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Janam Technologies LLC, a leading provider of rugged mobile computers that scan barcodes and communicate wirelessly, announced today that it has been named 2018 Manufacturer of the Year by Varlink.

This marks the second consecutive year (and third time overall) that Janam has won this prestigious award.

Varlink’s Manufacturer of the Year award honors partner excellence and Varlink’s thriving relationship with a mobile computing manufacturer. The award recognizes a supplier that demonstrates year-over-year business growth and the ability to always deliver innovative products and superior service and support.

Earning the Manufacturer of the Year award is a testament to the strength of Janam’s relationship with Varlink and the added value the company brings to the mobile computing market. As a top performing business partner, Janam plays a critical role in Varlink’s ability to deliver best-in-class solutions to its customers.

Varlink presented long-term partner Janam with the Manufacturer of the Year award during its recent Meet the Manufacturer event. This exciting annual event brings together leading hardware manufacturers with IT resellers, solution providers and system integrators to explore the best ways to address enterprise customers’ business challenges.

Partnerships prosper when both companies are committed to excellence. Our strong relationship with Varlink is a driving force behind the significant business growth we have both achieved over the past yearAs a leading Value Added Distributor of mobile computing hardware, Varlink is committed to helping manufacturers like Janam expand their reseller base and grow their business in the U.K.

Robert Hurt, General Manager, EMEA, Janam Technologies comments “Partnerships prosper when both companies are committed to excellence. Our strong relationship with Varlink is a driving force behind the significant business growth we have both achieved over the past year. Janam is honoured to be recognized two years in a row by Varlink for our unwavering focus on innovation and for delivering highly-competitive offerings.”

Meanwhile, Mike Pullon, CEO, Varlink added “Varlink recognizes that the service that we give to our customers is heavily reliant on the relationships that we have with our vendors. Our Manufacturer of the Year award goes to a vendor that has excelled in developing our relationship. We were delighted to present an award to Janam in recognition of their commitment to building an outstanding partnership and for bringing Varlink into significant opportunities that they have cultivated.”

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Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems discusses the big three technologies that are driving field service productivity to ever greater heights...

More than 85 percent of field service professionals say that the strategic use of technology is a key driver of overall productivity.

Moreover, within the next two years, 70 percent of organizations will reference customer satisfaction as a primary benefit obtained from implementing modern field service management technology, according to Gartner.

Unfortunately, many organizations are resisting from updating systems due to a need to accommodate legacy systems, and are therefore missing out on the increased workforce efficiency and productivity that updated systems deliver.

[quote float="left"]Unfortunately, many organizations are resisting from updating systems due to a need to accommodate legacy systems[/quote]Recent technological progressions have made a significant impact on many industries - and field service is no exception. Keep in mind, it’s often quite difficult for businesses to ‘bolt on’ additional technology to legacy systems, and many these should be considering new projects aimed at reducing cost and improving agility. So, what is there to gain?

Big Data and Data Analytics

Big data and analytics functionalities present a digestible, clear view of relevant data, which allow staff to make real-time decisions.

Each step is visible and transparent, and companies can start offering customers more proactive service, such as more finely tuned maintenance schedule alerts or alerts on peripherals that need replacement, consistently.

Cloud and Connectivity

Many field service applications are anchored in the cloud, and this pay-on-demand nature allows businesses to reduce spend on software and hardware costs. The cloud provides an accessible, shared environment where, for example, call centre staff can access records pulled from phone, email, IM and social media – leading to quicker and improved customer service.

Technicians can also stream video, capture photos, surf the internet and communicate with connected networks and wearable technologies.

Mobility

Mobility has an impressive impact on field service workers’ productivity and efficiency. Field service workers can access real-time data and information about customer issues, machine conditions and operating environments.

What’s more, field service organizations that implement mobility solutions improve their first-time fix rates, SLA compliance levels, cash flow and field engineer utilization levels.

[quote float="right"]Companies that still use paper-based systems often have difficulty efficiently scheduling resources and tracking employee performance. [/quote]Companies that still use paper-based systems often have difficulty efficiently scheduling resources and tracking employee performance.

It also slows down invoicing, and even affects the company culture. While upgrading can be costly, legacy systems tend to be more expensive to maintain on almost every level. Software licensing models have changed, as have the nature of service agreements, and the cloud offers a cost-effective means to have an entire IT setup without the need for huge premises.

Employees who can perform their jobs without the administrative or operational baggage are happier and more efficient.

This is a positive result for companies as it translates into a proactive state-of-mind (employees critically thinking about what more can they do), rather than a reactive one (how can it be done).

The above summaries illustrate why enterprises should switch to current FSM solutions, rather than remaining with their legacy systems. We look forward to seeing (and experiencing) the results of these and future technological innovations in the service industry.

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Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems discusses the big three technologies that are driving field service productivity to ever greater heights...

More than 85 percent of field service professionals say that the strategic use of technology is a key driver of overall productivity.

Moreover, within the next two years, 70 percent of organizations will reference customer satisfaction as a primary benefit obtained from implementing modern field service management technology, according to Gartner.

Unfortunately, many organizations are resisting from updating systems due to a need to accommodate legacy systems, and are therefore missing out on the increased workforce efficiency and productivity that updated systems deliver.

Unfortunately, many organizations are resisting from updating systems due to a need to accommodate legacy systemsRecent technological progressions have made a significant impact on many industries - and field service is no exception. Keep in mind, it’s often quite difficult for businesses to ‘bolt on’ additional technology to legacy systems, and many these should be considering new projects aimed at reducing cost and improving agility. So, what is there to gain?

Big Data and Data Analytics

Big data and analytics functionalities present a digestible, clear view of relevant data, which allow staff to make real-time decisions.

Each step is visible and transparent, and companies can start offering customers more proactive service, such as more finely tuned maintenance schedule alerts or alerts on peripherals that need replacement, consistently.

Cloud and Connectivity

Many field service applications are anchored in the cloud, and this pay-on-demand nature allows businesses to reduce spend on software and hardware costs. The cloud provides an accessible, shared environment where, for example, call centre staff can access records pulled from phone, email, IM and social media – leading to quicker and improved customer service.

Technicians can also stream video, capture photos, surf the internet and communicate with connected networks and wearable technologies.

Mobility

Mobility has an impressive impact on field service workers’ productivity and efficiency. Field service workers can access real-time data and information about customer issues, machine conditions and operating environments.

What’s more, field service organizations that implement mobility solutions improve their first-time fix rates, SLA compliance levels, cash flow and field engineer utilization levels.

Companies that still use paper-based systems often have difficulty efficiently scheduling resources and tracking employee performance. Companies that still use paper-based systems often have difficulty efficiently scheduling resources and tracking employee performance.

It also slows down invoicing, and even affects the company culture. While upgrading can be costly, legacy systems tend to be more expensive to maintain on almost every level. Software licensing models have changed, as have the nature of service agreements, and the cloud offers a cost-effective means to have an entire IT setup without the need for huge premises.

Employees who can perform their jobs without the administrative or operational baggage are happier and more efficient.

This is a positive result for companies as it translates into a proactive state-of-mind (employees critically thinking about what more can they do), rather than a reactive one (how can it be done).

The above summaries illustrate why enterprises should switch to current FSM solutions, rather than remaining with their legacy systems. We look forward to seeing (and experiencing) the results of these and future technological innovations in the service industry.

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Two decades ago high tech companies blazed a new trail that saw them move away from the traditional transactional relationships they had with their customers as they embraced service as a route to sustainable and predictable revenue.

Other industries including the copier, medical and discrete manufacturing sectors have since followed suit and the evolutionary path to becoming a service led business is now clear explains Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director, Noventum Service Management...

Twenty years ago, high tech companies such as IBM and HP were product driven organisations that sold hardware with a product warranty service.

Their products such as PC’s and servers were often mission-critical and too complex for customers to repair themselves. Once the warranty expired, customers had to pay for spare parts and on-site field service, also known as “Time and Materials”. These high-tech companies discovered that the service business was an interesting high margins and high growth business.

They adopted a new strategy to start focusing more on the Service Business. They created a new core service business with its own profit & loss statements, with dedicated senior managers at board level.They adopted a new strategy to start focusing more on the Service Business. They created a new core service business with its own profit & loss statements, with dedicated senior managers at board level.

Their customers then discovered that rather than buying services when you have a problem, it was cheaper and less disruptive to purchase preventive maintenance services.

Eventually the high-tech companies found out that to have predictable and profitable revenue it was necessary to create services that would guarantee a certain availability of the product This was the start of a category of services called “Availability Services” and the start of “Service Level Agreements” as a business model that closely resembles that of the insurance industry when it defines a price for the service based on the risks and value as perceived by customers.

Following the high-tech industry, other industries followed a similar evolution, for example:

 

• The copier industry with companies such as Xerox and Canon, now evolved into document management solutions;
• The Medical equipment companies such as Philips Healthcare,  Siemens Healthcare and GE Healthcare that can now offer entire “Managed Hospital Services”
• Discrete manufacturing where machine manufacturers are now moving from reactive to preventive and predictive services using the Internet of Things technologies to accelerate the transformation towards more advanced services.

Since then these high-tech companies have converted themselves into full-service businesses that no longer sell only products and “Product Related Services”.

They have moved up higher in the value chain by offering “Customer Business Related Services” which we can bundle under the name Pro-Active Services.

The model below illustrates the typical evolution of a service business:

We see roughly three types of Customer Business Related Services:

 

1. Process Optimisation Services are the first typical types of services whereby process expertise is used, for example, in process advisory, process compliance services or benchmarking services. Most often, the service provider agrees upon a certain business outcome or deliverables such as an advisory report, a process compliance report or a business improvement result such as an agreed productivity improvement.
2. Business Optimisation Services address improvements in the business model of customers such as “Pay per Use” models where the technology provider also provides the financing of the technology, thereby offering the financial commitment to become an OPEX (Operational Expense) rather than a CAPEX (Capital Expenses) leaving the financing burden to the supplier who is often better able to manage the risks.
3. Business Transformation Services help customers to implement strategic changes. The expertise of the service provider includes the ability to manage change together with their customer. The ability of organisations to adapt fast enough to changing market conditions has become one of the most important drivers of success. Service providers may take over entire processes or functions and manage this with (Managed Service) or for (Business Process Outsourcing) their customer.

 

We see roughly four types of Product Related Services:

 

1. Warranty and Time & Materials Services: Service organisations typically start off offering warranty services to their products. After the warranty period, customers start to request additional services. When a service organisation responds to this request, they most likely offer time & material services.
2. Preventive maintenance: Preventive maintenance services aim to reduce the cost of time & material services. They can do so by planning ahead based on the product lifecycle and reducing the cost of delivery of services as they can be provided without urgencies.
3. Availability Services: The next step is when customers only look at when a product is available for use and consider the cost of unplanned downtime. The service provider guarantees a certain level of equipment uptime or response time. The customer will balance the perceived risk of downtime with the price they are willing to pay. The service contract or service level agreement (SLA) usually renews automatically every year and therefore generates predictable revenues for the service provider, and represents a predictable cost for the customer.

 

Once organisations start to look beyond the level of the product, they find out that they have a lot of knowledge to help their customers improve their processes and even their complete business.

 

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A new entrant into the Field Service Management Sector which offers both desktop and mobile software has been developed specifically for the SME contractor segment.

The solution which includes both desktop and mobile software, called Orthinc, works by connecting a company’s office administrators with their field engineers so that jobs can be more easily managed day-to-day. especially praised for its ease of use.

After sending job details to assigned engineers, it effortlessly collects and stores important data from the field such as materials ordered, stock used and time spent on-site. This information is then displayed on one simple page and can be used for fast, accurate invoicing.

Simon Jackson, the earliest adopter of the software, said that the system was an invaluable asset to his electrical business.

Simon Jackson, the earliest adopter of the software, said that the system was an invaluable asset to his electrical business. Since being approached by the Orthinc team one year ago to trial the so ware, I think it’s been moulded into the perfect tool for small and medium-sized contracting companies. We use it every day to send our engineers out jobs and receive information back from them. As well as improving our daily workflow, it has directly saved us time and money. For example, when seven invoices for parts went missing last month, Orthinc highlighted that we hadn’t charged our client for them which saved us around £350. We would never go back to our old system, it’s changed the way we work.

The Orthinc team began developing the software over 18 months ago with the goal of helping reduce contractors’ dependence on inefficient job management systems, such as complicated software, excel spreadsheets and order code books. Now, the team hope to go beyond that by providing the easiest, most accessible solution to job management.

Orthinc lead designer, Kieran McIntyre said: Time and money are the most important resources to contractors and poor processes can waste lots of both. Although so ware has attempted to provide a solution to this, none before Orthinc has really hit the nail on the head. For job management so ware to truly benefit contractors, it has to be genuinely easy to use – otherwise, you are just giving them another hurdle to jump. Simplicity has been our main focus here at Orthinc. We’ve worked hard to make a system that can be picked up by anyone and used straight away, so that its benefits are instantly felt.

The Orthinc software is available on both desktop and mobile devices and is accessible anytime and anywhere with an internet connection.

The team offer contractors a handy, no-contract 14 day free trial so that they can see if the software is right for them.

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Michael Blumberg, President, Blumberg Advisory Group and founder of Field Service Insights outlines how service organisations are overlooking the fundamental difference between a customer not seeing value in a service offering and a customer objecting to price and explains why understanding these are two very different things can open up a world of increased revenue streams...

Field Service Executives often face challenges when it comes to generating additional service revenue for their companies.

They often face resistance from customers as evidenced by low contract attachment rates. The natural tendency is to blame the price as the reasons why customers aren’t purchasing more services contracts.

After all, this is the feedback they received from their sales teams and from the customers.

Being logical and rational business people, field service executives try to solve the problem by lowering the price, after all, if the customer says that the price is too high, it must be the reason why they are not buying, right?

To quote, the popular song by George and Ira Gershwin, “It ain’t necessarily so!”. While price may be a factor in the purchase decision, seldom is price the only reason why customers don’t purchase service contracts.

In market research studies that I have conducted for clients in a wide array of technology service markets, I have found that price is often low on the list of criteria that end-users consider when selecting and evaluating service providers. Criteria such as quality of service, knowledge and skill of service personnel, breadth of service offering, and vendor’s knowledge of their business are perceived by customers to have higher importance than price alone.

The truth is “your price is too high” will always be an objection that customers provide when they cannot justify the value of a service contract. The truth is “your price is too high” will always be an objection that customers provide when they cannot justify the value of a service contract.

This is because they have no way of logically defending the value of the service being purchased. Stated another way; they are not able to differentiate the benefits of service contracts from time and materials service. The problem is that Field Service Organizations (FSOs) often attempt to sell service contracts without providing justification about why a service contract is better than simply paying for service on a time and materials basis.

A common saying among sales professionals is that customers buy emotionally and then defend their purchases logically. All too often, FSOs provide little emotional reason why a customer should purchase as service contract as opposed to T & M and even less logical supporting evidence about why a service contract is more valuable.

To achieve high attachment rates, FSOs must be able to articulate the value of their service offerings to customers as well as to their own salespeople. The value proposition must impact customers’ emotionally by addressing their fears, worries, doubts, and concerns about the impact of service or the lack thereof on their operations.

For example, fear of excessive equipment downtime, lost revenue, low machine utilization levels, or the possibility of quality defects. Of course, the FSO needs to provide logical supporting evidence why their service offering will eliminate these issues.

FSOs achieve this results by articulating, either through a sales conversation or marketing collateral, what’s included in a service contract that is not included in time & materials. This requires they do an effective job in defining the coverage, entitlements and resources available to the customer through a service contract.

Ultimately, FSOs must be able to help customers defend their purchase of service contracts. They must be able to answer the customer primary question “What’s in it for me?”. If the only difference between a service contract and time & materials is that the customer can prepay for service, then there is no emotional value or logical contrast. However, if the service contract provides a preferred level of service (e.g., 4-hour response time, 99.9% uptime guarantee, 7 by 24-hour coverage, parts, etc.) or preferred price structure then the customer is presented with some real value and contrast.

Ultimately, FSOs must be able to help customers defend their purchase of service contracts. They do this by offering more value in a service contract than the customer could possibly receive through time and materials services.

Of course, the best way win over customers is by being honest and letting them know exactly how service contracts enable you, the service provider, to provide a better level of service.

Fundamentally, FSOs can deliver better service to customers under contract.

This is because the contacts provide data about the installed base and service demand requirements. As a result, FSOS can anticipate service events and be more effective at planning and allocating service resources. This, in turn, makes it possible for FSOs to provide a guaranteed level of service to their customers.

Honesty is always the best policy especially when it is supported by a guaranty and exceptional service!

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The potential utilisation of Autonomous Vehicles within the field service has been discussed for some time so forward-looking field service organisations may be keen to see the latest developments in this emerging technology have made public use of driverless cars a reality...

Earlier this month, Aptiv PLC, a global technology leader in mobility, announced the launch of a fleet of 30 autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas on the Lyft network.

A product of Aptiv’s Mobility and Services group, these vehicles will operate on Aptiv’s fully-integrated autonomous driving platform and be made available to the public in partnership with Lyft. On an opt-in basis, passengers will have the ability to hail a self-driving vehicle equipped with Aptiv technology to and from high-demand locations.

This partnership is a multiyear agreement between the two companies and a clear step toward generating revenue for Aptiv’s autonomous driving business. Both companies will leverage Aptiv’s connected services capabilities and Lyft’s ride-hailing experience to provide valuable insights on self-driving fleet operations and management.

“With Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology deployed throughout Las Vegas and broadly accessible through the Lyft app, a wide range of consumers will be able to share the experience of autonomous vehicles in a complex urban environment,” said Kevin Clark, Aptiv president and chief executive officer. “More importantly, the resulting knowledge and data will allow us to further refine our autonomous driving capabilities and strengthen our portfolio of industry-leading active safety solutions.”

The combination of Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology and Lyft’s ride-hailing app is the expansion of a successful partnership that launched in Las Vegas during CES 2018. That initial pilot provided more than 400 self-driving rides to the public and earned an average customer rating of 4.99 out of five stars. Like the CES program, vehicles will be operated by highly-trained safety drivers.

Aptiv, built on decades of experience in automotive performance, has a strong foundation in delivering safe technologies. The company prioritizes and meets high-level functional safety requirements in both its software and hardware validation.

Aptiv autonomous vehicles on the Lyft network have been available to the general public in Las Vegas starting May 3.

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As we begin to enter the final articles in our serialisation of Jim Baston’s excellent industry focused book Beyond Great Service we conclude the section on seeking feedback - an area that has become increasingly important today as field service companies en masse are putting the customer at the heart of their entire service strategies...

Before rolling out the strategy of engaging technicians in business development, Charlie wanted to seek feedback from customers. Last time he spoke with Joe Costello of East Side Property Management. Joe’s response encouraged Charlie that he was on the right track. Joe offered a suggestion for the initiative.“Way back when I first got into the industry, I ran into a bit of trouble that cost me my job, and almost my career. I was assigned as the building manager for a condominium for Chelsea Property Management. It’s still there, and it was at least 25 years old then. You may know it—829 Becket Avenue?”

“Yeah, I know it. My sister and brother-in-law used to live there.”

“Okay, so you will know it’s a pretty prestigious building. I am not sure why I got it, since it probably should have gone to someone more senior. Management must have been desperate. Anyway, I got it. I was pretty cocky back then and had no fear, so I guess I thought that I deserved it. Here I  was just out of college and managing a big building. That was in December. The next spring, I guess it was April, the service technician suggested that I consider changing out the boiler. It seemed to be running fine, but it was as old as the building and parts were almost impossible to come by. It might have continued to operate fine through the next winter, but maybe not. That would’ve been the time to make the decision so that a new boiler could’ve been installed during the cooling system when there is no demand for hot
water for heating.”

I would suggest you encourage your technicians to set up an informal meeting every six months or so, for them to go over any outstanding proposals that have not been responded to. “I told the tech that I wanted to mull it over. I was nervous about bringing this up with the Board at this time, since we were working on a number of capital improvements including a new roof, repaving the parking lot and repairing the pool, and these were seriously depleting the reserve fund. I thought I would wait until the June Board meeting to mention it. By then, the approvals for the major expenditures would be behind us and we’d be thinking about getting things in order to prepare for winter.”

“Well, as I said, I had a lot of things on my mind and I forgot about the boiler altogether—until October, when the heating season was upon us. It was at that point I remembered the boiler, but it was too late. Fortunately, the start-up went fine and I thought I was in the clear. In January, however, the boiler
went down. As luck would have it, it was the coldest day of the year and the forecast was for at least a week, maybe two, of the same. To complicate matters, the parts that were needed were not readily available. It took the service company three days to find the parts and another two days to get them installed and the boiler back in service. We were without full heat for almost a week, and you can imagine the uproar from the unit owners. Some threatened to not pay their maintenance fees. Others wanted to change the building management company. It was absolutely crazy, and all because of my carelessness. When the dust settled, it came out that the service company had actually recommended changing out the boiler way back in the spring. For my company, that was the last straw. I was gone within a week.”

“At first I was bitter about the situation. It was an honest mistake, albeit a careless one, but not one that I thought I should’ve lost my job over. And, it could have been avoided. Had the technician reminded me that I had not made a decision on the boiler, or had he simply asked what my intentions were with regards to replacement, it would have saved my job. Was it his job to remind me? As I reflect on it now, I don’t think it was in the truest sense of the word. However, it would have provided a valuable service to me.”

“Anyway, the reason I am telling you this story is that I would suggest you encourage your technicians to set up an informal meeting every six months or so, for them to go over any outstanding proposals that have not been responded to. The customer can then tell them if they have decided against the idea or if they are waiting for budget approval. They might also thank the tech for reminding them that they have not attended to the issue. If it makes sense, your technician could also use this time to take the customer on a tour of the facility to showcase work and discuss new opportunities.”

Thinking about your business:

• Is your business development strategy clearly tied to your overall plan to provide each customer with an exceptional customer experience?
• Does everyone know what they are expected to do to delivery on the strategy?
• What hurdles stand in the way of fully engaging your field service team?
• Do you include steps like reviewing existing recommendations with customers to ensure important ideas are not lost?
• Have you sought feedback from your customers on your initiative?

Next time Charlie seeks summarizes the components of the strategy to engage technicians in business development. He calls this new service “Intelligent Service”.

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It’s been several years since the official end of the Great Recession and we finally see organizations beginning to switch from a cautionary mindset to one of business expansion. However, business and revenue expansion initiatives need to be built on an infrastructure of growth, an area where organizations haven’t invested significantly in the previous 5-10 years. The desire for growth needs to be matched with investments in knowledge, technology, and innovation.

Sumair Dutta, Chief Customer Officer, Service Council explains why he anticipates that the next twelve months will be a period when service leaders begin to transition into new revenue models.

The Voice of the Service Leader:

In The Service Council’s annual trends survey of 2017, service leaders indicated that their top initiatives were focused on the improvement of customer management, the enhancement of service operations with the aid of business data, and an expansion of knowledge management across the enterprise.

In discussions with service leaders, it seemed like most were looking to get closer to their customers via better voice of the customer and listening initiatives to truly understand what these customers valued. In several industries, we also noted that organizations were balancing the demands and needs of various customers within an organization.

2018 initiatives are similar to those planned for 2017 and we don’t see a major deviation for service leaders. The push is to continue to drive operational efficiencies and business capacity with the aid of data, information, and technology. In parallel, organizations are looking to continue to ramp up their customer experience initiatives. As these initiatives get more mature and move from the listening phase to the customer understanding phase, organizations are hoping to use customer insight and data to support revenue generation efforts.

In discussions with service leaders, it seemed like most were looking to get closer to their customers via better voice of the customer and listening initiatives to truly understand what these customers valued.Voice of the customer efforts have been popular for several years and were championed by those in business to consumer industries.

In serving a larger number of customers and customer transactions, it was essential for these organizations to get a pulse of customer sentiment tied to service transactions and business relationships. The effort from these organizations was to improve operations to support better loyalty and retention.

Some would argue that the intent of these organizations is now shifting to ensuring a greater use of purchased product and service features, akin to the customer success model.

In enterprises that work directly with other businesses, the volume of transactions and interactions might not be as large; nevertheless, these interactions can have a high degree of value or impact attached to them. Historically, organizations were happy to capture feedback from their customers, but customer listening wasn’t a prioritized activity.

That has changed; as over the last three years, we have seen more organizations invest in voice of the customer and customer surveying programs.

More so, service leaders have also sought after resources to map customer journeys and identify key pain points in the service delivery ecosystem.

These customer experience activities have led to a handful of initiatives that strive to assuage frustrated customers, increase visibility into the service process, and reduce the effort required to access the service organization.

We now believe that organizations are fairly well equipped to deal with direct customer feedback but now need to dive deeper to truly unearth customer value.

Deciphering value requires a deeper look at customer feedback. Customer complaints and outreach are typically a channel for customers to share their expressed wishes. Answering expressed needs and wishes is essential to maintaining customer satisfaction, but addressing unexpressed needs is the key to differentiation.

This requires the ability for service teams to dig deeper into the reasons for a customer contact and what that specific customer might be looking to accomplish with the delivered information.

Addressing constraint:

The delivery of improved experiences must occur in a constraint heavy environment. The biggest constraint faced by organizations is the capacity of the service workforce.

This capacity isn’t solely tied to the quantity of service tasks that must be met, but in the quality of service interactions that must be supported by service personnel. In organizations with field service groups, there is a major focus on replacing retiring service workers and in retaining and replicating their knowledge for future generations.

Several industries are having major issues tapping into the next generation of service workers. Yet service requests continue and customers require a higher level of service.

Technology might seem like the best answer to addressing capacity issues, but the real solution comes from a better understanding of available service data. This explains why service leaders are looking at their major sources of data to identify:

• Inefficient service delivery processes
• Opportunities for automation and elimination of manual intervention
• Opportunities for enhancement of service worker output and coverage

The data that is available at the service leader’s fingertips can come from multiple sources. It may come direct from the product being serviced, and this mode of data communication continues to gain traction. Yet reliable data is already available from:

• Customer requests, complaints, and claims
• Point-of-service systems tracking work completion and resources required

Once operational improvement opportunities are identified, it makes sense to inject technology solutions to address these opportunities.

For instance, portals can be created to offer customers an easier path to service information or to the creation of a service request as compared to a traditional 1-800 call queue.

Routing technology can be used to directly connect customers to higher-level technical support. Video solutions can allow for assisted service resolution or improved diagnosis prior to dispatch. And just-in-time content can be sent to technicians to ensure that their service visits are successful.

We would recommend that service leaders also analyze and review data tied to the customer experience as much as they use data to prioritize operational improvements.We would recommend that service leaders also analyze and review data tied to the customer experience as much as they use data to prioritize operational improvements.

If customers indicate that the ease of access to service personnel is a priority for them, or that other areas in the service delivery ecosystem need improvement, then these could help service leaders rank needed changes.

The growth plan:

Operational and customer-focused initiatives are being paired with those that focus on business and service revenue. In discussions around service’s impact on the business, TSC has previously highlighted two revenue buckets that are directly enhanced by service.

• Service-Impacted Revenue – Revenue generated as a result of positive customer satisfaction, typically tied to up-sells, cross-sells, renewals, new purchases, and referrals.
• Service Revenue – Revenue generated from the sale of service products such as service parts, time & material work, or service agreements.

In pursuing growth in 2018, service leaders continue to support the first bucket of revenue typically driven by other parts of the organization but are taking aim at enhancing their overall service revenue contribution.

This expansion is typically supported in two ways:

1. Understanding customer use of current service products
2. Uncovering appetite for new service products

For those organizations with service agreements in place, it’s essential to understand which customers are covered by these agreements and which ones are coming up for renewal. Better visibility into coverage and renewal opportunities can uncover millions in revenue opportunities.

Once visibility is established, it is essential to identify why customers chose to stay away from service agreements or other products. This might uncover awareness or sales opportunities for the service enterprise.

In addition to actual coverage and renewal, service organizations must understand how customers are utilizing products and services. Awareness of customer adoption and usage will allow for improved account management opportunities. It might also yield ideas for net new services that can be valuable to customers.

Summary/Conclusion: the need for service innovation

While organizations are navigating what it means to be a digital business, they are also looking to new collaboration models with their customers to ensure longer and more profitable relationships.

For organizations to be more innovative in service, an internal transformation needs to occur around business leadership, around business measurement, and around the technology in place to support a new service business.In innovation-focused research conducted by The Service Council in 2017, less than one-half of organizations highlighted that their service businesses received as much focus on innovation, as did the other parts of the business.

For organizations to be more innovative in service, an internal transformation needs to occur around business leadership, around business measurement, and around the technology in place to support a new service business.

Service leaders must develop and fuel a culture that welcomes and accepts new ways of doing business, even at the cost of cannibalizing existing revenue streams. The promise of innovation is ripe at service organizations; it’s now time for service leaders to execute on this promise.

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