When a part breaks or wears down, providing a quick and efficient replacement is crucial for keeping customers’ operations running smoothly.

Offering reliable repairs improves the buying experience, leading to repeat part sales and happy long-term customer relationships. It’s a win-win for everyone—but it’s almost impossible to achieve without an effective service parts management process.

On the surface, service parts management seems like a relatively straightforward process; a part breaks, and a technician is deployed to fix or repair it. But in order for that process to run efficiently, technicians need to be able to solve the problem on their first attempt, meaning technicians need to have access to the appropriate parts, knowledge, and other resources they need to get the job done right.

Manually managing service parts is unrealistic. With so many different part variations, unique repair processes, and inventory to keep an eye on, service parts management cannot be done efficiently without the help of an integrated platform.

HOW TO ENHANCE customer uptime with an integrated service parts management platform

When service parts aren’t managed properly, a frustrating chain of events can start for both the customer and the technician. Parts may not be readily available (and may take weeks to be delivered), the technician may not be experienced in the repair they’re deployed to complete, or the technician may get to the repair site only to realize additional work needs to be done that they don’t have the appropriate tools for—just to name a few.

In any of these situations, the technician must leave the job site without completing the work and come back another day. The customer is frustrated, the technician’s time was wasted, and the lack of productivity ends up impacting the company’s bottom line.

To improve productivity and ensure a positive customer experience, technicians need to be able to gather insights about the repair before they’re sent to the job site. This is where an integrated service parts management platform can make the job exponentially easier.

A platform provides your team and technicians with an opportunity to store and share all parts and product data in one up-to-date location. They can access parts catalogs, videos, descriptions, and even 3D renderings of part repairs on the go; automate the parts ordering process to prevent stock from getting low; and manage intricate bills of materials (BOM) that reflect the growing complexity of parts and products. Technicians can even use analytics to identify patterns in previous fixes that required repairs beyond the initial scope, allowing them to stock their truck with tools and parts they might need before heading to the job site. An integrated service parts management platform prevents technicians from showing up unprepared for the job they’re tasked to do by ensuring they have crucial insights and information they need to be productive. To further ensure technicians are able to increase first-time fix rates and enhance customer uptime, attend the Mize presentation on April 28th during the Field Service Virtual Event by clicking here.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Parts, Pricing & Logistics @ www.fieldservicenews.com/parts-pricing-and-logistics
• Attend Mize Presentation during the Field Service Virtual Event @ fieldserviceusa.wbresearch.com
• Find out more about Mize @ www.m-ize.com
• Learn more about Mize on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/all-about-mize
• Read more on Mize's blog @ www.m-ize.com/blog
• Follow Mize on Twitter @ twitter.com/mizecom

 

In the first article of a series of excerpts from a recent e-book published by IFS, we look at ground-breaking service capabilities that enable you to maximize customer outcomes.

In the first article of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by Aquant, we look at the disruption and the challenges presented by he ongoing generational shift for service organizations of all sizes...

 

Your most seasoned service techs are retiring. Do you have a plan to replace them? And how do you know how to transfer years of experience to junior staff quickly?

How can organizations like yours attract, retain, and quickly bring up-to-speed younger workers before your seasoned pros retire? The solutions to these challenges, according to industry experts and leading service leaders, include:

• Leveraging the latest digital technologies that empower less experienced employees to succeed by democratizing knowledge
• Promoting continuous learning and development on your service teams
• Setting your people up for success in a post-pandemic world filled with uncertainty and accelerating change

 

 

An Ongoing Generational Shift

Further Reading:

In this new article for Field Service News, Sam Klaidman, Founder and Principal Adviser at Middlesex Consulting, discusses many aspects that field service organisations should consider and evaluate as we start existing the pandemic...

The pandemic still has the world in its grip, but it is becoming looser as vaccinations become more widespread. In some developed countries, we see signs of increased hiring and manufacturing output. And increasing manufacturing output means more demand for field service for installation, training, and warranty work as well as remedial repairs on equipment supporting the manufacturing ramp-up.

The big unknown is how B2B customers will react to field service continuing its emphasis on touchless service while they are thinking about the old normal. The answer to that question may impact how these customers think about our brand: which can have a major impact on our future business.

HOW B2B BUYERS SELECT A PRODUCT TO PURCHASE

As a service leader, you know about customers and their buying habits. You know that most products are becoming commodities and while there may be differences between products from different managers, those differences will disappear over time and new differences will emerge from other competitors. You also know that there is usually a minor difference in price and anyway, B2B businesses do not buy based on price.

So how do people choose who to purchase their new equipment from if not by price or features and functions? If we are totally honest, we would say the primary differentiator is service. Of course, our sales and marketing peers would disagree with you, but we know they are biased. They would probably agree with you if you said, “people buy based on the brand.”

WHAT IS A BRAND?

If you ever want to get into a good argument with sales and marketing people, just ask each person to write down their definition of brand. Do not be surprised if there is no agreement. During my research, I discovered a wonderful article “Defining What a Brand Is: Why Is It So Hard?" In the article the author, Tracy Lloyd, shared a few definitions:

1. David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising,” defined brand as “the inangible sum of a product’s attributes.”
2. The Dictionary of Brand defines brand as “a person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization.”
3.  Marty Neumeier, author and speaker on all things brand, defines brand by first laying out what a brand is not: “A brand is not a logo. A brand is not an identity. A brand is not a product.” Neumeier goes on to say that “a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”

Definitions 2 and 3 are remarkably similar yet hard to do anything with.

In late 2012, my friend Harry Klein, a professional Marketeer, and I decided to collaborate on a White Paper that we called “Because I’m The Customer!” A Guide to Managing Your Brand & Customer Experience in the Age of the Customer. Here is a paragraph from the White Paper:

As Brian Millar wrote in his FastCompany article Branding Talk Isn’t Helping Your Company. Here’s What Should Replace It:

“If you promise something clearly, deliver on that promise, and repeat the process, you build strong emotional links to your company with certain consumers. But that’s where the value resides: in my head and your head, and your mother’s head. And the stuff inside my head is my property. If brands exist at all, they exist in the minds of consumers. I can switch my brand of search engine at a moment’s notice. Bank accounts and makes of automobile are a bit more hassle to discard, but I can still change my mind about them.”

So, a brand is unique to each of us. It is the sum of all promises and experiences we had with a product, service, or company. This perception changes as we forget old or irrelevant promises or experiences and add newer ones to our memory. And to make matters worse, we might have different perceptions of different situations with the same product or service.

Here is an example: Think about your current car. If we are talking about design and ease of use, you might say “It took me only 30 minutes to figure out how to set up the infotainment system.” But if I ask you about the dealers training on all the new features, you might say “he was confused and so was I.” And if ask about fuel economy, you might say “It is great on the open road, crap in city driving, and does not come close to what was on the sticker.” But if I just ask, “how do you like your new car,” you might respond “I love it and feel like I rule the road when I drive it.”

ARE BRANDS REAL?

Even though brands only exist in our minds, they are real because we make our purchasing decisions based on our current perceptions of the promises the manufacturer makes and our experiences about how well these promises are met. In other words, brands drive how money is spent! That is as real as it gets.

In January 2021 McKinsey & Company released an interesting article “The Rising Value of Industrial Brands.”  One of the six main insights in the article is;

Visibility drives performance—but only for a few players. The top three brands in each segment average a total 60 percent of visibility, and the top brand typically has four times more visibility than the third-place competitor. Overall, 5 percent of companies capture 95 percent of total visibility. And top-quartile companies enjoy about 30 percent higher ROIC than those in the bottom quartile.

McKinsey & Company uses visibility (share of voice) as the measure of brand favoritism. They define visibility as “… brand name mentions in the media, including industry publications that customers read to learn about new products, systems, and technologies. Because B2B sales are increasingly held to the same standards as B2C sales channels, including the option to purchase online, we also tracked the growth of searches for the brands on major online search engines.”

Next, they show how share of voice impacts the company’s ROIC (Return on invested capital):

CLOSING THE CIRCLE

Since a brand is the sum of all promises (expectations) and experiences we had with a product, service, or company and brand visibility drives ROIC (and other financial metrics), then your promises and delivered experiences are driving your financial results. That raises two questions:

Question 1. Where do expectations come from?

There are six sources of customer expectations

1. Organizational promises
2. Competitor’s promises and/or performance
   
3. Personnel promises
4. B2C experiences
5. Previous experiences with your business
6. Comments from friends and associates

Unfortunately, you and your business can only influence #1 and #3. The other four are outside your control but you must be sensitive to them and if you or your team discovers that customers have expectations that differ from what you can routinely deliver, you must reset their expectations. Doing that professionally will prevent disappointment when the experiences are as you promised, not what they wanted.

Question 2. Where do experiences come from?

Every interaction your company has with a customer or prospect creates a new memory of an experience. The two most important steps you can take to make sure you are providing great experiences are

1. Train everyone on how what they do and say impacts how customers feel about doing business with your company
2. Follow up either all interactions or a randomly chosen subset of all interactions and talk about how the customers feel about their experience. Discussions are better than surveys because people are sicker of surveys than they are of being locked down at home. Do this every day with the same people making the calls and analyze the data using as many views as you can imagine. Then share the results with everyone in the company.

WHY IS MONITORING BRAND PERFORMANCE ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT AS WE EXIT COVID-19?

During the past year, we have all been busy implementing touchless service, a blended workforce, and trying to avoid sending our Field Engineers on calls for both health and safety and economic reasons. Many of us believe that these initiatives will continue into the future and become our permanent business model.

This was expected during the height of the pandemic and customers subconsciously adjusted their expectation to accept what you were providing. But what if customer’s expectations revert back to the 2019 business model and you continue to deliver on the 2020 model? A major gap will open up and customers will feel disappointed.

The solution is marketing communications. You and your team must proactively reset your customer’s expectations to be in line with your intended future deliveries. There might be some intense customer discussions and you may have to modify your plans if the pushback is too great. You must ensure that the experiences your business delivers either meets or exceeds your customer’s expectations.

Finally, when the folks in the C-suite start looking for more revenue and profits, don’t automatically jump on the cost-reduction train. Make sure your promises are being met and exceeded by your performance. It takes work but it is worth the efforts.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive FSN articles by Sam Klaidman @ www.fieldservicenews.com/sam-klaidman
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 on the field service industry @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Connect to Sam Klaidman @ www.linkedin.com/samklaidman
• Find out more about Middlesex Consulting @ www.middlesexconsulting.com
• Read more from Sam Klaidman @ middlesexconsulting.com/blog