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Continuing our series of interviews with industry leaders, Kris Oldland speaks with John Cooper, Head of IT and Workflow Solutions in Sony’s Professional Solutions unit in Europe. 

John Cooper is man with not just one division to oversee but many. Each has particularly demanding service challenges and, of course, due to the high technology industries that Sony inhabit, each is also an ever evolving sector.

With a pan European team of around 110 field engineers working alongside other members of the wider Sony workforce and various third parties, Cooper’s responsibilities are essentially across the entirety of the non-consumer portfolio of the tech giant, and it seems service is an increasingly important part of the wider business strategies and plans.

The areas that fall under Cooper’s remit also each have their own unique service challenges.

Firstly there is Sony’s healthcare solutions unit which has evolved from simply producing medical printers to now working on much more adventurous projects with hospitals and surgeons such as transmitting operations as part of a training program and even potentially aiming towards remote surgery by utilising a mix of cameras, high quality displays and 3D technologies.  Of course in such an environment, uptime is essential. “As a service challenge it’s quite an interesting one as you don’t want anything to fail mid-cut as it were” Cooper comments wryly.

Another of the divisions in Cooper’s area of the business is the theatre solutions division, which is focused on digital cinema. Here the products include high-end 4K cinema projectors and the clients the likes of Vue and Everyman.

 

And whilst the pressure on the service operation here is perhaps not a matter of life and death as it is in Healthcare, it certainly still exists. Quite simply the clients in this division are reliant on the technology functioning for them to make any money at all, so if the projectors fail, then they don’t pay.

And of course then there is the Classic AV/Media side of the business, the largest of Cooper’s divisions and a key area for Sony as a whole. Again the pressure to deliver reliable uptime is paramount.

With high profile clients including the unusual (Sony is responsible for the archiving and recording solutions for Vatican City) to the more standard broadcast clients such as UK terrestrial provider ITV and Spain’s Telemadrid, there is an expectancy for the products and solutions they provide to be wholly reliable.

As Cooper states “if you think about News and just TV broadcast generally that whole industry was built around reliability. It’s so rare for the screen to go black and so it’s [100% uptime] an expectation.

Challenges of service complexity

To deliver these expectations Cooper’s team is comprised of a number of differing elements within the service -chain focused on maintaining the various different technologies at play. Firstly there is a service management team that focuses separately on those technologies with a team of field engineers with the requisite skills based in and around Europe. Then there are the other equally important components of Sony’s service delivery such as centralised repair locations, where they pull all sorts of technology back to a select number of places across the continent to get fast turnround time.

Essentially,  part of their service operation is in the field, part of it is remotely placed in terms of repair and then in addition to this they also employ a number of remote technologies that allow them to log in to systems quickly to make initial diagnosis.

And in the midst of all that there is an ever increasing complexity within their product set which in turn adds further complexities to the organisational structure, making the smooth handling of operations even harder.

Cooper outlined three facets to this complexity.  One is the increasing challenge of potentially lots of different partners in the service chain. “IT workflow solutions for example, might well have an oracle database plus harmonic storage and we have to look at the whole piece,"  he explains

Then there is the issue of Sony’s customers reducing their own internal expertise with many shedding engineers, particularly as engineers retire and aren’t necessarily replaced. In the theatre business, for example, there is no need for a highly skilled projectionist who in the days of analogue might have had a greater understanding of the machines he worked with and the ability to potentially undertake maintenance himself or at least provide a detailed overview of the fault when reporting it.

 

In a modern cinema the technology is much simpler to operate so that skillset is lost on the client side, adding further emphasis on Cooper’s team to be able to work at optimum efficiency.  As Cooper asserts:  “Our ability to diagnose has to be very good because the fault diagnostics aren’t always fantastic as you might imagine.”

Finally, there is the fact that Sony themselves are also facing their own price pressures.  The price of a high end broadcast cameras for example, have fallen dramatically in the last ten years and this hit to the bottom line also is of course felt by the service division. “We used to be able to, in certain instances, give some of our service elements away for free because it was built into the margin, that’s no longer possible," Cooper concedes.

Bespoke service offering

And it is these challenges that have ultimately led to Sony having to adopt a much more focussed approach to their service.

“In order to protect our customers and to deliver the levels of service that we want to be recognised for, we give a fairly high level of service at point of sale but then we sell our additional service contract offerings up to any level including up to full bespoke.” Cooper explains

Add to this the growing trend of servitization, which for Sony at the moment is currently something of a pull market with their customers more and more frequently seeking to engage with Sony on a pay-per-usage basis.

 

A perfect example of this is a new system Sony have just implemented for Telemadrid.  Replacing a previous Sony system which was over a decade old, the suite contains the latest technology and is provided on a pay-per-usage basis. “It’s a fully managed system, and in that instance it’s all about the service - the technology is just an enabler.” Cooper explains. “And we are starting to see the pressures on the broadcasters, big lumps of cash are harder to come by, many are now starting to ask about pay per usage. Then it’s all about service delivery, ” he adds.

With such significant shifts in business principals, service is quite rightly becoming a much more fundamental part of Sony’s wider business strategy.

As a result of these shifts however, Cooper and his colleagues needed to revisit their existing service infrastructure, with a view to replacing their 15-year-old legacy system with something better suited to the growing complexity of their service organisation. “We used to be able to, in certain instances, give some of our service elements away for free because it was built into the margin, that’s no longer possible,“ Cooper concedes.

And it is these challenges that have ultimately led to Sony having to adopt a much more focused approach to their service. “In order to protect our customers and to deliver the levels of service that we want to be recognised for, we give a fairly high level of service at point of sale but then we sell our additional service contract offerings up to any level including up to full bespoke,” Cooper explains

Add to this the growing trend of servitization, which for Sony at the moment is currently something of a pull market with their customers more and more frequently seeking to engage with Sony on pay-per-usage basis.

As a result of these shifts however, Cooper and his colleagues needed to revisit their existing service infrastructure, with a view to replacing their 15-year-old legacy system with something better suited to the growing complexity of their service organisation.

 

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Look out for Part 2 of this interview, when Cooper will talk about how he and his team reviewed both off-the-shelf systems and customised solutions to determine which was fit-for-purpose, their reasons for making the choice they did and the impact on the service operation.

 

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Copperberg hosted 100+ field service leaders from across Europe and cross-sectors within the manufacturing industry at its 2nd Annual Field Service Forum, which took place in June at the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport.  Thomas Igou, Editorial Director for event producer Copperberg gives us his personal overview of how the two day event took place... 

Pre-Event Workshops

The conference was preceded by two pre-event workshops that focused on core aspects of a successful Field Service business. The mobility workshop, hosted by Marc Tonen, Pre-Sales Consultancy Manager EMEA at Astea, delved into how to best integrate mobility solutions to create a mobile workforce that will enhance the value of your service offerings to your customers. As many manufacturers are planning to or are currently rolling out mobility solutions, this was an essential topic to be discussed, and one that would be further covered during the rest of the conference.

The second workshop was hosted by Jim Baston, President of BBA Consulting Group, and covered an ever growing topic in field service today: the technician’s role in pro-active business growth in order to go beyond great service. In other words, how to develop the soft skills of field technicians they can lay the groundwork for up-sells or customer retention. Considering the amazing reaction to Jim’s workshop, it is clear that for many field service businesses, technicians are more than maintenance experts. They are the first pawns in the battle of creating long lasting relationships with customers.

Service Mastery Day

The conference officially kicked off with a new and highly appreciated feature: the Service Mastery Day. The three hour seminar from Chris Daffy, a renowned customer service specialist from the UK, covered the key aspects to building exceptional customer loyalty through field engineers. Chris is a very charismatic speaker who is not afraid to use humor to put forth his message, built from years of experience working in customer service, as well as research from professionals and academics into the topic. The result was a refreshing presentation on the art and science of customer loyalty building, why a balanced brain approach is essential for building sustainable customer loyalty, and the engineering excellence principles and tools that are equally effective in engineering customer loyalty.

Networking Evening

Following the Service Mastery Day, participants joined for a long evening of structured networking, always one of the highlights of Copperberg events. Delegates, speakers and partners were able, prior to the event, to schedule one-to-one meetings to ensure making the most out of the event and creating long lasting professional contacts. The evening featured different activities such as a mingling drink reception, elevator pitches from some of the partners, and an inspirational session from Motivational Coach Malcolm Larri. Participants were then invited to a very relaxed dinner banquet where they were also treated to a magic show.

The main conference day offered participants a wide array of formats, from morning masterclasses, keynotes, industry-driven and technology-driven executive circles, and parallel tracks of focus sessions meant to challenge them to not only learn, but also share. There were three key themes that floated around during the event: global workforce, smart services, and operational efficiency.

Global Workforce

Further to Jim Baston’s introductory workshop on the development of a technician’s soft sales ability, many sessions focused on talent and the workforce needed for a successful field service. ServiceMax’s morning masterclass, held by Patrice Eberline, best resumed the reason behind why this topic is of great importance: 40% of service technicians are over the age of 40, and 60% of companies are understaffed in their technical and highly skilled positions, meaning that the service industry has a looming talent problem.

There were also many discussions during networking breaks and executive circles on the underestimated importance of good leadership, as field service is by definition a people business, and people crave for good and inspiring leadership. Another session that stood out was from Brian Dahl Thomsen, Head of Operations and Regional Support for Siemens Wind Power, who shared his views on the needed competencies to be a service technician. Brian developed on Siemens Wind Service’s method of analyzing what competencies are need to cope with the environment of their products, the technology as well as the logistics aspect. Finally, they ensure to have the right approach on a management level to cope with talent management by setting clear target and objectives and investing in the right training methods.

Smart Services

Another hot topic at the event was how to develop smart services, such as predictive maintenance. A lot of manufacturers are currently looking into IoT, and how M2M/Big Data can help them improve their service business. One session from Magnus Sävenäs, VP Customer Service, Head of Global Field Service & Training at ABB Robotics gave an insight on how to use the latest technology trends to improve your business. The session focused on how to run a data driven organisation with the motto, “easy to buy, easy to service”. Magnus explained the five pillars for this: installed base data, organisation, remote service, customer access to information, and knowledge management.

Operational Efficiency

The highlight of the third track was a great case study from Andre Skerlavaj, Director Global Service Strategy for Pentair Valves and Control. His session focused on their PRONTO project, a holistic approach to increased service levels. PRONTO is a cross-functional approach that was developed to ensure streamlined processes and smooth execution from service scoping through to international service delivery. The rest of the track also featured interesting sessions from Brick, on how to make heroes of your service sales team, and Elektrobit Wireless, on how to conduct a successful mobility project.

Technology

The event was also a great showcase of the latest technological developments that support field service activities. Mobility was of course a big part of the event as more and more organizations understand the necessity to connect their front line (field service technicians dispersed all over the globe) to the back office. Through focus sessions, case studies, and roundtable discussions, delegates were able to get a full spectrum of implementing mobility solutions, from the key challenges faced when mobilising business processes, how to achieve ROI, or even the possibilities with a mobile service sales tool. Another, more disruptive, technology that was discussed was Internet of Things (IoT). Mark Brewer from PTC gave an exciting keynote on the impact IoT will have on service operations by looking at breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and strategic differentiation. Staying on the theme of connectivity, there was a lot of buzz about wearables technology. XMReality were able to give a demo of wearable tech on the exhibition floor, while Måns Granholm, General Manager Process Development & Commissioning at Wärtsilä, gave a keynote on their use of Virtual Engineers in an augmented reality environment.

The closing keynote from Edmilson Toledo, Head of Global FSO Program at Ericsson, was one of the highlights of the event. Edmilson’s session focused on the networked society, and how digital technologies can transform field service businesses in a game changing way. The keynote covered mobility, and how Ericsson is using mobile phones as a tool available for all field technicians, as well as wearables smart glasses, which Edmilson feels is a market moving to maturity. Lastly, the session highlighted UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), also known as drones, as a tool to support technicians.

Conclusion

All in all, the event was an impressive gathering of industry leaders and solution providers. A lot of innovative ideas were thrown around by the participants either during the presentations, roundtable conversations, Q&A’s, or networking sessions, on how to grow the field service business.

 

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ABOUT AFTERMARKET

The 9th Aftermarket Business Platform will take place October 21st-23rd at the Grand Hotel Huis Ter Duin in the Netherlands, gathering 200+ service leaders from global manufacturers. The theme of the event will be, Service Transformation: delivering value and differentiation to customers and will feature case studies from KONE, Zimmer, Scania, Emerson Process Management, ABB Power Generation, AGCO Parts, Hyundai Motor UK, Medtronic and many more. The event will be chaired by Rob Van Hove, CEO of Kuiken Group. For more information, visit: www.aftermarketeurope.com

 

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What is the value of a customer relationship? Is it worth it to over-deliver on SLAs just to keep a paying client? What role does field service have in keeping customers happy? Aly Pinder, senior research analyst analyst, Service Management, Aberdeen Group,  shares his views.

These are all questions which have put a microscope on service technicians and field engineers. Historically, the field service team was solely looked to in order to show up on time based on a 4-8 hour service window and fix a failure. But in this age of empowered customers, the field service team is expected to deliver real value to each customer interaction (while also, of course, fixing the failure).

But with this demand for increased value comes the opportunity to find new products and services that customers need and want to buy. As seen in Aberdeen’s Service Revenue: Unearth an Untapped Stream of Dollars research, eight out of ten top performers (81%) were able to attain their service revenue goals in 2014 and they also cultivate an environment of innovation for their service offerings to meet the needs of their customers. But how did these service organizations and manufacturers achieve these results? Did the money just fall from the trees? Of course not, these companies helped the field team excel at service and wow their customers into new opportunities.

The path to this level of engagement is outlined below and should be the centerpiece of any strategy to drive profitability from the field:

• The carrot is often more successful than the stick in business. Incentives, if targeted the right way, have the ability to drive the behaviors which can transform an organization.[quote float="left"]The carrot is often more successful than the stick in business. 

   

  This is true for the field team. If your organization only monitors or incents doing more jobs as quickly as possible, your technicians will neglect aspects of the service experience which could prove valuable to customers. Savvy service leaders implement incentives and performance goals which tackle both short-term operational objectives and long-term relationship goals like profitability, revenue, and customer satisfaction.
• Give the sales team a view into the field. The sales team has a difficult job (and no, I am not pandering to the sales executives out there). They “always must be closing” new business. And one of their top challenges is having enough leads to close. This is where the field service team can help out. Service technicians are in front of customers every day, they’re in front of the equipment on site, and they even have access to the competition’s assets. But in order to connect customer insight with the sales team, the field needs the mobile tools AND the training to pass along the right information. Technicians need to ask the right questions while on site with customers and have their eyes / ears open to gaps in the current products and services being used. Passing these leads on to sales can drive the top line for the entire organization.
• Don’t give service away for free.

   

  Don’t give service away for free. Too often organizations send technicians out to customers to service equipment and assets which are no longer under warranty or within a service contract. This is a missed opportunity. Top performing organizations ensure their service team delivers service which is being paid for. And when contracts expire or are close to, technicians don’t have to refuse service but they will have the knowledge to give the customer a small nudge reminding them their bill is due.

The field service team has a special place in the hearts and minds of customers. Technicians show up when there is a problem (or before), fix it, and leave with a smile. But this relationship has the opportunity to garner insights that can turn into new revenue opportunities. I don’t think technicians should be salespeople, but they understand customers, equipment, and assets. And this insight makes them invaluable in finding the next dollar while ensuring customers remain happy.

 

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Service organisations who have integrated field service and reverse/service logistics processes report a higher level of service performance than those who have not, reports Michael R. Blumberg, President and CEO, Blumberg Advisory Group, which has conducted a survey of 250 field service companies companies in the high-tech sector.

Much attention has been given in recent years to the need to automate field service and service parts logistics processes through the implementation of Enterprise Service Management (ESM) systems, . Although the benefits from improved automation are well documented, there is a segment of the market that faces challenges to achieving measurable gains in productivity and efficiency as it relates to key performance indicators (KPIs). This is especially true for KPIs associated with service parts logistics activities. We believe these shortcomings are due in part to lack of integration between field service and reverse/service Llogistics functions.

In order to validate this hypothesis, we conducted a survey among a cross representative sample of companies in the high technology service and support industry. Over 250 respondents participated in the survey, which was sponsored by IFS.  The survey results reveal a number of very interesting trends:

1. Greater reliance on remote support: The survey results support the growing trend toward resolving service requests remotely without the need to dispatch a field service engineer. 40% of companies can resolve more that 25% of service requests remotely by sending out a replacement spare part. Over one quarter of respondents expect this trend to continue to increase over the next 18-24 months.
2. Best of breed solutions outperform integrated solutions: Despite the breadth of functionality found within integrated enterprise systems, our results indicated a higher level of satisfaction with Best of Breed solutions than with Integrated ESM platforms. Over one-third of respondents were extremely satisfied with their Best of Breed ESM solution compare to 14% with integrated ESM platforms. We believe this is because best of breed solutions are more focused on the detailed processes and transactions involved in managing a field service and/or reverse logistics operation.
3.  Perceived gaps in reverse logistics functionality: Many companies perceive their ESM solutions have gaps in the ability to deal with reverse/service logistics issues particularly when it comes to depot repair activities. For example, 27% of respondents claim that their ESM is not very effective in tracking the results of depot repair test and screening activities. Another one quarter indicated their systems are not very effective in automating the work flow or business rules associated with processing returned materials.
4. Integrated automation is critical to success: The level of integrated automation between field service and reverse/service [ogistics functionality has a direct impact on ESM effectiveness. More importantly companies with a high level of integrated automation perform better on key service performance metrics than those who do not. Companies with some level of integrated automation experience a higher SLA compliance rate than those have no integrated automation (93.4% v 87.9%) as well as a lower no-fault-found rate (26.1% v 38.3%).[/ordered_list]

In summary, our research findings reveal that companies who have been able to successfully integrate field service and reverse/service logistics processes report a higher level of service performance than those who have not. The most effective integrated solutions are those that incorporate integrated, best of breed functionality for both field service and reverse/service logistics processes. More importantly, the data reveals that these integrated, best of breed solutions are not only highly effective in managing ongoing service requirements but essential to overcoming critical business challenges such as improving remote resolution rates and improving field service engineer productivity rates.
We’d like to thank IFS, a leading provider of ESM systems, for sponsoring our research study. IFS has made available the results of our study in a 14-page whitepaper that can be downloaded at Whitepaper Download. To better understand the implications of these findings to your organization or to define requirements for a best of breed, integrated solution, schedule a free strategy session with us today by clicking here.

 

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Does your field service business need a customer portal? Yes, says Jenna Puckett, associate technology analyst at TechnologyAdvice.

Great field service management is the backbone of many businesses but in an increasingly connected and impatient world, it’s becoming harder to delight customers.

Consumers expect visibility and control when they interact with businesses, particularly when field service is involved. After all, in an age when customers can track the status of their pizza delivery from their smartphone, they expect to know when a technician will arrive at their home and how long they’ll be there.

Service companies must keep up with tech-savvy consumers in order to meet their ever changing demands. To keep pace with customer expectations, more and more businesses are adopting modern field service management software solutions.

 

Since FSM software varies greatly from vendor to vendor, it’s difficult to pinpoint which functionality can help your business the most. To many businesses, a customer portal may seem extraneous. But companies can experience myriad benefits by putting everything at the customer’s fingertips.

Let's examine why this FSM software feature is not just an extra but a necessity.[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Increase customer satisfaction
   Successful field service management operations play a critical role in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customer portals can help increase customer satisfaction.
2. Add convenience
   A self-service portal allows customers to manage their account with your company. By logging into your website, consumers can perform a variety of tasks, such as:[unordered_list style="bullet"]
   • Request service and schedule appointments 24/7
   • Track repairs, as well as appointment details and status
   • Send messages directly to a technician
   • Review their service history
   • Find maintenance tips
   • Learn about product upgrades
   • View account info and manage payments
   • Get support for sales and product questionsPlace your list items here

   As traditional business hours become increasingly inopportune for communications, a self-service portal provides added convenience for customers. In fact, a CSG International study revealed that 86 percent of consumers would pay a premium off up to $25 for enhanced scheduling options, including the ability to choose a specific technician arrival time. By allowing customers to choose a time that fits their preferences you can distinguish your service from competitors.

3. Provide transparency
   Many customers have trouble staying apprised of FSM job details such as technician whereabouts. Providing consumers with a three to four hour arrival time window is becoming less and less acceptable.[quote float="right"]A portal that allows customers to see their technician can build trust.

    

   The same CSG study found that an overwhelming 89 percent of respondents prefer a tool that provides technician location and continually updated estimated arrival times. Over 70 percent also wanted the ability to see the technician's name and photo. A portal that allows customers to see their technician can build trust and provide transparency into your operations. And if technicians are running late, a courtesy call, email, or mobile alert shows your customers that you value their time.
4. Reduce confusion
   TechnologyAdvice’s recent field service customer satisfaction survey revealed 23 percent of respondents that had to pay for a visit were not told the amount during the visit. This can lead to confusion and frustration among consumers, who may feel inadequately informed or purposefully kept in the dark.To eliminate this confusion, businesses should focus on providing customers with any costs upfront through an online portal, or at least giving technicians access to back-office systems and customer account information. This avoids any surprise over the final amount due.
5. Improve resource allocation
   In addition to increasing customer satisfaction, a self-service portal can also help improve your business’s resource allocation. When a consumer request service or schedules an appointment, they fill out all the details online, which outlines the necessary skills and equipment for the job. These details can be used to determine the best technician for an onsite visit. Additionally, when customers choose their own appointment time, this information can be used to automatically schedule the rest of the technician’s route.
6. Reduce costs
   Best in class organizations are more likely than their peers to provide customers with the ability to accomplish the following via self-service portals:[unordered_list style="bullet"]
   • Create service tickets
   • Order service parts
   • Reschedule technician visit
   • Leave post-session feedback

   Not only do these self-service options increase customer engagement and loyalty, but they reduce administrative and overhead costs as well. When customers can manage their own account, your customer service department benefits from further reductions in routine tasks. Additionally, contact center inquiries regarding technician arrival time is decreased since
   customers are able to track the job each step of the way.

7. Boost revenue
   Customer portals aren’t just for customers. By providing online access to account information, field service business can communicate with customers in new ways. A self-service portal also opens the door for marketing strategies that can increase the bottom line. For example, in addition to bill pay and service help, FSM companies can use a customer portal to automatically alert consumers. These notifications are an opportunity to upsell through product upgrades and cross-selling.
8. Manage expectations
   

   Above all else, a customer portal is a way to set up customer expectations.

    

   The proliferation of the Internet means consumers expect a modern service experience. Simply sending an email is no longer enough. Customers want to login to their account, troubleshoot their own issues, view their warranty, review past services, and read about similar issues in a community forum. Supporting this journey leaves your customers feeling empowered. If they still require help, they can request, schedule, and track the entire process from the same place.Self-service portals benefit both customers and your business. FSM businesses should focus on customer communication preferences and providing visibility into relevant job information, including cost, procedures, and technician status. It’s getting increasingly difficult to meet customer expectations and outperform the competition. By helping customers help themselves, a self-service portal can be your secret weapon.[/ordered_list]

 

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Field service organisations must adapt in a rapidly changing world, says Tom Bowe, Industry Director, Enterprise Service Management, IFS.

Agility and adaptability were the overarching themes at the recent IFS customer conference in Boston.  More than 250 service-focused attendees came to hear user case studies about implementing and using IFS’s service software, watch industry experts apply new trends to real life, and to learn about what IFS is doing to take their service solutions to the next level.

Why? Because the world is changing, rapidly. According to Erik Qualman of Socialnomics fame, 40% of the Fortune 500 will be gone within 10 years. As PJ Jakovljevic of Technology Evaluation tweeted; “You have to be prepared to destroy your own business model before a kid in a dorm room does it for you.”
[quote float="left"]Monolithic legacy systems can no longer keep up with the changing market and customer demand.

So how do you future-proof yourself as a service organisation as the world changes, new technology evolves, and customer demands shift and increase? Addressing customer service vigilantly is vital to a service organisation’s success. Let your consumers drive the trends you adopt to ensure better return on investment. Flexibility and usability matter, especially in a consistently changing environment. Monolithic legacy systems can no longer keep up with the changing market and customer demand. Those organisations that don’t adapt will be replaced.

 

We have developed a sort of nine step program to help service organisations achieve service excellence and help them adapt to an ever-changing environment. Here are some of the things you should keep in mind when you are looking to make your service organisation more adaptable, and more successful:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Know your business
   This may seem a bit obvious, and redundant, but in order to help your organisation streamline processes, maximise service margins, and increase customer satisfaction, you need to have a full understanding of your company’s goals, their future plans, their mission, and the vision. This will allow you to focus your efforts, systems, and processes on the right objectives
2. Excellence through insight
   The power of BI is never-ending. Use your collected data to drive more informed decisions, hone processes and affect change throughout your organisation. This should never be a static, one way function, BI should directly affect your future operations.
3. Accelerate service achievement
   A holistic view of not only your service organisation but your service value chain will accelerate service achievement. Bringing suppliers and other parties you collaborate with into the value chain adds value to them, you and ultimately your customers.
4. “Uberise” your service
   From the minute you order a car on Uber to when you arrive at your destination, Uber provides transparency from identifying the driver and license plate, to showing you on your route, to providing easy, secure payment options. Service businesses can use optimised, automated field service solutions (like IFS Field Service Management) to offer trust, security and reliability to their customers in a similar manner.
5. Delivery that delights you and your customers
   In the past, delivering superior customer service often meant accepting a reduced service margin. Now with powerful technology like M2M sensors, mobility solutions and automated processes, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Let your customers drive your initiatives and reap the benefit at the same time. Better organised internal processes often automatically improve external delivery.
6. Open up to new things
   New trends and technology in the service space can often be overwhelming, but don’t be closed off to what’s new and great in your space. Actively watch the market and evaluate which trends will affect your industry and your business the most. Sometimes this is customer driven. If a new trend can help meet a consumer demand, it is probably more than worthwhile to pursue.
7. Optimise your world
   Today, more people own a mobile device than a toothbrush (Socialnomics, 2014) and over one-third (36%) of consumers prefer using a company website or email to contact a business (2014 American Express Customer Service Barometer). Gone are the days when an excel spreadsheet, white board, or patched together legacy systems can handle customer demands and a mobile workforce effectively. Optimisation and automation allows for a seamless process from call intake to billing, reducing overhead costs, deviations, and errors.
8. Manage your future
   The future doesn’t have to be as unpredictable as it seems. Market research, watching trends, and utilising your business intelligence (and managing your big data effectively) will help give you a crystal ball into what’s coming and allow you to adapt faster, giving you a competitive edge.
9. Agile, ready for change
   If the past decade has shown the business world anything, it is that the most successful organisations are those that are two steps ahead of the game. The best way to future-proof yourself is to function as an agile, flexible operation. With the right systems and vision in place, the changing world will have nothing on you.

IFS Enterprise Service Management is continually investing in our solutions to support our goal of providing service organisations with dynamic scalability, mobile solutions, ease of deployment, and cloud and wearables flexibility.
We are future-proofing ourselves by helping you succeed at what you do best; delivering unrivaled service.

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Astea
Title: Forging a service and sales partnership
Download: Click here to download the white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

The wall between sales and service activities is crumbling within many companies. Once largely viewed as a cost centre, the role of the service organisation has steadily evolved as companies recognize its potential as a source of new revenues and a valuable tool in strengthening customer loyalty.

However, there is often a disconnect between the service and sales organisations. Service technicians often serve as the face of the company, spending much of their time directly interacting with customers. They are potentially a valuable source of new sales leads, able to spot opportunities for new product sales or competitive product replacements, offer service contracts to clients, and even cross-sell/up-sell products or services. Most companies are not fully taking advantage of this potential sales leads stream

This white paper outlines the potential sources of new revenue enabled by better integrating service and sales activities, discuss the challenges of realising this revenue, and provides information on the tools, software,
and strategies that top-performing companies utilise to grow that revenue.

Overview:

The ability to leverage information coming from the field service organisation to drive sales opportunities with new and existing customers will be a critical competitive differentiator moving forward. Companies that leave their sales and service organisations technologically or operationally separated could be leaving substantial revenue on the table.

 

However, according to The Service Council, of the 55% of companies that are not utilising their service teams for sales, most report that this is because the technicians lack training, lack the skill set or incentives to sell, or the companies prefer that they don’t sell at all.  Service organisations also may lack the tools to turn those leads into revenue. The Service Council reports that 17% of service organisations still rely on paper, while another 19% don’t have any tools with which to capture leads.

Two types of service revenue

There are two ways that service creates new revenue. One is through direct sales of service offerings  from existing service contracts, non-contract service, new contract sales, and parts sales. The second is by generating direct revenue via warranty sales and other value-added services.

Breaking down barriers

Many of the chief obstacles to meeting new service revenue objectives are both structural and technological. Many companies are not currently structured properly to foster better collaboration between service and sales.

Technology can also play a role. The Service Council says 53% of companies lack real-time visibility into service performance and potential revenue opportunities: traditional paper-based service management processes make it very difficult to communicate potential sales leads and new opportunities back to the sales teams.[quote float="right"]Many companies are not currently structured properly to foster better collaboration between service and sales.

Service technicians often lack the tools to identify and document these opportunities, or to act on them while they are in front of the customers.

 

Keys to better service/sales collaboration

Linking sales and service requires a mix of operational changes and technology.[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. The ability to accept payment in the field greatly expands the sales potential for the service force.
2. Companies that do leverage the service teams to generate new sales leads typically have dedicated teams focused on service sales, and create sales quotas for the service organisations.
3. Top performers also train service agents on lead identification and sales management
4. The profile of service technicians is changing: technicians are hired also on their sales skills and experience. Some companies are hiring agents with more sales experience, and then investing their training budget on service/technical skills rather than the other way around.
5.  Should the service team should be selling directly or simply gathering leads? The decision will depend your company’s business, culture, and the type of service agents you currently employ.
6. How do your customers view your service team?  If the service technicians are simply seen as people who arrive, fix problems, and leave, then introducing a sales function may not yield the best results. If the agents are already serving as trusted advisors to the customers, however, they may receive more positive reception to sales activities.
7. Evaluating the skill sets of the service force is also important. Can your technicians sell? Are they interested in doing so? What tools, technology, and infrastructure need to be in place that will help them sell effectively? Asking your technicians to sell without giving them the tools to do the job correctly will not yield new revenues.
8. Don’t let the sales strategy compromise the work your service team is performing. It may still be more appropriate to send leads to a dedicated sales team for follow-up.

In order to leverage the service organisation to increase revenue effectively, companies will need to foster collaborative environments that will encourage the service teams to generate leads for the existing sales forces. That can be done by providing technicians with mobile technology that allows them to quickly and easily capture and communicate those leads, developing incentive programs that reward lead generation, and creating business process flows that ensure the leads will be followed up on quickly.

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Last month, Marne Martin, CEO of Servicepower, evaluated the need to focus on the technology required to operate a field service operation and discussed recruiting, training, motivating, and retaining new Millennial employees (Technology and Technicans in field service). This month, Marne discusses the importance of performance management and how to implement it in your organisation.

Once the technology and staffing are taken care of, performance management is the next essential step to the success of a field service organisation (FSO). It involves accessing meaningful metrics, working across teams, and aligning execution to improve performance across the entire field service organisation. It involves having the right people communicate the key messages from the metrics and implement change, using analytical information to drive continuous technician improvement, business productivity goals, and customer satisfaction. This is where the best organisations differentiate themselves. Performance management provides the opportunity to train and encourage Millennials with a responsive performance culture in mind.

What is Performance Management?

Performance management is an employee centric program including metrics, leadership supported processes, and technology used to measure employee performance against pre-defined targets driven by company strategy and goals. A well-formed performance management programme incentivises employee behaviours that support company strategy and goals by measuring and reacting to positive or negative performance metrics. Flexible technology which provides easy to understand analytics that can be viewed conveniently, on a variety of devices, is essential. It also requires committed management that mentor and drive accountability, as well as a group of technicians that are motivated to continuously improve.

In the following sections, we define the building blocks of implementing performance management in your organisation.

 What are the Most Important Metrics for field service operations?

ServicePower has published several pieces on key performance indicators (KPIs) for field service, including a white paper, and a new infographic which defines the top KPIs measured by best practice field service organisations - those companies leading in service profitability.

The top KPIs include: customer satisfaction, total revenue, total service cost,  service revenue, mean time to repair, on site response time,revenues under SLA/contract, SLA compliance, contract renewal rates, field technician utilisation, first time fix rate, service parts revenue, customer retention.

The survey on which the infographic was based indicated that 62% of best practice FSOs list development and improvement of metrics or KPIs to measure field service performance as their top strategic action!  It also indicates that best practice FSOs measure field technician utilisation and productivity less frequently than peers, because they’ve already deployed intelligent scheduling and optimisation software.

 

So, assuming intelligent scheduling and optimisation technology is in place, what should a robust performance management plan look like?

Each plan should include the following:[ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Defined targets:-The operations team must decide on the baseline, and define standards or targets for scoring technicians.The KPIs mentioned above are clearly important to the best practice, top performing FSOs. Other KPIs to consider include net promoter score,  quality/inspection score, and sales.
2. Defined scoring methodology:- Scoring  can be done a number of ways, but typically the process is similar to school grading scales, which takes individual scores and rolls them up to a total score for some time. For example:[unordered_list style="bullet"]
   • First time fix rate = 90%
   • 95-100% = Exceeds expectations
   • 85-95% = Meets expectations
   • 0<85% = Does Not Meet expectations

What are the Prerequisites for a successful performance management process?

The devil is in the details. Once targets or KPIs and scoring methodology is established for each field technician, it is a matter of measurement and issuing ‘grades’ for each technician. It is also necessary to establish the process which will be used to manage the plan.[quote float="right"]Ensure the plan is easy to use,  has a defined dispute process, recognises that money talks, and encourages collarboration and competition

 

Ensure the plan is: [ordered_list style="decimal"]

1. Easy to use. Measuring, scoring, delivering the results and incentivising behaviours must be easy to administer. The process must deliver score reviews regularly, using real time information delivered to the technician on his/her connected device. Subsequent coaching must be built into the process if technicians do not meet targets/KPIs following score reviews indicating shortfalls.
2. Has a defined dispute process. The plan should incorporate a defined process for technicians to dispute metrics, in a non-confrontational way. For instance, give technicians 5-10 days to dispute a score before closing out the report for the month. Providing technicians access to real time metrics, eliminates surprise. However, escalation processes need to be defined as they will be needed from time to time.
3.  Recognises that money talks. When possible, tie compensation to meeting or exceeding targets and also tie performance improvement plans to missing targets.
4. Encourages friendly competition and collaboration. Sometimes, creating competition associated with individual, team or department scores can drive additional motivation for improving scores. Likewise, collaboration can help share best practices especially if an organisation recruits new technicians often.

Utilise technology to make performance management programes easier to administer.

Technology solutions often offer integrated business intelligence tools.[quote float="left"]Analytics data may have a negative impact on some KPIs, but yield improved overall results for a company.

Take advantage of reporting and dashboards available in your field service management software to establish targets/KPIs, continuously measure them, and use the data back at all levels of the organisation, such that it can be used to fine tune operations. The analytics data will also help to quantify and communicate gains from collaboration with other departments, such as improving call center triage for improved first-time fix, or considering parts availability when dispatching a technician. Both may have a negative impact on some KPIs, but yield improved overall results for a company.

 

Ensure that your technology is simple to understand and use, and provides data to all silos within the organisation, including the individual technicians.

Ensure that the right security is in place to limit the technician view to his/her own scores.

Establish user hierarchies. Scores typically roll up from the technician, to a higher level. Set permissions such that each user may view data and scores for his or her own team members.

Perhaps most importantly, the analytics technology must be flexible so that management can adjust targets when needed, and use the data across function groups, such as operations, marketing and sales, to drive continuous improvement across the enterprise, as well as new business opportunities.

What are the keys to successful deployment of a performance management programme?

1. Agree on metrics across the company before discussing with technicians. It’s difficult to deliver concise, understandable targets/KPIs when they conflict, or business silos have different priorities. For instance, quality and productivity can be at odds. Agreement must be achieved before delivery to field technicians to avoid confusion and disputes.
2. In union environments, rolling out a process takes longer and requires more approvals. Understand the environment in which you are working and plan ahead to facilitate / enforce adoption.
3. Pilot the plan before rolling out to the entire field organizations.

Is Performance Management Applicable to 3rd Party Contractors too?

Absolutely! Though some employee KPIs, like those above, can be utilised to measure and score 3rd party contractors, often the metrics are slightly different. The following 3rd Party KPIs can also be used to measure the effectiveness of contractors:

• Jobs accepted, % work-in-progress, job status, repair turnaround time
• Claim submission time
• % Parts used on claims
•  Number of parts used on claims
• % Labour only claims
• % Trip charges
•  Fraud

Now About these Millennials: What is the performance management opportunity?

Millennials grew up with technology, gaming, and social media. Find ways for the Millennial workforce to show self-expression by developing ideas for improved processes and efficiency. Facilitate sharing throughout the organisation.[quote float="right"]Make field service cool. Spending time around field service technicians is never boring

 

Make sure that they feel connected to their fellow technicians, even from the field. Encourage best practice sharing and competition to improve and be the best.

Make sure that the performance metrics tie into financial and other rewards so that your Millennial workers don’t become jaded about putting in the effort to sustain continuous improvement.

And lastly, make field service cool. Spending time around field service technicians is never boring. Their stories and humor are usually second to none, so facilitate interaction between the older generation that perhaps didn’t see technology as their friend, and the Millennials who couldn’t imagine being without it. This helps transfer knowledge from more experienced workers and drive KPIs achievement by new employees that need to learn about company assets, but also how to work in a world enabled by IoT.

 

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A next generation cloud version of the field service management solution Siclops has been announced by Advanced Field Service. Siclops LIVE provides SMEs and large, multi-site companies with real-time visibility of their clients, jobs and engineers to increase efficiency and profitability levels.

The cloud-based functionality means it is a scalable and more affordable option for businesses operating across multiple sites, saving investment in expensive IT infrastructures. The solution is compatible with desktop, tablet and smartphone devices and seamlessly integrates with finance, CRM and telephony systems offering secure access to comprehensive information to improve productivity.

The system enables service management firms to easily manage all aspects of their business anytime, anywhere. Users can quickly access accurate mobile data relating to field workers, customers and suppliers from a single solution to speed up response times and enhance customer service levels by eliminating manual paper-based processes.

The user-friendly interface includes interactive business intelligence dashboards that display the current status of calls, jobs and contracts, along with extensive search facilities to assist with project management and scheduling requirements.

 

Greg Ford, managing director of Advanced Field Service, comments, “Siclops LIVE has been built on world class and reliable cloud technology which underlines our commitment to the field service industry. The solution has been specifically developed to address the challenges that growing service organisations face by providing unprecedented visibility into their field staff to drive efficiencies and operational control.

“By providing customers and suppliers with instant access to real-time information, they can gain unprecedented insight into the most, and least, profitable areas of their business, in order to deliver exceptional customer service.”

Ffor organisations employing that repair, service or install equipment in the field the system includes built-in specific data forms ensuring full compliance on the move with leading industry regulations, such as NICEIC, SIA, NSI, HSE and F-Gas.

 

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