Many field service organizations today depend on outside vendors and partners to carry out their service delivery activities. The decision to use partners to deliver services can be influenced by any number of factors including financial, resource, geographic, or product-related circumstances. In some instances, it may be more cost effective to go outside the organization to get a specific task performed. The decision to leverage partners could...  Continue Reading..

We have entered the age of the customer. Business is changing, and having a customer-centric focus has become essential. Today, it’s not enough to set objectives to delight your customer or provide excellent customer and field service. You have to actually achieve those objectives — here are some practical steps to help you optimize your business in the age of the customer.  Continue Reading..

Blake Morgan, customer experience futurist, wrote an article recently for Forbes titled The 10 Most Customer-Obsessed Companies In 2018 where she highlights “the 10 most customer-obsessed companies of 2018 that are setting the gold standard for what it means to put customers first.” She selected her list based on these companies being “most cited in reviews and the business press and were included because of their...  Continue Reading..

Across the board, when I talk to business people and senior executives, everyone claims to know that you have to focus on your customers to be successful and most companies honestly believe that they do this. What I’ve discovered is that when priorities and budgets are set, most companies invest the majority of their efforts in acquiring customers, while the investment and effort to serve and retain existing customers is frequently an...  Continue Reading..

It is often difficult to prepare employees in a service organization for necessary IT upgrades, realignments, and strategy shifts — especially given their close connection to customers. Employees are creatures of habit and are sometimes afraid of the unknown or pose resistance by uttering the dreaded “because that’s the way we’ve always done it” mantra. Furthermore, service employees interact on a daily basis with...  Continue Reading..