In a recent edition of the Field Service Podcast, Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland sat down with Doug lacy, CEO and Founder of Pivital an ITSM company who have embraced the power of the blended workforce.

The original interview was part of an interview for a documentary that Field Service News have produced in partnership with Field Nation looking at how field service organisations can harness the power of the 'blended workforce' in this manner.

However, the full interview contained a huge amount of insight so with Doug's permission we took the audio from the session and published it in its raw unedited form as an episode of the Field Service Podcast. 

 

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You can find the full podcast alongside all of the other episodes here

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Transparency in the Field Service Cycle:

In the excerpt above we hear from Lacy as he describes the importance of transparency in the whole of the field service cycle especially when it comes to understanding customer challenges and perceived poor engineer performance. 

"We were providing a router deployment for a very large bank in the US which involved thousands of sites. We did a pilot and our techs were really struggling and we got the feedback that our techs were not doing a good job and they were taking too long to do the install," Lacy begins.

Knowing the regular performance of his own team to be of a very high standard, he realised that something wasn't quite right for there to be this much negative feedback. His response was to take a closer hands-on look at the situation himself by doing a site visit himself on a job near their local headquarters in Colarado, USA.

 

"While such C-level site visits are important, Lacy believes they shouldn't be necessary as technology develops to offer the transparency we require..."

 

As Lacy, thought the situation wasn't as clear cut as it had seemed.

"My experience was that first of all I waited 20 minutes just for someone to show up and take me to the network closet. I then spent another 20 minutes looking around for where the network closet was and where the routers were. We finally figured out that they were behind all of the Christmas decorations that had just been piled up on top of the router. It turned out to be issue after issue that was nothing to do with the tech's performance.

"Having some of that visibility, it had been four hours since I had arrived there, and it had been challenge after challenge, and all environmental challenges nothing related to our tech. I could then bring that visibility to our client and explain what I had experienced." 

However, whilst such C-level site visits are important, Lacy believes they shouldn't be necessary as technology develops to offer the transparency we require. 

"If we could find a better way for our clients, through technology to just be able to see, where the tech is struggling and what are the actual reasons why that tech is struggling - that insight makes a big difference in client satisfaction. Plus, it also sets the tech up for success.

"It is all about the communication and being able to understand what are techs are experiencing on site, and if we can use technology to do that, even better." 

 

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Want to know more? Check out our full documentary on the 'Rise of the Blended Workforce.'

If you are a Field Service News subscriber the link below will take you straight to the documentary.

If not, the link will take you to our subscriptions page so you can join 30,000 of your field service management peers and subscribe now and get access this documentary and all of our other premium content!

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In the third in a series of video excerpts from Field Service News, in partnership with Field Nation we will be breaking down the challenges of building a modern field service workforce

 

 

In this third instalment of our series exploring what the modern field service workforce looks like, we explore the increasing trend of field service organisations embracing the use of contingent, 3rd party and gig-economy labour

 

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Want to know more? There is a full documentary that dives deeper into this whole topic, which is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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This Premium Content is Sponsored by:

 

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

Part two of a new series of video excerpts from Field Service News, in partnership with Field Nation we will be breaking down the challenges of building a modern field service workforce...

 

 

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Want to know more? There is a full documentary that dives deeper into this whole topic, which is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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This Premium Content is Sponsored by:

 

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

In a new series of video excerpts from Field Service News, in partnership with Field Nation we will be breaking down the challenges of building a modern field service workforce

 

 

 

In this opening episode of this series exploring what the field workforce of the 21st Century will look like, we establish the significant drivers that are changing the very landscape in which field service organisations operate within. 

 

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Want to know more? There is a full documentary that dives deeper into this whole topic, which is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Mynul Kahn, CEO and Founder of Field Nation, discusses the changing modern nature of field service recruitment.

 

 

In this episode, Field Service News Deputy Editor Mark Glover, speaks to Mynul Kahn, CEO and Founder at Field Nation about the shift in service recruitment and how the gig economy will gain more relevance in the sector.

Click Software’s Hilla Karni sat down with Field Service News’ Deputy Editor Mark Glover at Field Service Europe 2018 in Amsterdam, sharing thoughts on Augmented Reality, the gig economy and the importance of employee wellbeing.

Ten years is a long time in field service. Trends come thick and fast with some trends thicker than others, attaching like coral onto the industry and becoming an integral part of service progress. The worldwide web and mobile technology are probably the two best examples of this; both have been essential in pushing the industry forward. Would we cope without them today?

It’s fair to label these movements as revolutions; their impact has been immense but smaller changes while not as monumental are just as significant. Today though, focus is swinging from technology enablers and back to customer service.

“Mobile was many years ago, everyone expects to have it,” says Hilla Karni, VP of Product and Customer Marketing at Click Software. Karni has just finished hosting a roundtable at Field Service Europe and we’ve managed to find a quiet dining room post-lunch to talk. I settle my dictaphone among skewed butter knives and bread crumbs. Sipping coffee, Karli continues: “In recent years, the shift has moved from a service operation that is a cost-centre, to a service operation that is an opportunity to impact customer service.”

The roundtable titled: The Science Behind Service: Metrics that Matter, centred on KPIs affecting customer service. The fact such a round table was taking place affirms how the industry is focusing on the end-user. “Before you would never hear of this,” she says. “KPIs were always around productivity, travel cost, overtime; it was always cost.”

But what about those enablers such as AI, IoT or specifically Augmented Reality (AR)? What role does AR play in the new customer focus? “Everyone talks about AR. But why are they using it?” She asks, pausing slightly. “It’s for the remote diagnostics which enables a better first-time fix. A first-time fix rate is the metric that combines efficiency, productivity with customer experience.”

In order to achieve customer focus KPIs, Karni tells me, smaller trends such as employee wellbeing are taking on a greater significance. “There is a very clear correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction,” she
says. “When an employer is happy with his or her job then he or she will deliver excellent service. Now we are seeing different investments around making your employees happier. There is a very clear correlation between happy and engaged employees with customer satisfaction.”

This, refreshingly, ties in with a general shift in occupational wellbeing and a positive approach to mental health in general. From a business point of view, work-related stress affects staff absenteeism; in turn affecting productivity. One thread of wellbeing, prevalent in field service is the time an engineer might spend on the road. Tools around scheduling play an important part in employee engagement and buy-in. Some firms, Karni says are handing autonomy to their engineers to create their own timetable. “Some of our
customers like their technicians to make more decisions by themselves.” The increase in wellbeing can be loosely attributed to the flexible nature of the modern workforce.

“When an employer is happy with his or her job then he or she will deliver excellent service..."

Today, freelancers choose their workdays and hours to fit their lifestyle. The typical nine-to-five day still exists but the gig
economy – so-called as each piece of work being akin to a ‘gig’ - represents another shift in efficiency and cost. Karni suggests large contractors, with their large overheads, can fail to deliver the required standard of customer service, paving the way for freelancers. “This is where the workforce trend is to have more freelancers, the uber-like model, offering a better service but it must be connected, ultimately, to a better customer service.”

So, if customer focus is the new trends in field service what technology revolution does Karni see to compliment it? Firstly, she is keen to re-label the progress. “I think the next evolution – and it is an evolution, not a revolution – is more focused around prediction,” she affirms. “Having prediction within the service delivery life cycle changes a lot of things because it makes for more
accuracy and real-time decision making.

“Previously, we still made decisions, many decisions. Then we got mobile so were able to streamline the process. Then we had more optimisation and got artificial intelligence to improve productivity and efficiency. Now we are taking it to the next level and saying, ‘Okay, how can I predict better to ensure I make faster, smarter decisions on the day of service, on the minute of service?’”

Despite the influx of new disruptive technologies – such as AR – Karni is aware that the main beneficiary has to be the end-user, the customer. “Everyone talks about the current trend in field service, which is AR. But if you ask ‘why are we using this remote technology’, it is ultimately to create a better first-time fix. A first-time fix rate is the metric that combines efficiency and productivity with customer experience. “You’re not adopting something for the sake of the technology. You need to have a very strong business case with savings. This is what is unique about field service management applications is that it needs to find the balance between time and cost savings while creating better customer service. If it was only a one-way thing it would not be such a valuable asset,” she says.

I push Karni on the role of the asset: the wind turbine, the air conditioning unit, the washing machine. When does it become more important than the engineer? “There is no replacement for the human touch,” she pauses again. “There is, however, a replacement for the process.

“If you can fix something remotely and it’s not a problem and it will smoothly recover, then I don’t see why the customer wouldn’t be happy because the washing machine is fixed. Having said that, if you fix something sophisticated and there is a break-down, I believe there is no replacement for human experience.”

Finally, as waiters circle impatiently around us to prepare the table for the next coffee break, I ask Karni, who has been with Click Software over ten years, why she enjoys working in the field service sector. “As I said, everyone talks about machine learning and AR but,” she says. “But when it comes to field service it’s real. It’s actual technology that serves a use-case and a business value.”

She finishes her cappuccino. “We make a difference I think, and this is what I like about what I do.”

As a recent guest on the Field Service Podcast, Oneserve’s CEO Chris Proctor shared thoughts on innovation, servitization and the worrying discrepancy between new and retiring engineers. Field Service News Deputy Editor Mark Glover looks back on a conversation that asked uncomfortable yet insightful questions of the sector.

 

What is digital? “It’s about bringing people together in one global location; a world without boundaries; a world where ideas are born and developed; where people live, and most importantly; where people transact.”

These are the words on Chris Proctor’s Linkedin profile. If it is his mantra it’s a good one. It’s refreshing to get such a holistic view of digital. Do we label it a platform or technology? Who really knows? However it’s useful – and perhaps essential - to try and frame its creative potential and understand how it can seed ideas and drive innovation. 

I was fortunate enough to record a podcast with Proctor towards the end of 2018 and among other threads of conversation (including the definition of digital) I asked about the industry’s progression in adopting new technologies.  “I might be lambasted for saying this but I don’t think there has been much innovation,” he said, aware of the statement’s brevity. “It’s disappointing that the last real innovation in field service management was moving to the cloud and even then, I don’t think everyone is fully there yet.”

It’s a bold claim, yet one that has substance. The industry has been accused before of lagging when it comes to embracing disruptive, digital technology. In fact, writing for this magazine moreMomentun’s Jan Van Veen, suggested a knowledge gap around its definition was contributing to the malaise. “Too often, I see misconceptions about disruption and disruptive innovation and a lack of clarity on what needs to change and too slow a pace of change,” he wrote, “by consequence, manufacturers tend to make inadequate assessments and develop inadequate strategies, allowing leading competitors and new entrants into the industry to take the lead.” 

 

 

“I might be lambasted for saying this but I don’t think there has been much innovation...“

 

 

To halt this inadequacy, Proctor thinks a further disruptive approach is needed to jolt the sector from its lethargy, encased in an attitude he phrases as “okay is okay”. He uses the utility sector as to expand his point. “You only have to look back at the gas or water boards where there was very little competition with very little incentive to be a lot better and I think we’ve lived with that legacy for quite a long time. “Look at what’s happened in some of the other sectors and see how much things can be disrupted when someone comes in and says ‘We don’t believe ‘okay is okay’ and we’re going to offer a very different service proposition,’” he urged.  




To reach this level, servitization and the gig economy, he predicts, will have a fundamental impact on the way services are delivered. Most likely through a subscription-based model, complimented by disruptive innovations and delivered by freelancers who, in order to maintain their personal brand, deliver consistent service excellence. “I can see a world where most of your services are consumed on a subscription-type basis. You contact your service provider who then uses technology similar to programmatic advertising whereby contracts are tended and bid for and secured within seconds, all underpinned by blockchain. You then have the real emphasis of an individual providing a service on behalf of a company, then what you then see is that you don’t get the overheads that come with large contractors, but you do see service excellence from an individual who is trying to make a name for themselves and secure their own future,” Proctor said. 

This small-task employment model could be the remedy for the alarming disparity between new field technicians coming into the industry and those retiring, however despite the need for a swift solution Proctor feels the time frame for such a movement is ambiguous. “Whether it’s five years, whether it’s ten years, I think a move towards that model is irrefutable” he says, “I also think the timings are completely debatable.” 

I enjoyed the conversation, and I suggest you listen to the full podcast on our website. If the point of digital, as Proctor says, is to create a world where ideas are born and then developed then we need to hit reset, disrupt and collaborate. Perhaps then can innovation thrive.  
You can listen to the Field Service Podcast with OneServe's Chris Proctor here.

 

It’s been a whirlwind year in terms of technology development impacting the field service sector and the breakneck pace of development shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems takes stock of the rapid technological advances we’ve seen across the last twelve months and outlines what we can expect in 2018...

Just as automation gave rise to more advanced machines over the past decade, so too has field services evolved.

The analog process of collecting and sharing information about customers and devices has now become automated, and in some cases completely digitalised. Service executives are continuously pushing the envelope of what’s possible with field service management software, and 2017 was a great example of that drive towards innovation.

As discussed previously, the growth of the Internet of Things and its real-time connectivity has led to a massive spike in consumer expectations for instantaneous customer service. As a result, organisations have been forced to rethink their customer service delivery strategies, including their workforce resources and supporting technologies.

In field service, we see a future in which for-hire field service technicians can connect This year, pioneering companies (for example, Airbnb) have continued to lay a blueprint for other industries to follow using a gig economy model. In field service, we see a future in which for-hire field service technicians can connect – through technology tuned for the gig economy – to organisations that need extra manpower for their field service teams.

At Coresystems, we understand the challenges organizations face when field service requests greatly outnumber that company’s field service technicians. By leveraging independent workers in the gig economy, organisations can deliver the real-time service that customers now demand. By introducing technology that enables the crowdsourcing of field service to independent, for-hire field service technicians, FSM software providers can help their customers find those field service technicians anywhere and anytime. This would check organisations’ critical box of providing real-time customer service.

In 2017, virtual and augmented reality (AR) technologies became more prevalent in many industry sectors, including field service.

There’s a huge market opportunity for organisations looking to enhance their field service businesses with these technologies – and you can find more on that here. Essentially, a specialised AR headset would boost the first-time fix rates and average repair time by allowing technicians to view, search and digest any information they need for an installation and/or repair on a heads-up display (think manuals, checklists and more).

AR would also connect on-site technicians with more experienced engineers back at HQ, who can visually supervise and troubleshoot more difficult technical issues, thus benefiting staff training and mitigating skills shortages.

Looking ahead to 2018, we believe the customer touchpoint will become a point of focus. Put simply, customer touchpoints are the various ways in which a customer encounters your company and products. This can be before, during or after purchase, and can be through social media, your online help center or word-of-mouth conversations.

Rather than selling a new machine through traditional methods, we’ll see companies handle the customer touchpoint better and more effectively Amazon Alexa and Google Home, for example, are perfect illustrations of successful customer touchpoints: they can meet their customers’ demands quicker than others because they understand their customers better, thanks to the use of smart home devices.

Alexa already knows which brand of water you prefer, and how many bottles you usually order, and with a short command you can place your order and have it on your doorstep within hours.

In contrast, in a traditional retail setting you need to go through several clicks to begin the delivery process.

To translate that to field service, rather than selling a new machine through traditional methods, we’ll see companies handle the customer touchpoint better and more effectively. For many companies, service is considered last. In my mind, that’s backwards – it should come first. Before you start digitising machines, you should think about how to digitise the service.

The evolution of technology has propelled us into the age of digital transformation, and it’s fundamentally changed the way we interact with technology and even the way technology interacts with itself. That shift will continue in 2018, at least in field service, with innovations such as crowd service platforms and AR headsets gaining further traction.

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ClickSoftware’s Paul Whitelam wonders if crowdsourcing could be the solution to fluctuating demands on a workforce that field service companies have been waiting for...

Service organisations have long relied on third parties to augment their core workforce to manage fluctuating demand, emergency work, and expansion to new regions.

The Service Council reported that 76% of service organisations have used a third party for service delivery and to augment their regular workforce.

By 2020, Gartner predicts 40% of service work will be delivered by contractors.

This increasing reliance on an external workforce appears to run parallel with some anxiety about talent shortages. The Service Council reported 70% of service organisations expect a talent shortage in the next 5-10 years. Many already struggle with hiring.

While contractors have supplied support to service organisations for a long time, there is growing interest in tapping into the gig economy and free agents to build an ad hoc workforce.

Rapidly scaling your field service workforce is a challenge under any circumstance, but a blended workforce can deliver many benefits. Let’s explore the pros and cons of outsourcing service work, and compare how crowdsourcing and contractors can play a role.

The Case for Outsourced Service

Variable demand persistently vexes anyone charged with scheduling a service workforce and forecasting the level of resources needed to do the expected and unexpected work.

Seasonal differences and large stand-alone projects are common reasons for temporarily increased demand, along with emergency and disaster relief work.

 

When expanding to new geographic areas, a contracted workforce enables a service organisation to quickly increase available coverage without the delay of needing to recruit, hire, and train a completely new core team. This separation from the core workforce can also provide a convenient way to pilot new technology or procedures before adopting them across the entire business.

Adding specialised skills to your roster is another massive benefit of outsourced service. A contracted workforce allows for new types of work to be done without the entire team requiring retraining.

Blended Workforce Challenges

Adding contractors to your workforce introduces challenges. Most stem from a lack of visibility into what happens once a job is assigned and accepted.

The service engineer is often the only face-to-face interaction a customer will have with a company, and serves as an ambassador capable of upholding or undermining the brand.

To blend your internal and external workforce successfully, the right processes and technology are essential. Your service organisation needs the ability to locate third-party resources, appropriately gauge their availability and skill level, track job status, and provide the support and information needed to deliver service in a manner consistent with business policies and SLAs, and customer expectations.

Some contractors will resist the adoption of new tools and processes when it forces change, but most will ultimately adopt your preferred solutions once they understand the value.

 

In a recent study from Michael Blumberg, KPIs for The Blended Workforce In the Gig Economy, his consultancy found that nearly 70% of field service organisations used a freelancer management system of some kind for staffing purposes.

Managing Contractors and Crowdsourcing in the Gig Economy

According to Intuit, the gig economy now makes up 34% of the US labor workforce. With new tools, devices, and skills, imagine how many thousands more will choose to work remotely as a part of this budding freelance economy in the coming years.

Millennials, as a subset of the working population, have already upended what had long been accepted as a standard employee-employer relationship. They are tech-savvy, adaptable, and value career advancement and mobility over longterm employment. Many are more comfortable with freelance and temporary employment and provide much of the supply to meet the demand for a more flexible workforce.

Making the most of your blended workforce will require not just better technology, but also a shift in mindset. While visibility into what’s happening is paramount to managing an internal or external workforce, service organisations will also need to consider how to best measure the performance of contracted workers and keep them engaged and enthusiastic about their work.

 

The most sophisticated service organisations have gained and maintained a competitive advantage through maximising productivity and optimising customer experience. A blended workforce should be able to extend the same level of efficiency and customer focus to its outermost layers.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty should be the ultimate goal for any business. With the right plan and solutions in place, any permanent or ad hoc worker should be able to provide the seamless experience your customers want and deserve.

 

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