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UCC Coffee, the leading total coffee solution provider, is using Aeromark’s real-time multi-lingual Service Management platform to deliver fast, effective service to its customers. 

The company provides a market leading Total Coffee Solution to some of the industry’s leading foodservice, hospitality and retail companies including restaurants, pubs, QSR, contract caterers and grocery multiples.

In the UK, a team of more than 160 specialist coffee engineers, use smart-tech to look after all aspects of commercial coffee machine care; from full-service maintenance to reactive callouts.  UCC Coffee’s customers rely on the company both for exceptional coffee quality, consistency and to ensure their equipment is always available; any downtime must be resolved in the fastest possible time. 

Using Aeromark’s real-time service management platform has enabled UCC Coffee’s operations team to achieve a consistently high first-time fix rate.  

UCC coffee has also recently extended its service capability to manage planned and reactive maintenance for its pan-European customers. “Providing world class service to our customers, underpinned by smart technology, is central to our market leading Total Coffee Solution for foodservice, hospitality and retail businesses across the UK, Ireland and, in Europe,” said Elaine Swift, Regional Director (Northern Europe), UCC Coffee.

Using dynamic, automated multilingual workflows, Aeromark’s real-time, multi-lingual Service Management platform enables companies to manage the unique challenges of operating a field service workforce across multiple regions while delivering the best possible service, regardless of location.

The service request lifecycle is streamlined from start to resolution; providing complete visibility and a full audit trail of customers’ equipment, service history, stock consumption and engineers performance. Uniquely, once a service call is scheduled for a European location all job information is automatically translated to the engineer’s local language. 

UCC Coffee’s service centre receives requests via phone, email and self-service portal forming the work queue from which planners quickly and easily create service team schedules using multiple scheduling options.

Schedules are optimised to real-time, providing planners with a visual view of the status of jobs as the day progresses.  They can see at a glance when service calls are completed quicker than expected and can add additional calls to an engineer’s day.  Equally, if jobs overrun, work can be reallocated to other engineers, ensuring customer service levels are met and service efficiency is maximised.

Intelligent workflow translation automatically moves jobs designated for engineers in European locations to the relevant language workflow with job details, job sheets and related forms presented to engineers in their local language; streamlining and standardising service delivery.

 

Customers of UCC Coffee can also submit service requests directly into UCC Coffee’s work queue, via a portal; giving the customer unparalleled visibility and control and increasing the efficiency of the service supply chain.  A true example of a service ecosystem and partnerships powered by technology.

Cloud-based software firm will purchase Israeli tech outfit to boost service offering.

Salesforce will acquire Click Software in a deal worth $1.5 billion that is expected to complete in the Autumn.

The acquisition will boost Salesforce's service offering, Service Cloud, which, according to the company's June financial statement, has earned the company $1 billion in revenue.

Salesforce's Bill Patterson says that end-uses will ultimately benefit from the purchase. “Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers," the EVP and GM of Service Cloud commented.

Israeli outfit Click Software were founded in 1997, going public in 2000 and were purchased 15 years later by private equity firm Francisco Partners for $438 million.

At the Field Service USA conference in Palm Springs, California this year, digital transformation continued to dominate discussions. Marne Martin of IFS and our own Kris Oldland were both on the speaking roster so they caught up over a coffee to compare notes…

As someone who attends many field service conferences across the globe, there are some speakers within our industry whom I know will give a presentation that always gives me a spark of an idea for a new article or feature and as such, I always make a beeline for their sessions when my schedule allows.

One such speaker is Marne Martin, President of Service Management for IFS and CEO of Work Wave. Martin has an uncanny knack of talking about subjects that are right on the pulse of the audience. She always manages to address the concerns and present solutions that resonate with the room, but is also able to bring a light sense of levity and fun to her sessions as well – and she usually has at least one brilliantly memorable line that gets stuck in your mind for a long time.

This time around it was the fantastic throw away one liner: “You don’t want to bring a Volkswagen to a Formula 1 race.”
It was a pithy reminder that the stakes in field service have been raised in recent times. The competition is greater than ever as industry after industry adapts to the disruptive influences of innovative companies like Uber, Deliveroo and AirBnB who are not just revolutionising their sectors but those far beyond their remits by raising expectations of what seamless customer experience looks like in the age of the app.

Martin’s discussion weaved through both the digital transformation and also the cultural transformation that many field service organisations are going through, with the majority of those yet to do so now seeing such change looming on their horizons also. She touched on crucial issues being widely felt, such as talent shortages and how service organisations can get value from the technology that the pressure of increasing customer demand insists they implement.

However, the critical point she touched on was the importance of understanding and clearly defining service strategy. It is a point that I have made both in recent presentations of my own as well as in these pages. Without a properly defined service strategy, without knowing ‘who’ your organisation ‘wants’ to be, any such programs that seek to implement digital transformation will be at best ill formed and at worst an expensive failure that could really set a service organisation back.

I’ve expressed the opinion that digital transformation, has to be an ongoing process, not a one-off project. A journey, not a destination. As such, a clearly defined service strategy needs to be in place if you want to stay on the right path.

So when I sat down with Marne to grab a quick coffee away from the melee of what was a jam-packed conference, with hundreds of delegates and vendors buzzing around – this was the first area I wanted to touch base on and swap notes about.

“Think about how you empower the field, the mobile workflow enhancements, how you enable the technician to cross-sell, upsell, to close out tickets, all of these items that drive higher customer satisfaction. These are all fundamental to what makes service matter.

They all drive profitability for the service organisation, growth in revenue and customer satisfaction,” she mused as I outlined my thinking to her. “It is just that today we have more tools with which we’re able to achieve this and that allows us to achieve it at a faster more efficient pace - which is, of course, what customers want. I think it all fits together in a way that we, as a sector, are able to bring these fundamentals into the new digital era.

“It only becomes a problem when companies begin thinking about digitalisation as something disconnected from these fundamentals.” This line of thought echoes my thinking on the topic as well. However, there is an additional layer of complexity to the discussion that I have also been considering of late.

Perhaps the biggest of all shifts in the field service sector over the last decade has been the move firstly from cost centre to profit centre and now what many see as a natural extension of that into a world of servitization. In one sense, it feels as though the field service sector has never witnessed such a significant paradigm shift as we are seeing today as companies move away from the traditional break-fix approach to one of outcome-based services.


         "Digital transformation, has to be an ongoing process, not a one-off project..."


In that sense, we’re going through a complete revolution across the sector. However, I’m also of a firm belief (and have spoken to many service directors around the world who agree) that the essential thing in terms of delivering service excellence is not to lose sight of the core tenets of what good service looks and feels like, and at the heart of that remains some long-established foundational positions around ensuring an ‘Outside-In’ perspective on the service business.

Making sure you understand the customer and how they want to interact with your organisation, and then making sure processes are designed around that understanding is not a particularly radical position, but rather a well established best-practice.

The result is a dichotomy in service strategy between embracing the new while holding on to the historical precedents that underpin service excellence. It is not an impossible equation to balance, but it is one that should be considered deeply when approaching the current mega-trend of digital transformation.

This balance between yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s worlds was another area that Martin touched upon in her presentation where she used the phrase ‘Challenge the Present, Lead the Future’ and it was something I wanted to dig deeper into when we spoke. “By challenge the present I mean that field service organisations need to assess where their basics are weak, flawed or broken, and to assess how these can be improved to drive a future in which they are not,” she explained.

“If you look at all the key technology trends that are out there, we’re bringing every single one into service. Of course, some are coming faster than others as you would expect, but they all have applicability in service. However, on the other hand, the building blocks of what great service is, whom you deliver service to, and what you deliver service with remain the same.

“It’s the interplay of the fundamentals of service, the brand, the asset, the technician, and so on and how we drive the efficiencies and delivery of these forwards, with these new technology trends, into a new paradigm.

“To get to servitization or outcome based service, you still need to understand maintenance and break-fix and up times and asset performance. It’s not as if our understanding of all these core things goes away; it just has to be heightened and put together into an outcomes-based proposition. But rather than just deciding what is going to be our approach to reducing technician travel time or what is going to be our overtime strategy, companies are now looking at everything holistically to be able to asses the outcome they are delivering to the customer, how they are pricing that outcome and what is the margin on that outcome.”

Again I agree with Martin’s take on things here. The phrase that comes to mind is evolution, not revolution. I feel this is an apt mantra for many service organisations to adopt in these times of rapid technological and societal change. While talk of impending industry revolution may grab headlines, the truth is effective change is always iterative – and that very much holds true for field service organisations today.

Whether your organisation is on a journey to digitalisation or to servitization, remember it remains a journey, not a destination. Please drive carefully.

ServiceMax has revealed the results of its new survey of customers to better understand how real-world organizations benefit from service execution management technology – and areas where even the most advanced organizations can improve, including measurable impact on key performance indicators such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and employee engagement.

Partnering with market research consultancy Wakefield Research, the ServiceMax Impact Report analyzes the impact that service organizations track by leveraging ServiceMax’s field service management and asset service management solutions. Further, the report shares insights for service leaders to help them go beyond productivity and efficiency gains and rethink approaches to workforce management, asset service strategies and customer experience that drive service transformation.

Service is not a one-size fits-all industry. This year, survey results reveal companies that have started their digital service transformation journey are seeing impact across their service business and bottom line. By providing digital tools that engage the service workforce, provide visibility into the install base as maintained in the field and address increasing demands for a seamless customer experience, ServiceMax customers are able to provide insight and impact to board level initiatives.

Highlights from the survey, which showcase average business impact for customers using the ServiceMax platform, include:

2019 figures shows revenue guidance increase equivalent to $711 million, representing 20% year-on-year growth.

IFS has announced its financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2019 that ended June 30, boasting a 20% YOY growth and a revenue guidance increase of 6.35 billion SEK (equivalent to US $711 million).

The upturn can in part be attributed to a number of significant deals in the first half of 2019 which have been chalked up as some of the biggest in the firm's history.

IFS Chief Executive Officer, Darren Roos suggested the firm are now looking beyond these results, commenting: “IFS is the only vendor of scale in our sector that stands on a principle of choice, providing an experience free from ultimatums. Now that we see what this IFS is truly capable of, expectations for the second half of the year remain high and I am pleased to have increased our guidance for the remainder of the year to deliver 2019 revenues of $711 million, or 6.35 billion SEK, an increase that represents a 21% increase year-on-year.”  

British Gas has partnered with Localz, leading experts in last mile location and messaging technology, to improve customer experience and overall efficiencies. With engineers challenged to fulfill appointment promises and an increased demand for uberisation from customers, British Gas has implemented Localz “On my way” solution to deliver real-time automated messages to customers. 

British Gas engineers were experiencing challenges fulfilling their call ahead promise when leaving the previous job. Engineers said it was difficult to make contact with their next customer when they were on their way. In some cases this meant they were late to an appointment and the customer had not been informed. These poor experiences led to anxious customers and increased calls into contact centres checking the arrival time of their engineers. 

Localz “On my way” Solution enables British Gas’ engineers to send one-click on the way notifications to their next customer. Customers receive SMS or landline phone call notifications with a real-time ETA and live map tracking. These notifications also support two way communication, allowing the customer to message or call their engineer back with important information, further reducing chase calls into the contact centre. The solution is being used by 7,000 British Gas service and repair engineers. The increase in their first time access rate has enabled British Gas to achieve its goal of delivering best in class customer service as the leading energy supplier in the UK. 

“The utilities industry is currently in a transition from a commodities business to a services industry. Today’s customers are becoming accustomed to services that are centred around their convenience and experience. Companies such as Uber and Amazon Prime have created new benchmarks for service. By implementing Localz technology, British Gas is meeting and delighting customers with new levels of real-time communications,” said Technology & Innovation, British Gas. “The Localz solution is a vital part in helping us as our organisation grows.”

“Rapidly hiking consumer expectations, alongside the fact we are an increasingly time-poor society, has created the ‘Individual Economy’, or ‘IConomy’. Each of us expects service providers to have apps and solutions which allow us to see our appointment progress in real-time. Transparency and two-way communications on our smartphones are now a standard expectation. By implementing our solution British Gas has not only been able to fulfill customer satisfaction levels but has also been able to improve its business efficiencies, improving first time access rates means more customers can be seen,” said Tim Andrew, CEO and Co-Founder at Localz. 

Life is connected and impatient. Localz solution is a field service solution that enables enterprise to manage and communicate in real-time by integrating technicians, customers and technology. Smart real-time location, tracking and messaging addresses customer service demand for ‘uber- like’ comms and empowers the field team to take control.