The rules have changed. Are we ready as an industry to adapt?

Mar 30, 2021 • Features • Digital Transformation

We begin a new series of excerpts from a brand new white paper authored by Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News published in partnership with PTC, which asks if now is the time to make major changes to our approach to service strategy...

This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News White Paper published in partnership with PTC

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.

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At the start of 2020 remote service delivery was a relatively untapped area of expertise amongst field service companies. The tools were there. Indeed the technologies supporting remote service delivery were becoming more sophisticated, better integrated and had matured enough to become reliably deployed within a field service context (and had been for some time).

Yet, remote service delivery in reality remained an approach that only a small percentage of field service organisations had adopted within their wider service portfolio. While the number of companies within this bracket was steadily increasing, ultimately, remote service delivery remained an approach viewed as the domain of best-in-class service organisations. In many ways these were companies who had a forward-looking perspective, these were companies who had an advanced understanding of how the service sector would evolve.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2021 and at the surface level at least, that landscape has changed massively.

Two separate studies from Field Service News Research have identified that between 78%, and 83% of field service companies state they have the capabilities to deliver service remotely.

The pandemic has made such an approach a necessity. However, when we scratch beneath the surface of the data, we see that, in many ways, little has changed. While conceptually at least, there is now mass acceptance of remote service as a dominant part of the service portfolio, still those companies using more sophisticated tools such as real-time analytics and augmented reality (AR) remain in the minority, with only a fifth of companies who state they have remote service capabilities using AR.

This leads us to an interesting situation. We have long known in our sector that service can be a real differentiator between organisations, and we have also learned that customers in both the professional and consumer realms are prepared to pay more for a higher standard of service. As the Harvard Business Review reported, customers who receive the highest standards of service spend 140 per cent more than those with the poorest service. In business-to-business environments, a 5 per cent uplift in customer retention will typically see profit increase of between 25 and up to an incredible 95 per cent.

"We should be discussing how we integrate remote service-delivery within our broader service portfolio, looking at it as a tool that is as intrinsic a part of service delivery as the on-site service call..."

The question many are asking is, with the industry-wide acceptance of remote service delivery that emerged in 2020, will we see service standards in how remote service is delivered become a crucial battleground?

However, in this white paper, I would like to put forward that our thinking around remote service should go far beyond this.

Currently, much of the discussion around remote service delivery centres on remote-service in a standalone context. The focus is on understanding how remote should sit alongside traditional on-site service delivery as an alternative mechanism for resolving customer problems.

I would suggest instead, that we should be discussing how we integrate remote service-delivery within our broader service portfolio, looking at it as a tool that is as intrinsic a part of service delivery as the on-site service call. Both means of delivering service, on-site and remote, have specific strengths which we as service providers can and should be leveraging in order to optimise the service standards we offer our customers.

Additionally, while the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have brought significant challenges to service delivery in the field, I would also put forward that it presents us with a clear opportunity to redefine the value proposition of our service offerings. As with remote service delivery, much of the ground work has been laid ahead of us, with many best-in-class organisations having begun down a path towards servitization.

However, this is not a one size fits all approach and in other instances a more transactional approach to service is best suited. Indeed, often we will find multiple service offerings within one portfolio that range from the simple and transactional solutions to sophisticated and complex outcome-based service offerings.

What is important though is having a clear understanding of where the value proposition lies within the service solutions we offer our customers.

This is crucial as we as a sector embrace remote-service as a concept, as we harness the disruptive nature of the pandemic for good, we have an opportunity to bring many moving parts together and re-imagine service delivery, with both on-site and remote-service delivery playing distinct but equally crucial roles.

To do this effectively, we must start from the customer’s perspective. What is the problem we are trying to resolve for them and does the optimum resolution of that problem lend itself to remote or on-site service delivery as the most effective mechanism?

The discussion continues...

Within the white paper and across this series of features which we will be running across the coming weeks we will we will explore what this seismic shift in acceptance of new ways of working will mean for the field service sector.

The central tenets of this paper that we will discuss are as follows:

#1: Remote Service almost overnight became a widely accepted approach to service and maintenance delivery

Remote service has been around for a long time, but the appetite for it has been dramatically increased since the pandemic. Out of necessity the concept of remote service became widely accepted by service providers and their customers alike. The result of this industry-wide sea change is that we, as a sector, are now actively rethinking what service delivery looks like post-pandemic, with remote service delivery set to become a key part of the ‘new-normal’ well beyond recovery.

#2: The rapid and widespread adoption of remote service delivery that occurred in 2020 has resulted in wide variances in how remote service is delivered

Prior to the pandemic remote service delivery was a relatively uncommon mechanism for service delivery. However, out of necessity this changed during the pandemic and remote -service delivery became commonplace. Yet, the ways in which remote service is delivered is now exceptionally varied with a minority of companies using very sophisticated tools, while the majority of those delivering service remotely are doing so in a very rudimentary and ineffectual manner.

#3: Service excellence has been clearly identified for many years to be a core differentiator between competitors

While we are in unprecedented times of rapid evolution at the very foundations of our industry, there are certain business maxims that we must hold onto as we redefine service delivery in the new-normal. One of the most critical of these is that service differentiation/excellence is well accepted as having consistent benefit on the bottom line and this has been borne out time and again in a wide number of studies. While we may be approaching an industry wide step-change in the mechanisms of service delivery, we must still hold an understanding of such tried and tested maxims that underpin service excellence and outline why it is crucial.

#4: Different customers have different needs. Being clear in how you meet their needs as we move into the new normal is key.

As service companies make the adjustment to remote service being a widely accepted method of service delivery, it is important that they clearly understand the value customers see in their overall service offerings if they are to be able to effectively integrate remote and on-site service delivery into a compelling, holistic service portfolio.

#5: Alongside an understanding of customer perception of the value of their service offering, companies should also understand the tools and technologies that will underpin remote service delivery

Having established a firm understanding of their core service value proposition, a service company can identify where, within that portfolio remote is better suited and where on-site is the preferred choice (establishing the why). To do this effectively it is important to understand how the technology stack sits together to underpin remote service delivery (establishing the how).

#6: There will be a limited window of opportunity to gain a competitive advantage as the industry transitions to remote service as a prominent mechanism of service delivery

If a field service organisation is able to identify both where and how they should integrate remote service delivery into their service portfolio while understanding how this enhances the value they deliver to their customers, then there is a significant opportunity to gain competitive advantage. However, the window of opportunity to do so is potentially small given so many companies are dealing with the same challenges simultaneously.

This feature is just one short excerpt from an exclusive Field Service News White Paper published in partnership with PTC

www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below.

If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and registering for our complimentary subscription tier FSN Standard on a dedicated page that provides you instant access to this white paper PLUS you will also be able to access our monthly selection of premium resources as soo as you are registered.