In the final excerpt from season 5 episode 3 of the Field Service Podcast, Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer and Michael Kuebel of Salesforce discuss why digital transformation and customer-centricity must form the foundations of the new normal we...
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Jul 02, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • michael kuebel
In the final excerpt from season 5 episode 3 of the Field Service Podcast, Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer and Michael Kuebel of Salesforce discuss why digital transformation and customer-centricity must form the foundations of the new normal we are all currently in the process of building.
Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'
Digital Transfomation Must Simplify Field Service Management
Koenig and Bauer have been an example of excellence and dynamism in reacting to the Covid-19 challenges that we've all faced. Salesforce, as their technology provider were also instrumental in allowing them to make that shift. But the digital transformation for Koenig and Bauer had happened a long time ago, which is part of the reason why they were so agile and nimble and reactive in the first place.
However, one of the things that really came to the fore when Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth and Salesforce's Michael Kuebel joined us on the Field Service Podcast was also the importance of customer centricity.
It was interesting during that conversation to see a number of areas echoed that have become something of a recurring theme emerging from the examples of companies that were able to ride the wave of turmoil we have all faced.
"It's not just making sure that your employees are safe, but also making sure that this partnership between a company and the employees is a steady one and that is a good partnership..."
- Lukas Fahnroth, Koenig and Bauer.
For example, we have seen a simple dual focus amongst companies towards customer centric thinking and providing a safe operating environment for our employees and our customers as well.
In many ways we have perhaps had to condense our thinking into these more simplified, less complex kind of thought processes. Empowerment is another of these themes that keeps returning to the top of the discussion - especially in the field service role itself. We have seen a lot of autonomy being given towards the engineers. Of course, what is empowering them to do that and to have that degree of autonomy in the field is the flow of data brought about by digital transformation and platforms such as Salesforce's Field Service Lightning.
At the heart of the matter, this is what digitalisation is really all about. Taking away unnecessary complexity and facilitating better decision making by making the processes we undertake simpler and more effective.
"It is really [providing] the simplification towards those partnerships," comments Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer. "It's not just making sure that your employees are safe, but also making sure that this partnership between a company and the employees is a steady one and that is a good partnership. I think what we'll see after the crisis to stay is the fact that those partnerships with internal and external stakeholders will really become the most relevant business goal."
Further Reading:
- Learn more about work.com @ www.salesforce.com/work/
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
- Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
- Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer
Jun 30, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • michael kuebel • customer centricity
One company that stood as something of a beacon for the many of us in the field service sector struggling in the face of the global lockdowns was Koenig and Bauer, whose agile mindset allowed them to adapt quickly to the situation. In this excerpt...
One company that stood as something of a beacon for the many of us in the field service sector struggling in the face of the global lockdowns was Koenig and Bauer, whose agile mindset allowed them to adapt quickly to the situation. In this excerpt from the Field Service Podcast, Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth and Michael Keubel of Salesforce discuss what recovery might look like for field service companies and how we can get there.
Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'
A NEW NORMAL OF AGILITY FOR THE FIELD SERVICE INDUSTRY
In many ways it is our collective responsibility now to ensure that after all of the challenges we've faced and all of the heartbreaks people have seen across the last few months, we grasp the nettle and hold on tightly to the good that has come from the global lockdowns.
There is a lot of talk about the recovery but what exactly should that look like and how do we get there? How can we use the last few months as a catalyst for embarking on an ongoing continuous improvement journey? What does the conversation look like now in terms of the conversations you're having with customers? Is there a specific strategy or approach we must adopt as we look towards recovery and how you help your customers' customers as well?
"One of the important things that happened during the crisis for us was that we've extended a lot of the digital offerings we've had in place. We've improved on them in many instances" says Lukas Fahnroth, Koenig and Bauer. "So the conversation for us currently revolves around further extending those actions we've taken and also keeping them in place, even if the crisis disappears. For example, for the hotline services, we've extended the video support calls. A lot of the offerings we've put out there, like the customer community with the analytics functionality, is really something that our customers have got used to, and that we at Koenig and Bauer now see as essential. So we're going to see a lot of those actions stay in place and keep this digital innovation momentum in place in order to further develop our digital strategy, even after the crisis disappears."
As Fahnroth alludes, the digital acceleration of the last few months has been dramatic, not just for Koenig and Bauer, who were already on the path very much anyway, but for many, many other companies. In essence we've already begun the process of building a new normal and that new normal is much more digital centric than what came before.
"Salesforce is offering help here. Using our own platform, we have created a new product suite that we call work.com, which is the probably the first product on the market for organising reopening of businesses and especially addressing these topics..."
-Michael Kuebel, Salesforce
"We can split the Covid-19 crisis into three phases that we see," explains Michael Kuebel, Salesforce.
"One is the fact that most of us have been stabilising and gone through a process to make sure we keep operations running, and I think Koenig and Bauer is a brilliant example of that. We have other clients in many industries that cope very well with stabilising but now they're going to the next phase which is a reopening phase, which also needs a different type of effort, and that is a muscle we haven't yet trained.
"We need to organise a safe return to the workplace by making sure that we don't overfill our offices. We must make sure that we can trace contacts of people in case somebody gets a positive test result, then you can trace back and understand who they met with, allowing you to inform customers to make sure you don't spread the virus any further, keeping transparency.
"Salesforce is offering help here. Using our own platform, we have created a new product suite that we call work.com, which is the probably the first product that is on the market for organising reopening and especially addressing these topics.
"The last phase, once we're all out of the crisis, is going to be continuing the growth path. When we look at the capabilities and the success factors, we feel that leadership in the crisis, out of the crisis and after the crisis is paramount. Lucas was very eloquently elaborating that people, employees, customers and society are watching carefully what leaders are doing and what their priorities are.
"Customer engagement is a super important pillar. Empowerment of people is something that I think is here to stay. And last but not least, business agility. Agility is easily said but difficult to do, especially when you look at Manufacturing. My background is Manufacturing and when it's about products and safety, excellence and perfection is the ultimate goal. Now suddenly, with agility, speed is the ultimate goal.
"I think customers have quickly become used to some new experiences and services. I think that mindsets have changed and if you then have platforms and the right tools, this can enable agility to meet these new mindsets. I think that's here to stay and this will be the muscle that we train today that we will use in the future to establish growth."
Further Reading:
- Learn more about work.com @ www.salesforce.com/work/
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
- Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
- Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer
Jun 25, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • michael kuebel • customer centricity
In this excerpt from the Field Service Podcast, Salesforce's Michael Keubel and Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth discuss why the concept of customer-centricity was critical in being able to navigate the tricky waters of 2020.
In this excerpt from the Field Service Podcast, Salesforce's Michael Keubel and Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth discuss why the concept of customer-centricity was critical in being able to navigate the tricky waters of 2020.
Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'
Customer Satisfaction Has to be More than a Tick-Box Exercise in Field Service Management
In a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News was joined by Michael Kuebel of Salesforce and Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer as the two discussed how they worked together to ensure Koenig and Bauer were able to remain resilient not only within their own business but also to be there to offer support when their customers needed them most.
One of the things that really came through in that conversation was the importance of being close to the customer and certainly Koenig and Bauer were able to ride the storm while simultaneously being a rock for their own customers during the Covid-19 lockdowns. However, even this 200 year old company was challenged by these unprecedented times. As Fahnroth explained; "We have seen a lot of innovations being supercharged at Koenig and Bauer because of the crisis and we've always been an innovative company, but Covid-19 really changed the way everything looks and has reset our goals in many, many instances."
However, despite those pressures the German printing manufacturer remained resolute and this is something that Kuebel strongly aligns with Koenig and Bauer's strong sense of importance in customer service and placing the customer at the heart of what they do.
"I get enthusiastic when I hear what Lucas is saying and when I see what Koenig and Bauer are doing. I really see the potential when I talk to customers and we have initial discussions where they want to talk about customer centricity. But sometimes I feel that service leaders can feel that customer centricity is just a buzzword - but for me, what Lukas has explained with Koenig and Bauer, you can see what customer centricity actually means. What an organisation looks like, that really puts the customer in the centre.
"This is really impressive and this is, for me, a brilliant example where customer centricity is so much more than a buzzword..."
- Michael Kuebel, Salesforce
"I was at an event earlier this year called Koenig and Bauer 4.0 and I initially thought this would be an event all about digitalisation. But it was an event where Koenig and Bauer over the course of a couple of days invited hundreds if not thousands of customers from all over the world, to bring them together and explain to them and discuss with them what Koenig and Bauer is doing on the digitalisation forefront. To explain to their customers how such changes would make their life easier and help them to make their printing production run more efficiently. It was all focused on the 'what's in it for you.'
"It was not a show of 'these are the nice features that we have' or 'aren't we an innovative company', but it was really only focused on what's in it for you. I spoke to some of Koenig and Bauer's customers that day and they were really very, very positive seeing that and seeing how much effort a company like Koenig and Bauer puts into a transformation and how they emphasise that customer success is paramount to everything that they do.
"This is really impressive and this is, for me, a brilliant example where customer centricity is so much more than a buzzword," Kuebel adds.
Kuebel's enthusiasm will surely only be mirrored by Koenig and Bauer's own customer base, who will have benefited greatly from the print manufacturer's continuing focus on customer satisfaction across all of their thinking. Indeed, as Kuebel outlines there is a world of difference between those companies who treat customer centricity as a buzz-word and those who have it etched within their DNA. It is perhaps at times of crisis that we see this the most.
As Warren Buffet would often quip "it is when the tide goes out that you see who is swimming naked.' With a 200 year pedigree based on innovation and rock solid business ethics, you can put a hefty wager that Koenig and Bauer won't be caught out by the changing tides that Covid-19 has brought us.
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
- Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
- Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer
Jun 23, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • michael kuebel • customer centricity
Koenig and Bauer were an organisation who showed excellent agility, innovation and leadership during the pandemic. Here, Lukas Fahnroth explains how the embedded culture within the organisation helped them pivot and adapt so quickly.
Koenig and Bauer were an organisation who showed excellent agility, innovation and leadership during the pandemic. Here, Lukas Fahnroth explains how the embedded culture within the organisation helped them pivot and adapt so quickly.
Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'
Field Service Management, Driven By Customer service, Empowered by Digital Transformation
The story of Koenig and Bauer and how their early adoption of a digital transformation strategy allowed them to ride the troubling times brought on by the Covid-19 lockdowns, makes an excellent case study for what best practice can look like in field service. In a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast, Lucas Fahnroth discussed exactly what the culture was within the organisation and how they had been able to pivot during the crisis so effectively. Indeed, companies like Koenig and Bauer have led the way by showing how having an agile mindset within an organisation can be an essential component in success both in times of plenty and in times of famine.
But just how did Koenig and Bauer develop such an internal skill-set and what are the key attributes that empower them to be able to adapt so swiftly when presented with a seemingly insurmountable challenge?
Koenig and Bauer is the oldest manufacturer of printing presses in the world," Fanroth begins.
"That means we've got a 200 plus year history of constant innovation and constant pivoting, which from my standpoint has only been possible because Koenig and Bauer has constantly looked after our customers and put the customer in the centre of everything we do. The Covid-19 crisis really hit us obviously across our worldwide service operation. So it took a lot of care to work out how to deal with this in order to continue our 200 plus year success story of constant innovation and constant development.
"The way we at Koenig and Bauer see this crisis is actually as a sort of litmus test of our leadership where it really takes a clear vision in terms of not only how we see the crisis but also how we see our own role in these times of adversity and uncertainty. One thing is for certain - and that is that we will be judged by our response for years to come," Fahnroth adds.
"We've produced 100,000 face shields and are donating them as we speak. That's something internally we've done in order to give back to our community..."
- Lucas Fahnroth, Koenig and Bauer
"On the one hand we will be judged internally by our employees and also internal stakeholders, but also externally by our customers. Customer centricity means that we as a company need to be a good partner to our customers, and especially during those difficult times it's necessary to be a good partner and what we've done is to communicate this very early on to the stakeholders involved.
One of the things that shines through in the wider discussion with Fahnroth and Salesforce's Michael Kuebel who was also part of the discussion, is the importance of communication. As Fahnroth explains; "We've talked a lot to our customers. We've compiled a package of Covid-19 response actions to help our customers and to really fulfil that role of a good partner in these challenging times.
"We've made special offers to our customers, we've given free access to our analytics tools and our customer community. We have stayed in constant contact with our customers, and we really try to deliver those individual responses and those individual aids that our customers need in such times. We've extended our hotline services and we've brought in more subject matter experts."
While the focus on customer-centricity is important, even crucial, the truth remains however, that such an approach is far more easily facilitated by a modern digitalised approach to field service delivery.
"We have also digitalised the process," Fanhroth explains. "A lot of those actions have been developed or were being developed before the crisis - we actually had a couple of them already in place. But what Covid-19 did for us was really supercharge this development and the market launch for some of those features. For example, our hotline services have been extended and we've been working with video support for our customers for quite some time. However, we've really seen the spike in demand for those actions and we are really seeing adoption grow and further develop with those actions.
"So facing our customers, we've really seen a lot of those products, a lot of those features and services we've sometimes already had in place, be supercharged," he adds.
There is certainly a sense of community leadership that appears to also underpin much of the thinking within Koenig and Bauer.
"Coming back to our general strategy, as I said, we have to also keep in mind all our internal stakeholders," Fahnroth comments.
"So in order to fill this role of a real leadership, we've also thought a lot about our communities. Koenig and Bauer has used a lot of production and demo facilities and free capacities we've had to produce face shields for example. We've produced 100,000 face shields and are donating them as we speak. That's something internally we've done in order to give back to our community."
The very way in which Koenig and Bauer operate is also underpinned by a 200 year history of innovation, exactly as Fahnroth asserts and it is within that ingenuity that it would appear the secrets of success might lie.
"We've seen the way work looks like now at Koenig and Bauer," Fahnroth states. "We adopted G-Suite at the end of last year and we've seen a huge change in how people at Koenig and Bauer work now. It really is a change towards a more mobile way of working and a lot more collaborative. It's really changed a lot of the way communication and work at Koenig and Bauer looks and we're really glad to see that change of mindset," he adds.
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
- Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
- Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer
Jun 18, 2020 • Features • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations • michael kuebel • customer centricity
Micheal Kuebel of Salesforce has been working with a number of companies to help them overcome the challenges of the global lockdowns. In this excerpt of the Field Service Podcast Kuebel identifies four key traits that he has seen emerge as common...
Micheal Kuebel of Salesforce has been working with a number of companies to help them overcome the challenges of the global lockdowns. In this excerpt of the Field Service Podcast Kuebel identifies four key traits that he has seen emerge as common success factors amongst those companies he has seen adapt quickest and most successfully to the Covid-19 challenge.
Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'
Leadership, Customer-Centricity, Empowerment, Agility
There has been a lot of innovation on show of late. Of course, much of it has been born out of necessity as companies have frantically tried to adapt to the realities of a global lockdown as we deal as a planet with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yet, undoubtedly some companies have taken the challenges of the pandemic far more comfortably in their stride than others. Have there been some shared fundamental tenets of how those who adapted best were able to do so?
Michael Kuebel, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce has been working closely with many companies including Koenig and Bauer who were an excellent example of a company that was able to show agility and ingenuity in equal measure as they pivoted and adapted to the new scenario of a Covid-19 infested world. He certainly believes there are some shared attributes amongst those companies who showed the same levels of resilience that Koenig and Bauer did.
"We see basically four kinds of success factors when we talk to customers and see how they master this most turbulent of markets," Kuebel explained on the Field Service Podcast.
"Number one is strong leadership. We saw that when we talk to our customers and ask, 'how did you cope with the crisis?' We saw a common thread of companies establishing a clear understanding of customers and safety first. It was a time to come up with a complex strategy, it was a time for these simple clear directives.
"For all of the companies that we worked with, there was a focus on making sure their customers remained operational, and making sure that their employees, customers, their families and the society stayed safe. They execute this latest shift through a much more focused visibility. When in the past, they were looking at reporting cycles of a month, now it's more once a day or even intra-daily visibility. They need those KPIs right now, because it's such a volatile situation.
"Also, we saw that strong leadership must also lift the company through being a role model, creating trust and of course, making fact based decisions," Kuebel added.
"You need to make sure that your people are enabled, that they have the tools and they have the knowledge to make decisions when in the field..."
- Michael Kuebel, Salesforce
Indeed, this has been echoed through much of the reporting Field Service News has done on the topic and it does appear that there is a strong correlation between those organisations who were able to act swiftly but from a position of data-driven insight and those organisations that coped best with the lockdown scenario. Another strong link amongst such companies is also the willingness to have open and ongoing customer dialogue.
"The second aspect I mentioned, customer centricity," concurs Kuebel.
"We see customer engagement very much in focus. For practicality reasons at this time, we all need to enable our customers to help themselves better. That way they were creating a digital journey that the customer actually said, well, that's actually even effortless for me, it works and it's helping me stay productive. That is only possible if you have a 360 degree view on the customer and that you have processes that are centred around the customer.
"Then there is empowerment," Kuebel continues. "You need to make sure that your people are enabled, that they have the tools and they have the knowledge to make decisions when in the field. I think especially this factor of empowerment has been something that I think has received an enormous boost within the last couple of weeks during the crisis, just look at the amount of companies that suddenly have home office as the new normal - that was never a plan and now it works and it will be very difficult to turn this back.
"Once you create that level of trust, and you see that people are effective, even when they are not in the office, this is something that is there to stay. However, you need to have the right tools to enable people to work with them. You need to know if you have an on-premise solution, you have no chance in virtualising a call centre overnight, but with a cloud solution, the right tools, the right knowledge and the right information, it's no big deal to do that. We have a couple of customers that were virtualising their dispatching calls and jobs literally within hours."
The final factor that Kuebel lists is perhaps the secret sauce that separates those companies who are best-in class and the rest of the pack.
"Last but not least, you need this agile mindset and an agile platform that allows you to easily adapt to basically go into these MVP (minimum viable product) situations and roll it out with the view that it's good enough to stay afloat - and then, we see we can develop from there. When I look at Koenig and Bauer for example, when I talk to them, when I talk to their management, there's a very, very clear leadership. The way that they communicate with their customers, the predominant mindset is around customer centricity, agility and empowerment. It was therefore, no surprise to me that Koenig and Bauer were one of the companies that are able to manage through the crisis relatively well."
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
- Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
- Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer
Jun 16, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • michael kuebel
Michael Kuebel of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about the massive lens the pandemic has shone on the need for digital transformation in the field service sector and how the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation
Michael Kuebel of Salesforce talks to the Kris Oldland, Field Service News about the massive lens the pandemic has shone on the need for digital transformation in the field service sector and how the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation
Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'
Digital Transformation - The Silver Lining of Covid-19?
One of the major upshots and a significant silver lining to all of the hardship we have been through in the last few months is the major acceleration of digital transformation projects across all industries within the field service sector.
But just how much has digital transformation changed in terms of the magnitude and importance of the programs that we were all undertaking in some form prior to the COVID-19 pandemic?
But how have these projects changed? Just how dramatically have they been accelerated and what does that mean for the field service sector?
One man who has a deep level of experience of digital transformation within the field service sector is Michael Kuebel, Senior Director of Product Management, Salesforce. With an impressive career spanning both sides of the field service sector, with various senior field service management roles as well helping other field service organisations with their own digitalisation journey in his role with Salesforce, Kuebel has an ingrained knowledge of the role modern digital solutions can play in enhancing service delivery.
"The key word here is how do we understand digital transformation”, Kuebel commented on a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast.
"Where does the digitalisation journey actually start? You know, when we approach our customers, especially on the field service side, very often the predominant setup from the past involves very siloed organisations in terms of applications but also in terms of processes. So you may have a service call centre that doesn't have too much information about the customer because it might be disconnected to sales. You may have a customer that has one or maximum two channels so you can either call or send an email but hardly any portals or tracking.
"I think if COVID-19 told us something, it is that the most important translation of digital transformation is to have the customer in the middle. Essentially, to have customer success as the paramount target behind all digitalisation efforts..."
-Michael Kuebel, Salesforce
"Then on the other side of the equation you have engineers - that in some places until recently even we're still outgoing with pen and paper and with only a very rough understanding what they are supposed to do. By this I mean they would have no information about asset history or even customer background or customer understanding. This is something that has been widely understood and so in many companies [these silos] has been the initiation for saying we need to go into a digital transformation in field service as well.
"Very often we see that field service is one of the last silos to overcome, just because it has been very much seen as a pure technical function. These were the guys that repair something if it's broken. But most companies now understand that field service has a different role. It has the role of creating revenue and profitability and has a super important role on customer experience and the customer journey. In fact, it is developing into one of the main, if not the main USP within an organisation.
"Service is one of the main reasons customers stay loyal to a brand or a product and that's understood by many organisations. This is why I think the digitalisation journey has started already in most organisations a couple of years ago," Kuebel adds.
However, while many if not all of us were on the digital transformation journey in one shape or another before the pandemic, the acceleration of such projects has been dramatic as a result of the necessity for new thinking during a period of ongoing uncertainty as global borders came crashing down and the lockdowns ensued. However, Kuebel believes there is another even more important learning we can take away from the last few months.
"I think if COVID-19 told us something, it is that the most important translation of digital transformation is to have the customer in the middle. Essentially, to have customer success as the paramount target behind all digitalisation efforts," he explained.
"We want to make sure that our customers are in the middle and we have a 360 degree view of them. They can book engineers, track engineers, find the data online through an app or through chat or WhatsApp etc.
“We must have intelligent scheduling optimisation and the customer must have visibility on where the engineer is. Equally, the engineer himself must have visibility on all the customer history, the asset history, and access to information and knowledge. So they also have a 360 degree view around the customer, including being connected via devices and so on.
"This has all been on the long list of strategy before Covid-19 but the virus told us basically to fast forward a couple of years within a couple of weeks, and make all these things happen. I've seen so many examples where customers have been putting something on track that they actually were planning for the long term and just launched it."
This is an excellent insight as one of the needs for solutions today, has resulted in a shift in mindset so we no longer look for the perfect solution, but the best solution that can help us now and we can refine it as we progress. Perhaps this is the first big learning of the new normal?
Further Reading:
- Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
- Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
- Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
- Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
- Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
- Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
- Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
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