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In recent years, the sector has moved from a service operation that is a cost-centre, to one that can impact customer service.
Service outfits, recognising this shift, are now building in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to keep pace with a change that
can ultimately bring profit. Mark Glover tracks the evolving nature of KPIs in field service affirms their importance to a firm’s strategy...

Employers stifle groans and share knowing looks when a project manager starts listing KPIs. Touted in boardrooms and meeting rooms, they do however drive a business forward. They serve as signposts along a journey, ensuring that important milestones are met, completed and contribute to the end goal.

It’s a complex process to streamline but one that can bear much fruit. But is there a magic formula?

Type in ‘field Service KPIs’ to Google and your browser gets filled with an array of subjective suggestions. This is not surprising, as KPIs can be as far-reaching as a business requires. Efficiency, for example, incorporates time, such as the time it takes to complete a task, what billable time was used-up and what overtime was given to a job.

However, drilling down too much into one KPI can create issues. Martin Summerhayes, Fujitsu’s Head of Delivery Strategy and Service thinks defining a KPI is essential, something that comes from taking a long view of your service strategy. Failure to do so, he offers, could risk negative outcomes. “If you don’t look at the end-to-end,” he says, if you don’t look at the value chain that you want to achieve, if you’re not looking at the outcomes that you want to achieve and if you’re not looking at the total cost to serve then inefficiency is what you’re going to get.”

To illustrate his point, Summerhayes gives an example of the engineer told by his Manager to attend four jobs per-day.

The first he attends but without the correct parts and after explaining the situation to the customer, he leaves. He fits the parts at site two but the fault remains so raises another ticket, unable to do more, he makes a swift exit. He needs to call his branch manager (who isn’t there) after inspecting the issue at the third job, so the fault can’t be dealt with, he again explains this to the customer and departs. Finally, at job number four he fixes the part and completes the job. “

You get what you measure,” Summerhayes says, explaining the issue. “Four jobs have been done, but they haven’t been completed. The engineer hasn’t been told what to do with those four jobs. As the engineer is not being asked to completer the job, a whole load of waste is created. Of those four jobs, only one has been completed. The others will be swept back, picked up by a different engineer. You start to build complete inefficiency into the process, just purely by one measure and not being clear.”

And here lies the danger of loose KPIs. It may be tempting to create them to the nth degree but unless you create the right ones in line with the outcomes you want to achieve then you could end up pushing the wrong behaviour completely. “You need to be aware of the consequences,” Summerhayes warns. “You might measure the metric you think is right, but it will actually drive the wrong behaviour and it could even drive the wrong culture.”

Other broad KPIs, as well as time, include service delivery and the aforementiond efficiency; yet customer service – a key focus in modern field service - feeds into all the above: processes, service delivery and efficiency. In fact, one could argue it sits over the top of all KPIs being fed by those beneath it. Field service management requires a balance between time and cost savings while creating better customer service.

But how can you measure this ambiguous metric? Summerhayes says it consists of many elements. “The right people, with the right training and the right skills and the right motivation will drive employee satisfaction, employee engagement, employee loyalty and employee motivation,” he conveys. 

But within that, there needs to be a further question. How does an organisation create a positive employee culture? Does it come down simply to managing your team correctly and should you differentiate KPIs between your team and management?

In a podcast recording for Field Service News, Co- Founder and Managing Partner at Si2 Partners, Nick Frank identified that separate KPIs were extremely useful, particularly when relaying an employees’ worth to the company back to that employee. “It’s important to find the measure that motivates your staff and they can actually do something about,” he said. “If they’ve taken action, they can actually see how they’re impacting how the business is working. You should see that Managers and engineers, for example, are two different sets of stakeholders, so you should separate out the management metrics from the team metrics.”

I think Nick hits on an important point here, one that relates on human level and the impact we have in the world we operate in; which in this instance is the world of work. If you’re an engineer who is part of a large organisation, who checks-in once a month for the firm’s monthly meeting and reliant on mobile connectivity to keep in touch with colleagues, then it can be difficult to feel part of the company’s bigger picture. Having someone explain to you – through KPIs – that your excellent fix-rates are positively impacting the firm’s bottom line can only be motivating.

Service KPIs, therefore, should drive profits through loyal employees and satisfied customers. The latter achieved by acknowledging three aspects that customers expect today: access to support; overall solution time and being kept informed throughout the service experience.

Satisfied customers in turn creates customer loyalty which in turn creates revenue. Acquiring a new client is three times more expensive than retaining a current one. The focus should be on customer retention not customer acquisition. Keeping clients satisfied means adhering to KPIs that put them at the core. It means being creative with your data and having the courage to look at results a different way. If your measurements are showing positive numbers - for example, an 85% first-time fix rate - then turning the metric upside can really disrupt how you look at your services. Once flipped, analysing the 15% of jobs that didn’t meet customer expectation can lead to more insightful analysis of your service performance. It’s easy to remain in a KPI comfort zone.

Measuring what you don’t want to measure can sometimes return results that you didn’t expect but once acted on, can make all the difference in an era where the customer has, and will always come first.

Si2 Partners’ Nick Frank outlines why we can’t just expect our field service engineers to naturally achieve the status of trusted advisors without guidance, training and empowerment. 

Just because we tell our people we want them to be Trusted Advisors, does not mean they will succeed. We can give them mobile systems to escalate leads to sales, implement compensation systems and KPI’s to encourage behaviour, and provide training on service offers, but without embedding a Trusted Advisor mindset into our service teams, these efforts will be wasted.

The good news is that many of the traits of Trusted Advisors are already in the DNA of good service people. What they need is clarity on their role and an understanding of how to talk to customers so that they achieve a WIN, WIN, WIN:

• A Win for the customer so that every conversation they have moves them closer to their goal;
• A Win for the company to develop customer loyalty and profitability;
• A Win for themselves so they feel great about their job. 

What makes a Trusted Advisor different? At the very minimum they are good customer problem solvers. What starts to differentiate them from others is their ability to have meaningful conversations with customers that always seem to move towards solutions. They are able to provide options together with the benefits for various decision the customer might make. They normally have a high level of personal maturity in that they do not try to tell customers what to THINK. Instead they influence them by what they SAY and DO, and because they consistently deliver, customers trust their advice.

As the notion of a Trusted Advisor is widely used across sales & service, the job context is extremely important. For example, in field service and technical support the Trusted Advisor role is more about providing options than closing deals. Whereas in sales it is more about how we build rapport and credibility within a consultative selling process. Clearly understanding the context in which the Trusted Advisor mindset is being developed is vitally important to successful adoption.

In all cases, importance of having a great conversation cannot be underestimated. Technical people can have a tendency to focus more on the narrow problem than the wider customer relationship. This can lead them to missing important data in the problem-solving process and so failing to find the route cause.

Or just as important, the company misses out on opportunities to add value to the customers business whether that be through helpful advice or the identification of commercial activities. Another challenge many technical people have is that without realising it, they can talk in a way which makes customers defensive or aggressive. For example the next time you are having a conversation, listen for the “…yes, but…”. You may notice that it is a way of saying NO, which probably pulls up really negative feelings for you the listener. The trick is to learn the language that turns these negative situations into positive outcomes.

"Technical people can focus more on the narrow problem than the wider customer relationship..."

Sales people also need good conversations, and in particular understanding the art of closing the deal without losing their rapport with the customer. This is a very different version of Trusted Advisor and it is important not to get the sales version mixed up with technical service.

Service leaders who want to improve how their teams communicate with customers, might consider having the following conversations with their own people:

Clarify what you mean by a Trusted Advisor and the role they play in your organisation. In particular the customer needs and what makes them successful, as well as your companies business goals. This is where distinguishing the difference between selling and advising will be absolutely critical to your success

Develop a Mindset where every conversation we have with customers moves them a step closer to their goal. It may not be the complete solution, but it is a step in the right direction no matter how bad and uncomfortable the situation is. This very basic philosophy is key to training your people to deal with conflict, as well encourage them to have dynamic and collaborative relationships through solution orientated language.

Provide Tools and methods that allow us to actively listen, to talk more effectively, to manage conflict and resolve difficult customer situations. These tools are critical to helping us to prepare ourselves to be a Trusted Advisor in what can be challenging and stressful situations.

Practice in real-life scenarios with your team to see how they react under stress. We are constantly amazed at how confident many service people are about talking to customers in a training environment, yet it all falls apart in a customer situation.

Refresh: Developing how your team interacts with customers is not a one-off event and needs to be constantly mentored and coached.

If you want to develop the Trusted Advisor in your teams, then in addition to processes and propositions, you will need to start to have conversations about their role in the business, the listening skills they must develop and the language to use in order to create dynamic solution orientated relationships.

If you would like to know more about developing Trusted Advisor programmes in your business, then you can contact nick at nick.frank@si2partners.com or visit the si2 website here.

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Nick Frank, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Si2 Partners of Field Nation, discusses the ethos behind The Service Community, a knowledge-sharing, independent service members' group and looks forward to the organisation's next gathering taking place at Renishaw's HQ in Gloucestershire, UK. 

 

In this episode, Field Service News Deputy Editor Mark Glover, speaks to one of the spearheads behind The Service Community, Nick Frank, who explains the origins of the group's and explains its future goals. Nick also shares some of the challenges that members are highlighting in the service sector and tells us what delegates can expect at the association's next gathering taking place at the beginning of April.

You can find out more information about The Service Community here and sign-up for the group's forthcoming event at Renishaw's HQ in Gloucestershire on 2 April here.

Engineering and scientific technology firm Renishaw will host The Service Community's next gathering in April, which offers "real insight from real people on service-led growth."

Taking place at Renishaw's HQ in Glocesteshire, South West England on April 2, The Service Community's one-day event features a tour of the company's innovation centre as well as talks from industry professionals and experts.

Highlights include Chris Raddats, from Liverpool University will lead a discussion based research he undertook for four leading UK companies on how relationships are increasingly important in service business growth, following 11 years in the industry with Marconi and David Schmedding, Head of Customer Segment Management and Subscription at digital printers Heidelberg will share insight into the firm's next phase of outcome services at the event. 

Nick Frank from The Service Community said: "We are again lucky to be hosted by Renishaw, one of the UK’s most highly rated technology companies who will share how they have overcome the challenges of growing service businesses.

"I am also excited to have Heidelberg, one of  the world’s leading Digital printing equipment manufacturers and Service leaders to share their experiences. This will be a unique chance to discuss with the company responsible person, how digital technologies and organisation change have led to the possibilities of a new subscription based business model.  

"And then we have some real pragmatic thought leadership shared by Chris Raddats from Liverpool University. This event really lives up to our goal of offering real Insights from real people on Service led growth." he said.

You can register for the event here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UK Service Community is a group of professionals who are passionate about service and believe in sharing ideas and experiences in order to improve. It is a community in the true sense of the word in that there is no legal entity, no sponsors, no sales pitch, no exchange of money.

Yes, it is free and no-one gets paid! Members give their time, their expertise or facilities so that we have the opportunity to talk, share and learn from our peers who operate in a whole range of industry sectors.

The Service Community generally has two half-day meetings per year which are generally attended by between 30-50 professionals. Recently we have been at GE Power in Stafford, the Institute of Manufacturing at Cambridge University and at Konica Minolta’s London HQ. We have had speakers from small SME’s, to the largest and best of UK industrial businesses, including buyers of Advanced Services such as the Ministry of Defence.

Generally we run the meetings from 11-4pm, including lunch, with an opportunity to listen and discuss 4-5 topics plus lots of opportunities for informal discussions with your peers. The discussions range across 5 broad areas, so there is always something of interest:

 

• Service Sales & Customer Success
• Operational Improvement
• Achieving Transformation & Change
• Leveraging Technology to achieve growth
• Leadership in Service

 

With this informality, yet access to the very best industrial thinking, the discussions run deeper and more intimate than one usually might find at networking events. To get an idea of the topics we cover and the speakers, have a look at the Service Community website on www.service-community.uk

First started in 2012 the community has grown to over 240 members, despite losing the founder of the community Steve Downton to cancer. His philosophy has been taken forward by a loose collection of service professional, including a number of senior leaders from Pitney Bowes, Elekta and Fujitsu, as well as ourselves. The membership is extremely varied across a wide range of industries and includes practitioners, consultants and solution providers.

At our next event at Renishaw new HQ near Gloucestershire, we are taking the community to a new part of the country with an agenda that will be to promote discussion through smaller groups of people to discuss common problems in the industry.

As with any community, the energy comes from its membership, so we are always interested in new ideas, or people who want to get involved.

If you believe that talking with peers is one of the best ways to improve your performance, then you can register for our next event at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-service-community-at-renishaw-tickets-52993610315

Or if you are interested in talking or even getting involved, please contact us at info@service-community.uk

 

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We've been asking for some time now how Augmented Reality will fill its potential as a central fulcrum within the future of field service. For Nick Frank the key is for it AR to become entwined with Knowledge Management... 

The English philosopher Francis Bacon once said: “Knowledge is power,” In earlier times, knowledge was usually kept to oneself for personal gain. Today, it is the sharing of knowledge that leads companies to success, especially in times of increasing digitization.

This ‘sharing’ involves collecting data, transforming it into insight and then getting it to a place where people can use it to make a difference. Benefits are only seen when the ‘knowledge chain’ is completed and any break in the chain nullifies our efforts.

So when industry commentators tell you that a particular technology is the “silver bullet” to success, it really is an oversimplification!

The problem is that knowledge is often “hidden” in the various IT systems and applications, or lost in the heads of employees who leave the business. For field service, this problem is particularly severe as the service portfolio is significantly larger than the current product offers due to longer product lifecycles and ever faster new product introductions.

On the other hand, service knowledge must be immediately available, in a distributed fashion, to achieve quick solutions and to ensure customer satisfaction. For service, we should view the challenge as being to provide customers or field technicians with that extra piece of know how that will help them solve problems more efficiently. A kind of “Augmented Knowledge” for expand it and provide it in a targeted manner. Existing information stored in different systems is merged. This can be structured data such as parts lists and unstructured information such as service tickets or service reports.

 

"Unstructured knowledge – text or prose – is analysed using text mining tools and integrated with the structured data. Large amounts of data can then be digitised and used intelligently..."

 

Unstructured knowledge – text or prose – is analysed using text mining tools and integrated with the structured data. Large amounts of data can then be digitised and used intelligently.

Urgently needed information is provided easily and quickly. Being able to network across databases makes it possible to recognize contexts, to analyze causes of failures and to create transparency. By using the system and verifying or excluding results, users continuously enrich it with expert knowledge. The current problem may already be the solution for the next user.

A classic example is finding similar cases (or problems). If an engineer is looking for the cause of a failure, the system looks for similar case and offers potential solutions.

The source for this could be the targeted evaluation of completed service cases (e.g. service tickets). By analysing which solutions were chosen by the engineer, the associated repair instructions, and confirming them as successful (or not successful, as the case may be) after the repair – the system learns through this interaction.

In fact, this process can go further and develop new insights from existing information. By visualizing and recognizing patterns, correlations can be identified, and appropriate measures initiated. For example, as part of a maintenance action or repair, the system can recommend the maintenance or repair of other elements to avoid subsequent failures that have arisen in similar situations.

But how to get that information to the point of need?

Augmented Reality (AR) technology, with its capability to supplement a real object, such as a machine or a component, with additional digital content is an ideal tool for this. It is not just the traditional approach of an expert communicating with a technician, it is extending it to ‘’smart’ databases supplying answers to questions.

 

"There is much to learn about the ergonomics of Augmented Knowledge and how to integrate it into people’s working lives..."

 

For example, in addition to the live video image on a tablet, smartphone or smart glasses, information and instructions can be augmented to the display to help solve the problem. These may be created by an expert remotely or they may be rendered as step by step instructions by the knowledge management system.

The individual steps necessary to solve the problem are now available in the form of AR annotations and can be subsequently edited and saved. This is another advantage of the AR system: The repair process gets documented and can be used again for similar cases.

So, if the engineer encounters this problem again in the future, they can reuse the annotations of the first repair without having to consult the expert. In addition, the solution is also available to all other engineers.

This saves significant time and effort. The caveat is to be able to present information to users such that they can use it. There is much to learn about the ergonomics of Augmented Knowledge and how to integrate it into people’s working lives.

This is a good example of how by turning information into transportable and analysable data (some call this digitisation of their processes), it is possible to accelerate service delivery, saving time and money for both the service provider and the user of machines.

Our experience is that by breaking down Knowledge Management and Augmented Reality into smaller pilot projects, we learn how to provide Augmented Knowledge to the Technician. Not just the technology, but actually how people brains cope with having access to this additional insight.

This may seem as bit ScFi and daunting at first, but you would be surprised how much of this you already do. Our advice is don’t look to anyone technology being pushed at you as the unique solution to your problems. You must develop your Knowledge Management, Augmented Reality and People capability in parallel.

For more information on how to start this digital journey, you can contact authors at peter.maier@si2partners.com or nick.frank@si2partners.com

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Nick Frank, Managing Partner at Si2 Partners 

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Places for the upcoming Service Community event which is being hosted by GE Power, are now becoming very limited...

The event will be hosted at Ge's state-of-the-art facility at Stafford on the 16th October from 11.00 to 16.00.

As one of the most sophisticated Buyers of Advanced services, Keith Rushton from the MOD will give unprecedented insight in how performance related services are purchased, and why the MOD has been so influential in developing the new BSI standard for Services. We have one of the best presentations on Selling Service Value  I have seen from Leon Sijbers of GE Power and Ross Townsend from Ishida will be sharing their Service Transformation story. Phil Newton from BT will share his experience of rolling out an Augmented Reality Solution to one of the largest Field Service Organisations in the UK. And finally, Mark Homer from GE Digital will share some research on the importance of Service Data in industrial businesses.

The Service Community creates discussions and insights that are far deeper than most conferences, due to the informal and intimate nature of our events.  This is because we are a community in the true sense of the word, run by volunteers, with no sponsors, no exchange of money, no legal entity no hidden agenda's, just real people talking about real things motivated by a desire to learn.

Please feel free to forward this information to colleagues who you think would be interested.  We look forward to seeing you in October and remember to register by sending an email to info@service-community.uk . We will then contact you to confirm registration and will send out the joining instructions nearer to the event.

 

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Across recent weeks here on fieldservicenews.com we've published a series of features analysing an exclusive research project run in partnership with Si2 Partners, WorkAmmo and Service People Matters.

Previously we reflected on Si2 Partners founding partner Nick Frank's initial commentary on some of the headline findings of the research which were first aired in a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast.

Now in the final part of this exclusive research analysis, we dig deeper into the findings and see how the trends the research has revealed support Frank's Si2 Partners initial hypotheses...

 

The Key Characteristics of a Service Manager

So, to begin let’s explore what the key characteristics field service organisations are looking for when recruiting new service managers.

We asked our survey respondents “What are the key attributes you look for in a service manager” with a list of 14 options to select as well as the option to submit additional information - and we asked respondents to list any options that were applicable to them.

Interestingly, and very much in line with Frank’s comments, the most common response was leadership capability in which 86% of respondents stated was a key attribute they sought within their service managers.

This in itself is a particularly intriguing insight given that as Frank alluded to, leadership capabilities may not be particularly evident based on past performance if organisations are promoting from within and selecting their new service managers from a pool of their highest performing field engineers.

This is not to say that they won’t necessarily exist within that pool, however, the skill set of strong leadership is as we have mentioned in the introduction a different skill set to what makes an excellent field service engineer.

 

"The most common response was leadership capability in which 86% of respondents stated was a key attribute they sought within their service managers..."

 

Yet it seems indeed that leadership is absolutely viewed as pivotal within the role of service management today - something that is surely a reflection on the strategic importance of service delivery as a growth driver that Frank refers to.

However, whilst the research findings reveal that whilst leadership skills are the most commonly sought after trait when recruiting service managers, it seems that many service organisations continue to seek out similar attributes within their service managers as those that are often highly valued within field service engineers and technicians.

Specifically, field service organisations were commonly looking for potential service managers to show technical knowledge and application (77%) and be good problem solvers (50%) both key traits often sought after in field service engineers and technicians.

Additionally, both an ability to fight fires and demonstrated performance delivery were both identified as key traits by just under a third (30%) of field service companies look for when recruiting new service managers - again highlighting how the roles of service managers are seen as being a linear progression from field-based roles.

However, given that this number is relatively low, it could also be argued that this could indeed be indicative of a changing tide and that this is part of the evolution which Frank described as service becomes a strategic growth drier rather than merely a cost centre.

Yet, when we look for the skills and attributes that are more firmly in line with what Frank describes as business management skills, again the data sits very much in line with his hypothesis, that perhaps not enough service organisations are showing the levels of ambition that one might expect given the large shift towards service as a profit centre we have seen in recent years.

 

"A third of companies (33%) who stated that a good head for business is something they look for in a service manager, whilst slightly more (40%) stated that an important trait they look for in service managers is for them to be analytical and metric driven..."

 

In fact, again it is a third of companies (33%) who stated that a good head for business is something they look for in a service manager, whilst slightly more (40%) stated that an important trait they look for in service managers is for them to be analytical and metric driven - another attribute that is perhaps more aligned to business management than the traditional requirements of service management.

What these findings to appear to reveal is that we do seem to be in the midst of an evolution within the role of the service manager, with some companies still leaning towards selecting the best performers within their field service teams, whilst others are adopting a slightly more ambitious approach to selecting their service management personnel in looking for traits that are more aligned with the strategic business aspects of the role.

There are of course merits in both approaches, as Frank points out, however, there are also a number of traits that are fundamental to being able to ensure that field service operations are delivered optimally and this was also evident in the research findings.

One big attribute that was commonly cited as important for field service companies to seek within their service managers was a customer-centric outlook - which was, in fact, the second most frequently cited of all the options within the survey with 80% of companies stating this is something they look for within a potential service manager.

Alongside this, a large percentage of companies felt that potential candidates for their vacant service manager roles should ideally have a good operational understanding, which two thirds (66%) cited as well as a good rapport with their service engineers which over half (55%) cited.

Whilst both of these latter two attributes could, of course, be developed by an external candidate these are both areas where an internal recruit would certainly have an advantage.

 

Service Manager Development

So, based on the research findings around the desired attributes of service managers, there remains a strong case for hiring from within, yet at the same time we are certainly starting to see a developing appetite for and a gradual shift towards the more business focussed service management role that Frank describes.

So does this mean that field service organisations are looking to recruit within and then develop the layers of business acumen required for managing a service business as a profit-generating entity?

The research would appear to suggest that this may not yet be the case and the role remains to be seen as being both technical and supervisory rather than being focused on business performance and strategic thinking.

Having  asked our respondents ‘What training do you give to your service managers?’ we found out that indeed, leadership training was the most popular response being cited by just over half (53%) of respondents, whilst technical training was also cited by half (50%) of respondents.

 

"Less than a quarter of our respondents (23%) stated that they gave their service managers any financial or business acumen training..."

 

In addition to these attributes ‘coach-the-coach’ style training and also ‘soft-skils’ were both cited by 30% of companies, is another attribute that fits more within a supervisory focused service manager role.

In contrast to this, less than a quarter of our respondents (23%) stated that they gave their service managers any financial or business acumen training.

This would certainly suggest that whilst aspirationally many companies may be beginning to see service as a driver for revenue growth, in reality, the majority of field service organisations still see the role of the service manager as being one firmly rooted in the operational side of the business.

Of course, one answer for this could simply be that many organisations see the more business-focused aspects of service management as belonging within the realm of the service director, rather than the service manager - but that begs the question as to whether we are developing the necessary characteristics within our service managers to make the necessary step up to become highly effective service directors who can drive both a service operation and business growth forward simultaneously?

Could it be that as field service delivery continues to becoming increasingly interwoven within business strategy - particularly as the trend towards servitization and outcome-based contracts become more prevalent that we are seeing demand outstrip supply in terms of service managers who are equally comfortable being operationally efficient, business savvy and who also have a natural proclivity to customer-centricity?

 

"Over two thirds (70%) of respondents stating that they didn’t feel there were enough candidates to meet demand for service managers roles..."

 

The research would again certainly add weight to this argument with over two thirds (70%) of respondents stating that they didn’t feel there were enough candidates to meet demand for service managers roles given the fact that field service has become increasingly important operation within many companies wider business strategies.

This lack of suitable candidates again asserts the validity and importance of being able to recruit from within - in essence, to be able to grow your own service management leaders. However, if companies are to do so and to do so effectively, then it would appear that many need to rethink how they approach their management level training programs to incorporate more focus on the business aspects if they are to truly align the role of service manager, with the premise of service as a profit centre.

Yet it is by no means an impossible task and the fact that just under half (44%) of the field service organisations who participated in the research involve their service directors within the recruitment process would suggest that these concepts may well filter down over time.

It seems that there is a small portion of field service organisations who are one step ahead of the pack in terms of developing their service managers to not only be able to deliver operationally but also strategically. The question now must be how long before the rest catch up? how long before the rest catch up?

 

Executive Findings: 

 

• 86% of field service companies state that Leadership Capabilities are a key attribute they look for in potential service managers
• 77% of field service companies state that Technical Skills are a key attribute they look for in potential service managers
• 80% of field service companies believe their Service Managers must have a customer-centric outlook.
• 55% of field service companies expect their Service Managers to have an excellent rapport with their service technicians
• 23% of field service companies provide their Service Managers with business or financial acumen training.
• 70% of field service companies believe that there are not enough suitable candidates to fill the demand for Service Managers

 

About The Research:

The research was conducted over a six week period reaching out to fieldservicenews.com subscribers as well as the respective audiences of our partners inviting recipients to complete a detailed online survey. In total there were 131 respondents.

In addition to this Field Service News Editor-in-Chief conducted a live polling session at the recent Field Service Connect event, held at the Belfry, UK which was hosted by WBR at which an additional 33 senior field service executives were present bringing the total respondent level to 164 field service professionals - a sufficiently large enough response base to provide a fairly robust snapshot of the current trends around recruitment and development amongst field service organisations today.

The respondents represented a diverse range of industries including; Heavy Manufacturing, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Power Generation and Facilities Management. There were respondents from all across the globe including the UK, Belgium, Germany, UAE, Canada, Spain and the USA and there were responses from companies of varying sizes ranging from those with less than 10 engineers through to those with over 800 engineers.

 

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Previously on fieldservicenews.com we published an analysis of an exclusive research project run in partnership with Si2 Partners, WorkAmmo and Service People Matters where we revealed that 57% of field service organisations prefer to promote from within when appointing service managers.

Here in the second part of this analysis, we now explore in greater depth whether service organisations should be redefining the role of the service manager and ask what are the key attributes we should look for in service leaders of the future...

As field service operations continue to become an increasingly important part of revenue and customer engagement strategies for organisations of all sizes and in all verticals, it, of course, follows that those leading our field service teams are simultaneously becoming essential to the wider success of a business.

In our previous analysis of our research into development and recruitment trends within field service organisations we revealed that currently just over half of field service organisations prefer to promote from within when seeking to fill field service management vacancies, which is largely how things have been done historically - it is a sure bet that a large percentage of the service directors reading this report will have started their career as a technician in the field and this background and experience certainly has its advantages.

For a start when promoting someone from within they will, of course, have a much more intimate understanding of your organisation, your engineers’ workflows and perhaps most importantly your customer base. These are all factors that will help them hit the ground running in their new management role.

 

"Sometimes the best engineers, no matter how conscientious and efficient they may be when working in the field, just can’t make the step up into management - running a team requires a very different skill set than keeping your clients’ assets running..."

 

Yet, there is, of course, a flip side. Sometimes the best engineers, no matter how conscientious and efficient they may be when working in the field, just can’t make the step up into management - running a team requires a very different skill set than keeping your clients’ assets running.

Discussing this particular finding within the research in a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast Nick Frank, Founder of Si2 Partners commented:

“I think it is very natural, especially for companies who see service as a cost centre and as simply a way of generating customer loyalty, to see the people that they want to lead these functions within their own organisation.”

“Of course, these companies will be looking for people with the leadership skills - but they may also have a preference for someone who also knows the business.

“A large reason for that is is because service involves dealing with so many different stakeholders such as R&D and sales. Then it is also good to have someone who also knows the products and how those products work and how they operate in the customer environment.”

“So yes, if you are coming from a viewpoint of 'we are fundamentally there to keep the machines running and try to satisfy our customers’ then I’m not that surprised companies are still predominantly hiring from within.”

“But frankly, to be completely honest I’m a little bit disappointed that the percentage is still so high.”

 

"Service is becoming much, much more of a strategic growth driver..."

 

“The reason for that is because for me service is becoming much, much more of a strategic growth driver. Now that’s not to say it is the only drive, but it is certainly becoming recognised as an important strategic growth driver alongside  a number of other things.”

“When you adopt that approach, you’re suddenly your not really looking so much for that in-depth product knowledge in your service leadership - in fact as a leader you should always have people within your team who understand the technical side.”

So the key attributes you want to see in your service managers then become much more about business leadership elements. By this, I mean things such as strategic direction, decision making and getting teams aligned etc. Also, business acumen becomes far more important because when you start seeing service as a driver for growth you are no longer operating as a cost centre, you’re generating revenue and running a business - so in some ways, I was a little bit disappointed that so many are still hiring from within.”

 

"Business acumen becomes far more important because when you start seeing service as a driver for growth you are no longer operating as a cost centre, you’re generating revenue and running a business..."

 

“Who knows, maybe these companies are finding people with all those skills within their organisations, but I feel that it is more likely that they are opting to play it a bit safe, rather than being a bit more ambitious with where they want to take their service business.”

It is certainly an interesting topic for discussion and Frank raises many valid points, but is the fact that so many field service companies are still predominantly hiring from within indicative of field service companies erring on the side of caution, or is it perhaps the case that as with many other areas within field service we see patterns evolve at a slightly slower pace often due to the necessity of keeping what is invariably a mission-critical side of the business on relatively stable ground.

To help us understand this better and to dig deeper into the thinking behind many field service companies approach to hiring and developing new service managers, we will focus in this second part of our research analysis on the key trends amongst service organisations in terms what we attribute are key in the next generation of service leadership and how companies are nurturing them.

About The Research:

The research was conducted over a six week period reaching out to fieldservicenews.com subscribers as well as the respective audiences of our partners inviting recipients to complete a detailed online survey. In total there were 131 respondents.

In addition to this Field Service News Editor-in-Chief conducted a live polling session at the recent Field Service Connect event, held at the Belfry, UK which was hosted by WBR at which an additional 33 senior field service executives were present bringing the total respondent level to 164 field service professionals - a sufficiently large enough response base to provide a fairly robust snapshot of the current trends around recruitment and development amongst field service organisations today.

The respondents represented a diverse range of industries including; Heavy Manufacturing, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, Power Generation and Facilities Management. There were respondents from all across the globe including the UK, Belgium, Germany, UAE, Canada, Spain and the USA and there were responses from companies of varying sizes ranging from those with less than 10 engineers through to those with over 800 engineers.

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Look out for the second part of this analysis where we will explore how a deeper exploration of the research findings correlated with Frank’s hypotheses as we dig deeper into the key characteristics field service companies are seeking when recruiting for new service managers…

 

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