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In this second feature of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by BigChange, we have a look at what happened in the field service sector after Covid measures began easing in the UK.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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GROWTH IN TURNOVER, WORKLOAD AND PROFIT ACROSS THE UK FIELD SERVICE SECTOR

Britain’s trades have bounced back from Covid-19 lockdowns and disruption. And they expect more growth in the 12 months to come.

Plumbers, electricians, maintenance companies and other firms with field service staff report that workload, turnover, and profit have increased significantly since Covid measures began easing in July 2020.

In the 12 months since then (August 2020-July 2021), these companies have reported:

• Turnover up by 79% on average (compared with the previous 12 months)
• Workload up by 70%
  
• Total profits up by 66%

A third of companies increased profits by at least 50%. Three-quarters (74%) increased turnover; a pattern repeated when it comes to demand for work and total profits. One in five has doubled turnover since July 2020.

The sharp bounce back comes after a period (August 2019-July 2020) when Covid-19 significantly affected business activity.

Since then, growth has been particularly strong in the facilities management, fire and safety, hire, and plumbing and heating sectors.

But surging demand is not benefiting everyone. For every strong, profitable business in the sector, another is struggling to keep up – just breaking even or even losing money.

Demand for facilities management, building maintenance, electrical contracting, fire and security, and plant hire services bounced back particularly robustly – each sector recording workload increases of more than 70% year on year.

AVERAGE GROWTH RATES FOR FIELD SERVICE FIRMS

Looking forward, more than eight out of ten firms expect turnover to grow into 2022. One in five (19%) expects to at least double turnover by next summer.

Only 2% expect to be less profitable this time next year.

Overall, the picture is of surging workloads, turnover and profit – albeit from a suppressed start point. Like a coiled spring now released, the sector is growing very fast.

Many businesses will increase prices to help offset increasing costs. Prices charged across the field service sector rose by 47% in the last 12 months and are predicted to increase by a similar amount over the next year.

However, there are still concerns that growth in profit will continue to lag behind the rise in turnover, and that predicted profit increases will not be enjoyed uniformly across the sector.

13% of field service firms say they are already struggling, and fear that they could go out of business in the next 12 months as costs continue to rise and Covid-19 support measures are phased out.

This includes many that experienced booming demand last year, but couldn’t pass on their increasing costs to customers in the form of price rises.

STATE OF THE FIELD SERVICE SECTOR

Strong Growth and Profit Prospects

• 22% of field service leaders told researchers their businesses were performing incredibly well, with good profit and growth prospects. This equates to 276,000 firms nationwide
• Half (50%) of these firms experienced increases in demand for their services of between 10% and 99% over the last 12 months, while another quarter (26%) saw workloads double

• On average, these strong growth businesses have seen workloads rise by 97% while achieving similar increases in turnover (99%) and profit (100%)
• These champion businesses increased employee numbers by 58%, prices by 62% and investment in technology by 76% in the last 12 months

Small Profits Firms

• 26% of leaders, the equivalent of 323,000 UK firms, reported their businesses were succeeding in making a small profit each year
• Workloads increased by 57%, on average, ahead of both turnover (49%) and profit (43%)
  

• These businesses plan to increase prices by 42% over the next year to offset rising costs
• They expect to increase employee numbers by 37% and investment in technology by 42% in the year to July 2022

Small Profits Firms

• A further 26% of field service businesses – 330,000 across the UK – broke even over the last year

• On average, these Breakeven Businesses put up prices by 31% to stay on top of costs, and increased turnover by 57% from a 39% increase in workloads

• Employment in these businesses rose 26% on the year and is predicted to grow at a similar rate (29%) over the next 12 months

• The businesses plan to increase their investment in technology by 36%

BIGCHANGE'S GROWTH MATRIX

Loss Making Turnaround Firms

• Around one in every eight leaders (13%) said their firms were currently losing money but expected to be able to turn their fortunes around over the next year. We estimate that 161,000 field service firms nationwide are in this situation

• Increases in workload of 46% in the last 12 months were met by a 55% increase in employee numbers

• 83% of these businesses said higher labour costs had hurt their businesses last year.

Small Profits Firms

• Another 13% of leaders told researchers their firms were struggling to the extent that they could go out of business within the next year. This equates to a further 161,000 businesses across the UK

• Their struggles aren’t due to a lack of demand. Struggling businesses took on the highest average increases in workload (146%) and turnover (151%) of any segment

• However, meeting this demand required a 92% increase in employees, a factor that 91% price increases couldn’t offset

• 97% of strugglers said they were severely impacted by Covid-19, while the rising cost of materials, fuel and people were negative factors for more than 80% of these firms.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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Further Reading:

Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
Read more about the impact of COVID-19 in the Field Service industry @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
Read more about BigChange on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/bigchange
Learn more about BigChange @ www.bigchange.com
Follow BigChange on Twitter @ twitter.com/bigchangeapps

 

We know that the service department is probably the single largest contributor to the margin of your organization. But when I would ask you: when do you know you are doing a great job? What is your reference, your yard stick? We know the call for great, greater and greatest. CFO’s want even more margin contribution. CEO’s want to have more revenue and market share.

In this article, Coen Jeukens, VP of Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax, and Joe Kenny, Vice President, Global Customer Transformation & Customer Success at ServiceMax, will show you some basic building blocks to manage your Service Profitability & Growth agenda.

It is an age-old dilemma for Operations Managers. Your CEO wants XX% revenue growth, your CFO wants XX% cost reduction, your CRO wants better references and higher NPS scores, and you are supposed to deliver all of this with zero additional investment, because – of course – you have been doing this for years with no additional cash, so why would you need it now?

To top all of this off, you had very little idea of where you stood, operationally or financially, at any given time. And this was due to the fast that access to real time data, a current view into work in process, and accurate financial information was all impossible to come by.

Historic Challenges

I often speak at conferences and participate in webinars, and I often relate this anecdote – in March I would lay out my operational plan, based on the most recent P&L statement I had received (January’s), intending to address performance weaknesses I had uncovered. My team would execute the plan and in May I would receive my March P&L to see if the response to January’s performance shortfalls were successful of not. It was madness.

Now, layer onto that, the fact that 30, 60, 90-day invoicing accruals were also Operation’s responsibility, even though we had an AP department. This process greatly impacted both revenue and cost, as the cost of service was consumed, but the associated revenue may not have arrived in 90 days.

Enter the Age of Digital Transformation

Fast forward to today, and service operations managers have been given a lifeline—digital transformation. Digital transformation can be like a light switch, illuminating what is happening in real time, allowing service operations leaders to adapt to circumstances immediately. They can reallocate precious resources instantly, validate payment status and credit status prior to service delivery, and see and understand the impact of operational plans in real time.

Digital asset and service management platforms can provide real time performance measurements, both foundational and top line. This includes data round first time fix rate, mean time to repair, mean time between failures, and equipment up time. With this data, operations managers can organize and drive for peak utilization of labor resources while ensuring that the training and quality of the work is optimal, thereby increasing the efficiency of their organization and lowering the cost to deliver excellent service.

With today’s platforms, functionality and tools, service operations are finally on par with our commercial partners and can see, and act, on upsell, cross sell, renewals, and service contract extensions instantaneously. In addition, we can support sales by identifying and helping them target competitors’ equipment for targeted replacement, becoming the eyes of the commercial team on the customer’s location.

Newfound Financial Control

Utilizing a digital solution allows for real time tracking of labor, parts consumed, travel, and any other costs associated with a service call, regardless of whether it is a T&M call or in support of a warranty/service contract entitlement. This is a key advantage that enables service operations leaders to not only manage labor and parts expenses far more granularly, but they can also evaluate the revenue associated with the service provided to validate if the pricing is correct based on their revenue and margin targets.

This ability to understand the Cost to Serve an asset or entitlement agreement in real time is a huge step forward for service operations. It gives them the data they need to truly align entitlement pricing, cost control, operational efficiency and productivity to accurately manage and forecast their performance and address fundamental issues that are obstacles to achieving their own performance objectives.

The evolution of equipment and asset service management platforms has greatly assisted service operations professionals in attaining the insight, visibility, and control that their commercial and financial counterparts have enjoyed for decades. As asset and equipment maintenance and service becomes a larger and larger part of most organizations’ revenue and margin contributions, it is important that they equip teams with the technology that enables them to better manage and control their operations.

ServiceMax will be exhibiting at the Field Service N Expo on October 27^th and 28^th and can be found on stand B6.

To sign up for the FSN Expo please click here.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read news and articles about ServiceMax @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servicemax
• Read more articles by Coen Jeukens on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/coen-jeukens
• Read more articles by Joe Kenny on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/joe-kenny
• Find out more about ServiceMax @ www.servicemax.com/uk
• Follow ServiceMax on Twitter @ twitter.com/ServiceMax

BigChange shares with Field Service News how field service organisations can increase their profits in the post-pandemic world.

During August 2021, BigChange engaged the research consultancy Opinium to survey field service businesses about how they fared since the UK government eased their strictest lockdown measures.

Although, for the most part, many companies are doing better now than they were in July 2020, the study revealed that fewer than half of companies reported making a profit. In fact, those in the worst affected category fear they will go out of business in the next year as costs continue to rise and COVID-19 support measures are phased out. Here are three ways to increase profits for your business and bounce back post-pandemic.

HOW TO BOOST YOUR PROFITS

1. Reduce Travel Expenses

One of the best ways to maintain a healthy profit margin is to reduce business expenses. With petrol prices rising by 18% and diesel leaping by 16% to a near-record level over the last year, it's worth looking at your current travel costs and devising ways to minimise them.

If you're currently relying on spreadsheets to schedule your technicians' working days, you could be missing out on the opportunity to optimise their routes. Thankfully, technological advancements in recent years have made it simple to assign relevant workers to jobs based on their location, skills and qualifications and vehicle type.

A job management platform optimises routes, which helps to reduce the amount of time each technician spends on the road. Lowered travel times increase the number of appointments technicians can attend each day, making it a worthwhile investment.

2. Improve First-Time Fix Rates

Did you know, companies that achieve a high first-time fix rate of over 70% enjoy a 4% increase in revenue? Subsequently, it's crucial to equip your technicians with everything they need to complete their assignments the first time.

Keeping a close eye on your stock, equipment, and assets will ensure that you always have the correct items for each job and allows you to attend more reactive appointments. Modern asset management systems give you complete, real-time visibility over your inventory and allow you to assign gear directly to jobs.

By allocating equipment before each job, your technicians can rest assured they have the right tools to finish the work there and then. Plus, an increase in first-time fixes will liberate more time for your workers to take on additional jobs — which will prove to be particularly lucrative, as the workload has increased by 70% across the field service industry.

3. Digitise Your Processes

On average, we found that users of job management software grew faster than businesses still relying on spreadsheets and paper processes last year. Better still, those that made the most of the latest technology are now in a better position to take on further work and deliver it profitably in 2022.

Using job management software like BigChange, you can digitise all your processes and manage them on one easy-to-use platform. As a result, your back-office team can handle bookings — from the moment the customer makes an appointment right up to invoicing and payment — at the click of a button.

Furthermore, the system records all customer interactions, meaning you'll have a comprehensive record of information to refer back to whenever you need it without having to sift through mountains of paperwork. Additionally, you'll reduce business costs by eliminating the need to store documents on-site or pay for storage.Consequently, your team will have more time to spend on activities that contribute directly to business growth, leading to significant profits further down the line.

JOB MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS ARE THE FUTURE

It's no secret that COVID-19 has taken its toll on field service organisations. Currently, fewer than half of field service firms are profitable. That's why business leaders will need to think outside the box and look for innovative solutions that will help their companies bounce back.

In order to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in a turbulent economic landscape, you must consider how technology will help you overcome the obstacles you're facing presently. Job management platforms arm you with all the tools you need to boost profitability and provide a great return on investment, which will benefit your business long after the effects of the pandemic have disappeared.

HELP YOUR BUSINESS BOUNCE BACK STRONGER THAN EVER ON BIGCHANGE

BigChange's job management platform is helping field service businesses across the UK win more work, take control of their operations and deliver winning customer experiences.

Bring your customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, workforce management, financial data and business intelligence onto one easy-to-use platform and begin enjoying the benefits of a smarter way of working today.

Want to find out more? Discover how your business can grow stronger on BigChange here and arrange a free demo today.

About BigChange

BigChange is the complete Job Management Platform that’s helping field service businesses across the UK to win more work, take control of their operations and deliver winning customer experiences. Bringing customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, field resource management, financial management, business intelligence into one simple to use and easy to integrate platform, BigChange liberates you from inefficient paper-based processes and the complexity of multiple different technology systems that hold your business back. Loved by office and field teams alike, our customers are achieving industry leading results and return on investment. The BigChange team is committed to customer success and no matter your sector or whether you have a mobile workforce of 10 or a 100, we’re here to make a big difference to the way you work and to help your business grow stronger.

BigChange will be exhibiting on stand D1 at the Field Service Expo.

Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 in the Field Service industry @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Read more about BigChange on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/bigchange
• Learn more about BigChange @ www.bigchange.com
• Follow BigChange on Twitter @ twitter.com/bigchangeapps

In this final feature from a recent white paper published by IFS, we discuss the importance of thinking ahead about the role that technology can play in your business in the future.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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With the rapid pace of change that we all acknowledge at play, it is important to be thinking not only about how to make the best use of augmented reality and remote assistance tools today – but to be thinking ahead to create a vision for the role the technology can play for your business’ future state. COVID made the value of remote assistance crystal clear, which I think will only spawn further use of the technology in the months and years to come.

So, what do we expect to see? One major point is the expansion in use of the technology across businesses. While these tools are often deployed for a point-specific purpose, this enables the value of the technology to be recognized within an organization and for use to become more pervasive. “Various ideas have been brought up through our innovation counsel about the future use of remote service,” says Scott. “Two of the most notable solutions were having technical advisors on large scale emergency scenarios remotely connected to provide eyes in the field and providing immediate support to our technicians from peers or trainers who may not be in the local area. The future of technology is growing at such a rapid pace, it’s truly hard to predict what’s to come but I feel we are on the tipping point of even larger acceptance of these innovative technologies.”

For larger-scale acceptance and use to occur, its likely that the technology needs to become more cohesive and seamless. “Over the next few years, I would hope the technology is able to catch up to the vision of self- service and remote resolution,” says Marlene. “Chatbots today are unable to provide the level of understanding to truly make a difference in self-service. I would like to see technology integrate and mature, providing a more robust interactive experience for the customer for remote resolution.” When you look at how a variety of technologies including remote assistance, IoT, AI, ML, knowledge management, and service management intersect, you see the immense opportunity for these tools to become more unified.

Pandemic-initiated travel restrictions have resulted in a recognition of exactly how productive and effective remote interactions can be, and this will drive the use of remote assistance and other technologies to permanently eliminate unnecessary travel. Companies who have used remote assistance as a stand-in and have achieved impressive results are looking for areas where it can become the standard process. We’ve looked at factory acceptance testing with customers, for instance,” says Roel. “So, we involve the customer in the factory acceptance testing without traveling. And that seems to be quite successful.” Whether internal travel of knowledge workers or situations like Roel mentioned with its customer-facing factory acceptance testing, there are certain applications where travel was the standard before that it simply just doesn’t need to be any longer. This isn’t to say that companies will look to replace all, or even most, travel with remote assistance and other tools – but it will certainly have an impact.

The Impact of Remote Assistance on New Talent

I believe in the coming years we will also see remote assistance play a significant role in how companies deal with the talent gap. The talent gap presents a major challenge for businesses across almost every industry and geography, and the value proposition of remote assistance is simply too strong to not be leveraged as a part of the solution – both as a direct training resource and to play a part in knowledge capture and transfer. “When we onboard our newer or greener technicians, we’ve grouped them into three training workstreams. We use baseline testing to assess which workstream they fall into: beginner or associate, intermediate, and master level. For anybody who falls into that first group, part of their onboarding and training is introducing them to remote assistance,” explains Gyner. “So, we give them the opportunity to have this technical resource to help them with diagnosis. Use of the tool drives scalability in terms of building a bigger knowledge base of recorded sessions in the LMS. You’ll see this knowledge grow in the next five years and it’ll also be enabled by IoT because the IoT may tell a technical resource, ‘Here’s the problem to begin with,’ and that technical person can get on the phone then with the customer or technician and say, "Okay, I’m seeing what the piece of equipment is telling me is the problem. Let me help you walk through how to resolve that’.”

Finally, remote service will be a key aspect of any company’s journey to Servitization or delivering outcomes. We’ll see use of the technology expand and mature as organizations work through the role remote service plays in their broader service strategy and value proposition. “We feel that we’re only scratching the surface with what we will use this for now and in the future. But I think one thing is that we certainly won’t go back to doing things how we did before,” says Karl. “We’ve seen situations where we’ve had to do an intervention and we’ve been able to provide very quick response. We’ve looked at this from a training point of view as well. Things are moving much more to a Servitization model so service is hugely important for us. We’ve been primarily a manufacturer, but now we’re looking to provide a solution. Our use of IFS Remote Assistance has been thought provoking, it’s given us a lot of ideas about how we can evolve and change."

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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 Further Reading:

• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Remote Service on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-service
• Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

In the first feature of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by BigChange, we look at their first health check of UK businesses running field service teams.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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These trades are the backbone of the economy: plumbers, electrical engineers, construction businesses, maintenance companies, environmental services, and many others with field-based workers.

One in five UK businesses rely on field service teams to deliver their services. We estimate that there are now more than 1.2 million field service businesses in the UK employing 6.7 million people.

Because they all run field service teams, they face similar opportunities and challenges:

• Managerial oversight
  
• Job scheduling and management
• Recruting suitably skilled workers
• Compliance
• Maximising job efficiency
• Competing on customer experience

During August 2021, we engaged the research consultancy Opinium to survey businesses of all sizes with field service teams.

Opinium spoke to 504 leaders from businesses in the building maintenance, cleaning services, drainage, electrical contractors and electricians, facilities management, fire and security, plant hire, industrial doors, plumbing and heating, and the waste and recycling sectors.

We asked about business health and how they fared from August 2020 to July 2021 – the first full 12 months since the easing of the strictest UK lockdown measures.

72% OF THE UK FIELD SERVICE BUSINESSES ARE GROWING, BUT ONLY ONE-IN-FIVE ARE GROWING STRONGER

Across the field service sector, firms have performed significantly better since the end of the first strict lockdown in July 2020

• Workloads are up 70%, and turnovers have soared as prices charged for services increased by an average of 47%

• Demand for facilities management, fire and safety, plumbing and heating, and plant hire services bounced back particularly welL

While the headline figures are positive, the benefits of booming demand are not enjoyed by everyone

• Turnovers rocketed across the sector, yet fewer than half of companies reported making a profit. 26% of firms lost money in the 12 months to August 2021 as the industry was hit by Covid-19 complications, compliance issues and surging costs

• One in eight field service firms fear they could go out of business within a year

• More than eight out of ten firms expect turnover to grow into 2022. But a talent crisis means firms face this increased demand without employee numbers increasing at the same rate. 56% of field service leaders reported difficulty retaining frontline operators.

Productivity is now a major focus for field service firms

• Poor management oversight, outdated technology, and poor planning and workflow were significant barriers to more efficient work. 82% of field- service leaders said they wanted oversight of all parts of their operations in real-time

Our analysis indicates that there is a big difference between growing and growing stronger

• The strongest firms took advantage of rising demand to do more work, but remained in control of costs and became more productive

• In contrast, many firms now struggling for survival, grew too quickly. They took on the highest increases in workload and turnover of any segment, but doubled the size of their workforces and their levels of debt

Customer experience is key for competitive advantage

• Facing rising costs, the ability to compete on price is getting smaller. Customer experience has become the new source of competitive advantage. Most leaders said good service now requires same-working-day fixes for reactive jobs (68%) and that customers be kept fully informed digitally (65%)

Technology is critical in helping firms thrive

• Technology spending across the sector increased by an average of 54% in the last 12 months as firms focused on job management, productivity and customer experience

•  Users of job management technology grew faster, on average, than those relying on spreadsheets and paper processes last year. They are in a better position to take on further work and deliver it profitably in the year ahead

•  Most leaders expect spending in this area to continue growing into 2022

A Defining Period for the Field Service Sector

The following 12 months will be pivotal for field service firms. Everyone has the opportunity to grow, but they must manage significant cost increases and face major challenges recruiting and retaining skilled frontline operators. It will be a year of abundance for some - gaining market share and driving growth in turnover and profitability. Others will see their margins eroded further. Everyone would benefit from becoming more productive and competing on customer experience rather than price.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from a white paper published by BigChange.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

 

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content BigChange who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership & Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 in the Field Service industry @ www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Read more about BigChange on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/bigchange
• Learn more about BigChange @ www.bigchange.com
• Follow BigChange on Twitter @ twitter.com/bigchangeapps

 

In this third feature from a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS, we look at how field service organisations can overcome the barriers to achieve remote service success.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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While remote service technologies can have a very positive impact for businesses that reach far beyond their obvious pandemic use case, the reality is that making proper use of the technology is not without its challenges.

First and foremost, companies must understand that augmented reality and remote assistance – like any technology – must be part of a broader, well thought out strategy to have the desired impact and to result in ROI. When you think about the primary use cases for remote service – better customer experience, knowledge transfer, increased speed and effectiveness of training – you can see that the technology addresses needs that demand innovation and alignment beyond one particular tool.

The technology you select needs to fit within this broader strategy and within your digital landscape. “One of the key steps to us selecting the best tool was to ensure we completed a thorough analysis and pilot with a wide range of skillsets involved,” says Scott. If you’re newly incorporating this technology into your business, Roel suggests starting with a function where you know you’re likely to have quick success and impact. “I would suggest starting with internal use first to test it and see that people get acquainted with it and then add customer support in as well,” he says. “Try out some of the different tools on the market. Get a few licenses, spend some hours, and make a list of criteria that you think is most important. For us, connectivity, ease of use, price, and integration with your existing field service management system were important.”

If you know at the outset that the tool will be used in a customer-facing manner, be sure to consider their experience from the very beginning. “Don’t pick the technology and then try and make the process fit,” cautions Marlene. “Think about the customer experience, what you want to get out of the service, your desired result, and how it best serves the customer, then match the technology to those requirements. Also, don’t think one tool will solve the issue, and you may need two or more tools to help facilitate resolution.”

The Criticality of UI

User interface is important, both for internal workers and customers. One of the positives for many of the solutions on the market is that they can be used along with your existing hardware and can be easily accessed by customers using a simple link, without the need to download anything. “All of our techs have an iPad and an iPhone and use the iPhone for remote service,” says Gyner. “Because blue collar workers may be technical repair specialists, but don’t necessarily like technology, so the ease of use is super important in the adoption.”

Keep in mind that user experience is impacted by more than just the UI of the tool you select. “Connectivity was a bit an issue for us and we found we couldn’t use the technology in every location,” explains Roel. “You need to ensure that bandwidth is sufficient for the video stream and we discovered something in our own network setting that caused us not to have such a good connection. So, be sure to do proper testing to remove that burden from your customers and ensure their experience is seamless.” The consensus seems to be that the technology is remarkably easy to deploy but can be a bit more challenging to gain full acceptance of to drive true adoption. “Remote Assistance was very easy for us to roll out,” says Karl. “In fact, actually, the hardest thing was the mindset change internally, with having colleagues start to use this and trying to think of the tool as a different way of working rather than seeing it as an additional tool within their toolbox to apply. We’re working to create some kind of governance structure about how it should be used, when should it be used and that has actually created a lot more thought about how we work now and in the future.”

“Adoption is a challenge because your more senior technicians see technology as a threat to their competency,” says Gyner. “You can get past that by discussing the ‘why’ behind your decision to use remote assistance tools. For instance, explain that in scaling the business you don’t want your workforce working 50- or 60-hour weeks; you want to help them do their jobs more efficiently to enable their success."

Remember that remote service isn’t just an adjustment for your workforce but can be for your customers as well. Some may welcome the opportunity to engage in a remote service interaction, but others may show some initial resistance. “It’s a mentality thing. All of a sudden, I go to my customer now saying I will first try that remote session. That’s an adjustment,” says Roel. “But many of our customers are asking for it. They realize it is helpful for them and easy to use.”

"The hardest thing was the mindset change internally, with having colleagues start to use this and trying to think of the tool as a different way of working rather than seeing it as an additional tool within their toolbox to apply."

Karl, COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions

Tackle Change Management to Create Companywide Adoption

One of the points that comes up in many of my conversations is that promoting adoption of remote service technology can be a bit tricky because, at least currently, for most organizations it isn’t a mandated tool or standard part of the workflow. If it is being presented as something that is valuable, but optional, it is easier for those who prefer the status quo to stick with just that and simply let the tool sit. Of course, this particular challenge is negated if you get to a point where your service strategy is remote-first and therefore the process is required, but many companies aren’t there yet – or don’t plan to be.

Regardless of whether you’re presenting remote service as an optional “tool in the toolbox” or a required step in your service strategy, adoption is important and is touted as the number one challenge companies face in achieving remote service success. Therefore, it is imperative to think about how you’ll manage change related to the introduction, incorporation, or expanded use of this technology – and the broader strategy it is intended to enable. You also need to consider whether you want to take a more hands-off approach to adoption and allow employees to come around at their own pace, or if you want to put more specific measures in place to promote adoption and/or require compliance.

Enlist Your Change Agents

At FortisBC, the focus has been on finding and leaning in on internal change agents. “In my opinion, the key to success is to manage the change and have passionate team members who will push the project forward even in the face of challenges,” says Scott. “From what I have seen in our employees’ adoption it has been largely resistant to the changing work model. Part of seeing our success, however, has been having employees who can buy in and drive the change from the ground level.” While not unique to remote assistance, the concept of finding these internal change agents and empowering them to advocate for the change at the peer level proves impactful.

"We turned to remote service because we wanted figure out how we could bring the competencies of our trainers, who knew those pieces of equipment well, out to the field more quickly to drive down those callback ratios."

Steve Lowes, Construction Supervisor at Fortis BC Digital Services

At Munters, the company isn’t mandating use of the technology but is working hard to amplify its value and impact and to remove any barriers or objections to use and adoption. “We make the technology available at the central level, but we don’t demand its use,” explains Roel. “What we do focus on is removing their objections to its use – it’s too expensive, or whatever else it may be. We also focus on creating super users from which we gather feedback and make adjustments to show are listening and will continue to invest in the tool’s success.”

Gyner points out that in instances where you’re leveraging the technology between frontline and back office workers, you need to ensure that you have those resources aligned in the proper way. “I explained our use cases – for example, ice machines, for which a very small subset of technicians were represented in our pilot,” he explains. “If that’s what the use case is focused on, then the experts on that equipment needed to be available when the technician needs them. You can’t have a technician initiating a session and have no one on the other end to be able to help. If that happens, that is the moment when you lose his heart or her heart. As soon as there is an unavailability or an access problem, they just lose heart in adoption. Especially if they were already skeptical.”

For some, like Panasonic Heating & Cooling Europe, the experience of the pandemic has created a greater openness to change which may not remove but perhaps will minimize resistance. “The experiences of the pandemic, the working from home, the fact that the service organization had to find different ways to support customers, it has all shown us that different things are possible,” says Karl. “It helped us to see that this technology isn’t something necessarily to be afraid of but something that is a real game changer and something that we’re really only scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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 Further Reading:

• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Remote Service on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-service
• Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

In this second article of a series of excerpts from a recent white paper published by IFS, we analyse what role remote service will play for companies in the post-pandemic world when it comes to customer-facing use.

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an white paper recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Whether remote assistance was in use prior to the pandemic, put in place to persist through the pandemic, or is still on your company’s roadmap, the question at hand is what role remote service will play for companies from this point forward when it comes to customer-facing use.

We know that customers are demanding speed and simplicity, which remote service can certainly provide – but also knowledge and relationships, which often can be more effectively accomplished face-to-face. So, is remote service the new frontline of defense? For many companies, a remote-first approach seems to make sense. For others, there’s reluctance to migrate away from what has always been an in-person aspect of the business. There’s no easy or even right answer here, but it is important to consider the role you want remote service to play in your service strategy going forward and be sure you put measures in place to bring that desired state to fruition.

“To determine the best strategy for remote service, you need to identify issues that can be resolved by a customer, without parts, instructions, and have minimal resolution steps to follow. Then understand why the customer is either choosing to not resolve on their own and address those concerns,” suggests Marlene. “Is documentation lacking or not clear? Is the customer resistant to self-serve? Also start with a small pilot to discover gaps and areas of improvement prior to roll out. Understand what is in it for the customer to participate in remote services and communicate those benefits clearly to them.”

It’s important to keep in mind that augmented reality or remote assistance isn’t the only tool related to being able to deliver remote service, and remote service strategy needs to be considered holistically. This means looking across service functions, and across technology use, to determine how everything in play fits into your customer journey in the best possible way. Despite the best of intentions, fragmented use of multiple tools and processes – no matter how useful on their own – will not positively impact your customer experience, or your productivity. “At RICOH, we are now beginning a formal program for our shift-left work, including combining all of the remote resolution activities across the organization. This formalization will combine the people, technology, and processes, as well as integrate our quality management and knowledge centered services programs, into delivering a holistic approach to remote service and remote resolution,” notes Marlene.

There's No One-Size-Fits-All for Remote Service

Striking the right balance between remote and onsite service might involve exploring company use function by function and scenario by scenario. For Munters, remote service is proving to be a valuable first line of defense but is not in any way intended to detract from or replace onsite interactions. “In warranty cases specifically, it’s a process to start with remote service before you go onsite. I see a shift towards more remote service, but not just because of this solution. I see it because we connect our devices and remote management as a whole service offering. Meaning, I connect to the device, and I maybe include the customer to say, “Hey, I’ve seen this. Can you try this?” That combination might come to a better diagnosis and maybe a faster resolution,” says Roel. “That said, we are still very much an onsite visit company. That mentality is still in there, and it is important to consider the role this plays beyond the actual issue resolution. Customer visits are imperative for our technicians to have the relationship with the customers as a trusted advisor. During visits, sometimes technicians pick up on things that a customer might not be seeing or saying remotely. This is all very important. You can’t lose sight of the customer. It’s not your own efficiency and effectiveness that should be your priority; it is still the customer that is your priority. Finding the right mix of the two is what will make it you can work in an efficient way.”

Of course, in prioritizing your customer needs you have to realize what their specific challenges, restrictions, and objectives are and ensure your strategy aligns. “I think there’s a little uniqueness in how wide what we work on is. We work on thousands of different models and manufacturers of equipment because the kitchen is so diverse,” explains Gyner. “As a support mechanism or competency leveler, I see remote service helping this industry. The customer engagement with remote assistance, though, is more complicated in our industry. There’s a level of safety that is a real consideration. And there’s also the reality of how our customers are resourced and how this constricts them from engaging in remote service. They often have a limited workforce. If you go into a Chipotle, for example, there may be three to six employees working at any given time. To pull one of those employees off and put that expectation on the customer to engage in remote service isn’t entirely realistic. Their focus is on delivering the menu to the customer and providing a great guest experience, not having an employee fix a fryer.”

Opportunities for expanding the strategy certainly exist outside of customer involvement, however, in ways that still have a direct impact on customer experience. “Knowledge management is an area where we see a lot of opportunity. We want to record the remote service sessions, upload them to our LMS and attach metadata so that it is searchable by the technician and information can easily be found relevant to a wide variety of problems to speed resolution and help transfer knowledge from one employee to another,” says Gyner.

"That said, we are still very much an onsite visit company. That mentality is still in there, and it is important to consider the role this plays beyond the actual issue resolution. Customer visits are imperative for our technicians to have the relationship with the customers as a trusted advisor."

Roel Rentmeesters, Director of Global Customer Service at Munters

As you consider what your remote service strategy should look like, you should be looking for opportunities to automate inefficiencies and non-value add work so that the time you do spend onsite is maximized in impact. “Much of field service is not necessarily an efficient use of people’s time. In a country like the UK or like Germany, if you’re in a central city region, sometimes the longest part of the job can be just the driving to sites. We’ve found that it can be one or two hours driving to site if a technician is driving into London, for example. And actually, they know what’s wrong, sometimes within 10 or 15 minutes of being on site. And then it’s the same journey back home or back to the office, so it’s quite inefficient,” says Karl. “What we’ve started to use IFS for is to actually have eyes on to the equipment before we arrive and what we’ve been able to find actually by doing that is that very often, it’s not a warranty problem, it’s perhaps an installation issue or there’s a wire crossed over, something like that. So, what we’ve said to our teams now is that we must support the customer of course but let’s use remote assistance first, so that we can get the unit operationally quicker without the need to dispatch an engineer. It allows a quicker response and, it’s enabling us to do that in a more effective and efficient way as well. This is valuable for an OEM, because it’s very difficult to recover those costs once you’ve dispatched an engineer. Very often, it’s warranty, so it’s seen as free of charge because it’s a manufacturer’s issue. But in reality, it’s difficult to recover those costs when you’re on site, you’ve dispatched an engineer and then you’re saying to the installer or the customer, “I’m sorry, this is not a warranty issue and it needs to be paid for.” So very often, we will do it as a gesture of goodwill. Remote assistance enables us to achieve the same goodwill result without any real cost for us other than maybe a few minutes using the remote assist to aid the customer.”

FortisBC, on the other hand, doesn’t see an evolution to remote-first or for prioritization of remote service, rather views the technology as another tool at the technician’s disposal. “At this time, remote service remains a valuable tool in our technician’s toolbox, but we do not have any immediate plans to move towards a remote only strategy,” says Scott. “Remote service has helped us ensure our customers can still receive a high level of satisfaction in uncertain times through this pandemic and will remain a valuable technology to assist in service delivery post-COVID.” 

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This feature is just one short excerpt from an e-book recently published by IFS.

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full e-book now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content IFS who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

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 Further Reading:

• Read more about IFS on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/ifs
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Read more about Remote Service on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote-service
• Learn more about IFS @ www.ifs.com
• Learn more about IFS Cloud @ www.ifs.com/ifs-cloud-overview/
• Follow IFS on Twitter @ twitter.com/ifs

FSN Research recently undertook a detailed study in partnership with HSO to understand precisely what CSAT metrics are being tracked by field service organisations.

At the same time, the study also explored the digital transformation journey our sector has been on for several years and how this was significantly accelerated due to the pandemic across 2020 and into this year. Having published the results, Dan Snowdon, Danny Wieder and Kevin Brown of HSO joined Field Service News Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland to discuss the findings of the study in greater depth.

In this final excerpt in the series, the group discuss how the study is showing an increase in co-creation between service providers and their customers when it comes to establishing innovative new approaches to service delivery.

Want to know more?

FSN Premium subscribers and FSN Elite members can access the full-length 50 minute second part of this detailed FSN Research debrief session. 

For a limited period, this content will also be available to those on our free-forever, FSN Stanard subscription tier. 

If you are yet to subscribe you can join 30,0000 of your field service management peers by subscribing to FSN Standard for free to gain access to a monthly selection of premium content or select either FSN Premium or FSN Elite for even more resources. Click the button above to visit our subscription page to find out more. 

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content, HSO who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this study.

Further Reading:

• Read more exclusive features from FSN Research  @ research.fieldservicenews.com/
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about Service Innovation and Design @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/service-innovation-and-design
• Read more about customer service trends @ Features on CSAT trends
• Read more insights from HSO and how they are helping field service companies drive improvements in customer satisfaction and increasing operational efficiency here
• Arrange a consultation to find out how HSO can help your field service business grow by clicking here