Tracking Customer Preferences is Critical in the New Normal (podcast highlights)

Nov 11, 2020 • Features • Digital Transformation • Salesforce • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Remote Services

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Salesforce's Gary Brandeleer and Field Service News' Kris Oldland discuss why it is essential to track customer preferences as we move out of the pandemic and head towards recovery... 

 

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts 

 

We CANNOT UNDERMINE THE VALUE OF THE TRUSTED ADVISOR STATUS OF OUR ENGINEERS

Having recently authored a white paper in partnership with Salesforce, in which he discussed the question of whether as field service leaders we ‘do we need to be redefining the value proposition of service delivery in a post pandemic world’, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News invited Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer onto the Field Service Podcast to discuss the topic further.

The paper took a particular lens on the fact that now as a sector we are much more focused on remote service delivery, potentially even moving to remote-first as a default. However, Oldland asserts there is a balanced and nuanced conversation that needs to be undertaken here. Whilst there are huge advantages to service delivery, being delivered remotely, not only at these testing times, but also moving forward as we start conversations around uptime and quicker fault resolutions, the flip side is, are we losing the trusted advisor status of the engineer?

In this highlight from the Field Service Podcast, Brandeleer and Oldland began to tackle this question around where those nuanced differences lie.

 

We should not undermine the fact that the technicians while they are on-site can see things that will be very unique from the fact that they are there in person..."
- Gary Brandeleer, Salesforce

 

“We must also consider that some customers will just not like remote assistance,” Brandeleer commented.

“Yes, they understand the way that we do it right now for COVID-19. And at this stage it really makes sense, but you should really track the preference of your customers as well, because some customers will tell you ‘I really want someone on site, I actually miss that connection.’

“Some customers will tell you, it's fine. we can continue [with remote service delivery] even after COVID-19. With you coming in or looking at the site remotely and fixing a few things remotely. However, some customers will say, ‘well, you know what the technician is bringing so much expertise when he's on site on other topics. Maybe he can maintain one device, but there are five other devices that might be under contract, might not be in the contract - it doesn't really matter at this stage, because the technicians are always there to serve the customer and essentially help them.

“We should not undermine the fact that the technicians while they are on-site can see things that will be very unique from the fact that they are there in person. Then there is this relation of trusted advisor that will continue. It's not only fixing the problem that they have right now, it's actually quite helpful for the trusted advisor to come in the sense of actually seeing other things on site you could fix, maybe advising ‘you should actually maintain the device a bit more often’ and things like this.

"That's where I think you need to track the preferences of the customer. We need to know, is the customer happy with remote assistance? Is a customer, OK, for IoT? Does the customer prefer it if we send one technician, do they always prefer the same guy?

“I think it's really important to track preference from customers and not impose the technologies on to customers.”

 

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