Tell Our Customers

Jul 08, 2021 • Features • management • BBA Consulting • field service management • Jim Baston • service strategies • Leadership and Strategy

Jim Baston, President of BBA Consulting Group, continues his blog series on “supercharging” revenue generation through the field service team. In this new article, he discusses the importance of clearly communicate the service you are offering to your customers.

Last time, we spoke about the importance of the words that we use to describe the proactive efforts of our field team. This time we will consider how we explain what we are doing to our customers.

Can you imagine implementing a new service, making the necessary investments in tools, processes and training and then not telling anyone about it? If we’re not telling our customers about the proactive efforts of our field service teams and the service their efforts are providing, we’re effectively doing just that.

At a service conference that I spoke at recently, I asked the attendees to raise their hands if they either formally or informally encouraged their technicians to proactively recommend their services to their customers. Most of those service managers in the room raised their hands. I then asked them to keep their hands raised if they told their customers that they were engaging their technicians in this way. Not a single hand remained in the air. This result is entirely consistent with other discussions that I’ve had.

Asking ourselves whether we tell our customers about what our techs are doing is a good test for us. It gives us an insight into how we see the proactive efforts of our field service team. If we don’t tell our customers, why not? Is it possible that the reason is that, deep down, we don’t regard their efforts as a service activity but more of a sale? It’s hard to promote “selling” as a benefit to our customers.

In an earlier blog, we asked where the value was for the customer in a conversation that goes like this:

“Mr./Mrs. Customer, I want you to know that we’ve encouraged our technicians to look for opportunities for us to sell you more services so that we can get more money out of you.”

It’s hard to see any value in this statement, regardless of how noble our intentions or those of our field service team are.

In finding the right words to promote our techs’ efforts to our customers, the key is to keep in mind that we’re encouraging our technicians to use their expertise and proximity to look for opportunities to better serve our customers’ needs. Their recommendations therefore, are a valuable service.

Here is an example of how we could initiate the discussion with our customers. “Mr./Mrs. Customer, we’ve provided direction and training to our technicians to encourage them to look for opportunities to help you operate your facility/processes more effectively while they’re performing the service. Would you have any objection when they find something that will help you achieve your business goals, if they bring the opportunity to your attention?”

We can then position our techs’ efforts as a point of difference. We’re providing our customers our “heads” as well as our “hands”. When they recognize the value of these efforts and benefit from the resulting recommendations, they’ll be delighted that we’ve engaged our technicians in this way.

Next time we will consider the last item on our list – How we maintain our focus and efforts.

Reflection

Clearly articulate the conversation you will have to introduce the proactive efforts of your field team with your customers.

What is this new service?
Why is it of benefit to the customer?
How does this differentiate you from all the other service providers?
What can the customer expect?
How will you measure your performance?

Using the same approach, how will you describe the service on your website or service brochure?

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Supercharging Revenue Generation through the Field Service Team!

In this course created and hosted by Jim Baston, President BBA Consulting Group Inc you will be given the tools to help you develop your own framework to implement a project within your organisation to help generate greater revenue from your field service team by shifting the perception of revenue generation away from being a sales activity to being an extension of service excellence.

This course is available to purchase for just £299.

Alternatively, this course is available as part of the Field Service News Masterclass program included within an annual subscription to FSN Elite our new membership community. Currently, while we are in a beta trial of FSN Elite we are offering a free upgrade for all FSN Premium subscribers.