Understanding the various ways in which your customers may perceive value from your services is crucial if you are to be able to effectively sell preventative maintenance based service solutions to them, writes Coen Jeukens...
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Feb 11, 2020 • Features • management • Predictive maintenance • Service Innovation and Design
Understanding the various ways in which your customers may perceive value from your services is crucial if you are to be able to effectively sell preventative maintenance based service solutions to them, writes Coen Jeukens...
Selling preventive maintenance is not what it used to be. In the old days a manufacturer could use its expert position to prescribe a maintenance scheme. Today, a combination of emerging technologies and pressure from buyers to do it cheaper/ smarter warrant a revisiting of the value proposition of preventive maintenance.
PM = Periodical Maintenance
As acronym we use PM. When talking we utter the words preventive maintenance. But what do we really mean?
- Planned Maintenance
- Periodical Maintenance
- Predictive Maintenance
- Prescriptive Maintenance
Analysing a lot of service contracts offered by OEMs we still see most of the maintenance is periodical or counter based. Just like the maintenance interval for your car; a PM each year or at 15,000 km.
All those periodical or counter based maintenance jobs are good service revenue for your service organisations But what happens when customers start challenging you? What if the customer has access to knowledge that amends or contradicts the engineering assumptions that led to the definition of your current maintenance intervals?
Buyers seek to reduce maintenance cost
In a world where people are more vocal, we see customers expecting things to work and buyers seeking to reduce maintenance cost. These expectations impact the way we sell service contracts.
Selling is more straight forward when you can see a direct relationship between the pain and the gain. Such a link is obvious for installation and break-fix activities. But it is less apparent for preventive maintenance. Try to picture buyers asking these questions:
- What does PM prevent and what is the risk that remains?
- What is the rationale of the current maintenance interval?
- Nothing happened last year. What will happen if we skip or delay a PM?
- Can you dissect the PM job in activities (show me what you do) and is it really necessary to have all those activities done by an experienced/ expensive technician as yours?
- Can we do pieces of the PM job ourselves?
You get the gist of the conversation and know where it is leading less cost for your customer at the expense of less PM revenue for your service organisation.
What complicates the selling of service, is that in most scenarios the buyer and the customer/ user are not the same person. You may convince the user of a piece of equipment to do preventive maintenance, the buyer on the other hand has a different set of objectives. Most likely the buyer will push you on a path towards commoditising and cannibalising your PM services. All in order to reduce cost.
Rediscovering value
To stay ahead of the game let’s dissect PM along the lines of value creation for the customer. High level you can split a PM into three pieces:
- The execution of the maintenance activities
- The reporting on those activities
- The communication and interpretation of the results
Ask your customers to rate the value of each of those pieces. It’s probable that you will find that the business value of PM to a lesser extent is in the execution and more in the reporting and communication.
Maybe you pride yourself in your uniqueness of execution, whereas the customer might perceive it as a commodity. If also reporting and communication are on par, you may face price erosion.
If your customer needs the PM report for compliance or insurance purposes, the value of the report increases. When you consider that PM is often a play of risk and liability, you can price the value of your brand.
Example: It does make a difference to an insurer if a yearly PM/ inspection is performed by a triple A company or a middle of the road company. Communication value comes into play when your customer expects you to be a partner rather than a supplier.
- Supplier – “just send me the PM report, I’ll read and interpret it myself. When I need assistance, I’ll contact you.”
- Partner – “help me interpret the findings and consequences of the PM. How does this impact my business?”.
In the latter situation you can monetise the communication beyond the effort of having a conversation for a couple of hours. PM can thus elevate from an obligatory periodical execution to an instrument of customer satisfaction and cross- and upselling.
Repackaging the preventive maintenance offering
In order to retain and expand your PM revenue stream in a context where the buyers move to reduce their spend, do go in discovery mode and (re)define preventive maintenance.
PM is not a singular black box once defined by somebody in engineering with a product focus. Modern PM is a menu of choices (and consequences) for your buyer based on the usage profile of the product, budget and risk.
Aug 20, 2018 • Features • Management • AR • Augmented Reality • Connected products • Predictive maintenance • Digital Twins • field service • field service management • Service Delivery • Service Management • Si2 partners • Titos Anastassacos • Managing the Mobile Workforce
Titos Anastassacos from Si2Partners shares with us some interesting insight on Augmented Reality from their recent research-based reports...
Titos Anastassacos from Si2Partners shares with us some interesting insight on Augmented Reality from their recent research-based reports...
Technology is changing field service rapidly.
In the not too distant future Smart Connected Products will be self-diagnosing; Maintenance will become, almost exclusively, predictive; Spare parts will be 3D printed; And humans will interact at a deeper level with machines through Augmented Reality and Digital Twins, whether the machine is in the same room or on the other side of the planet.
The nature of the service business will shift from technical labour and logistics to knowledge management and exchange. Service delivery will change drastically as will the nature of competition and business models.
"The nature of the service business will shift from technical labour and logistics to knowledge management and exchange. Service delivery will change drastically as will the nature of competition and business models..."
But if the “end-state” medium term can be discerned quite clearly, getting there poses significant challenges.
So, at a Si2 Partners, we developed a series of survey-based management reports, to shine a spotlight into service businesses’ efforts to grasp the opportunities of digitization while dealing with the challenges. We then draw conclusions and recommend the best ways forward. The first report on Augmented Reality is available now, the next report on Predictive Maintenance is due by the end of the year.
The first public demonstration of AR was in 1998 during ESPN’s coverage of a football game: Generation and display of the yellow first down line. The line stayed fixed within the coordinates of the playing field. It was not physically present on the field and was visible only to the television audience.
But from that simple application, only 15 years later, Gartner was predicting that companies would be increasing their profits by over $1 billion annually -by 2017- through the application of AR in their field service business.
Things, of course, are not so simple. Reducing costs does not directly translate into increased profits.
That depends on prices and we know that digitization tends to make them drop, sometimes to zero -think of what happened to chemical photography. But even if we only consider costs, AR is clearly important, in many ways transformational, technology with a potentially very powerful impact.
So, are companies adopting AR for field service? Our survey showed that they are.
Most expect significant cost savings and productivity improvements through AR, mainly in engineering time and travel cost -and, interestingly, smaller companies are at least as much engaged with the technology as larger ones: Upfront investment can be low, and it can be implemented quickly and stand-alone (at least initially).
Importantly, it may help reduce pressure on scarce, highly qualified, and expensive engineering resources, while simultaneously improving the cost-effective support of remote customers (smaller companies are less likely to have extensive service networks).
Overall, we found that while less than 1/3 of respondents already used AR, and, of those, the majority had introduced it over the past 12 months, another third planned to introduce it over the coming 12 months. This indicates an accelerating trend.
Of course, for users, it has not been all smooth sailing. Challenges are numerous: For example, it turns out that connectivity at customer sites is a significant issue, which hampers the use of the technology. But technical problems are normal at this stage of introduction.
Far more important are managerial challenges.
For example, as always, one size does not fit all: The most commonly reported use case is field technicians receiving AR-based support by experienced engineers from a remote central hub.
"Better applications for such cases may be pooling AR-based support, providing technical information through “knowledge-libraries”..."
This may help companies with large field service workforces (possibly with high turn-over rates or fewer qualifications) supporting standardized equipment. It is not much help to vendors of highly complex equipment whose field engineers are already highly experienced and qualified themselves.
In fact, it may be even counter-productive, slowing things down or reducing acceptance.
Better applications for such cases may be pooling AR-based support, providing technical information through “knowledge-libraries”, particularly on rarely encountered problems or legacy equipment, or integrating AR with the IoT, so that operational data can provide real-time context to engineers and support for diagnostics.
However, such applications require investment in digital content, something that many AR users have often not considered, as well as a process of experimentation and development.
Another finding is that following implementation of AR, many managements don’t take the necessary action to lock-in the AR benefits by pushing through change in the support and field service processes. For example, few companies eliminate technical manuals and drawings from a field engineer’s toolbox, delaying the necessary adjustments.
And, while many companies market their AR capability to customers, few have developed AR-based offerings. Yet our survey shows that customers would welcome AR-based support if it would help to reduce costs and improve performance, notwithstanding issues of confidentiality or privacy.
The process to integrate AR into a company’s mode of operations and to maximize its benefits will, as for any new technology, be arduous and bumpy. But the impact on costs and productivity is becoming clear. Though most don’t yet formally track it, 72% of our respondents said that AR is on par with or has exceeded expectations.
Augmented Reality in Service: Ready for Prime Time? Visit the Service in Industry Hub Shop to download the flyer or purchase the report. For more information contact titos.anastassacos@si2partners.com or visit Si2Partners
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Jun 15, 2018 • Features • AI • Artificial intelligence • Coresystems • Future of FIeld Service • manuel grenacher • Predictive maintenance • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations
Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems explains that although Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t necessarily a new innovation with the global enterprise value derived from AI set to total $1.2 Trillion this year you need to make sure it’s working for...
Manuel Grenacher, CEO, Coresystems explains that although Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t necessarily a new innovation with the global enterprise value derived from AI set to total $1.2 Trillion this year you need to make sure it’s working for you...
You know that voice that answers the phone and tells you to input your account number after the beep? That’s one of the numerous applications of artificial intelligence (AI) we encounter daily. If you’re reading this you probably know what AI is, but as a refresher, the term refers to a machine’s ability to imitate human cognitive abilities like problem-solving, language, strategic thinking, and learning. But its innovations and opportunities go far beyond asking Siri for driving directions to your next appointment – specifically for enterprise organizations. According to Gartner, the global enterprise value derived from AI will total $1.2 trillion this year – a 70 percent increase from 2017 – with significant expectations in areas like customer experience.
With an almost infinite number of data points and constant generation of new data, it is now impossible for the human mind to sift, sort, analyze, and draw insights from that torrent of information – yet AI uses these data sets to empower companies with strategic, informed decisions. Considering this explosive growth of AI, the following are some examples of how the field service industry can implement the technology to innovate and improve the customer experience.
Increase Productivity
Artificial intelligence optimizes the scheduling, planning, and dispatching of service and maintenance calls in real-time. Whereas traditional dispatchers must fall back on manual searches, an AI-based system values data points to generate efficient results, leading to smoother operations and the best possible utilization of your resources - which also translates into a sizable return on your investments.
An AI-supported system can factor in a variety of data with an increased level of speed and accuracy – for example, technician availability or skill level. An AI-supported system can factor in a variety of data with an increased level of speed and accuracy – for example, technician availability or skill level. Other restrictions, such as work time hours, legally mandatory lunch breaks, and travel time and distance – among others – are also be taken into consideration. Moreover, such systems can automatically notify technicians (via text, email, or other channels) about the necessary tools and parts needed for the job, not only guaranteeing higher first-time-fix rates, but also reducing wait times for available technicians.
Elevate the Customer Experience
Artificial intelligence technology also streamlines and optimizes the customer experience. With an AI-enabled platform, customers can expect real-time solutions, competent technicians equipped with the right tools and parts, and early detection of potential breakdowns. By connecting via mobile, they can track arrival times and progress, easily schedule and change appointments, and count on a quick and reliable billing system.
Support Predictive Maintenance
Lastly, with predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence is solving problems before they arise. This not only eliminates unnecessary machine condition checks but also addresses the growing skill gap between service technicians, as AI solutions can identify and address trivial tasks, which then allows the technicians to focus on customers and solutions instead.
The strides made in AI are in the direction of chatbots, language processing, image recognition, and machine learning. Even though these are considerable cost-saving and productivity benefits, many workers are afraid of AI replacing their jobs, and the entertainment industry has capitalized on an image of AI (like Star Wars, Iron Man or Black Mirror) that is more in line with types that are still being developed like Artificial General intelligence, or types that are fiction like Artificial Superintelligence.
In reality, the strides made in AI are in the direction of chatbots, language processing, image recognition, and machine learning. Rather than new technologies replacing jobs, artificial intelligence supports employees by helping them become more efficient, in areas such as predictive maintenance and customer experience. The forecasts for this inventive and advanced technology are promising, and we look forward to working with our customers to make the implementations successful.
What are some other uses that you see through your work in the field service industry? We invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section.
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Feb 12, 2018 • Features • Asset Management • Future of FIeld Service • Joe Kenny • Predictive maintenance • Digital Twin • IoT • Service Max • Uber
By 2020, there will be more than seven connected devices for every person alive. Service providers must anticipate this new reality, the speed at which it’s emerging, and its impact on business models explains Joe Kenny, Vice President Global...
By 2020, there will be more than seven connected devices for every person alive. Service providers must anticipate this new reality, the speed at which it’s emerging, and its impact on business models explains Joe Kenny, Vice President Global Customer Transformation & Success for ServiceMax, a GE Digital company.
The global economy is in the middle of the most disruptive period in all of human history. Companies that have been fuel for the global economic engine that powered the late 20th century are quickly disappearing from the global stage.
According to the Olin School of Business, 40% of today’s Fortune 500 companies will be gone in the next 10 years. Much of this business transformation is due to the accelerated advancement of technology. We are, in effect, making better and cheaper things that enable us to make better and cheaper things. Organisations that do not recognise this reality, and adapt to it, are going to face incredible challenges, much faster than ever before.
While many people are amazed at the success of Uber, few consider the consequences to Uber’s competitors.
While many people are amazed at the success of Uber, few consider the consequences to Uber’s competitorsIn New York City, a taxi medallion cost $1.3m in 2014 and two years later they were selling for $250k (Business Insider – 12 October 2016). That same article noted that the total share of all taxi rides for medallion owners in New York fell from 84% in April 2014, to 65% in 2015; A 20% market share decline in 12 months. Those that invested, over generations and decades, in N.Y.C. taxi medallions, will eventually see those medallions lose all of their value.
Ray Kurzwiel, futurist and author of the book, “The Singularity is Coming”, states that based on our current rate of change that, “from a historic perspective, the 21st Century will experience 20,000 years of technology advancement in 100 years”. What is driving this “Age of Acceleration”? The information and communications revolutions of the late 20th century. So, what does all of this have to do with how we service our corporate equipment and assets? Better, cheaper, and faster technology allows for a fundamental paradigm shift in how service providers approach customers and their markets.
Leveraging the technical revolution allows for machine to machine communication, remote asset monitoring, preventive maintenance planning, and predictive analytics. This is not something that is coming, it is something that is already here.Leveraging the technical revolution allows for machine to machine communication, remote asset monitoring, preventive maintenance planning, and predictive analytics. This is not something that is coming, it is something that is already here.
Major markets that have embraced these technology advancements include aviation, transportation, and power generation. Aviation Week reports that an average twin-engine plane can produce over 850 terabytes of data over 12 hours of flight. That data informs on everything from temperature, vibration, oil pressure, basically every aspect of that asset’s performance. It informs service providers of the exact status of that asset over time, when it will need maintenance, and exactly what maintenance it will need.
That level of information will shortly be available on almost every asset in service. Currently, there are approximately 28 billion connected devices on the planet. In the next three years, that number is expected to almost double to more than 50 billion.
That is more than seven connected devices for every person alive in 2020. Service providers need to anticipate this new reality, and more importantly, the speed at which this new reality is emerging. Positioning a service organisation to leverage these capabilities, access these technologies, and drive efficiency, effectiveness, and technologically advanced service will be critical to their survival in the market. It’s one of the main factors driving the exponential rise of field service.
Utilising technology to drive predictive maintenance, guaranteed uptime, defined service windows, and the move to defined service outcomes will be the price of admission to providing service and maintenance.Utilising technology to drive predictive maintenance, guaranteed uptime, defined service windows, and the move to defined service outcomes will be the price of admission to providing service and maintenance.
By way of example, GE already has 800,000 Digital Twins in operation that provide a digital mirror on the status and performance of equipment - covering assets from jet engines to wind turbines - allowing engineers to predict when they need servicing - helping field service engineers make sure that they perform the right service, right first time. Soon there will be more than a million Digital Twins in operation. If you are not positioning and preparing for this reality now, you may already be too late.
While there is always talk of the high cost of doing nothing, in the past there was a period of time for reflection, evaluation, and a window of opportunity to changes one’s mind. That will not be the case in the future. A missed opportunity will be gone before you know it.
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May 19, 2017 • Features • Predictive maintenance • resources • White Paper • White Papers & eBooks • dynamic scheduling • IFS • IoT
Resource Type: White Paper Published by: IFS Title: Utilising dynamic scheduling in a predictive maintenance world
Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: IFS
Title: Utilising dynamic scheduling in a predictive maintenance world
Synopsis:
People assume that machines will talk to each other as part of IoT, but it seems that the integration of data from IoT projects is something that is lacking.
In fact, it’s common to see organisations working with multiple IoT projects because of the disconnected flow of data. Effective use of real-time data from IoT projects enables operative predictive maintenance, which can link to advanced scheduling, more effective delivery of service, and higher customer satisfaction ratings. But how do these three business strategies link together?
In the context of this white paper, IoT means using data coming from sensors, in combination with data interpretation to predict maintenance needs. From those predictions of maintenance needs, the most efficient field schedule can be created through advanced scheduling based on data provided from the machine in the field, technician skills, and parts and tools needed for maintenance.
These predictions in combination with advanced scheduling take the schedule beyond drive time and identify the most effective use of your most important asset—the field service engineer
Overview:
This white paper covers four key areas:
IoT Strategy:
No matter the industry, any company can leverage an IoT strategy. Mobile phones, tables, machines and other devices continuously collect information that can be analysed and acted upon.
Cisco IBSG predicts there will be 50 billion internet-connected devices by 2020. This is an astonishing 100 percent increase from 2015.
This increase in internet-connected devices provides the opportunity to embrace IoT in a big way by leveraging large quantities of data from connected devices.
Predictive maintenance:
As unplanned downtime can disrupt an entire organisation, diminishing down-time is invaluable to organisations.
A survey conducted by Nielsen Research demonstrated that downtime costs an average of $22,000 per minute.
Because downtime can be so costly, most organisations invest in predictive maintenance in an effort to replace worn-down parts before they cause downtime. A well-designed IoT solution is a step in the right direction.
Leveraging real-time with advance scheduling:
When real-time data from an IoT solution connects with an advanced scheduling solution, a field technician can be notified of high-priority maintenance, prioritised by the advanced scheduling solution’s ability to adjust a schedule by responding to customer SLAs as appropriate.
The solution generates the most efficient, cost-effective schedule, identifying travel routes for the technician in closest proximity to the site of maintenance, with the right tools and skill-set to meet the maintenance needs.
Benefits of an IoT solution:
To move from reactive maintenance to predictive and preventive maintenance, an IoT solution providing real-time data should be implemented. By attaching sensors to equipment and facilities, an organisation can gain information about the condition of the equipment and facilities and how they are being used.
A task could be assigned to a field technician who travels to a customer site to address an issue before a customer is even aware that they have an issue.
The field service system analyses the data and issues prescribed actions that automatically lead to tasks being performed based on rules defined by the user. For instance, a task could be assigned to a field technician who travels to a customer site to address an issue before a customer is even aware that they have an issue.
Talk about a high customer satisfaction rating!
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Mar 17, 2017 • News • Future of FIeld Service • Gerry McNicol • Oneserve • predictive analytics • Predictive maintenance • BiG • Chris Proctor • field service
Oneserve, field service management software specialist based in Exeter, UK has announced a key strategic partnership with machine learning and predictive analytics specialist BiG Consultancy. The partnership will see the companies enhance and...
Oneserve, field service management software specialist based in Exeter, UK has announced a key strategic partnership with machine learning and predictive analytics specialist BiG Consultancy. The partnership will see the companies enhance and accelerate Oneserve Infinite, Oneserve’s Predictive Service Management offering.
Whilst many continue to talk around the prospects and future potential of machine learning and predictive analytics, this partnership make it a reality.
Chris Proctor, CEO at Oneserve, who was listed in the Field Service News #FSN20 list of key influencers this year, explains more: “Today we live in a world where our cost palatability is decreasingly rapidly, whilst customer expectations of service delivery are increasing at a seismic pace, driven largely by technology and innovations in our ‘consumer’ lives.
By looking outside the conventional confines of traditional field service principles, technologies and systems we have been able to learn and bring on board a number of solutions and make them accessible to our customers - Chris Proctor, Oneserve
Initially the Oneserve team looked into the potential of IoT, but found that whilst it provided a decent tool as an edge based trigger, essentially customers could be told that there was a problem without being able to do much about it; there was still going to be a significant downtime, but with perhaps just more time to try and work out how to manage it.
It was when in 2016 that Oneserve began to see what the alignment of a holy trinity of technologies, Big Data, IoT and Artificial Intelligence, could mean to customers that the true potential of a solution began to become clear.
“We’ve used Artificial Intelligence within our current scheduling engine for some time,” explained Proctor.
“However, combining the three provided the ability to look much wider and understand the relationships between failures and the contributing factor. This in turn, provided capabilities that could predict failure months in advance, a hugely significant step for us. In some industries, the costs associated with a responsive breakdown repair job can be as much as 20 times higher than the planned job.”
Partnering with BiG was a key part in Oneserve’s strategy to accelerate developments in this area and develop meaningful, real-world use cases where it could deliver significant advantages to customers. BiG has worked successfully with high profile customers in the past in this type of area including the likes of CrowdCube, The MoD, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme and Microsoft.
The combination of Predictive Asset Maintenance and Field Service Management is a fantastic example of how real benefit can be gained for both customer and supplier -Gerry McNicol, BiG
“It’s a superb use case for IoT and Machine Learning technology showing tangible and measureable benefits. Once you’ve seen it in action you wish you’d done this sooner,” McNicol concluded.
“So far we’ve been working to predict failures using our system to prevent them and to use deep learning within our existing product to optimise ‘job’ success,” commented Proctor. “Providing users with the ability to know when a given task is going to fail and why, allows for changes to be made pre-emptively. However, we have huge plans at harnessing the power of Oneserve Infinite and Deep Learning in an increasing number of ways and BiG will be critical part of that.”
Oneserve Infinite is able to provide customers with:
- A system that can autonomously recognise a ‘failure event’ with significantly more warning, ensuring that the relevant teams are notified and operatives are scheduled efficiently to undertake planned maintenance to prevent downtime.
- Detailed maintenance schedules of work that will be required over a given time
- ‘Asset Commercial Viability’ projections to help companies understand the remaining useful lifespan on their assets
- On a Service Management platform this technology transforms ‘Responsive Breakdown Repairs’ into ‘Planned Maintenance Events, offering customers, and indeed, theirs, with vast cost efficiencies and a level of service excellence that will set the benchmark for the future
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Mar 13, 2017 • Features • consumerisation • Future of FIeld Service • Mobility • Predictive maintenance • field service • Install base management • sumair dutta • The Service Council
Sumair Dutta, Chief Customer Officer, Service Council takes a look at some of the key areas of focus field service organisations need to consider in order to deliver success in 2017...
Sumair Dutta, Chief Customer Officer, Service Council takes a look at some of the key areas of focus field service organisations need to consider in order to deliver success in 2017...
Annual predictions and forecasts are an interesting activity/discipline. I like to think of them as annual affirmations as strategic investments don’t necessarily change year-over-year.
In some instances, organisations are looking to expand on what they’ve been doing.
I believe the four primary areas of focus that will yield success in 2017 will be:
- Increasing Predictability
- Enhancing Efficiency
- Identifying New Opportunities
- Empowering Customers with Access and Information
The internal investments in data, automation, talent development, and engagement process realignment must be aligned with these objectives .
In each of the four focus areas, I’d like to share an activity or investment that’s likely to be top of mind.
Increasing Predictability
Focus Initiative: Executing on Predictive Models.
In our research, we’ve found that most organisations have used investments in IoT or analytics to increase their efficiency.
They are finally turning an eye to the predictive power of this information and in building delivery models to support predictive service. Effective delivery models (over-the-air, self-service, remote assistance, partner-based support, field support) of predictive support can be built on the existing reactive infrastructure, but do require an investment in training, communication, and change management. To that end, the service organisation needs the support of other business groups, mainly R&D, IT, and Sales and Marketing.
Emerging Initiative: Going deeper into customer feedback data to predict future events and avert negative outcomes.
Enhancing Efficiency
Focus Initiative: Better Use of Better Information.
Over the past five years, service organisations have made significant investments in mobility to empower the field service staff and in unified desktops to empower contact center staff.
In these investments, organisations have focused on making sure that all information necessary was available at the front-lines. The problem was that the information wasn’t available in context, making it difficult for front-line staff to use this information.
To tackle the glut of information on the front-end, we do see organisations re-evaluate technology investments to ensure that the right information is prioritised for front-line staff. Outside of technology, we actually see a great deal of investment into the structure and design of training programs and content to ensure that front-line agents are able to act on information that is made available to them.
Emerging Initiative: Evaluating Augmented or merged reality in field service and in training as it enhances the reach and scale of a centralised expert model and drives more from available and experienced talent.
Identifying New Opportunities
Focus Initiative: Diving into Installed Base Management.
While organisations are always on the lookout for new customers and new services to sell to those customers, there is an increasing recognition of the need to accomplish more with the existing installed base. In this, organisations are focusing their analytical minds on the portfolio of existing customers and the products and services that might be needed to improve retention and increase customer value.
Emerging Initiative: The development of customer care (customer success) teams that enable a consistent communication with customers to uncover pain points, challenges, and opportunities.
Empowering Customers with Information and Access
Focus Initiative: Improving Ease and Reducing Effort.
Motivational speakers often state that a differentiated experience comes from the ability of an organisation to surprise and delight its customers. In equipment-centric service the word surprise isn’t looked at as a positive.
Yet, there is a greater push from equipment manufacturers (and other organisations) to improve the experience that’s delivered to customers. Some of this can be attributed to consumerised experiences delivered by the likes of Uber and Amazon. Organisations we work with are looking to make it easier for customers to do business with them and this correlates with reducing customer angst and effort in seeking and acting on information.
Emerging Initiative: The use of messaging as a communication channel in on overall interaction portfolio to offer customers a greater degree of choice and convenience.
2017 is going to be anything but predictable. Yet the recipe for service success doesn’t change much.
Customers continue to take charge with increasing demands and expectations and organisations must respond with clinical efficiency internally and value filled interactions and touch points with customers.
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