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With customer satisfaction now the top metric in defining field service success,  the future of service and service revenue generation is in preparing the service organisation to have the right conversations with customers before, during, and after a service visit,  says Aly Pinder, senior research analyst analyst, Service Management, Aberdeen Group.

Field service has long been a task oriented function of the organisation. Receive a customer call, schedule a technician, dispatch the tech, route the tech to the customer site, fix the problem, and then move on to the next job. Granted this is rudimentary recap of what happens, but I hope the picture is clear. A customer with a failed asset or piece of equipment, would then need the service organisation to reactively send a technician out to solve the problem with the goal of having technicians complete as many jobs as possible in a given day.
This model has been effective for quite a while, but a shift is occurring in field service. Aberdeen’s State of Service Management 2015: Connect to Your Customers (March 2015) research highlighted that the top metric defining success in service is customer satisfaction, not operational efficiency or cost containment. Furthermore, increased competition in service and heightened customer expectations demand the field service organisation enhance customer value. Unfortunately, too many organisations still view service and field technicians as reactive, fix it resources as opposed to agents building customer value and revenue opportunities. Top performers ensure they equip technicians with the support and tools to do both.[quote float="left"]Service revenue opportunities cannot come at the cost of quality service.

Aberdeen’s recent Service Revenue: Unearth an Untapped Stream of Dollars report (May 2015), highlighted top performers are 56% more likely than peers to have met their service revenue growth goals in the previous 12 months. But does this mean organisations should turn technicians into field sales people? Do technicians have the acumen to be motivated by commission? I think these are the wrong questions. The future of service and service revenue generation is in preparing the service organisation to have the right conversations with customers before, during, and after a service visit.

 

• Before the service call, provide the dispatch team with insight in regard to in-warranty or under service contract customer issues. The back office should have access to customer history, equipment information, and contract and warranty insight. The dispatch team must review warranty entitlements and service contracts before scheduling a service job. Before a work order has been issued is the best time to discuss with a customer the work that needs to be done, what is covered, and how additional services can be added if desired. This proactive conversation will not only avoid sending a technician out who must complete uncovered service, but also provides an opportunity to renew a service contract.[quote float="right"]Technicians are heroes, they want to solve problems and make customers happy.

   

• During the service call, make sure techs know if service is  being given away for free. There are times when a service organisation is OK with giving service away for free. There will be errors made or opportunities to take a short-term loss in lieu of cementing a longer term profitable customer partnership. The problem is when technicians have zero visibility into the contract or warranty status of equipment during every service call. Technicians do not want to be the bad guy / lady who denies service because a service contract has expired. Technicians are heroes, they want to solve problems and make customers happy. For this reason, it is imperative that technicians have real-time access to customer information (i.e., warranty status, repair history). This insight doesn’t only help avoid delivering “free service”, it empowers technicians to have better conversations with customers while on site.
• After the service call, help move from resolution to a sales engagement. Mobile technology empowers the field service team to not only document and close a work order, but also to create future sales opportunities. Leading organisations have incentivised technicians to be the eyes and ears of the sales function to unearth future prospects for cross- and up-sell opportunities. The key is to ensure technicians prioritise solving the customer issue and not future sales. Technicians have to remain trusted customer partners; once they are viewed as sales people they will lose the trust of the customer.

Service revenue opportunities cannot come at the cost of quality service. These two goals must be complimentary. Top performing organisations equip the entire service team with the insight to make revenue generating decisions in real-time. But these companies understand the viability of the organisation demands that customers continue to value the service being provided.

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Operating a successful field service operation today is a challenging experience. A study recently commissioned by Trimble revealed the main factors UK consumers look for when selecting a field service provider, their expectations and biggest frustrations. John Cameron, General Manager Trimble Field Service Management explains more...

The findings were extremely insightful, revealing that today’s consumers typically expect more and are not shy of complaining, leading field service companies to have to look at new ways to balance service excellence with cost.

Consumers say fix it the first time

Getting a problem fixed on a first visit is the biggest expectation for UK consumers. Indeed, in Trimble’s study, which surveyed 2000 British adults, over half (52 per cent) considered fixing the problem on the first visit to be the most important factor in determining their satisfaction.

However, field service organisations are struggling to fully achieve this as nearly one in four UK consumers report that a return visit is required. Poor inventory and an inexperienced workforce are the most common reasons for this. 40 per cent of UK consumers complain that their technician did not have the appropriate tools or parts to fix the problem on a first visit whilst 27 per cent said that the technician lacked the skills to complete the job.

 

Problems such as this often transpire for field service organisations that schedule daily tasks based on a technician’s allocated territory. However, it is more effective to select the most knowledgeable technician, or one who has the right tools and parts in their vehicle. Adopting intelligent scheduling engines is therefore crucial as they incorporate technician knowledge, parts availability and capacity into the scheduling process to ensure that the technician arriving on site is actually the person who can resolve the customer issue on the first visit.

Short appointment windows a key factor in customer choice

Today’s consumers increasingly expect field service businesses to provide more convenient appointment options to accommodate their busy schedules. However it is apparent that consumers are failing to receive this, as long appointment windows and wait times are considered to be one of the nation’s biggest frustrations with using a field service provider.

In Trimble’s survey, more than 50 per cent considered 1-3 hours to be an acceptable appointment window, yet 36 per cent report experiencing wait times of far longer, in some cases up to eight hours.

By coupling an intelligent scheduling engine with a self-learner tool, field service businesses can look to improve service delivery times through enhanced schedule accuracy, improved productivity and workforce utilisation. The software tool uses a unique algorithm to learn preferences for each technician and will allocate tasks accordingly. This includes which mobile workers normally service particular areas and what skills technicians have and to what degree they are qualified to do certain types of work. The first step to managing productivity requires field service managers to get the right people with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time, and a self-learner tool significantly helps in achieving this.

Price and customer service equally as important

When selecting a field service provider, customer service and price were revealed as being equally as important to UK consumers. Field service organisations must therefore look to balance these if they are to achieve customer satisfaction, retention and profitability.

Over half of UK consumers (55 per cent) said they would refuse to use a service provider again if they were delivered a poor customer experience and with today’s consumers increasingly tech-savvy, it is very easy for them to complain to the masses. If left unhappy, half of consumers would complain formally to the company, 1 in 5 would complain to their technician and 1 in 10 consumers would take to social media to air their woes.

 

Consumers also find lack of communication with a company or service technician prior to arrival to be a major problem and consider being kept up to date on the day about arrival to be the most important factor when selecting a service provider. It is no longer acceptable to say anytime during the day. In fact almost half of consumers have to take annual, sick or unpaid leave to wait for delivery and service.

Field service businesses have a real opportunity to leapfrog the competition by providing excellent service to every customer and technology is available today that can help them to achieve this. The key is making and keeping commitments and then ensuring the customer is informed along the way.

To achieve this, more and more organisations are integrating their work management capabilities into mobile applications, which they can then offer to their technicians to allow them to share, store and view job data while out in the field, offering them a virtual link to the back office that helps to inform and empower them.

The range of information offered through a mobile application can include previous work history of jobs and upcoming work details. For example, if a technician is en-route to a customer, a quick look at service history on a mobile phone can inform them that the customer has complained multiple times to the helpdesk about a product/equipment failure.

This is vital information that can help the technician approach the customer with more care, helping to maintain a good customer service. Furthermore, when a technician reviews and accepts a job within a mobile application, the mobile device’s navigation tool can help them find the most efficient route. The technician can then pull up the customer’s details and call them to confirm when they will be arriving on-site.

The power of technology

To conclude, Trimble’s latest research looking into consumer’s biggest expectations and frustrations with field service providers ultimately suggests that success is achieved by managing productivity and ensuring field service managers get the right people, with the right skills with the right assets to the right place within a set time, whilst keeping the customer informed along the way. Having the appropriate technology in place to achieve this is therefore essential and key to helping businesses meet customer expectations and maintain ongoing brand recognition.

Trimble’s independent study was conducted by OnePoll, a worldwide market research agency. For a summary of the report, visit: http://ow.ly/MdyUU

 

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Cognito, the field service  management solutions company, has appointed Laurent Othacéhé as CEO, as part of  a wider organisational restructure intended to position the company for  growth.

Othacéhé joined Cognito in 2014 as Sales Director, bringing with  him more than 20 years’ experience in the field service industry. Prior to that he was CEO of 360 Scheduling, a company he created from scratch, which grew to be one of the world’s leading providers of mobile workforce scheduling and  optimisation software.

Othacéhé was recently named by Field Service  News as one of the ‘20 most influential people in field service’.  As such, he is ideally suited to lead Cognito as the company seeks ongoing investment to  fund its growth strategy.  “Innovation is at the heart of our business, so  I’m thrilled to be leading a company whose people are known within our industry  for their creativity, expertise and dedication to customer service” said  Othacéhé.

 

Cognito’s plans to grow the business include expansion  into new markets, and the goal of the restructure is to support this  strategy.  Other changes of role within the management team include the  appointment of Dave Webb, who joined Cognito in 2010, as COO, and Steve  Alderson, who has been with the ompany for more than 20 years, as SVP – Service  Operations.

 

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Channel partners can impact on delivery of  appropriate levels of customer service and support.  Yet, establishment of a channel partner relationship can be a very difficult, time-consuming and highly political business endeavor.  Bill Pollock, President, Strategies for Growth, suggests five key steps to creating successful alliances.

Many services organizations have begun to use channel partnerships to enhance their ability to reach, and support, an expanded market base. However, the use of such indirect business channels requires that the organization takes its partnership role very seriously in order for it to bring forth the desired marketing and economic benefits. This becomes particularly true with respect to the potential impact of the channel partnership on the company's ability to ensure that its ultimate customers are receiving the appropriate levels of customer service and support throughout the entire customer service process.

The true test of any services channel relationship may be measured in terms of answering the following three questions:

1. First, will the channel partnership allow the business to more efficiently provide the products and services that correspond with the ultimate requirements of the marketplace and, consequently, are also valued by the dealer/distributor and VAR communities;
2. Will the partnerships into which the business enters be of value for all participants, providing leverage for each to gain additional market share and/or attain additional revenue; and
3. Will the ultimate customers (i.e., end-users, equipment operators, consumers, et al) receive sufficiently high, and consistent, levels of customer service and support.[/ordered_list] 

Most businesses that enter into such partnerships believe that within each channel relationship, they can provide valuable assistance to their partners by assisting them in:

• Creating a sales and marketing infrastructure whereby they can more easily deliver the product and service offerings that they wish to provide to their own customers;
• Facilitating the launch of new product and service offerings to both existing and prospective market segments;
• Continually expanding, and improving upon, each partner's respective product and service offerings; and
• Offering both an existing customer service infrastructure as well as guidelines for supporting their partner's customers with the desired levels of service and support.Place your list items here

However, the establishment of a channel partner relationship can be a very difficult, time-consuming and highly political business endeavor. As such, it is critical that a formal process is involved in moving forward. This process may involve the following steps:

1. Partnership/Management Meetings

The first meeting between an organization's key executives and its potential partners is critical to initiating the partnership process. The result of this meeting will also determine the direction and speed with which the two organizations will pursue reaching their partnership goals, including identifying the degree of interest in alliance between the companies; generating enthusiasm for the rollout of the product and service offerings to the partner's customers; developing a consensus on the objectives, next steps and timeframe; agreeing on the levels of service and support to be provided; and establishing a formal agreement.

2. Establish the Alliance

Establishing the actual alliance is what sets the partnership in motion. At this stage, the objectives become to conduct the internal (i.e., partner) launch; ensure that the sales forces are entirely aware of, and educated about, the joint product and service offerings; and that they are able to consistently articulate and deliver the benefits of the joint offerings to the targeted customers. It is at this stage of the partnership process that the policies and procedures for delivering "seamless" customer service and support, across all company/organizational boundaries, are also established.

3. Generate Market Interest and Demand

Once the initial steps have been successfully completed, the program focus should shift to the generation of market interest and demand. The primary goal of this step is to generate awareness of, and demand for, the product and service offerings from among the partners' joint customer bases. The primary issues addressed as part of this step are the identification of the key influencers and sources of information for the purchase decision makers; implementation of ongoing programs of communications with customers and other market influencers; formal market launch of the product and service offerings; gathering of feedback/response from external audiences; communication of that feedback/response to appropriate internal audiences; and development of customer testimonials and references to be utilized in ongoing marketing programs.

4. Identify Segment Priorities

Based on the results of the previous steps, the objective should now focus on the identification of the targeted customer segments that most value the partners' "new" product and service offerings, and what specifically are their needs and requirements for customer service and support. The key issues to be addressed here include defining a common set of needs and requirements to be fulfilled by the product and service offerings; identifying common characteristics with which to categorize and describe the key customer segments; focusing all marketing, sales and customer service activities on these defined priorities; and capturing new business development opportunities in other areas as they occur.

5. Refine Product and Service Offerings

The final step is actually the first step in revisiting all of the actions and activities that have led to this point. The primary mechanism for ultimately refining the product and service offerings, and the corresponding levels of required customer service and support, is to incorporate the principal issues of customer feedback and response directly into the partners' respective portfolios.

Overall, supporting the ultimate customer may involve all of the organization's channel partners. The most successful channel partners will be those that can maximize the impact of their relationships once they have successfully completed an effective process for selecting the most appropriate partners at the outset; arranging for the establishment of mutually beneficial partnership agreements on a contractual basis; developing and implementing a plan for working together; establishing reciprocal programs for ensuring consistently high levels of customer service and support; and jointly marketing and promoting the full portfolios of each of the partners' products and services.

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A new study by LogMeIn and Ovum reveals a significant disconnect between what today’s mobile, always-connected customers have come to expect from customer service and what contact centres are delivering.

Although businesses are fully aware of new behavioural trends among customers, not all of them are tailoring their customer service experience to match customers’ needs. Over 50% of customers surveyed believe that the ability to reach the right representative has worsened over the last two years. As a result, 84% claimed to have stopped doing business with a brand following a bad customer service experience.

The key findings also show that mobile, web self-service and chat are rapidly growing channels for customer support. Over the last two years, the number of customers using a mobile phone for support calls doubled to 40%, the use of mobile apps has more than tripled to 16% up from 5%, and the number of customers using live chat has almost tripled to 29%. Both customers and businesses look at Internet of Things as the next asset to support technical queries and ensure smooth customer experience, with 34% of surveyed businesses claiming they have IoT-ready devices.

Conducted by Ovum Research, a leading global technology research and advisory firm, on behalf of LogMeIn, makers of the popular customer engagement tools, BoldChat and LogMeIn Rescue, the survey explores the connected-consumer’s expectations for customer service and how those expectations compare with what contact centre managers believe and are prepared to face.

Other key findings include:

• Time taken to reach an agent is the biggest customer complaint:
65% of customers want easier access to representatives as they are most frustrated with time taken to reach a representative and resolution time. Long hold times and automated service menus continue to irritate customers who are keen to get fast resolutions to their problems. This explains why many are turning to the web for support inquiries, with contact centres seeing almost 45% of interactions coming from channels other than voice.
• Customer service relationships directly impact loyalty:
84% of customers claimed to have stopped doing business with a brand following a bad experience. Businesses need to pinpoint the cause of customer dissatisfaction and make changes to improve retention and protect their customer base.
• Customers look to web and mobile for answers first:
71% of customers said they use the web to look for information always or most of the time before contacting customer service. However, only 31% of managers believe that their customers frequently use the web before calling, showing a big discrepancy. Managers need new tools to track web behaviour and link it to live customer interactions.
• Use of email and web chat continues to grow:
The number of customers using live chat and email has almost tripled over the last two years. As this number increases further, contact centres must be ready to handle interactions in non-voice channels, but also to provide quick resolution, as resolution rates are lower for support inquiries across non-voice channels.
• Live chat is a promising channel for support interactions:
Not only does it offer fast access to agents, but it is efficient because agents can handle two or three chats at the same time. It can also be used on mobile devices, using links from a mobile application or site, and agents can link customer web behaviour to a chat interaction so agents are more readily aware of particular behaviours.
• Managers understand that waiting times are an issue:
Managers do realise that customers need quick resolutions to their problems, as their top priorities for 2015 are agent training and improving resolution times. They track resolution times and customer satisfaction among other metrics in order to improve connectivity between agents and customers, whether through new or traditional channels.
• The Internet of Things shows potential for technical resolutions:
 The Internet of Things is not completely understood by customers, as 50% of customers said that they didn’t believe it to be necessary or would be uncomfortable with connecting their devices. But 25% would be willing to use it if it means solving technical issues quicker. Contact centre managers, however, are familiar with the benefits of connected devices and are keen to resolve issues remotely, as 34% of the surveyed said that they have devices that can be connected to the Internet and out of those respondents 88% currently offer connected versions of those products.[/unordered_list] 

"This dual perspective study confirms that customers are increasingly using digital channels for support, especially if they know they can get faster resolutions and responses. It also indicates that businesses need to adapt their service tools to match customer needs and improve access to live agents,” said Aphrodite Brinsmead, Senior Analyst at Ovum. "Contact centres should invest in technology to understand cross-channel behaviour and link customers’ digital interactions with their profiles and case records. By optimising online support and guiding customers to the right channel for their issues, businesses will be able to improve resolution rates and customer satisfaction.”

“Today’s highly mobile customers are empowered to seek out support from multiple touch points and have come to expect a response through those channels in minutes, let alone hours. Yet contact centres are not equipped to provide the fast resolutions their customer’s desire. This research provides an insightful view into the needs and frustrations of these mobile customers, giving contact centre managers the opportunity to invest in the correct tools and prioritise their support channels,” said W. Sean Ford, CMO of LogMeIn. “We believe that live chat benefits all parts of the business, particularly when added to websites or mobile applications and therefore should be a priority for contact centre managers.”

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The main difference between being able to make unhappy customers happy, and happy customers even happier, is the point of initiation. At least with unhappy customers, even if you do not know why they were unhappy before contacting them (or having them contact you), you can rest assured that you will get the chance to learn very quickly writes Bill Pollock, President of Strategies for Growth^SM

Ironically, however, it may actually be a bit more difficult to make a happy customer even happier than it is to make an unhappy customer happy in the first place – and you certainly would not want to accidentally do something wrong that might make them unhappy instead.

It’s all a matter of listening, understanding, responding effectively and working under the auspices of an intuitive set of guidelines that should largely come as second nature to the vast majority of the organisation’s customer contact personnel (including yourself).

What we have seen from our research is that the best approach for making happy customers even happier is to focus on the following guidelines:

• Make sure that you and your customer services team understand how the customer uses its systems and equipment as part of their ongoing business operations – make suggestions occasionally on how they can improve efficiency, save some money, go green or reduce waste, etc.
• Take steps to better understand the difference between the customer’s wants and needs – provide them with targeted information and advice that they can use to concentrate more on what they “need”, rather than on what they think they “want”.
• Understand the customer's plans for future expansion, downsizing or consolidation – make the appropriate recommendations for updating and/or modifying their existing service level agreements, or upgrading to newer or different models and technology.
• Keep track of the things you have done in the past to make them happy – do more of the same, and learn what other things or actions would also make them happy.
• Customers love to feel they are getting something for nothing – any documentation or materials that you believe may help your customers to utilise their systems and equipment more efficiently, or provide them with additional product or service information, will generally be gladly accepted.
• Customers also love to hear what other users like themselves are doing with their equipment – so, without divulging any customer-proprietary information, occasionally provide your customers with examples of what some other companies are doing, again, to improve efficiency, save some money, or reduce waste, etc.
• Provide your customers with new product or service information before it is otherwise widely distributed or disseminated – customers always enjoy receiving information before it is distributed to the general public.
• Share your organisation’s thought leadership collateral with your customers – most customers especially like to be made aware of White Papers or Case Studies that help them to understand the enhanced value propositions of the equipment and services they are using, or how their peers have benefited in ways they may not have anticipated through the use of your products and services.
• Provide a more "personal" side of your communications with your customers in order to establish a closer, and less formal relationship – but, be careful not to get too "personal"; just close enough so they feel they can depend on you to act as their surrogate within the company whenever a problem becomes larger than what both you and they, can handle by yourselves.
• Strive toward making your relationship with your customers a true "partnership", rather than just merely a “vendor-customer" relationship – this is the true essence of Customer Relationship Management, or CRM.

Of course, all of these guidelines are merely just words written in a magazine article; the true test can only be exercised by you and your customer and technical support teams on behalf of the customer.

In any case, you should always feel comfortable in relying on your own instincts in order to initially assess the situation, determine the appropriate course of action, and override any of these (or any other) guidelines on the basis of your accumulated expertise and experience.

If you are truly going to succeed in establishing – and maintaining – a strong relationship with your customers, then you must first have both the capability and the confidence to use your own judgment in taking the specific actions that will make your happy customers even happier.

 

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In our recent series of articles we have asked if recruitment is going to be field services greatest challenge and explored why despite a negative press millennials are in fact a natural fit for field service.

The reason for this series is to introduce some of the themes ahead of our next webinar which is being held tomorrow at 4pm GMT. You can register for this webinar by clicking this link.

In the final part of this series we look at how we can attract millennials to our organisation.

“Gone are the days of where a company’s participation in regional hiring events or advertising in a paper or even a website is going to bring in a throng of great candidates.” Comments ServiceMax’s Patrice Eberline.

“This generation has different hot buttons and therefore requires different bait to entice them to your company.”

Eberline is a firm believer in having to understand the mindset of millennials and restructuring our approach towards recruitment if we are to attract the best-of-the-best to our companies.

“In order to attract this generation we need to support the notion that recruiting is a two way street. In addition to screening for skills and fits we need to  pay attention to supporting their hot buttons also” She explains.

In our forthcoming webinar Eberline will outline seven of these hot buttons which consist of:

Company Values Mission and purpose.

“At every opportunity underscore your companies higher purpose so they can pull context from social media.” She states

“The values, the mission, the benefits of a company should not be ignored in the recruiting process. Remember that these candidates have an unlimited amount of information and access to that information via the web. They will likely come to an interview with a great deal more knowledge than you might expect.”

The social media presence of your brand.

“Social is where they live we can’t ignore it.” Says Eberline “Use this as an outlet to educate candidates, to pull candidates in, to outline your values, just reach out because they will in turn be reaching out. This is the generation that makes that fan base weak or strong through social and it’s not afraid of liking or unliking so this does play a part in recruiting.”

Work life balance

“Something very important for millennials but it does not necessarily mean they are looking for an easy ride.” She insists

“On the contrary millennials are going to work very, very hard for you. That energy they bring is incredible but they are going to respect your respect for work life balance so don’t forget to include that in the conversation. “

Mentorship and training

“Mentorship and training is huge for millennials who really value face time.” Explains Eberline

“Now this may give us some unique challenges as many in field service are managing remote teams. However, if we put a TM at the end of FaceTime it becomes the app. Bring technology in to the mix to enable one to one time ads millennials value learning from others.”

Teamwork and shared goals

“Setting up situations and setting up role expectations that support their collaborative nature that shouldn’t be ignored.” Eberline comments

“Being able to encourage collaboration is something that will bring this generation to you and keep them with you longer.

Variety of experience and growth potential

“Variety is the spice of life.” She adds “They want to experience it all and they want to experience it as much as possible in their work world as much as in their private life. “

Social responsibility

“Millennials gravitate to companies with a strong social responsibility.” Eberline explains “So if your company has that outreach, if it has that as part of its company values then highlight it.”

 

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To hear more from Eberline as well as an additional feature from Nick Frank looking at monetizing IoT in field service click here to register now.  

 

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Has the social world changed service delivery? Or is field service still all about a schedule, a technician, a truck, and a tool box?Aly Pinder of Aberdeen asks...

The short answer is both are correct. Field service is still all about getting a service person to solve a customer problem. Granted, sometimes this can be done remotely, without a technician at all. But for the most part, technicians still help resolve issues.

However, social is beginning to play a larger role in the execution of service. Social collaborative tools often have the perception of being a consumer medium which has little to no value in business. Much of this perception is driven by our knowledge of social coming from the games we play on our personal mobile devices or by seeing young adults wasting their day away on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. This mindset is slowly changing, and the top performers are leading the way. Aberdeen’s Social Field Service: Collaboration on the Fly (March 2015) report highlights that half of the Best-in-Class provide technicians with access to social media and collaborative tools; as compared to only 35% of peers. These top performers aren’t necessarily given technicians Facebook apps on their work phones, but they are empowering technicians with the ability to access information and communication tools to deliver faster resolution or collaborate with peers.

The future of field service demands that technicians have real-time access to data to ensure they are able to resolve issues on extremely complex equipment. Challenges like a retiring workforce, more aggressive competition, and increased customer expectations mean technicians and service teams don’t have an unlimited amount of time to find the answers to service issues. For this reason, the use of social has the opportunity to connect technicians with the intelligence to solve these problems in real-time. In order to achieve these types of gains, a few trends below should be adopted -

Do not miss out on hearing the voice of the customer.

If you haven’t heard about the empowered customer, then you haven’t been listening. Customers today have more influence and information than ever before. Consequently, it is imperative that service organisations listen to their customers, whether through channels like surveys or through social. But more importantly, organisations need to turn the voice of the customer into new products and services based on this intelligence. Just listening is a starting point, but action to improve is the true test of successful interaction between customers and the service organisation.

Escape the costs and loss of productivity incurred from all-day training sessions for the field team.

Service doesn’t stop. Equipment, parts, and machines fail. And these assets don’t care that a service organisation has scheduled an all-day off-site meeting to train the service team on the latest service techniques. Social tools allow a service organisation the ability to share best practices and new techniques via a mobile device so technicians don’t need to leave the field. This dynamic learning model also means that procedural changes can be communicated in real-time and not at one-off meetings.

Avoid the tendency to neglect investment in technology infrastructure.

Technology tools are changing all the time. The days of paper work orders and receipts are coming to an end. Unfortunately, as seen in Aberdeen’s recent State of Service Management 2015: Connect to Your Customers research (March 2015), nearly half of organisations (40%) still find that they are challenged by insufficient technology infrastructure. Despite this lack of investment for many organisations, the technology available for businesses is immense. The next generation of tools has been able to turn the volume of data flowing into the business into intelligence. For this reason, organisations need to evaluate, identify, and invest in technology tools which connect service to improved resolution.

Don’t wall off the field team from your customer.

Technicians have a strong partnership with customers. Often times, the field service technician is a trusted advisor for the customer, as they help solve problems for the customer in a very difficult time. Social doesn’t have to mean that technicians are creating blogs, but there is the opportunity that they can inform customers as to the status of a work order or their arrival on site.

Social collaborative tools can seem daunting in business – no one wants their brand sullied because a rogue employee posts something inappropriate. But despite the horror stories and PR blunders, the value of social collaboration should outweigh the potential landmines. It is important for field service organizations to avoid the fear of social, as it is more than just a consumer trend. Social tools have the opportunity to connect the field service team with customers, the back office, and each other. Service in 2015 moves at the speed of a tweet or a post, and organisations must take advantage of this increased access to information and insight. Don’t get left in the past, leverage the tools of the present to build the type of service which will excel in the future.

 

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Our next webinar on the 20^th May at 4pm BST which will look at two of the key discussions in field service currently. Click here to register now!

Featuring exclusive sessions from both Nick Frank who will be looking at how we can harness IoT in field service and Patrice Eberline of ServiceMax who will be sharing her insight into the challenges of an ageing workforce and how we replace this talent with a Millennial generation of workers this webinar promises to be a valuable event for field service professionals looking to the future.

In the first part of this series that looks ahead to the webinar and gives us some insight into what we can expect from the sessions we explored the dangers field service companies are facing when it comes to an ageing workforce and the potential knowledge leak that we could face as our accomplished and experienced field service technicians begin to edge closer to retirement age.

Now in this the second part of the feature we take a closer look at the generation that will be replacing them and try to understand just what it is about the so-called millennials that makes them tick and why they could just be a perfect fit with the field service industries.

There are a lot of traits that define millennials, and despite the sometimes negative perception of them, Time Magazine famously running a cover defining them as the Me, Me , Me generation for example, actually many of these traits are highly positive.

As Eberline exlpains there are perhaps three key traits that truly apply to both the modern workplace and more pertinantly modern field service as we march forward from 2015 and beyond

“The first trait is that they love technology.” Eberline asserts. “In fact Millenials have grown up with technology so much that most only have a cell phone, no landline at all. They have also fully embraced social media as a truly integrated part of their lives”

Indeed there are many statistics which certainly back up this assertion.

52% of Millenials have over 500 facebook friends, whilst 91% make all of the check-ins that you see whether it be going to a concert, a restaurant or applying to a job public to there network.

 

“This is an expansive group that loves technology” Eberline continues “Beyond this, this is a group that has access to millions of pieces of digital content and they are consuming this content eagerly on both tablets and phones. Google is where they live” she adds

“What is truly important to consider” Eberline comments “is that they tend to believe that technology can be the key that brings people and society together”

If we consider the fact that in just five years, not a particularly long way away at all in fact, millenials will comprise of 50% of the workforce. So it is truly imperative that we really begin to understand their way of thinking, and we start to do so now.

Without doing so, we may really struggle when it comes to adapting what is one of the biggest generational shifts in work force personel for many, many decades.

And it is not just a matter of the technology this generation are born seemingly ready to use. The second key trait Eberline identifies is that the millennial generation have a “truly boundless energy and they genuinely want to make a visible impact on everything around them, be it their work, their community and even on society in general.”

“This is a confident group” Eberline states “They’ve been reared in a world where they’ve been given constant attention and support”

Indeed millennials are shown to place a higher priority on helping people in need than on high paying job roles.

Indeed the council of economic advisors in October last year published a report that highlighted this benevolent side to the millennials nature The report went as far as to claim that Millennials are much more likely than any previous generation to state making a contribution to society is very important to them.

 

Again as we return to their potential role within the field service industries this could be another highly important factor to consider.

The third trait that Eberline highlights is that millennials are highly collaborative and creative creatures by default.

“They truly do live in a world of We rather than a world of Me” Eberline expands “and because of that they crave a life of rich experiences based on relationships rather than leverage. They value the creativity and they value the feedback they get for bringing that creativity to the workplace.”

With these three traits it is relatively easy to build a compelling case for millennials to be a perfect profile of candidate for the field service industries.

As Eberline explains “If you think about these three traits technology, impact in society and creativity millennials are a very, very good fit for field service if they are cultivated, coached and developed appropriately.

So as fears of losing both talent and knowledge loom largely on the field service horizon it appears that whilst our young knights in shining armour may be more likely to brandish a smartphone than a spanner. And whilst they may not have all of the answers it’s not a problem – theres almost certainly an app for that.

Look out for the next part of this series where we look at how we can attract this new workforce of millennials to the field service industries.

 

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Want to know more? Join Patrcie Eberline and hear her presentation on millennials in field service PLUS Nick Frank’s session on how we can harness IoT in field service for our next webinar on the 20^th May @4pm BST. You can register for the webinar by clicking this link.

 

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