ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘management’ CATEGORY

Kony, Inc., a leading enterprise mobility company, yesterday announced the appointment of Jonathan Best as vice president of Europe and Africa.  As part of the company’s growth strategy, Best will focus on building Kony’s operations, channels, and sales presence across Europe and Africa.

The appointment of Best is part of the company’s aggressive growth strategy to deliver the highest level of value and service to its growing base of enterprise customers in EMEA who are focused on using mobility to drive customer loyalty, employee empowerment and business process improvement.  Many companies are using mobility as a catalyst for innovation for their businesses, especially with the explosive growth of mobile devices globally.

Best brings with him twenty years of sales leadership experience within the technology industry.  Most recently, Best was the head of innovation sales, and board director at SAP UKI, which included the mobility portfolio.  Prior to SAP, Best was vice president, Sales, Health Sciences, at Oracle, as well as managing director at Cordys UK, now OpenText.

In his earlier career, Best had a senior sales role at IBM, and then joined SAP, where having established a successful sales record, he was appointed chief operating officer in China, before being appointed vice president, strategy and operations in Japan.

[quote float ="left"]Best’s track record of building sales teams, his international pedigree and technology industry experience are second to none and we are thrilled to have him on board.

Blake Sallé, president, field operations, Kony, Inc, said: “Best’s track record of building sales teams, his international pedigree and technology industry experience are second to none and we are thrilled to have him on board.

 

Attracting someone of his calibre is a great endorsement of our strategy and ambition. Best’s knowledge and insight will be vital as we continue our ambitious plans to grow and market our innovative mobile solutions to our clients in the European region. Best has a keen understanding of the market and how we can better serve the unique enterprise mobility needs of our customers.”

Jonathan Best, vice president of Europe and Africa, Kony Inc, said:

“Kony has the enviable and well-deserved reputation as the leading enterprise mobility player.  Organisations understand the importance of mobility, but many are not equipped to take full advantage and to embrace its potential.

We have a tremendous opportunity to grow further and continue to diversify into new sectors, bringing our strong business values and service delivery to match the needs and demands of our clients across Europe.  Kony is in an excellent position to capitalise on the growth opportunities presented by the technology, and I am excited to be on board and part of the great team that will take the business to the next level.”

For two years in a row, Gartner has named Kony a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms. Kony provides industry-leading enterprise mobility solutions to help businesses compete in mobile time, by rapidly delivering multi-edge mobile apps across the broadest array of devices and systems today and in the future.

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So as we say goodbye to 2014 and head into 2015 we are another year older and perhaps another year wiser. However, as we face the increasingly worrying issue of an ageing workforce, across a number of industries including field service, that are key to the wider economy, is another year older just another nail in the coffin for some companies – or even industry in general?

It is well documented that many of the UK’s engineering employers are suffering from skills gaps, shortages and an aging workforce. However, the impact of the problem is likely to have much wider repercussions than just those companies who are directly in the line of the crisis.

All the research is saying the same thing...

The gravity of the situation was highlighted just a month ago when Matchtec, a specialist recruitment agency focussed on the engineering sector, published the findings of the annual Matchtech Confidence Index. The research, which was based on the responses of over 3,500 engineers, outlined that for the second year running the ageing workforce was the greatest issue facing the UK engineering industry.

Commenting on the research Keith Lewis, Matchtech Managing Director said:

“As the research shows, the engineering skills shortage is very apparent, and the infrastructure, power and water/utilities sectors in particular are seeing strong demand for staff as more experienced engineers retire.”

[quote float="left"] Long-term this imbalance between supply and demand for engineers has to be addressed

“While many existing engineers are reaping the benefits of a buoyant job market and good salaries, long-term this imbalance between supply and demand for engineers has to be addressed if the UK engineering sector is to maintain its global position and drive growth in the UK economy.”

These research findings are also backed up by a study from fellow recruitment organisation Randstad who identified that the UK workforce as a whole will be facing a deficit of 3.1 million by 2050.

Whilst the analysis predicted issues across all industry sectors, the outlook for engineering and construction verticals were particularly bleak.  Qualified engineers represent 1.2 per cent of the UK workforce while construction staff represent two per cent, assuming this proportion remains constant, by 2050, the UK will have a deficit of 36,800 engineers and 66,800 construction workers.

The impact of the ageing workforce

But would an employment shortage be as catastrophic as is being predicted?

In short, quite possibly.

Manufacturing, construction and engineering are three major verticals that are both important for wider economic growth and sustainability and are also inherently dependent on field based workers, engineers and technicians.

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace these sectors offers the opportunity to develop and exploit emerging technologies such as new green technologies or advanced manufacturing that don’t just hold the key to financial security but also potentially outline the route to more prosperous economies and even societies on a global scale.

A bold statement? Perhaps, but one that is certainly achievable given the rate of advancement we are seeing in all levels of technology today.

However, the utopian future that such technology promises could well be stillborn unless we address the issue of an ageing workforce.

To do so we need to collectively focus on developing an on-going pipeline of bright, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) graduates that allow those in industry to help further develop, refine and implement such emerging technologies.

Finding the next generation of field service engineers

So just what is stopping the bright young members of generation Y (and soon generation Z) from developing a career within manufacturing or engineering?

One of the biggest stumbling blocks may well be the false belief that the study of STEM subjects won’t lead to an interesting or lucrative career.

According to research undertaken by Engineering UK this perception appears to be developed at a young age with nearly half of 7-11 year olds believing that being an ‘engineer’ would be ‘boring’ compared to careers more obvious to them such as Doctors, Teachers or of course Footballers.

To change this perception there are numerous approaches that can be taken and there is indeed a growing focus from education boards, the government and industry on overcoming this issue.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology for example are taking a significant lead role in promoting a career path in engineering. Schemes that highlight some of the exciting potential careers studying STEM subjects can lead to, from developing space stations to building racing cars, as well as the financial benefits of these careers (full time engineers can rank within the top 30% of salaries) are being promoted to students within the UK.

However, getting students to opt for STEM based degrees is one thing, keeping them within the sector is another. The issue of STEM students being lured away by more ‘glamorous’ industry sectors such as banking or consultancy remains.

Some companies such as Siemens and Fujitsu for example are already being proactive in preventing this ‘brain drain’ by making big efforts to both work with and support students throughout their education in order to not only attract but also retain the brightest and best to their organisations.

Yet, despite such programs being undertaken the fact remains that we are still facing a shortage of resource and further such activities need to be developed. It is also important that the triumvirate of Government, Industry and Academia become even more closely aligned in their efforts.

2050 may seem some time away but with numerous sets of research all pointing to the same issue it is clear that we must not only continue but also increase our efforts on tackling this problem head on and if we don’t do this today we may just be too late.

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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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It’s a given that the customer is your number one priority, however, to satisfy and retain your clients, field service companies need to repeatedly provide a professional service. Here we take another look at a section from the Service Management Handbook published by advanced field service to see how. 

You can also download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

Typically, customer service is impacted by a combination of factors that result in the customer not getting what they want, when they want it.

Organisations generally fail to deliver successful customer service if they are impacted by the following:

• Lack of integrated, real-time communication between the field engineer and the customer service representative
• Poor visibility of current stock levels across multiple systems and manual entry
• Manual processes hindered by unnecessary paperwork

This can, in turn, cause problems with accuracy and delays, or just a simple lack of flexibility, when it comes to dealing with customer issues, for example:

• Not able to notify customers if the engineer or part delivery is delayed
• Not able to order and replace spare parts quickly, particularly if an incorrect part is ordered initially
• Inefficient use of engineers’ time and resources
• Not able to respond quickly and flexibly to customer requests

Delivering a winning customer service is what sets field service businesses apart.

6 steps to service success

Given these common challenges, what can service businesses do to really ensure that what you are delivering is adding genuine value to your clients? And what can you do to ensure your value-add is fully recognised by the client?

Here’s our winning formula…

1. Provide a professional response

Whether you operate in the B2B or consumer/domestic markets, you’ll need to consistently meet basic criteria, such as responding within a set timeframe or appointment window.

A field service solution helps you to deploy your engineers with maximum efficiency and equip them with everything they need to know to do a proficient job, from the customer’s contact details to inspection sheets.

Technology gives you the option to send the engineer’s estimated time of arrival, by SMS or email, to the customer. If the engineer is running late, you can keep the customer posted on developments. In many cases, customers will find a delay more acceptable if they are informed of the reasons for any hold-up, along with the new ETA.

2. Live capture of onsite data

The information your engineers enter remotely through their PDAs should automatically feedback to your call control centre and back-office reporting and billing systems.

Customers can be sent up-to-date compliance certification within minutes after the job is completed. Sending an invoice promptly while the job is still fresh in the customer’s mind will also avoid queries and delays further down the line.

While not strictly speaking a customer service issue, having fast efficient billing processes reinforces your image as a professional service provider and helps speed up payments and improve cash flow.

3. Collect customer feedback

Rating product suppliers and service providers has become a way of life.

Customers are accustomed to completing online surveys and logging their opinions on review sites.

Without bombarding customers with survey requests, you can collect their feedback using standard forms on the engineer’s PDA or schedule a survey to be emailed to them after the job is complete.

Not only does this foster confidence that their views are valued, you can angle the questions to gain valuable insight into your customers’ thinking and identify possible opportunities to upsell the contract and services, where appropriate.

4. Sophisticated customer intelligence

Intelligence on your clients will enable you to offer a greater level of customer service and provide your teams with organisational knowledge, information and the expertise to make complementary sales.

The provision of powerful, accurate information equips your teams to better meet the needs of your clients. A CRM solution, integrated with your service management software, will share information across your whole business, helping to facilitate access to critical information at all times whilst managing your sales pipeline and opportunities.

5. Deliver on time

Accurate and consistent service delivery is essential to keep the business running to its optimum. Capturing data on the spot and time-stamping photos will protect you from becoming open to penalties and demands for refunds. Always putting the customer first and meeting their demands and expectations will put you ahead of the competition.

6. Customer web-portals

Many service organisations now approach many of their major clients as strategic partners, rather than just mere end-users, working in collaboration to ensure long-standing relationships and increased profitability.

A customer web-portal offers your clients, staff and contractors, the ability to create jobs, view history, access contract agreements and run interactive reports on their KPIs. This type of self-service access will ensure your clients are kept firmly in the loop, cementing your status as a preferred service partner – without adding to the workload of your service administrators.

Want to know more? You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

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Your field service engineers are the most important element of your entire workforce. Your entire company's reputation in their hands. Your field service engineers are the public face of your business and in many cases, they may be the only representative of your company that the customer ever sees.

In this feature adapted from Advanced Field Service's Service Management Handbook 2014 we look at 7 wtools you should be applying to arm your field engineers to defend your reputation and deliver field service excellence

You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

Your reputation, spread by word of mouth or increasingly through social media and online reviews, is founded on the experience your customers have of your engineers. Unfortunately, customers seem more likely to broadcast a negative experience than a positive one, especially in the consumer or domestic service sector. Some disgruntled customers have even taken to posting video blogs of their experience of poor service. A video goes viral; word spreads like wild fire; and your reputation is permanently damaged. So how can you equip your service team to build your company reputation?...  

Arming your team

 

1. Free Engineers to do what they do best -  A happy engineer more often than not results in happy customers. What motivates them best is using their time in deploying their skills rather than in endless form-filling.  Consider ways to free your service team from the routine dross that saps their time and motivation, and empower them to be more productive and efficient.

 

1. Talk to your workforce - It may seem obvious, but communication with your workforce, holding regular face-to-face group meetings on the status of the business and sharing any development plans will all help build a work team ethos, visibly improve productivity and make individuals feel valued and part of the bigger picture. Consider holding workshops between management and the workforce to maximise the knowledge of the entire company and boost morale.

 

1. Make your engineers your eyes and ears - With their close, on-the-ground contact with your customer base, even the most junior engineer can be a source of intelligence, such as feedback on how your customers regard your products and services: are they generally happy or are there murmurings about changing their supplier or service provider? Your field team is also a valuable channel for communicating your vision of service quality and also for publicising forthcoming product updates or new releases.

 

1. Encourage self monitoring - Some service companies are using modern technology such as GPS tracking to weed out the worst instances of misconduct among their engineers. Others are adopting a more complementary method where their engineers choose their priorities and self-monitor their performance, an enlightened approach that can pay dividends. Whatever you decide, consider the culture of your organisation. You may choose a halfway stance – after all, you don’t want to be seen as Big Brother, but it’s likely you’ll need some sort of process in place to support your growing business.

 

1. <Information: the vital tool in your engineers’ kit -  It’s essential that your engineers have the right tools for the job, and not only their physical toolkit, to arrive on-site fully armed and hit the ground running. They need information about the product, such as parts, diagrams, nature of the problem and known workarounds, as well as information about the customer, including their service history and essentials such as their contact details and location. In addition, alert your engineers to any issues that the customer has, such as a recurring problem with a particular product, so that they can handle the situation with all due sensitivity.

 

1. Mobilise your team - Information should also travel in the reverse direction: from the engineer back to base. Using their mobile device, engineers can send the customer’s sign-off back to the call control centre, along with any photographs or other supporting evidence, and details such as time to arrive on site and time to complete the job. This information can be sent immediately to the contract manager to provide an instant report. A mobile solution is also a useful way to record exceptions to your usual high standards. In some cases, your engineer may be prevented from getting to the root of the problem. Was the equipment inaccessible due to a physical obstruction or the machine being unavailable for servicing? A photo will provide supporting evidence should there be a query from the customer at a later date.

 

1. Room to grow - To keep staff retention to a maximum, it makes sense to build a happy and rewarding work environment where employees can flourish and grow. A clear and defined development strategy and regular career mentoring is likely to make employees more inclined to stay at a company. Mixing up experienced engineers with new engineers will also speed up the learning curve and give individuals the opportunity to advance.

 

 

Want to know more? You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

 

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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.