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In the latest Field Service Podcast, Fujitsu's Head of Delivery Management and Service, Martin Summerhayes, suggests we should be framing the service industry in a different way to encourage young people to the sector.

In this episode, fieldservicenews.com Deputy Editor Mark Glover sits down with Martin Summerhayes, and explains why we need to approach sector in a different way to become an attractive sector for young people to enter. He also recalls his first role in service in the mid-1980s and why employee wellbeing is paramount to delivering great customer service. 
Read our profile of Martin Summerhayes here.

As a mantra, fixing the customer first and the problem second, has served Martin Summerhayes well in his 30-plus years in service profession. Mark Glover, caught up with Fujitsu’s Head of Delivery Strategy and Service Improvement to discuss what it really takes to deliver client satisfaction. 

Let’s go back to the mid-80s, 1985 to be precise. The first of excellent Back to the Future films was released, Nintendo launched its first games console and music was being sold on small, shiny discs called CDs.  

At the same time, Martin Summerhayes was taking his first step on the first rung of the service ladder. And what a tall ladder it turned out to be, for when we speak some 33 years later, Martin is still in the sector and just as wide-eyed and enthusiastic as he was when he stepped out of college with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Computer Technology. 

His course was sponsored by IT companies including IBM and Hewlett Packard who provided a route into employment for students following their graduation. Martin’s first role was to install and support a dealing room system for Morgan Stanley in the heart of London’s financial district; a fascinating first placement, however Martin fears those opportunities for young engineers just don’t exist anymore, making the industry’s skill-set gap widen further. “When I first started you went to college – not university – and you got a qualification that was equally respected, equally of value,” he says. “Then you got out there and then you went into the workplace. “Then about 10 or 15 years ago, the mindset changed. What we have now is a maturing population of engineers. Most of them are in their 40s or 50s, certainly some of the more experienced ones are in their 50s but then they retire and they leave. “But there isn’t an educational ground that backs this through. Most young people wouldn’t be interested in technology, around computer science or electronics, for example. At the end of the day, most people just don’t get into that,” he says. 

It’s a damning verdict but one that carries weight. The work-place disparity between new technicians coming into the industry and those retiring is vast and has been well commented. But what, if anything, can be done? Martin suggests a re-positioning of what service is could help. “It goes back to when I first started out,” he says. “I think field engineering or field service is as much around customer service as it is technology. “You can bring people into the organisation, who might not have a technology background but have a customer service background but we give them those skills and we cross-train them into the different environment. “Effectively what we want to do is to give this training to the more senior and experienced engineers and you might get three or four juniors working with senior and the whole process can start to work. You start to build up a little network and can start to see results.” 

Martin comes from a place where the customer sits at the heart of all service theory. “You should fix the customer first and the problem second,” he tells me; it’s a mantra he cultivated very early on in his career. Does it still carry weight today? “It is prevalent now as it was then,” he says confidently, “and in fact in some respects more so.  “When you’re visiting the customer, how do you present yourself? You’re the face of the company you’re presenting, how do you talk to the customer? How do you actually let the customer know you’ll deal with the problem they have? Even if you don’t manage to fix the problem you have to give reassurance to the customer that they’re important. At the end of the day the problem will get resolved at some point, even if you don’t fix in on the first visit. “But if you send out someone who doesn’t talk to the customer, or doesn’t acknowledge the issue but goes out to fix the part, even if they fix it first time, the customer will end up with a negative experience of that service interaction,” he warns. 

We now live in an age of ‘keyboard’ warriors, of negative social media reviews that can spread like wildfire across a company’s reputation. “When I first started, we talked about how it takes ten positive interactions to change one negative interaction,” Martin says. “These days, the amount of connections people have on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram could be up to 2,000 people. The fact that we’re more connected today, it means we’re more likely to share those negative experiences. “Customer service is even more critical today than it was 10, 20 or even 30 years ago.”   

 

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"If you send someone out who doesn't talk to the customer, or doesn't acknowledge the issue , even if they fix it first time, the customer will end up with a negative experience..." 

 

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Martin is currently Head of Delivery Strategy and Service Improvement at Fujitsu, a firm he joined in 2008, prior to which he spent nearly 20 years at Hewlett Packard, his first role following his apprenticeship with Data Logic. At HP he sampled an array of various service and operational roles, working his way up to become its EMEA Customer Services Performance Director. Given his years in the industry Martin has witnessed enablers such as connectivity, mobility and the internet come to assist in the engineer’s role, almost as much as a screwdriver and notebook, but does the end-user, the customer care about new technologies such as machine learning and Artificial Intelligence? “Not, really, no,” he says quickly. “When a function doesn’t occur the issue then becomes, how do you as my service provider resolve it as quickly as possible? Whether you use Artificial Intelligence or Augmented Reality or whatever technology platform people are talking about these days, they are enablers.” 
He suggests a future when customers will pick up their i-pads, connect to a portal and are guided through the fixing-process interactively, perhaps live-streaming a remote-service technician for extra support, is on the horizon. As advanced as this sounds, Martin strips back it back to customer empowerment. “All you’re doing is enabling the customer to self-solve that event quicker and more effectively than what you would have done 20 years ago,” he says. “You’re moving the technology closer to the customer.”    

And what about customer satisfaction? What can service professionals do to ensure this most important of factors? Martin outlines five things that every service professional needs to be asking themselves “How do you get the right engineer, with the right skills, with the right parts, to the right call? If you can guarantee those five things,” he says confidently, you’ll end up with really good customer satisfaction.” 

A lot has changed in movies, music and computer since 1985, but Martin’s approach to achieving excellent customer service has not. It’s a career we should all take note of. 

You can listen to the Field Service Podcast with guest Martin Summerhayes here. 

The great and the good of the service management industry came together at this years Service Management Expo held in London's Exel and Field Service News was at the hear of the action hosting the Field Service Solutions Zone.

Here we bring you a selection of the speakers from Day Two including: Daryl Dudey, IFS, Martin Summerhayes, Fujitsu and Mike Gosling of Cubic Transportation Systems

 

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Running across the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th of June the Service Management Expo remains one of Europe’s key field service events and Field Service News is pleased to be hosting the free educational sessions in the Field Service Solutions theatre once again this year.

In this the final part of this series we look at the third day sessions of the Field Service Solutions Theatre which is being hosted again by Field Service News.

Catch up on what is happening on Day One by clicking here and Day Two by clicking here.

As per Day One and Day Two of the event we see the opening session being given by the Field Service Solutions Theatre co-sponsors IFS and Field Service Management who begin proceedings with a half an hour presentation starting at 12:15pm.

Following on from this session we then move to the first of the days two interviews as once again Kris Oldland takes on his role of interviewer with his guest in the first session being Martin Summerhayes, Head of Stategy and Business Development, Fujitsu live on stage at 1.00pm.

 

In this half an hour session entitled “Employing the next generation of field service engineers” Oldland and Summerhayes will be tackling perhaps the biggest threat that field service companies are currently facing – namely that of the ageing workforce and how companies such as Fujitsu can overcome this challenge.

Having had an exceptional career working from field service engineer himself through to managing teams of varying sizes from a handful to a continent before finally arriving in his current role with Fujitsu, Summerhayes is expertly placed to share his insight into not only the dangers we face as one generation reaches retirement age but also how we must interact with the field service engineers of tomorrow from a young age in order to capture their attention and guide them towards a role in field service.

We follow this session by inviting one of the guests from last year who was a true highlight of the event program, Tim Jones, Professional Services Manager Europe and India. At last years sessions Jones explained how he had moved his field service operations to a de-centralised system, taking time to outline the reasoning for his move, the process he and his team had undergone to make such a transition, how they reorganised there teams, and of course what the early signal are as to how the move is delivering.

It was a bold move when many other field service companies were looking towards doing the opposite and centralising their operations. However, if the amount of questions Jones faced after the interview was any form of indication last years session was certainly left the seeds of an idea in a number of those who attended.

So has it actually worked? Well we’ve invited Jones back to give us the feedback on what has been successful and what has not. What he would have done differently and ultimately if he would advise other companies to follow this path.

 

Finally to bring the sessions to a close we have one final panel discussions which brings together Field Service Solution Zone sponsors TomTom with a number of their partners as we discuss “How connectivity and data are at the core of next gen field service”. The session, which also includes representatives from AllOnMobile, Magenta and Smart Witness is designed to help us put together some of the key leanings from across the three days sessions and see how all of these various technologies can come together to improve a field service organisations daily workflow.

With many predicting that the future of field service will have connectivity at its heart, it will be interesting to see from these various technology leaders about how there various systems can integrate and connect with each other to enrich the data available.  With a focus on enabling smarter decisions the session will ask how can we make the field engineers lives both safer and more effective efficient?

With a full three days worth of excellent and thought provoking line up of sessions the opportunity for discussion over a drink at the end of each day as the theatre becomes a networking hub is sure to be welcomed and on the final day it is certain to be a vibrant opportunity to discuss the ideas and trends highlighted both in the theatre solutions and the wider Service Management Exhibition as well.

 

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To join us at the Service Management Expo click here to register

 

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Across December and January we asked our readers to nominate candidates for the inaugural #FSN20, a list of the twenty most influential people in field service. We received nominations from across the globe through social media, email and even a phone call or two directly into the news-desk.

Armed with a list of candidates, a Field Service News panel selected the final list of twenty based on the number of nominations, their impact on the industry (past, present and future) and their sphere of influence in both the physical and digital world.

After much long deliberation, heartful debate (read arguing) and enormous amounts of coffee we managed to whittle our list down to a final twenty which we pleased to present to you here the inaugural edition of the #FSN20. You may not agree with our selection and if you don’t tell us, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, hell tell the world – because at the heart of it that’s what this list is all about, getting people talking about excellence in field service and raising the profile of those leading us to a better future.

We are now announcing who made the list in alphabetical order in four sections across four days. So without further ado we are pleased to bring you the final five of the #FSN20

Aly Pinder, Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen

One of the most prolific authors in the industry and also one of the nicest guys in Field Service to boot. Pinder had more nominations for this list than any other candidate, which speaks volumes.

Having written or co-authored over 50 research reports, and benchmarked more than 4,000 service executives across 5 years with Aberdeen, he writes and speaks with authority and understanding and is widely respected across the market.

Follow Aly @Pinderjr

 

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Bill Pollock, President and Principal Consulting Analyst, Strategies For Growth

Pollock is one of the industry’s most respected authors and commentators with a long and distinguished career focused on field service.

Having worked for Gartner, Aberdeen and been a founding partner of The Service Council, his analysis is highly sought after and he has authored some of the most detailed research available in the industry. His white papers, blogs and posts are widely read across the globe.

Follow Bill @SFGOnService

 

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Hilbrand Rustema, Managing Director, Noventum Service Management

Co-author of seminal service book, “Service Economics” and managing director of one of Europe’s most prominent Service Management consultancies, Noventum Service Management, Rustema has been at the heart of evolving service thinking across the continent for many years and remains at the forefront of the sector today.

Follow Hilbrand @bynoventum

 

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Steve Street, IT Security & Infrastructure Architect, IBM

Steve Street, IT Security/Infrastructure Architect, IBM – In a long industrious career with computing giants IBM Steve has been an excellent servant to service science. He has worked with many of the key leaders and thinkers in this area including Professors Irene Ng, Scott Sampson and fellow Cambridge University Alumni Andy Neely on a wide range of initiatives to unite academia, government and industry in the development and promotion of service science as a discipline.

He remains a key figure in the evolution of the area and his work is shaping the way leading organisations are seeking to deliver services.

Follow Steve @SteveDStreet

 

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Martin Summerhayes, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Fujitsu

One of a few on the list that started their a career as a service engineer, Summerhayes’ career has been quite remarkable.

He was the man who devised HP’s service strategy which became a billion dollar proposition, he has advised London’s Metropolitan police force working with local and national government, paramilitary and commercial companies, before taking on his current role as Head of Strategy for Fujitsu. And he still finds time to take a proactive role in promoting service excellence in the UK nonprofit group, The Service Community.

Follow Martin @martinsummerhay

 

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Special Mention - Steve Downton, Downton Consulting

Whilst Downton sadly passed away in 2013 his long-standing legacy remains both in the approach he developed to service as outlined in the book, ”Service Economics”, which he co-authored with Hilbrand Rustema and Jan Van Veen, as well as in the non-profit organisation he created, ”The Service Community”, which continues to operate as a significant organisation dedicated to sharing best practices amongst service companies operating the UK.

Steve’s impact on the field service industries will be long felt.

 

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See the rest of the list here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three

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In part one of this exclusive interview we looked at Martin Summerhayes extraordinary career to date. Now in the concluding part Fujitsu's Head of Business Development talks about what drives him forward...  

Focussing on his current role again the passion for consistently delivering and improving the service he and his team deliver to their clients is undeniable when questioned on what he takes pride in and what frustrates him on a day-to-day basis.

“The thing that makes me go home smiling at the end of the day is delivering great service to customers, and what makes me tear my hair out is the politics that you have in any organisation big or small” he comments before adding “what can make me really frustrated is speed, the inability of people and organisations to change when markets and situations change”

It is in these frustrations that another layer of what makes Summerhayes tick is perhaps revealed. Whilst he is certainly approachable, he is clearly exceptionally quick when it comes to assessing and understanding the markets he operates in and comes across as a man that perhaps has to sometimes wait for others to catch up to his way of thinking. This could require a great deal of patience, or result in a great deal of frustration. More than likely there is probably a healthy portion of both.

Indeed his standards are set exceptionally high. Looking at what defines exceptional service he explains “It is when you delight your customers. Not when you meet their expectations, not when you exceed their expectations, it’s when you delight them. When your customer becomes the best advocate there is for your business and services”

These are the standards that Summerhayes expects as a consumer and these are the standards that he demands his team at Fujitsu strive for also.

A key to such service excellence he explains is to make customer interaction as smooth and simple as possible.

 “One thing that absolutely drives me nuts” he begins “is when a company makes me as the customer deal with their own organisational complexity. One of the things we got wrong at HP was we had three divisions at one stage, a hardware division, a software division and a warranty division. We mirrored that in the way we spoke to the customer.”

 

“We copied that structure right into the IDR, if it is a hardware problem press one etc… and I still see it today in companies. Are they designing from the customer experience in or from the organisational structure out?” He asks with a hint of irritation at how so many major service organisations miss the simple premise of putting the customer at the heart of the business.

“Whether it’s retail, hospitality, the medical profession, whatever we do we put our own organisational complexity in the face of our customers. Now, if you are a great company, an exceptional company, if you are there to delight your customers, you don’t do that.” He continues.

So how do we go about building our business to delight our customers? Do we need to look at our processes, our corporate culture or the technology that we use to deliver? Is it a blend of all three to get things right?

Summerhayes explains “The premise starts with thinking of the customer at the heart of everything. It starts with that. You have then got to put in place the culture, then the supporting processes and then finally the technology”

“You can’t turn around and say the technology will solve the problem. The technology is a reflection of your key business processes, your business processes are a reflection of your organisational construct, and your organisational construct drives your culture.”

Of course the importance of getting culture right first is a conversation that has been held many times before, and something we have explored in many an article on fieldservicenews.com yet it remains something that many companies end up getting wrong, and when they do so they can end up in a viscous circle with software that is either out-dated or worse that was never fit for purpose in the first place.

“Lets go right the way back to the point here” Summerhayes states “your engineer, the way he talks, the way he acts, the way he delivers the service is all a reflection of the culture of the organisation, the business processes that he has to follow and then the IT that enables him to do his job.”

With the trusted advisor status that the field engineer has, and his position on the frontline being one of your most powerful points of customer contact it is of course essential that he is as well prepared to succeed as is possible. Especially given that his success will be a direct reflection on your brand both in the short and long term.

As Summerhayes concludes ”having the customer at the heart of what you are doing is key because at the end of the day it is a service industry, you are there to serve”

Given his track record I’d suggest that taking Martin Summerhayes’ advice on this and focussing your service business from a ‘customer in’ perspective is very much the right thing to do.

In part one of this exclusive two part interview Field Service News Editor, Kris Oldland talks to Martin Summerhayes of Fujitsu, about his spending over two decades as a pioneer in the field service industry... 

There are a number of key people who have been there and done it in field service. Professionals who have dedicated there lives to service, who have an inherent understanding of what it means to put the customer at the heart of the business strategy, and what it takes to develop a successful service division on an enterprise scale.

And then there is Martin Summerhayes.

A day before our interview I was able to witness Martin give a presentation at the recent Service Community event. In the half hour during which he spoke he gave the impression not only of a man that had a very firm understanding of the whole picture is in terms of service delivery, but also a man who had gained that understanding by paying attention to the minutiae of every aspect of the process.

However, after speaking to him one on one at some length a day later, it was clear that we had only just scratched the surface of Summerhayes’ depth of understanding of the industry in which he operates, as well as his passion for getting it right.

In terms of his entry into the world of field service Summerhayes, like many of his peers took a fairly straightforward path into the system. Having graduated from university in London in the late 80’s he joined HP as a field engineer on a graduate scheme working in their volume repair business.  As he puts it himself “You started as a man with a van and progressed from there”

Summerhayes himself ending up doing so rapidly and was soon not just progressing at HP, but was changing the way the business operated.

 

“My boss asked me to come up with some ideas for generating service revenue” he began as I asked him to describe his path from service engineer to service manager

“I came up with what I called the ten million dollar opportunity, which was literally sold up front. We offered a multi year extended warranty on the HP printers and PCs that we were selling in the UK, this would provide HP with an incremental ten million dollars worth of revenue. It was called the HP support pack business and when I left HP was generating over a billion dollars of revenue per anum.”

And perhaps here is a glimpse at what makes Summerhayes such a fascinating subject for interview or indeed just someone to have a conversation with. Whilst announcing what was a really quite an extraordinary achievement, he makes it sound as if  it was essentially a logical development that anybody else could have made

This of course isn’t true, to create a billion dollar business in any industry takes vision by the bucket load and to do it in a fledgling IT service industry even more so, but the touch of humility he shows when outlining his achievements, and an almost a blasé outlook on such a success, hints at an impression of a man who is almost certainly quite an inspiration to both his peers and his team alike.

In total Summerhayes spent nearly 20 years working with HP, having risen up the ranks from the “Man with a Van” to being at differing points responsible for 450 engineers, developing new programmes within the company to change their processes, to being heavily involved in overseeing the merger with Compaq (which actually also included absorbing Digital Equipment Corporation and Cabletron into the HP structure as well). Eventually he was asked to move to Texas as part of a management restructure, which Summerhayes declined and the HP chapter of his career came to an end.

He then took a decidedly left-field step in his career and took up a role with the Metropolitan Police Force. Spending two years with the ‘Met’ which he describes as “a mix of secret military, local government bureaucracy gone mad and IT” where the culture was one of “meetings, about meetings about meetings” Summerhayes eventually returned to the more familiar corporate environment with Fujitsu where he has been for the past six years.

Here in his roles as Head of Strategy and Business Development he now works directly with the firms fourteen largest accounts in the UK, working with them to establish margin and service improvement opportunities. (Last year alone he was able to deliver over two million pounds of margin improvements.)

Look out for part two of this feature coming soon where we look at Summerhayes' biggest frustrations in field service today as well as what makes him go home smiling after a long day...