting the right notes of success when it comes down to meeting service expectations?

We asked our respondents to identify their main KPIs that they set for their field workers given them the options of “number of calls attended”, “number of jobs completed”, “number of first time fix rates”, and “sales/leads generated”.

It seems that when it comes to marking our own performances, the field service industries are somewhat more forgiving than our customers with over three quarters of companies (77%) stating that they are generally meeting these KPIs. There is clearly a disconnect between the two realities which needs to be addressed, and it may seem we need to reassess what the standards are that we should be aiming for...

Are we setting the right KPI’s

Lets begin by taking a closer look at these KPIs that are being met in a little further detail... The most common KPI was number of jobs completed, which was cited by over half (54%) of our respondent field service companies. The importance of ensuring that wherever possible jobs are completed is of clear business benefit; especially if we understand that each additional call is going to not only cause our company additional cost but also add further frustration and potentially lost revenue for our customers also.

Therefore it is good to see that so many companies value this is as a KPI. [quote float="right"]Whilst the field service workers themselves may work hard to reach their daily rota of allocated calls, if they are not completing the jobs then all that hard work may as well count for nothing.

Number of calls attended however, is less of an efficient measure, almost simply a tick box exercise. This is reflected in the fact that far fewer companies, in fact just 13% utilise this as a measure of their employees productivity.

Whilst the field service workers themselves may work hard to reach their daily rota of allocated calls, if they are not completing the jobs then all that hard work may as well count for nothing. It is absolutely vital that we empower our field service engineers to be able to complete as many jobs as possible.

Again the technology is there to improve these odds, systems that enable knowledge sharing, or access to parts inventory, or intelligently scheduling the right worker, with the right skill set required for the job are all widely available from a number of providers (such as our research sponsor TomTom Telematics) and these really massively improve your productivity levels.
 

Getting it right, first time - the field service mantra

This leads us on to the direction where many think the focus of the next generation of field service management will lay. That is the pursuit of a combination of preventative and planned maintenance and the accompanying increase on first time fix rates. Currently only 16% of companies set first time fix rates as a KPI. [quote float="left"]As we move towards a world of remote machine-to-machine diagnostics, the Internet of Things and 3D printable parts the first time fix should become less elusive and even commonplace.

In some ways this is a reflection of the current reality, first time fix rates are always desirable but rarely achievable.

The fix may be reliant on parts not to hand, or in some cases particularly where complicated machinery or devices are involved diagnosis of the exact problem may take the full allocated time slot. However, as we move towards a world of remote machine-to-machine diagnostics, the Internet of Things and 3D printable parts the first time fix should become less elusive and even commonplace.

Whilst these concepts may seem futuristic the reality is that they are not too far away, but even if they remain out of reach for now, initiatives such as improving customer communication, so we can start to get our customers to be part of the diagnostics program, are available and in many cases require just a simple shift in thinking as to how we approach service, to become part of the solution.

With this in mind it is really interesting to see that those companies who are currently embracing technology (i.e. using dynamic scheduling, intelligently responding to emergencies and use apps to communicate workloads to their field workers) have a much higher focus on first time fix rates with almost half of the companies in this bracket (47%) stating that this is their main KPI.

Incidentally 20% of these companies state that “number of jobs” completed is their main KPI It seems that the use of technology is allowing such companies greater productivity and the next evolution for these companies is to continuously try to improve their service standards, and improving first time fix rates is the logical progression which is of benefit to both customer and service supplier.

Our customers want our attention

There are a number of interesting points that this research has thrown up at us. Firstly there seems to be a big disconnect between the way we are judging the performance of our field workers, and the reality which our customers see.

When we put together the questions for this survey I genuinely felt that very few companies would have had people turning up at the wrong address, for companies whose workforce is based on the road this is surely the simplest of standards to meet, yet it seems it is not only a fairly common issue but a frequent one at that. [quote float="right"]Having a call centre is simply not enough in any industry these days. Our customers want our attention, they want it now, and they want to use their own preferred means of doing so whether that be phone, email, online chat or even social media. 

 

Similarly for so many ‘service’ companies to be failing when it comes to perhaps the most important element of service i.e. communication was also a major surprise. It seems that customers and their expectations have evolved rapidly in the twenty first century and many if not the majority of service companies have fallen behind those expectations. Having a call centre is simply not enough in any industry these days.

Our customers want our attention, they want it now, and they want to use their own preferred means of doing so whether that be phone, email, online chat or even social media. We need to move quickly to accommodate these needs, because if we don’t you can be sure our competitors will.

However, all is not lost. The technology is their to help and it is no longer prohibitively costly as it was a few years ago. What’s more is as the technology evolves integration between differing systems means we can work with solutions that are tailored specifically for our business.

TomTom Telematics for example now have three separate API’s across their solution that allows for integration with a whole raft of other providers enabling you to tailor your solution to meet your exact needs. As TomTom Telematics Director Giles Margerison commented:

“There isn’t one off the shelf solution, it would be wrong to try and develop that because every company has their own specific needs.”

“What we as technology providers should do is make sure those systems integrate so customers can choose best of breed for their particular needs and we will work together for those customers.”

As has been shown on a number of occasions as we have gone through this research the technology available really can help companies keep pace with our customers growing demands as well as reduce costs and improve technology.

If we want to improve our report card for next year perhaps we need to start looking at how we can utilise it better?

If you want to know more about this research then you can access the full report by clicking this link.

This series is sponsored by

: 

 

Scheduling your field engineers is undoubtedly one of the core key performance indicators (KPIs), central to your business profitability, and a key target on which staff are measured. In this article which is taken from the Advanced Field Service Service Management Handbook 2014 we look at some handy pointers to getting the right engineer to the right place at the right time... 

To get your free copy of the eBook "Service Management Handbook 2014" published by Advanced Field Service simply click here and complete the brief form!

Scheduling is one of the most fundamental aspects to get right for a field service organisation, but it’s a delicate balance between meeting the needs of both your staff and the business. Get it right and the chances are the business will be highly successful. Get it wrong and the consequences can be disastrous. Utilisation may be a simple percentage number but there are multiple factors that influence its outcome…

What type of call are you doing?

• Fixing a breakdown or performing a routine service?
• Do you just fix the immediate problem or go ‘above and beyond’ in addressing all potential problems to minimise the likelihood of another call-out?
• Are you paid per call, or does the customer have a warranty, service contract or rental agreement? [/unordered_list]

What is your routing allocation model?

• How can you ensure engineer days are utilised with maximum efficiency?
• Do you segregate engineers into geographic regions with boundary inefficiencies or route engineers for least travel time?[/unordered_list]

Can you categorise the calls you do to plan the day effectively?

• How do you optimise the number of calls per day you can handle?
• How do you balance the load? Divide your teams into large site service jobs, concentrate on multi-location quick fixes or mix-and-match?
• Do you bias planned maintenance work to the latter half of the week to free up capacity for the start of week breakdown rush?[/unordered_list]

What is your skills/parts allocation model?

[unordered_list style="bullet"] 

• Can you allocate jobs based on skills/knowledge?
• Do you know what skills each job requires?
• Do you have systems in place to manage this or does your call centre team have to know all about your products and your engineers’ individual capabilities?
• Can you train all your engineers to do everything, and keep them up to date, or do you have area experts but run the risk of over-utilising sought after individuals?
• How do you manage broken calls?[/unordered_list]

Do you understand the site access profile?

• Are customer premises open 24/7, 9am – 5pm, or appointment only?
• Can your software automatically match the work order to site access requirements to maximise productivity? [/unordered_list]

Right engineer. Right place. Right time.

It’s simple to manage a very small set of engineers with a small number of jobs. But as your business grows, so does the potential complexity. On the flip side, having more engineers and more options doesn’t necessarily have to mean more hassle for you. In fact, many growing UK service businesses find that big savings, both in terms of costs and time, can be made from getting the properly skilled technician to the job with the minimum of fuss. So when scheduling your field resources, how can you get it right?

1. Optimise travel times

With 50% or more of service man-hours commonly lost in travel time before an engineer gets on site, not to mention escalating fuel costs eating into your profit margins, optimising travel times has never been more important. When new calls come in, you need to know your engineers’ present and future locations. Modern GPS navigation, route planning software and mapping tools have changed the rules for engineer allocation, helping your engineers reach customers via the quickest and/or shortest route. Your scheduling system should reduce planning time by suggesting and prioritising slots in the vicinity of the engineer’s home location and/or existing call locations – as well as find the best slot for the job in line with SLA commitments.

 2. Track your field team

Can you see at a glance who you have in the area and which engineer is best placed to answer a new call or respond to an emergency? If for any reason an engineer cannot gain access to a customer’s site, is there another call locally that they can be redirected to? Knowing your engineers’ whereabouts will help you react and re-plan rapidly. You’ll also be able to monitor how long they’re spending on any particular job and check whether other work needs to be urgently re-planned. Over time, having this data will help build a record of engineers’ actual and reported locations, highlighting any anomalies that need addressing.

3. Combine breakdown service with planned maintenance

Which customers have routine service checks nearly due? Is an engineer already scheduled to attend the customer or working with another customer nearby? Being proactive in scheduling routine maintenance jobs will free your team to handle unexpected events. Your systems should give you the flexibility to generate service jobs when you want to and to prompt operators with information about these jobs at the appropriate time.

4. Increase first time fix

You should have the systems in place to quickly identify who has the skills and availability to take a call. Provide them with everything they need to know to get in quickly, do the job, close down and exit, including call history and technical information. Needless to say your engineers need ready access to spares and parts. Can you track your inventory so that parts can be sourced quickly – from another engineer in the vicinity, the depot or a supplier? Give your engineers the power to search for spares and order them via their mobile device. This can also assist in reducing the costs of carrying inventory on the van ‘just in case’.

5. Plan non-billable activities

Time has to be allowed, planned and incorporated into the overall scheduling process for non-job related activities such as holidays and training. Only then can you instantly see the potential clashes of too many staff away at one time. Will approving a particular holiday request make it impossible to deliver certain jobs on time? Or can delivery be achieved only by the over-utilisation of the engineer prior to or immediately after their holiday? Integrated planning can help manage this process across the complexity of all jobs and staff, keeping an acceptable balance on workloads and maintaining realistic timescales.

6. Review demand against resources

Workloads need to be managed to acceptable levels for both your field and back-office staff. Your scheduling systems should prove invaluable in managing the complexity of resourcing across all jobs and provide a holistic view over the resourcing commitments across the business – so you can see at a glance the forecasted demand on your staff and their availability to take on new work. By being able to visualise the impact of resourcing staff into new jobs and contracts, priority can be assessed, achievable schedules can be created and, if necessary, existing work rescheduled or reassigned to another engineer with the skills to complete the job.  

   If you found this feature helpful click here to get the full eBook which has over 45 pages full of useful information for Service Managers!      

Dealing with unhappy customers, making unhappy customers happy, and making happy customers even happier are all variations on the same theme – they typically differ only by degree. In fact, it may actually be easier to make unhappy customers happy, than to make happy customers even happier.  Strategies for Growth^SM  President Bill Pollock explains...

Unhappy customers will probably want to tell you why they are unhappy – whether you already know it or not. They will typically want to get their "two cents" in, even before they allow you to speak. This is fine; this is part of their venting, and they will expect you to stop and listen as they do so. As such, this will be the proper time for you to listen and observe.

In most cases, customers have already become unhappy even before their call is taken or the service technician arrives at the site. This may be because they waited too long for the call to be answered, the tech is running late, it is a repeat call for a recent or similar occurrence, or they have just come off of a "bad" service call with the company the time before. In any case, for the first few moments, you will probably be on the receiving end of a combination of both fair and unfair accusations, finger-pointing, and the like. As always, this will be the proper time to listen and observe – before you speak.

The best way to ultimately make unhappy customers happy is to convince them that you will be working together to resolve any problems, and that you are not really working in adversarial positions. The services world is too often segregated into an "us vs. them" scenario; but, the quicker you show your customers that you are on their side, the quicker you can make them happy.

Some guidelines for accomplishing this are:

• Listen to what they have to say, and listen attentively – if they do not believe that you are paying full attention to their "story", they will probably become even less happy.
• Accept full responsibility for resolving any open issues, and be gracious in accepting blame wherever it is justified – customers will not tolerate any finger-pointing; especially at themselves.
• Explain, to the best of your knowledge, what happened, why it happened, what you plan to do about it, when it will be resolved, and how you will ensure that it never happens again (i.e., if it is something that you can help to prevent) – provide them with the guidance and assistance to prevent such occurrences from happening again (i.e., if it appears to have been something under their control).
• Just as machines sometimes require TLC (i.e., tender loving care), so do humans – treat your customers with the levels of TLC and "hand holding" they require in order to “soothe” their apparent frustrations.
• As soon as you make contact, let them know that you will be focused on resolving any open issues as quickly as possible, and to their satisfaction – let them know that you are working on their behalf, and that you will not be happy until they are completely satisfied.
• If there are any open issues remaining as you are closing out the call, assure them that you will be following-up and getting back to them with a complete solution as soon as possible – and then, follow-up as you promised.

Customers only have reason to remain unhappy for as long as the problem remains in play. However, the greater the problem, the longer it will remain “top of mind”, and the longer it will serve to plague your overall relationship with the customer.

The worst time to have your next "bad" service call with the customer is immediately following your last “bad" service call with the customer. After one “bad” experience, your performance is likely to be more closely watched and scrutinised every successive time you are called back.

However, by following these guidelines, the prospects for your delivering "bad" service stand to be significantly lessened and, therefore, you will find that it is much easier both to keep your customers happy, as well as to convert any unhappy customers into happy ones.