Sam Klaidman, Founder and Principal Adviser at Middlesex Consulting, analyses the five global trends that will drive the future of field service...

In the science of dynamics speed is defined as the rate of displacement of a moving object over time (d/t). Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of speed over time (d/t2). And then comes jerk – the rate of change of acceleration over time (d/t3).

Why, you ask, do we care? Because until March 2020, we have been experiencing a period in which the rate of change of our “world” has been steadily accelerating. And then COVID-19 came along and changes that were projected to take years to accomplish were somehow accomplished in weeks or months. Mentally we felt as though the car we were riding in suddenly crashed into a bridge support and we were thrown into an airbag. We experienced jerk!

When we operate in a period of acceleration, we have time to prepare our self and our team to adapt to new operating conditions. It is still hard for many people to adapt as quickly as the change occurs, but they still have warning and can frequently participate in designing the new “world.” Unfortunately, the side effect of jerk is that changes suddenly appear and people must adapt without having the time to figure out how they will be affected. They don’t get a clear answer to the age-old question WIIFM (what’s in it for me?).

Since the world of Field Service depends on people, our own, our partners, and our customers, we must be sensitive to how our new operating procedures will impact them and effect their personnel and professional lives. We must consider all these people as we specify, design, implement, test, and go-live with sub-projects that will come together to create the new world that is rushing towards us.

THE five trends driving the future of field service

First a word of warning! On the morning of January 2, 2021, I read this in a Bloomberg News daily mailing:

Last year taught us that sweeping forecasts are pretty much a waste of time. Amid a raging virus, a global recession and a rapid markets turnaround, no one could have guessed that a record $120 trillion of stock would change hands on U.S. exchanges in 2020, that Tesla short-sellers would get burned so badly, or that Bitcoin would be such a huge hit with Wall Street. It’s hard to say which trends will continue into 2021. The forecasts to watch are those that only look one or two months ahead, or 10 to 20 years ahead, Jared Dillian writes in Bloomberg Opinion. As for all the prognostications in between—better to ignore them.

These five trends will drive the future of field service:

In the long-term, climate change will have the greatest influence on field service - how it is performed, who does the actual service work, how are parts managed, and how value is created. And because mitigating climate change is so critical, so complex, and so expensive, we will see unique changes being implemented in each industry and in each geographic entity and finally in each business.

In the medium term, there are two major changes which have already started to impact us:

• New business models like XaaS, IoT, and use of machine language and AI

• The circular economy and refurbishing and/or remanufacturing major assemblies or even complete products

In the short term, we are already seeing major changes due to the desire of customers for touchless service and the continuing trend of the aging workforce. What is not known is how must each of these trends will impact any specific industry or company. Knowing requires a familiarity of the specific details about what is happening behind the closed door of all the major players plus any potential entries. So, this article will discuss each trend and you, the knowledgeable reader, can pass each idea through your specific knowledge filters. You can then decide how much time, effort, and money to invest in getting your business ready to take advantage of any opportunities that develop. Now let’s look individually at each trend starting at the top of the pyramid. We start here because you should always keep this trend in mind as you address each lower level trend to make sure you do not have to redo some lower level change as you address the longer-term drivers.

CLIMATE CHANGE

We are all familiar with the need to make a major reduction in global greenhouse gases. It now appears that in the US, the Biden administration will kick our country’s response to the problem into high gear. In most other developed countries, the effort is already underway. As manufacturers and service providers of energy-driven machines, we will find ourselves on the front lines of the action. The greatest fear for OEMs business is that the environment will cause disruption in manufacturing operations. Think about the forest fires we have seen in the American west and Australia, the need for barriers to hold back tides and storm surges in London and Venice, and the drought in the American south-west during the 1930’s.

In October 2020, Boston Consulting Group published an article Climate Disruption And The Path To Profits For Machinery Makers. Here are five of the identified reasons why machinery OEMs, and their service organizations, will be impacted.

1. End users are disrupted – Reduced use of coal will reduce railroad shipments. Oilfield service will be reduced by decreased production of oil and gas. Power generated by solar and wind equipment will increase.<
2. Product design priorities shift – As manufacturers shift to the circular economy, the service groups may assume responsibility for refurbishment and rebuilding instead of on-site service. And new products will likely be more reliable than the models replaced and use fewer parts.
3. Business models change – Value will shift as manufacturers offer Product as a Service and IoT. Newer design will include fewer wear parts and the need for spares will decline. Increased use of digital twins will reduce on-site troubleshooting of failures. On the upside, newer items will include more software, which presents new service and support opportunities.
4. Value chains become circular – Field engineers will have to become experts in both recycling their equipment and consulting on a facility’s total operation to reduce their carbon footprint.
5. Weather, sea-level, and operational risks increase – Service contracts and warranties will have to change to minimize liability risks due to temperature and water-level changes

NEW BUSINESS MODELS LIKE XAAS

Businesses have been evaluating XaaS since it took off with SaaS. Now they are trying to tie XaaS and IoT into a new service based long-term contract where they are selling customer outcomes instead of hardware and service. The main advantage of the XaaS/pay for performance model is that customers and OEMs goals and objectives are totally aligned by focusing on meeting the customer’s needs. It makes their relationship a win-win partnership, not a win-lose contest. Unfortunately, according to Cooperberg in 2019, currently less than 3% of asset operators buy outcomes instead of assets. This trend is in the medium term because there is a long way to go. A secondary advantage of the hardware as a service model is that the OEM always retains ownership of the product. At the end of life, it can be brought back to the factory (possible a part of the service business) and either totally broken down into recyclable pieces or reusable spare parts or disposed of in an environmentally sound method. The challenge is that the OEM loses the initial sale and revenue when your product ships but gain the recurring revenue which can last over the total lifetime of the products and then extend as upgrades or replacements are installed. When it comes to servitization, where services are merged with products so the buyer can buy outcomes, there are a few obstacles that have to be cleared first. For example, again according to Cooperberg:

• Only 36% of asset operators have data and use it effectively
• 35% of asset operators still use in-house spreadsheets/excel to track current maintenance operations
• Only 35% of OEM’s connect all their new products
  

And a report prepared by The MPI Group in April 2020, The Power of Industry 4.0 in New Product Development stated:

• 40% (average) of revenues are from products with embedded smart devices/intelligence.
• The profit margin on these products is 34% (average), significantly higher than margins for other products (29% average).
• Significant improvements were likely to occur with access to data from products or services in the field.

In other words, most asset operators and OEM’s still are in the install-fix-decommission world. The transition to servitization will take more than 5-years unless something happens to accelerate the transition. And the improved margin may be that driver.

TOUCHLESS SERVICE

Right after COVID-19 hit, asset operators shifted from wanting on-site service to demanding touchless service. They wanted to keep as many outsiders out of their facility because any one of them could be primed to infect their whole workforce. And fortunately, merged/augmented reality product were on the brink of exploding for other reasons. OEM’s liked them because a highly skilled field service technician could stay in one place and support multiple relatively inexpensive and more junior field tech at the same time as one on-site call would take.

As the internal application worked so well, some OEM’s decided to try using the same systems with both B2C customers (even unskilled homeowners) and B2B operators or internal maintenance techs. And it worked! Less response time to get in from of the equipment and a quicker than expected restoral time.

The major challenge, and hence the major opportunity, is spare parts availability. OEM’s do not dispatch service technicians unless 1) they believe the fix will not require parts or 2) the technician a local service engineers carries spare parts as trunk stock, or the OEM coordinates the arrival of the field technician with the arrival of the needed parts.

When the internal facilities’ technician does the work, they don’t usually stock replacement parts. So, the tradeoff is technician travel time or parts delivery time. Or the OEM can stock spare parts in their customer’s facility either as an outright sale or as consigned inventory. This is an opportunity and can come in several ways including:

• Consigning or selling spare parts to the asset operator.
• Creating a local stocking location which is available to all customers in a selected area and located in one of them.
• Stocking parts in a controlled location available to a select group of customers.
• In all these examples, any parts used must be returned to the OEM. The OEM will then ship a replacement part to the stocking location.

Logistics and spare parts availability will be an area that OEM’s focus on as they try and roll-out more touchless service contracts.

AGING WORKFORCE

In September 2020, I published a Thomas Insights post “The Silver Tsunami: As Older Employees Plan for Retirement, It's Time to Plan for the Future of Your Workforce.” The article provides guidance about how to move forward and get ready for a different type of workforce. However, it assumes that your business will be the same in the future as it is today.

But we can see that what you do depends on these five trends. They will impact the number and backgrounds of your internal workforce going forward. And this mix will change depending on how quickly both you and your customers adapt to the solutions you both work together to create. In other words, you can make a one to five-year plan for dealing with each trend, but your labor plan has to be no more than one year because you are dealing with people’s livelihood and you don’t want to be known as a company that hires and fires often.

CONCLUSION

The future has at least five significant initiatives that all manufacturing companies will have to manage. The good news is that you now have the time to plan and test potential decisions.

Remember – “What got you here won’t get you there.”

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive FSN articles by Sam Klaidman @ www.fieldservicenews.com/sam-klaidman
• Connect to Sam Klaidman @ www.linkedin.com/samklaidman
• Find out more about Middlesex Consulting @ www.middlesexconsulting.com
• Read more from Sam Klaidman @ middlesexconsulting.com/blog

 

Jim Baston, continues his series that looks at how to encourage your service technicians to see generating revenue in the field not as a selling, but instead as a fundamental part of their role in providing the best service they can to their customers... 

In my last blog, I wrote of the opportunity to stand out from the crowd by helping the customer recognize that they are better off for having engaged us. Our techs play a huge role in this. They are in the best position to recognize the opportunities for improvement and typically have the trust and ear of the customer.

However, the success of our efforts to engage our field teams in revenue generation depends on two key factors. The first is that the customer must see value in our technicians’ efforts. The second is that our technicians must see their proactive recommendations as an integral part of the job that they do. Achieving both of these outcomes relies on how we, as managers, define what the technicians are doing when they make recommendations to customers about a particular product or service. Do we regard the field service team’s efforts as “selling” or “serving”? Our perception of their actions can mean the difference between outstanding success and mediocrity.

Let’s start with the “selling” perspective. Many service organizations appear to take a “selling” perspective. You hear it in the language that’s used. Managers talk about getting their field service team to “sell”. They use terms like “up-selling” and “cross-selling”. Unfortunately, a “selling” perspective can have a negative impact on our ability to fully engage our technicians in promoting our products and services.

A "SELLING" PERSPECTIVE IS FOCUSED ON THE SERVICE PROVIDER RATHER THAN THE CUSTOMERS AND THEIR NEEDS

A selling perspective is centred on us – the service provider. The focus is on how the customer can fulfill our needs. It arises from the question, “How can we capitalize on our field service relationships to win more business from our customers and increase our revenues and profitability?”

This can be problematic for a number of reasons:

Firstly, it can appear to suggest that business development is an opportunistic tactic rather than an integral part of the service strategy. As such, it can be perceived as an add-on to the tech’s main responsibility. If it’s perceived by the technician as an add-on to, and not part of, their main role of providing service, then the tech may regard making proactive recommendations as optional and not enthusiastically participate.

Secondly, skills development tends to be focused on selling. Maslow famously said: “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” When we see the task as “selling”, we may conclude that the solution to improve our techs’ performance is to provide them with selling skills. Unfortunately, some of the sales training for techs has been adapted from sales programs developed for salespeople. Such programs often include topics that prove uncomfortable for the technician – closingtechniques, overcoming objections are just two examples that come to mind. As a result, the technician may not see much relevance to what they do every day in the training and some may even resent being considered a “salesperson”.

Thirdly, a sales perspective has the potential to negatively impact trust with the customer. Our technicians typically have high levels of trust with our customers, partly due to the fact that they’re not there to sell the customer anything. If we try to turn our technicians into salespeople, then the customer may perceive that the technician is “selling” to them. When this happens the customer becomes confused about the tech’s role and that foundation of trust is eroded.

Fourthly, a selling perspective is difficult to communicate to our customers. How do we communicate to the customer about our techs’ proactive efforts in a way that shows value for them? Can you imagine if we said, “We’ve asked our technicians to look for more products and services to sell to you so that we can get more money out of you”. Somehow I don’t think this will resonate well with the customer.

When we see the proactive recommendations by our field service team as a “service” rather than a “sale”, we set the stage for enthusiastic engagement by our field service team and welcome acceptance by our customers. That’s because the focus changes from being centered on us as the service provider to being centered on the customer and their needs. Whereas the focus of the selling perspective is on how to get more money out of the customer, the focus of a service perspective is on how we can deliver a higher level of service to the customer through the recommendations of our field service team.

TAKING A "SERVICE" PERSPECTIVE ENHANCES SERVICES AND ADDS VALUE

When we take a “service” perspective, identifying opportunities to help the customer becomes part of the service rather than an add-on to it. Skills development considerations broaden to include all that’s needed to facilitate the techs’ efforts to share their recommendations with their customers rather than limited to “selling” products or services. The techs’ efforts can add to the trust they have built by demonstrating the value of their recommendations from the customer’s perspective. And, it becomes easier to differentiate because we can discuss it with the customer in terms of what is in it for them.

The “service” perspective positions the tech’s recommendations as part of their job – as important a part as their ability to repair and maintain the equipment they service. We enhance our service and add significant value when our field service team makes recommendations to help our customers to be measurably better off.

Reflection

On a scale of 1 – 10 (“10” being “promoting products and services is an important part of the service that we provide”, and “1” being “promoting products and services is not part of my job and should be done by others”), how would you rate the general view of your field service team of the role of promoting products and services?

• What are the factors that caused you to give the score that you did?
• What steps could you take to increase your field team’s score to a “10”?

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive articles by Jim Baston @ www.fieldservicenews.com/jim-baston
• Connect with Jim Baston on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/jimbaston
• Learn more about Jim Baston and BBA Consulting Group @ jimbaston.com
• Connect with Jim Baston directly by email @ jim@jimbaston.com

In this third and final excerpt from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum we look at three case studies illustrating successful transformation journeys.

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Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

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Dave Hart, Managing Partner of Field Service Associates, takes us on a journey down memory lane in this exclusive article for Field Service News.

OK, come with me on a journey down memory lane here…

In 1983, legendary singer Lionel Ritchie (yes, he of Commodores fame) released his new solo album Can’t Slow Down. The following year he released a single from that album entitled Hello (is it me you’re looking for) and it reached number one on three Billboard music charts: the pop chart (for two weeks), the R&B chart (for three weeks) and the adult contemporary chart (for six weeks). The song also went to number one in the UK Singles Chart for six weeks.

Whilst driving along in the car a few weeks ago, I was thinking through my consultancy write up following my conversation with a CIO of a very large company. “Hello, came on the radio” at exactly the right moment; it was one of those moments, almost fate where in seven words Lionel had managed to summarise the root of the issues this particular company was having.

Whilst discussing with my CIO client her particular hot topics (which was the subject of the call) we discussed her companies service business which was fairly sizeable and when digging a little deeper into the topic with her she proclaimed, “I don’t actually know the name of the guy who runs our service business!”

I know from my own experience running a large service business, our quarterly business reviews with the CEO were two hours long. One hour and fifty minutes discussing how much product we had sold and ten minutes discussing the service business. The service business contributed significantly to the overall EBIT of the company; it’s like it was a given, that service would just perform and achieve the numbers.

During a budgeting cycle in the same company, the regional CFO exclaimed, “I have no real idea how service works, I just assume revenues will go up with the annual price increase, you will keep contract losses below 3% and your budget EBIT number is a given”

So, my question. Should service be taken for granted?

Unfortunately, in so many businesses, it is and my call to action here is that for service to thrive It needs focus from the whole ‘c suite’ to ensure it grows, that it constantly invents itself to cater for customers ever changing needs, market forces and transformational factors.

“Service leaders need to grasp what dominates their business leaders’ areas of focus

and then capitalise on that.”

Service is the powerhouse, the profit driver; dare I say, the future of sustainable revenues for product companies. Don’t take my word for it look at the evidence. In the recent TSIA publication ‘The State of Service Revenue Generation 2020’ the report states that 62% of companies polled said equipment revenues were declining and 70% stated service revenues were increasing.

So, ask yourself this question. How many true CSO’s are out there within companies, CSO’s that sit on the ‘C suite’ and influence the business direction, develop strategies for growth, that influence product design to be more service centric and ultimately transition the company to adopt a service mindset?

I bet not many.

I remember a conference from the days when we could travel, data attributed to PwC was presented, PwC had surveyed 2,500 companies in 2018 and found that 83% of those companies promoted the CEO from within. There is a startling similarity to service leaders who are promoted from within (that number is actually 84%), but does this necessarily mean that the potential myopic view of service is maintained?

The challenge for service leaders is to become apparent and top of mind to their CEO/CFO/CIO’s which is by no means easy. Service leaders need to grasp what dominates their business leaders’ areas of focus and then capitalise on that. I suggest service leaders find an approach that works with each persona. Here are some suggestions which are generic but may help the reader understand some areas of potential focus for them…

• CFO’s – Half of CFO’s are fast tracking digital initiatives and 52% are re assessing business strategies. What an opportunity to put service front and centre introducing new approaches and digital transformation to pull organisations out of the COVID slump and back into revenue growth.
• CIO’s – Of course will be concerned with cyber security, data governance and automation but in creating IT products, CIOs will be interested in the emotional value that makes their customers purchase the product or service. CIOs and IT leaders realize that customers buy from companies they feel care about them. Another wonderful opportunity to get on the agenda of the CIO and talk about your service strategy.
• CEO’s – Their top concern is global recession and maybe it’s time to enlighten them about how service can become the engine of growth for their business.

Service leaders need to be able to understand each of the drivers of the people listed above and then ensure they tailor a message to that persona that will resonate. To do that they must be thoroughly prepared to be top of mind with their proposed solution, as each one of the ‘C suite’ will have many pressing priorities, all vying for their and their teams time as well as those precious financial resources.

Benjamin Disraeli once said ‘There is no education like adversity’ and COVID has delivered adversity in spades but I can’t help but feel the time has never been better to influence above, to build a sustainable plan that will resonate with your leadership team, to re-educate them about just how powerful their service businesses are. I then suggest you then pick up the phone and dare I say, start by saying….

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive FSN articles from Dave Hart @ www.fieldservicenews.com/dave-hart
• Learn more about Field Service Associates @ fieldserviceassociates.com
• Connect with Dave Hart on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/david-hart
• Follow Dave Hart on Twitter @ twitter.com/DaveHartProfit

In this second excerpt from a recent white paper published by IFS and Noventum, now available at Field Service News, we analyse how to deal with organisational resistance, develop internal skills and capabilities and how to use technology solutions to support effective service delivery.

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Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

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

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In this article for Field Service News, Laura Danaraj, Marketing and Content Specialist at Worldwide Business Research, discusses the top components in field service management to watch for in the coming years.

Field Service Management has been transforming over the years, becoming more dynamic, customer-centric and technologically advanced. Every customer is expecting a top-notch service – quick and correct response, available at any various contact points and convenience. As we already know, modern digital capabilities are evolving to eliminate the barriers to innovation in field service management in Asia.

At Field Service Asia, I managed to speak with Rajiv Niles, ex-Senior Director from ServiceMax to understand his expert opinion regarding top components in field service management to watch out for in coming years.

1. Visibility

With each customer having its own unique experience, we cannot expect technicians to have a memory capable of recalling every service problem a customer has had. Information is an important tool as any found in a toolbox – this is where a visibility comes into play knowing that information you need is within reach, readily available and accessible.

With the right information, technician is able to support the customer to the best of his ability – being able to share or get information that is critical to the customer such as orders at hand without wasting time or making additional calls.

“A happy and engaged technician will translate to a better customer satisfaction, that’s an area we see as key", said Rajiv.

2. Predictive Analysis

Rajiv stated, “If you look at the whole IOT continuum, the ability to provide real time information on operating equipment back to the services organization is a key part of being able to provide diagnostic information on a piece of equipment that is operating. Also, if you take real time information from a piece of equipment operating in the field, you could provide predictive maintenance capability which really ensure that you keep that asset running continuously over a long period of time.”

The goal here is to keep the operational efficiency of the machinery to a minimum downtime. The approach on predictive maintenance promises cost savings over routine or time-based preventive maintenance, because tasks will be performed only when necessary. Technicians carrying out the maintenance are likely to get things right on the first attempt as they already have the predictive analysis with a good idea of what the problem is, how to resolve it, and even up to date stock inventory management. 

Rather than discovering that service or part isn’t what the prospect is looking for or interested in after time, energy and resources have been invested. The analytics can help sales team target what the prospects are most likely to buy from the get-go allowing room to upsell on services or products.

3. Mobile Experience

According to Rajiv, “In addition to providing technicians with all the information they need to complete work, we need to provide them all the enablement on that mobile device to run manuals and documentation for them to finish their job, also the ability to provide frictionless collaboration tools really enables that technician to go a lot further. The ability for them to talk to their peers to get advice, whether it is through a chat, a text-based or video-based format, will really provide a great deal of enhancement for them to work.”

The ability to synchronize with all the necessary contact points and resources on one device is seamless. Productivity is bound to increase when technicians are able to accept jobs in the same proximity with a GPS tracker to navigate, take pictures, manage notes and payments and capture signatures. Mobility is continuing to evolve from a one-dimension application to a collaborative one.

4. Self-Service Tools

Rajiv also added, “Customers can do a lot of their own self-service like troubleshooting and we see AI playing a big part in this. First, you have a learning engine that looks at all the diagnostic information around the problems and resolutions, then building a database of that information, and providing that information to the customer so they can do basic troubleshooting activity, enabling them to solve their own problem. That also prevents the service organization from rolling out expensive truck rolls and technicians for doing very short, simple jobs which then the customer is able to do”

With knowledge, customers will be able to solve the problem quicker than waiting for help to arrive. In addition, given today’s savvy and self-reliant customers, they will have more control over the situation. In turn, inbound service requests will be reduced and customer service agents can spend their time answering tougher questions.

It is important to revolutionize equipment uptime, workforce engagement as well as customer experience in Field Service Management. We have seen a whole lot of improvement and transformation through technology over the years. To cope with the demands of the modern customer, one should take advantage of these trends and start integrating them into existing workflows.

If you wish to find out more about the upcoming trends, Field Service Asia is the event you would not want to miss in 2021. For more information visit fieldserviceasia.wbresearch.com

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Find out more about WBR @ www.wbresearch.com
• Learn more about Field Service Asia @ fieldserviceasia.wbresearch.com
• Connect with Laura Danaraj on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/laura-danaraj
• Follow WBR on Twitter @ twitter.com/WBResearch

This is the first in a series of blogs on “supercharging” revenue generation through the field service team. If you encourage your field team to promote your products and services to your customers and you are disappointed in the results so far, please read on.

Our field service teams represent an excellent opportunity to increase revenues and profitability by proactively making recommendations of our products and services to our customers. They need only bring their ideas to the customer’s attention while they’re on site performing maintenance. And the revenue generated in this manner can be highly profitable. No increase in overheads. No additional travel or other incremental costs. Profits go straight to the bottom line.

It sounds too good to be true. And for some of us this must seem to be the case. Despite our best efforts, we struggle to get our teams as engaged in business promotion as we would like them to be. We fail to meet our revenue generation goals. We continue to be disappointed in the results of our efforts.

In this blog series entitled Supercharging Revenue Generation Through the Field Service Team, we’ll look at the possible reason why our results fail to reach expectations and look at specific steps that we can take to turn those results around. We’ll examine how any service organization can supercharge their revenue generation through their field service teams and use those efforts to stand out from the crowd.

STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD

The reality for every service provider is that it’s an increasingly competitive world out there. The challenge is how to stand out from the crowd. How can we differentiate our service from our competitors when our customers see very little difference between us? The answer is that we can do this by helping the customer answer “yes” to this question, “Am I better off for having known you?”

Imagine a customer reflecting on our work over the past several months. Will they say, “Not only does my equipment continue to run exceptionally well, but we’re saving more money today than we’ve ever saved before.” or “… we’re achieving better productivity than we’ve ever achieved before.” or “… we’re getting fewer complaints from tenants than we’ve ever have before.”, etc. When our customers say those things about us, we will stand out from our competitors and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

OUR CUSTOMERS WANT US TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS

And studies suggest that helping the customer to be better off is exactly what our customers want their service providers to do. In May of 2015, the Globe and Mail newspaper published an article entitled “Why Customer Satisfaction is Overrated”. In the article, they reported on research that found that 75 percent of organizations that left one vendor to go to another, were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the vendor they left at the time that they left. Upon further investigation, researchers found that the reason that satisfied or even very satisfied customers left was that they thought that the company that they were going to was in a better position to help them achieve their long term business goals. This study suggests that good customer service, although important, is not enough. Today’s customer is looking for a business partner who can use their specific knowledge and expertise to help them achieve their goals.

Our field service team is in the best position to recognize opportunities that can help our customers achieve their goals. They have the technical expertise, they understand our company’s capabilities, they have an intimate knowledge of our customer’s equipment and they have insight into our customers’ goals and challenges. And, of course, they have direct access to speak with the customer.

Next time we will look at our perception of the proactive efforts of our field service teams and how our mindset may be impacting our results.

Reflection

Think about how your customers view your business

• Do they see you as a “service provider” or a “business partner”?
• Do they claim they are better off for having engaged you? What steps do you take as an organization to help your customers see this value in your relationship? How do you measure your customers’ perception about this?
• How well does this customer viewpoint allow you to differentiate your business from your competitors? How sustainable is this differentiation?

 

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy @ www.fieldservicenews.com/leadership-and-strategy
• Read more exclusive articles by Jim Baston @ www.fieldservicenews.com/jim-baston
• Connect with Jim Baston on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/jimbaston
• Learn more about Jim Baston and BBA Consulting Group @ jimbaston.com
• Connect with Jim Baston directly by email @ jim@jimbaston.com

Mactavish, the specialist outsourced insurance buyer and claims resolution expert, says many commercial policyholders have faced drastic premium increases this year as insurers look to improve margins in a hardening market, sometimes of up to 800%. This is coming in addition to a greater focus on newer risks such as the increase in cyber crime that has been spurred by the pandemic and the rise of remote working.

As insurers also look to protect their reserves and minimise claims payments, Mactavish says it has also seen considerable erosion in the quality and extent of the insurance cover offered to policyholders. This is often buried in T&Cs without being flagged by either insurers or brokers, meaning that policyholders may not be aware of their increased exposure.

INSURANCE RATES ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TO RISE IN 2020 AND SOME COMPANIES MIGHT BE UNABLE TO PAY FOR THEIR COVER

Market surveys are showing 34% increases in premiums across the board, but this masks a much more complex picture. Lines such as Crime, Professional Indemnity, Pension Trustees’ Liability and Directors’ and Officers’ insurance have risen far in excess of this. In addition, some industries have suffered much more than others. Firms in the construction, energy, food and beverage, travel, manufacturing and waste sectors will be experiencing particularly challenging renewals.

Mactavish warns that it expects rates to continue to rise in 2021 and says that some companies will be unable to pay for their cover, meaning they will be forced to reduce operations, lay-off employees or even go into administration.

Mactavish is one of the largest independent ‘buyers’ of commercial insurance in the UK, and this year it has helped clients cut the cost of their insurance premiums by 50% in some cases by using a unique approach that runs brokers in head-to-head competition along with their preferred insurance partners. In addition, while cost is an important area of focus, Mactavish has also improved the quality of its clients’ cover by negotiating critical changes to policy wordings.

Bruce Hepburn, CEO, Mactavish said: “For years, the insurance industry has sold its cover on the basis of price as opposed to quality and this has pushed premiums down, when in many cases they should have been higher. The insurance market is hardening now, and premiums are rising dramatically as insurers seek to make up lost ground quickly. The timing couldn’t be worse for firms that are still being battered by the economic fall-out from the pandemic. For some businesses, these unexpected cost increases could be the final nail in the coffin.”

“Aside from playing a role in pushing price increases, COVID-19 has also exacerbated many risk areas. As just one example, there has been a marked increase in cyber crime as employees moved to home-based working. This creates a double whammy effect where policyholders need to buy more insurance at precisely the moment that prices are spiking.”

Hepburn added: “While brokers naturally prefer exclusive relationships, our work shows that you get a much better outcome when there is real competitive pressure between competing suppliers. Since many brokers receive premium-linked commissions from insurers, policyholders should be wary of taking cost increases at face value.”

Mactavish cited a recent engagement in which a financial services firm had been badly let down by its broker. Even on the day its insurance was set to renew, the incumbent was unable to confirm that it had secured 100% of the capacity the firm required. Worse, a number of exclusions had crept into the policy wordings that had removed vast swathes of essential cover. Working at speed, Mactavish was able to put in place all of the required capacity, get rid of the onerous exclusions and achieve a double-digit cost saving.

Mactavish specialises in helping employers enhance their chances of securing reliable insurance policies at competitive prices, and resolving claims disputes.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Leadership and Strategy  @ www.fieldservicenews.com/eadership-and-strategy
• Read more about Mactavish on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/mactavish
• Find out more more about Mactavish @ www.mactavishgroup.com
• Follow Mactavish on Twitter @ twitter.com/MactavishGroup
• Follow Mactavish on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/mactavish