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December.  That last few weeks before we flip to a clean page, create those New Year’s Resolutions, and generally begin again in pursuit of personal and professional excellence. Patrice Eberline is Vice President, Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax gives guidance on how to take stock and get set for success in the year ahead....

The end of the year is also a terrific time to take stock of your Field Service organisation and offerings.  We typically review performance against standard industry metrics- MTTR, Utilisation, SLA’s, etc. This year, take a look at performance against potential- what your field service organisation could be.

Use the holiday time to step away from the tactical and look at the bigger picture.  How can you disrupt the day to day and be transformative?  What are you seeing at a strategic level that will give you the edge and generate breakthrough profitability in 2015?

1. How “fit” are your service offerings to face the New Year? We often look at our own fitness levels in prep for our personal New Year’s Resolutions.  Our business should be no different and frequently service programs are the last to get a facelift.  Are they ready for the New Year?  Keeping service offerings evergreen and current is key in keeping customers happy and creating service excellence.  Let’s look at an example.

   In the world of medical device repair, service is complex and much of that complexity can come from compliance.  Compliance reporting can be onerous for your customers, and can offer an opportunity to update a simple PM service event with a high value, no cost add on. At a CSO event I recently attended, one of the field leaders shared a success story where he offered to capture a full equipment inventory (both his equipment and his competitors) as a way to help his customer with their “as installed” end of year reporting.  This was a simple matter of scanning like equipment bar codes using a mobile device. The result was a great way to generate additional customer sat while getting additional information for future sales opps.Taking a look at your service programs with fresh eyes can offer unexpected opportunities to disrupt the competition!

2. How well are you capitalizing on sales opportunities from within your Field Service team? 

   As we move further and further into the online, self-serve service world, every touch point with your customer becomes of paramount importance.  …and the unit that touches the customer most frequently?  You guessed it- your service team!

   Your field techs are the face of your brand.  They spend the most time in front of your customer and develop long-standing positive relationships with them.  More importantly, your field team has their unwavering trust, and that is the key to unlocking additional sales.  Are you using them to their fullest?

   I spoke with a Service Director a few months ago who is doing just that.  He was quick to point out that his aim was not to turn his techs into sales reps, as that would defeat their trusted advisor status.  He was however, able to identify techs with an aptitude for observation, rapport-building, and sales and offer them additional training to make them highly effective techs who could capitalize on sales opportunities seen in the field.  The process was then automated by using technology to automatically dispatch these “closers” to service appointments where equipment was coming out of warranty and there was no long-term contract in place.

   A field service engineer with high technical skills as well as sales ability can truly move the needle on your bottom line!

3. Are you leveraging technology to the fullest?

   The pace of technology innovation continues to increase dramatically year over year.  The benefits are no longer “nice to have’s” but are “must haves” in order to get and maintain competitive advantage and best in class service status. As the year winds down, it’s a great time to take a look at the tools you are using and leverage those that will give you the edge against the competition.

   One of the most popular ways to do this is around hand held devices.  Today everyone has a cell phone and most of us have a tablet of one kind or another.  Further, both are on just about every Top 10 list for holiday gift giving.  By making the most of these “always on” devices, you can separate yourself from the crowd in a variety of ways:

    

   • Increase customer sat with real-time notifications of technician ETA.
   • Increase First Time Fix on complex work orders by enabling the field with real-time escalation to home office source expertise via face-time or similar
   • Turn invoices around quickly and decrease invoice questions by empowering technicians to get written approval on paperwork before leaving customer site
   • ave time on traditional laptop boot times by providing technicians with an efficient “always on” tool to log and complete work orders

With a little planning, technology will help you empower your field techs, increase operating efficiencies, and delight your customers.

These are just some examples and food for thought as you prepare for the New Year. I wish you all the very best of holidays and here’s to a breakthrough 2015!

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We take a look at some of the advice of our good friends at TheSmartVan.com on how to start seeing clear revenue streams from service techs.

To begin, Sean Lydon, begins by outlining three top tips for gathering refferals from your field service engineers.

Service techs, writes Sean can be a company’s biggest referral booster — or loser.

On the front lines, they are best-positioned to garner new business. But while they undergo rigorous technical education, they often aren’t given sufficient training in the softer “people skills” that earn referrals.

So what are Sean’s three top tips for earning more revenue from service?

PREPARE THE CUSTOMER FOR A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE — BEFORE THE CALL

Keith Lowe, co-founder of Conditioned Air Solutions, a 28-person heating and air conditioning company in Huntsville, Alabama has a pre-service call tradition that he says gives customers a feeling of transparency and prepares them for a great experience: He e-mails a picture and bio of the technician to the customer before the call.

It adds a personal touch and lays the ground for a great service call, he says — and that’s the first step to generating repeat and referral business.

TRAIN YOUR FIELD SERVICE TECHS TO COMMUNICATE

When customers feel at ease with a service tech — an experience they don’t usually expect from technicians — they are more inclined to share that positive news about your company with friends. How to create that comfortable environment?

“When you first arrive, introduce yourself in a professional manner, smile, and announce that you’re there to fix the problem,” says Sally Mounts, PhD, president of  Auctus Consulting Group, a management consulting firm near Pittsburgh,

“Explain how long service calls usually take, since no one really likes having strangers in their homes.  Ask if they would like you to leave your shoes at the door to avoid tracking on their floors. While you are working, be friendly and open. Ask if they would like you to explain what you’re doing and why.”

 

Adds Mounts: “People are not used to empathic technicians who are adept at communicating. If you are [that technician], you’ll be seen as extraordinary.”

 

ASK FOR REFERRALS

Even the most enthusiastic customers may not send referrals. Why? Nobody’s asked them.

Lowe, of Conditioned Air Solutions, says he holds technicians accountable for asking for feedback and referrals. His company uses ReviewBuzz, an online reputation management application, which he says makes it easy for his customers to post feedback on multiple review and social media sites, such as Google Places, Yelp, and Facebook, in a single entry.

“Before they leave the house, our technicians are to hand the customer our ReviewBuzz card with the technician’s name on it, and say something like,

'Would you mind going onto this website to give me a review and let me know how I did? I’d really appreciate it,’ ” Lowe says.

For those who don’t have a system like ReviewBuzz, Mounts offers this advice for techs:

 

“After completing the project, explain what the customer can do to prevent [the issue] from happening again. Give them your business card and tell them to call you personally if they have any problems in the future.

Then explain that referrals are the lifeblood of any successful business, and ask if they know anyone who could also use your services. Ask if you can use their name in your referral call.”

Of course referrals are one thing but what about putting your field service engineers in a position where they can also directly sell. Whether it be upgrading SLA’s or supplementary items leveraging a field service engineer’s trusted advisor status to secure further sales is a solid strategy but not many service techs have a background in sales; they may not even be big people people to begin with.

So how can you train your repairmen, installers, and supervisors — these product people — on the soft skills of up-selling?

In this second feature Ian Stewart came up with a few simple tips you can start using (or reinforcing) right away to boost both your field engineers confidence, and their sales numbers.

KNOWLEDGE IS YOUR BEST TOOL

Whether they know it or not, field techs have a powerful tool on their side that even some very good salesman don’t: intimate product knowledge. And that gives them credibility — something a salesman very seldom has.

“Once the customer gets that you know what you’re talking about, they’ll think everyone in the company knows what they’re talking about,” says Brendan Cooke, an installer-turned-customer service rep for All-Guard Alarm Systems 

“If you can educate the customer, they’re usually going to be satisfied with the product. And being an installer is the greatest education you can get in this industry. Learning all the functions of the product, walking people through it; that’s probably the greatest tool I have.”

SELL THE OPPOSITE

How often do you run into a customer who says they’re already satisfied with the service they’re getting from one of your competitors? Well Earl King, the founder of King Productions International, a HVAC sales consulting firm in Texas, says that shouldn’t nip your sales pitch in the bud.

“First, I’ll ask [a customer] if they’re satisfied,” King says. “And if they say there are, then I ask if we can do a maintenance audit — no charge, no obligation. I want to look at all their service tickets over the past 12 months or so, review how much has been spent on materials.”

Typically, King says, it’s not much. Having that knowledge in your hands creates an opportunity to sell away from what the customer’s already getting in a full-coverage agreement with someone else. If you can show a customer they’re paying more in a yearly service agreement than they’re getting back, you may be able to pick off a new customer by offering a “programmed maintenance,” labor-only agreement, which is always a lot cheaper.

FIRST, LISTEN

Great salespeople are said to have a silver tongue, right? Actually, it’s the ears that count.

By listening closely to what the customer is — and sometimes isn’t — saying, you can pick up on what their problem is, and how your product or service can solve that for them. Joe Crisara, a sales educator for ContractorSelling.com, talks about the “turn-around” technique, where you as a seller get the customer talking about why he’s interested in your service.

 

Get them, essentially, to sell you on your own service — that helps them reinforce the fact that they want and need it, and it gives you information about exactly what they’re looking for.

“Many times buyers provide a false reason so they don’t reveal too much about their situation, thinking that you may use it against them to close the deal,” Crisara writes on his blog.

“The turn-around helps your buyers ‘think it over’ before you start making prices and solutions so they are certain that the service or product they are requesting information [about] is something they definitely will purchase.”

DON’T ASSUME

Part of listening is keeping an open mind, says Mike Moore, who runs HVAC Learning Solutions. And that means don’t assume anything. You don’t necessarily know what a customer’s budget is, or what they can and can’t afford.

People may surprise you — but if you don’t offer your best, you’ll never sell your best. So start by offering customers the service or product that best fits their needs — not what you think fits in their price range.

“The customer will pay for what he or she can afford, and it is never your job to decide what one can financially invest in,”

NO EXCUSES

Andy Halpein, the owner of Laser Printer Resource in Walnut Creek, Calif., puts it bluntly: “If they want a job, they’ve gotta sell.”

That’s kind of a sink-or-swim directive, but the point is valid: Sales is simply part of the job now. In some cases, that means pitching customers out in the field.

Or, as Halperin says, it can be as simple as just be performing a great repair, gaining the customer’s trust, and making sure to mention ongoing service agreements and handing them the company business card. Either way, it’s now a must. “Hopefully [the tech] is great — and usually they are,” he says. “I only hire great, awesome ones.”

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As we approach the end of the year and look towards what the future holds in 2015 Field Service News thought it was time to show some appreciation to those who are driving our industry forward. The pioneers, the leaders, those who walk the path that the rest of us follow in.

So today we are proud to be launching the #FSN20 campaign to celebrate the 20 most influential people in field service.

How are we selecting these influencers? We're not - you are. Simply state who you think has had the most influence on you in your professional role. [unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Is it one of the leading analysts such as Bill Pollock, Sumair Dutta or Aly Pinder whose latest white paper struck a deep chord with you?
• Has a a piece of software or hardware revolutionised your workload so significantly the person driving that company forward has influenced you?
• What about some of those leading the way in service roles - people like Martin Summerhayes at Fujitsu or Martin Hotass at Siemens - both are pioneers tackling challenges the whole industry faces?
• Your favourite journalist perhaps - maybe Derek Korte at SmartVan, Sarah Nicastro over at Field Technologies Online or even one of our own humble scribes here at Field Service News?
• Even quite simply it could be your boss or one of your work colleagues - that inspire you everyday.

Who ever it is, simply add their name and a couple of lines about why you've nominated them in the comments section below. You can also vote via social media so spread the word amongst your colleagues a simple vote with your nominations name, company and the hashtag #FSN20 on twitter will register as a vote and there will also be postings across Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin so spread the word and get voting.

The final list will be compiled in the January edition of Field Service News which will be available in print to all our UK readers and available online and as a download for all our international readers.

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You may or may not have spotted it  but over the course of the year in my series of features for Field Service News I have been writing a series of articles that describe and outline a framework of the critical attributes and understanding required to deliver a successful Service Business.

Why? Most managers find it hard to know where to start, because service transformation involves every single aspect of a business.

In other words it's a complex process, with many possible pathways to being able to deliver sustainable growth. So we created the service business model to provide managers with a holistic view of how to break the business challenges into smaller bite size chunks which they can action.

I wanted to illustrate these chunks through real case studies that I have experienced. This final article pulls it all together into a coherent story.

The 50,000ft Birds-Eye perspective

In our 1st article en-titled ‘Where to Start’ we described four key elements companies should understand in order to develop a service business.

1. VALUE: Do you know the value you can create for your customer, and what your own organisations strategy is for turning it into profit?
2. GO-TO MARKET: Can you innovate, design, develop, market and sell service propositions?
3. SERVICE DELIVERY: Can you deliver services consistently, profitably and to the level of customer experience you intended?
4. PLAN: Do you have a detailed explicit plan to drive change that is supported by your leadership and your people?

This is a good start, but how do you get into the detail? We went on to describe nine best practices case studies that provide some insights into how to achieve the balancing act required to develop a profitable service business.

1. Know your CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY(s)

We reviewed how Husky, a leading manufacturer of capital equipment mapped out their customer journey through the product lifecycle to understand the specific 'moments of sales' when the customer was open to the services being proposed.

This insight is often the 1^st step to truly understanding how your customer’s business operates, and where you can make a difference. Many companies have an intuitive feel for their customer. Many more would do well to bring some analysis to their ‘gut feeling’, to uncover the attractive target segments and quantify the value add of all the stakeholders in the value chain.

2. Define your strategy for CORPORATE VALUE MANAGEMENT

In ‘Ouch! Getting the profit/cost centre call wrong’ we highlighted the importance of understanding your own companies objectives. What is your business model to make money?

How does your strategy translate into organisational design? What are the systems and processes you need to manage value? It is not only about the numbers, but your culture and also your capabilities. In particular the ability to manage knowledge.

 

We illustrated this through looking at how different companies have tackled the question of service being a separate P&L and when this has successfully brought focus to their service transformation.

The point is ‘Know Yourself!’. This is the key to discovering how you will reach your goals.

3. CUSTOMER PERCEPTION OF VALUE

In our 3^rd article, ‘Finding nuggets of customer gold’, we discussed that there is no point understanding the customer journey and your own business strategy if you can not define the value you can deliver to your customer’s business.  This is probably the most basic building block for developing the service value proposition.

Through the case study of Yokogawa, we saw how good insight into this value does not always come through the sales team. Indeed using a number of different methodologies can lead to surprising results. In this example they found customers wanted much closer technical relationships to boost the OEE of their plant. On the face of it, this simple insight was the enabler to really innovate for customer value.

4. PROPOSITION DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT

‘Services that speak to their customers’ moved us away from VALUE and onto the GOTO MARKET strategy. We discussed how leading companies nearly always have a formal stage-gate type process to design and deploy services.

But that services are different from products, in that the use of prototyping and agile design techniques is more prevalent, because the upfront investment is not so large. We looked at Yokogawa as an example of how by looking at your websites language you can discover for yourself, whether your corporate culture is more INSIDE-OUT and product orientated, or more OUTSIDE-IN and focused on customer value.

 

Studies such as Noventum’s ‘Drivers of Growth’ earlier this year show that the more driven a company is in seeking inputs from it’s customer’s, the more likely it is to achieve higher growth rates of 10% or more.

5. SERVICE SALES MODEL

The second important component of a GOTO MARKET strategy is the Service Sales model. Here we are using Sales in the broadest sense of the word, including not only the front line sales team, but also the sales support teams, all customer touching employees and marketing. They all contribute to selling service!

So in ‘Service Sales; How difficult can it be?’, we heard the experiences of a leading equipment manufacturer in the Packaging Industry, as they ramped up their Service Sales. The key lessons from the Head of Bobst’s Service Business Unit were:

1. Time: spend time with Product Sales explaining the contribution of services to their success.
2. Focus, Focus, Focus: through dedicated Service Sales and Marketing teams
3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: it’s a major cultural change
4. Patience: it takes time and commitment to develop the relationships in order to get results

An important message that becomes clear, is that there is no one Service Sales Model that guarantees success. It very much depends on the context of your industry, people and markets.

6. SERVICE DELIVERY MODEL

Having a clear view of VALUE and a GO-TO MARKET strategy is not enough to create a sustainable business. In our 6^th article ‘Don’t Lose your Service Shirts’ we began to explore SERVICE DELIVERY, often so critical to delivering profitability. First we looked at the five core components of the Service Delivery mode:

• End to End business processes
• Service management practices
• People competencies
• Performance management systems (KPI’s)
• IT Functional requirements and Master-data management

We described how Bobst were able to standardise seven different brands and sets of service processes into one global ’Book of Standard’s’ in only three months.

Their vision was to build a Standardised Back-Office, which could be customised for the different needs of their global customer base. This was achieved using a methodology that broke their business down into small standard, best practice components, and then rebuilt the processes with these standard components.

A bit like lego bricks. This methodology, which is used by leading technical service businesses such as Xerox and Siemens, allow the business to deeply understand & define the business needs. This is vitally important before deploying new technologies that automate the processes, bring transparency to data and help companies manage their knowledge.

7. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Successful service delivery is all about the your people. So in our 7th article ‘Why Dutch firm Hutten are happy to stand out from the Crowd’, we looked at a very innovative approach based on happiness.

They undertook a programme to promote the values of happiness, collaboration, transparency and sustainability across their organization, suppliers and stakeholders. The result was significantly improved productivity. An unusual approach , but it underlines the importance of people and communication in any business.

8. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The final aspect of Service Delivery is to ensure the customer experience is what we intended when we designed our services. Ten years ago, this was usually an intuitive process within the B2B world.

A good example being how our people look or how they answer the phone. As our economies have become more Knowledge & Experience centric, customer experience has become a critical outcome to be designed, managed and improved. In ‘Is your service organisation looking inside out or outside in’ we explored different methods for gaining insights into Customer Experience. We looked at how one Medical equipment manufacturer went further than their standard Net-Promoter-Score survey’s and undertook in-depth interviews at different customer touch points.

The results were very uncomfortable. The challenge for the company was to, take the observations at face value and action them. Not easy for an organisation, if you have an internally focused technology culture.

 

The awareness of customer experience as an important element of fulfilling the Brand promise has led to leading companies introducing more formal Service Design processes and developing Service Design professionals.

9. PLAN

In our final article, ‘The Winning Plan’, we see how leading researchers have proved what most managers already know. Without an explicit documented plan, that is fully committed to by the leadership and the people, all the efforts on ensuring VALUE, having a robust GOTO MARKET strategy and an excellent SERVICE DELIVERY operation will go to waste. What needs to be done simply will not happen.

So if you have not guessed it yet, the value of this type of Service Business Model is to help managers see where are the priorities. Transformation and change is complex and not everything is possible at once. So to be able to see the wood from the trees and navigate the way to the destination is critical to success.

This Service Business Model is explored in more depth during Noventum’s Service Executive Leadership Courses. For more information use this link to our website www.noventum.eu

Dealing with unhappy customers, making unhappy customers happy, and making happy customers even happier are all variations on the same theme – they typically differ only by degree. In fact, it may actually be easier to make unhappy customers happy, than to make happy customers even happier.  Strategies for Growth^SM  President Bill Pollock explains...

Unhappy customers will probably want to tell you why they are unhappy – whether you already know it or not. They will typically want to get their "two cents" in, even before they allow you to speak. This is fine; this is part of their venting, and they will expect you to stop and listen as they do so. As such, this will be the proper time for you to listen and observe.

In most cases, customers have already become unhappy even before their call is taken or the service technician arrives at the site. This may be because they waited too long for the call to be answered, the tech is running late, it is a repeat call for a recent or similar occurrence, or they have just come off of a "bad" service call with the company the time before. In any case, for the first few moments, you will probably be on the receiving end of a combination of both fair and unfair accusations, finger-pointing, and the like. As always, this will be the proper time to listen and observe – before you speak.

The best way to ultimately make unhappy customers happy is to convince them that you will be working together to resolve any problems, and that you are not really working in adversarial positions. The services world is too often segregated into an "us vs. them" scenario; but, the quicker you show your customers that you are on their side, the quicker you can make them happy.

Some guidelines for accomplishing this are:

• Listen to what they have to say, and listen attentively – if they do not believe that you are paying full attention to their "story", they will probably become even less happy.
• Accept full responsibility for resolving any open issues, and be gracious in accepting blame wherever it is justified – customers will not tolerate any finger-pointing; especially at themselves.
• Explain, to the best of your knowledge, what happened, why it happened, what you plan to do about it, when it will be resolved, and how you will ensure that it never happens again (i.e., if it is something that you can help to prevent) – provide them with the guidance and assistance to prevent such occurrences from happening again (i.e., if it appears to have been something under their control).
• Just as machines sometimes require TLC (i.e., tender loving care), so do humans – treat your customers with the levels of TLC and "hand holding" they require in order to “soothe” their apparent frustrations.
• As soon as you make contact, let them know that you will be focused on resolving any open issues as quickly as possible, and to their satisfaction – let them know that you are working on their behalf, and that you will not be happy until they are completely satisfied.
• If there are any open issues remaining as you are closing out the call, assure them that you will be following-up and getting back to them with a complete solution as soon as possible – and then, follow-up as you promised.

Customers only have reason to remain unhappy for as long as the problem remains in play. However, the greater the problem, the longer it will remain “top of mind”, and the longer it will serve to plague your overall relationship with the customer.

The worst time to have your next "bad" service call with the customer is immediately following your last “bad" service call with the customer. After one “bad” experience, your performance is likely to be more closely watched and scrutinised every successive time you are called back.

However, by following these guidelines, the prospects for your delivering "bad" service stand to be significantly lessened and, therefore, you will find that it is much easier both to keep your customers happy, as well as to convert any unhappy customers into happy ones.

The Service Community’s Manchester Event attracted over thirty delegates from a broad spectrum of small, medium and large organisations with guests travelling from as far afield as Brazil and the USA. The growth of The Community by more than 75% since the Special Event in June underscores that this clearly taps into the real desire to share best practice, debate relevant issues and network with like-minded professionals...

The generous host on this occasion was Siemens Industry GB&I coordinated by Graeme Coyne, who personally welcomed all guests in the impressive ‘Sir William Siemens House’ facilities in the outskirts of South-West Manchester.

Aston Business School’s Professor Tim Baines opened with a truly engaging and interactive key note presentation focused on “the challenges faced by UK Manufacturers as they adopt Servitisation as a Growth Strategy”. This insight into some of the pitfalls that face an organisation as they adopt advanced service offerings, supported by pertinent academic research and analysis, was both a warning and highly educational. This fabulous opening set the standard for an informative and entertaining afternoon.

[quote]In the spirit of topical content, the audience was treated to an innovative view of the potential of remote servicing equipment and the Internet of Things

In the spirit of topical content, the audience was treated to an innovative view of the potential of remote servicing equipment and the Internet of Things. John Pritchard of MAC Solutions explored the trends in device connectivity, leveraging the revelation that the number of connected devices exceeds the number of people on the planet. With this point in mind, John described techniques and cost savings in a forward thinking delivery that included a live software demonstration.

 

Both these opening presentations generated great interest from the audience, and led to a lively networking break that enabled guests to further explore their questions more personally with the speakers.

The networking break seemed to pass as a fleeting blur; however, the promise of further insights lured back the eager delegates. Martin Hottass rose to the challenge as he laid down the gauntlet that the Field Service Industry is facing the retirement of a quarter of engineers in the next 10 years! Martin, responsible for Skills & Professional Education at Siemens Energy didn’t just leave us worried about this startling demographic certainty but went on to explain techniques and government funding options available to organisations to help build apprenticeships and graduate recruitment programmes within the industry.

The final keynote offered a case study delivered by Daniel Kingham from Elekta (manufacturers of medical equipment). The fascinating study illustrated how migrating from a solely field based operation to a jointly managed remote and field based service operation transformed the customer experience. Daniel’s empirical expertise was evident and he smoothly handled an abundance of questions which truly demonstrated his knowledge and left the audience satiated.

Once again, The Service Community delivered on its objectives. The content of the meetings remains the life-blood of The Community, followed closely by the generosity of community members to host events and volunteer time to keep The Service Community alive. To this point, the next event is proposed for March 2015 – date and location to be confirmed.

Want to know more about the Service Community? Click here for more information and resources including presentation slides!

The services sector has traditionally been guided by a succession of rules, regulations and policies that, hopefully, make us all better at supporting our customers and the global business economy, as a whole argues Strategies For Growth℠’s (SFG℠) President, Bill Pollock...

Many of these guidelines mirror other aspects of our lives as well, such as “Mind your Manners”, “Mind your Own Business” and – of course, “Mind the Gap!” However, no guideline may be as important to the services community as “Mind the Metrics” – and this is particularly well evidenced in the UK & EMEA geographies.

In fact, a special cut of the results from Strategies For Growth℠’s (SFG℠) 2014 Field Service Management Benchmark Survey reveal that, for the UK/EMEA services community, “developing/improving the metrics, or KPIs, used to measure Field Service Performance” is the number one strategic action currently being taken, as cited by nearly two-thirds (i.e., 64%) of survey respondents (Figure 1). No other strategic actions are cited by as many as half of respondents, although “investing in mobile tools to support field technicians” rates fairly high at 49%, followed by “improving planning and forecasting with respect to field service operations” at just over one-third (i.e., 34%).

This is no surprise to Steve Alderson, Managing Director at Cognito, a leading, UK-based provider of mobile workforce management solutions to field service organisations, who corroborates that “This exactly reflects what we are hearing from the industry with service organisations facing intense pressure from competitors and rising customer expectations. These survey results confirm the strong sense in the market that getting a better understanding of field service metrics is critical to improving overall performance.”

The primary Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), or metrics, currently being used by a majority of UK/EMEA Field Services Organisations (FSOs) include:

• 78% Customer Satisfaction
• 75% Total Service Revenue/Turnover
• 68% Total Service Cost
• 53% Field Technician Utilisation (i.e., time spent performing repairs ÷ total hours)
• 53% Percent of Total Service Revenue under Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• 51% Service Revenue, as a Percent of Total Company Revenues
• 51% Service Revenue, per Field Technician

It is interesting to note, however, that most of the primary KPIs that were being used when many of us were just breaking into the business, while still important, are typically only used today by a minority of services organisations (i.e., on-site response time and first-time-fix-rate, each cited by 49%; SLA compliance and mean-time-to-repair/MTTR, each cited by 47%; and several others). However, what the data do not show is a diminution of importance among the old ‘tried and true’ KPIs, but, rather, an increased emphasis among those factors that are most influential today with respect to customer satisfaction, field tech utilisation and – oh, yes – the bottom line!

Most services industry analysts would also agree that you cannot – and should not – merely collect and tabulate the data – that is basically what a market research analyst firm does. Running a services organisation, however, is quite different, according to Alderson who suggests that, “Information without action is useless”. He continues, “As service organisations mature, and implement the next generation of mobile workforce management systems, sophisticated data gathering and analytical capabilities will be mandatory. However, the ability to act on the insights and knowledge gained, to improve field service performance, will be the key to thriving, not just surviving.”

But, why are KPIs so important to the overall well-being of the organisation? Because, for many, their service performance goals are simply not being met! For example, in the UK/EMEA services community:

• 32% of FSOs are not attaining at least 80% Customer Satisfaction

  (UK/EMEA average is 82% Customer Satisfaction)

• 28% of FSOs are not attaining at least 80% SLA Compliance

  (UK/EMEA average is 81% SLA Compliance)

•  26% of FSOs are not achieving at least 20% services profitability

  (UK/EMEA average is 35% Services Profitability)

For these reasons alone, between a quarter and a third (or more) of the UK/EMEA FSOs probably find themselves in the need for new and/or upgraded mobile workforce management technologies to run their organisations. Then, of course, they’ll still need to measure their performance along the way. It’s definitely time to “Mind the Metrics!”

We end our exclusive series on Change Management with a look at the final stage of Sharon Moura’s five step approach to change management leading through the adoption cycle…

Across this six part series we have looked at change management in depth, beginning with a look at the key principals of change management, before looking in detail at how Sharon Moura, VP of IT Transformation and Strategy with Tyco approached the change management process when implementing ServiceMax’s field service management system.

In doing so Moura applied five key steps which we have looked at in depth in this series. These were “assessing the change”, “engaging the head and the heart”, “creating a change agent network”, “leading through resistance” and here we look at the last of these steps “leading through the adoption cycle”

There is also a white paper that accompanies this series which you can access by clicking here

Looking at the adoption lifecycle Moura identifies four key segments that we should be aware of as the full adoption cycle of our change management program is completed.

These are:

• Early Adopters
• Majority
• Laggards
• Naysayers

Lets have a look at each of these in a little more detail.

Early Adopters

Moura is a clear believer in the power of utilising a core peer group of field engineers as early adopters when deploying technology as it offers a great opportunity to further improve adoption further down the line too.

“If there is any opportunity to bring early adopters in using the technology or even if it is just getting them in and seeing it you should do so” she explains “They can share their excitement at the deployment out amongst their peers”

Indeed early adopters are likely to give your change management program that ‘buzz’ amongst the staff that will see you move rapidly along the adoption lifecycle.

As Moura comments “What we can do here is we can highlight what the adoption will get them. The “what’s in it for me” and we can communicate the rationalisation of the change, “the why” and then we can build on the excitement generated by the change”

“Its great to have early adopters they’ll really help you gain momentum and quickly move to the next step of the adoption lifecycle.”

Majority

The next step is to get the majority of our workforce adopted. Now this isn’t as simple as switching their old systems off and their new systems on, which is a dangerous oversight to make and why many change management projects are either long, arduous processes or ultimately just fail.

If your staff are struggling to use your new solution then it will not be long before they are finding work-rounds. Before you know it spread sheets and post it notes are being used and your new system has become a burden on your field engineers when you it was supposed to improve efficiency.

 

Remember that your workers are generally focussed on doing their job and doing it well – this is why you employ them, so it’s not a case of them deliberately not using the new system for any other reason than they do not understand how to use it as part of their workflow.

To avoid this is therefore important that support continues throughout the adoption lifecycle. It is absolutely crucial that you are constantly reinforcing the benefits of the new system and perhaps one of the best ways of doing this is to highlight every win that comes as a result of the new solution.

Moura comments “Communicate the early adopter stories to the majority. Who’s using the system, what type of insight did they gain, where they able to do something faster? Keep a customer happier?”

Another tip Moura suggests is to ask each of the early adopters to tell at least two of their peers about the new system. “Get them to tell them what they learnt, what you know and your excitement around this initiative. That will help you to get the majority of employees adopting the new solution”

Laggards

It’s just a fact of life that some people will only make a switch at the very end of the cycle. Whether they don’t feel they have the time to pay attention to the switch or whether it’s just that they are reliant on seeing demonstrable benefit before they can commit to change it is certain there will be some laggards in your change management program, regardless of the change.

However, for your change management program to be successfully completed to achieve its maximum effect then you must give this group close attention.

 

“This is really where managers need to be front and centre going one on one with these empoyees” comments Moura

“It’s also a great opportunity for some of the early adopters to act as peer coaches. Assign a coach to these groups of laggards either one on one or in small groups to help them through the change” she added.

It’s also important to continue the work you began in the previous stage in the adoption lifecycle (Majority) in championing ach and every win and to remember to continue using multiple channels, whether it be company memo, social media or coffee room notice boards.

Nay Sayers

And finally we come to the last category in the adoption lifecycle, the Nay Sayers. These are those that just won’t be swayed. Unfortunately there comes a time in all change management programs when the effort put in begins to vastly outweigh the value you are getting out of it. At this point we need to evaluate the benefit of convincing these die-hard naysayers.

“My recommendation is to ignore the naysayers,” advises Moura. “Recognise when the pursuit is not worth the effort and make alternate plans”

This series of features on Change Management are accompanied by a white paper in the subject, which is available by clicking here and completing the brief registration form.

 
Click here to download the accompanying white paper

This series is sponsored by:

 

Part Five of an exclusive Field Service News interview with Dave Gordon, Rolls Royce.

Here Dave speaks about the challenges of sharing data between supplier and customer, however if these challenges can be overcome the relationships can become much more holistic and the service can become as close to seamless as is possible...

Missed part one of this excellent series? Find it here

Missed part two of this excellent series? Find it here

Missed part three of this excellent series? Find it here

Missed part four of this excellent series? Find it here
 
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