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Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems explains the Crowd Service concept...

There has been a rapid increase in technological advancements designed to enhance our quality of life and a consistent trend towards gadgets that save us time. From checking in for flights on our smartphones to having our food home-delivered, we have become accustomed to getting things and accomplishing things as quickly as possible.

Where we stand now 

Recent surveys conducted across a broad spectrum of people located in numerous countries determined that 60% of consumers defined a bad customer experience as one that involves waiting a long time for service after booking an appointment. Customers want reliable and fast service, and they want it in real-time. They are looking for convenience:

Time is Precious: Every moment spent waiting for a technician is one spent away from other important activities. Consumers do not want their time taken for granted. They expect service in real-time.

Keep It Simple: Complex booking systems that involve multiple steps or unnecessary time investment (e.g. being on hold with call centres) are a big turn off.

Freedom to choose: Customers do not want to have to fit their lives to the suppliers’ schedules.

They want the flexibility to decide which service appointment best accommodates their day.

Room for Improvement

The problem: many of the gadgets produced for our consumers, though intended to buy them a few precious moments a day, are in fact costing them even more time. Minutes lost on hold with customer representatives. Hours spent waiting for technicians to arrive. Days lost because machines have broken down and can not be repaired immediately.

According to studies, “61% of all field service suppliers cited ‘customer satisfaction’ as their top measure for success”. However, they simultaneously ranked ‘response time’ (3%) and ‘customer complaints’ (5%) as substantially less significant priorities.

When taking into account what customers really value – real-time service and their time – the current supplier ranking of priorities needs to be adjusted to reflect what would actually keep customers satisfied. Emphasis needs to be placed on optimising field service and reducing the amount of time it takes to meet service demands.

The Surmountable Roadblock

Though it is easy to isolate the best way to improve customer satisfaction, many field service suppliers still face a serious obstacle when it comes to addressing this need. Real-time service requires access to an extensive, widespread and qualified workforce. Access that many suppliers do not have.

A lack of trained and readily available personnel has always led to longer wait times and unsatisfied customers. However, the dawn of IoT is making the problem more pronounced. More and more devices are interconnected. Predictive technology is making it possible to accurately foresee technical malfunctions and breakdowns before they occur. There is a greater demand for service than ever. And yet the number of technicians that most service providers has on hand has remained the same.

The reason for this is mainly the cost factor. Hiring full-time technicians is expensive. Particularly when they are needed for short-term projects. In addition, hiring full-time service employees does not guarantee that they will be where they are most in demand. Having a full-time team member in a remote corner of the globe is not a viable business model.

However, having access to a skilled worker who could provide these same services in remote areas is. What is the solution?

The Solution Is Crowd Services

This is where the Uber-like on demand model prevails. The company created a business model that utilises untapped resources to meet an unfilled demand Receptiveness to this concept of the shared economy has given rise to the crowd service model. And it is being applied to field service management.

The creation of a crowd – a group of competent and certified technicians, partners or freelancers available upon request – to accommodate the growing need for real-time service is a game changer in field service management. Companies have all the benefits of skilled labor, at a fraction of the price. It saves companies enormous overhead costs and end customers the most valuable commodity: time.

Revolutionise the Way You Do Service Before It’s Too Late!

Coresystems, with its ample experience in platform implementation and extensive knowledge of all legal aspects, is pressing this revolution forwards by providing the software that makes crowd service implementation possible.

We are on the cusp of a significant shift. If one supplier does not start adapting to real-time demands, consumers will find a supplier that does.

Now is the time to adopt the measures necessary to keep pace with IoT and the direction it is taking us. Make your service model about real-time convenience served up quick and hassle free.

When customers feel that you value their time, they will value your products. Only crowd service can deliver in real-time. Empower your ecosystem today

 

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As the role of the Chief Service Officer begins to gain more prominence the focus for driving service excellence at the executive level must be data driven writes Manuel Grenacher, CEO of coresystems...

Delivering service that meets the satisfaction of ever-demanding customers is helping usher in a new C-Level role at service and manufacturing companies.

Meet the Chief Service Officer (CSO).

It’s a role that isn’t widespread yet, but one that has begun to make inroads into leading service companies as more organizations eye revenue opportunities beyond equipment sales.

As product margins slip, CSOs are tasked with orchestrating and executing the type of service that retains and creates loyal customers. Selling a piece of equipment -- even one with a multimillion- dollar price tag -- is a one-time win. Service, however, can create revenue streams that deliver profits each year until the equipment is replaced.

It’s a model that more companies are adopting.

According to McKinsey, by 2016, nearly half of manufacturing companies expect that service will account for a third of their total revenue. But as companies move from being a commodity supplier to offering an on-going service relationship, a clear strategy is necessary.

Target Areas for CSOs 

Successful service relationships require a number of teams working together within an organization.

Aberdeen Research has found that 8 out of ten Best-in-Class organizations (leading field service companies) have a VP-level or higher executive leading service.

CSOs must prioritize getting accurate insights to the right service people at the right time, so that they can solve problems for customers.

Aberdeen found that Best-in-Class organizations have four main target areas (in order of priority):

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• Improve customer retention and loyalty
• Improve service-related profitability
• Improve quality / relevance of service data
• Improve service information capabilities (i.e. mobility, knowledge sharing)

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But what can companies do to help CSOs reach these goals? Data and its analysis are key. Specifically, here are the three data-driven actions that Best-in-Class companies do to empower their CSOs:

Real-Time Insight Drives Real-Time Performance

CSOs must come to grips with managing and orchestrating the efficient operations of a number of different departments and technicians. Best-in-Class companies empower their CSOs with the right data to help drive real-time performance, the ultimate goal of any service organization.

What data, in particular, do CSOs need to move toward real-time service delivery?

Collecting data isn’t the problem it once was. In fact, some CSOs are experiencing the opposite; they are drowning in a deluge of data. The tool used to solve this is a business intelligence and analysis tool that enables consistent benchmarking of service performance.

 

Other tools are needed that let integrated data flow seamlessly from the field to the back office.

CSOs need real-time monitoring of asset operating conditions, performance, and usage. Finally, the tools CSOs use should enable real-time service visibility for senior management.

Give Your Field Team Tools That Deliver Valuable Service Experiences

The ultimate goal of service is to deliver value to the end customer. Service technicians need to ensure that a work order is completed, preferably during their first visit to the customer. But field visits represent an important opportunity for capturing data from equipment performance to visit details.

Our customer GE Power in Switzerland is using our Field Service Mobile APP to record granular data like temperature, upload or comment on pictures. This customer data can help inform the next visit or additional service needs.

Use Data to Continuously Improve Service

Customer expectations will only continue to grow. Since they are under pressure to perform too, customers are demanding real-time solutions to their service issues.

Customers won’t only compare your organization to competing firms, but also to their own customer experiences elsewhere. CSOs must study best practices across the entire service ecosystem and ensure that they are implementing these offerings.

Data and the analytics gathered on machines, equipment, and customers will help create the baseline. From there, CSOs should be able to evaluate and continue to improve service operations.

Some industries have been transformed already by incorporating data analytics into their standard processes.

To give an example, telecom companies can forecast traffic patterns, peak period bottlenecks, commercial versus domestic split, and thus perform real-time optimization of their voice and data networks. They can route around congestion to improve performance and the whole customer experience.

They take constant readings from their network data switches and build a big database of all their devices and customers to get a holistic view of the complete environment.

 

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