From The Editor
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Field Service Software Selection: Defining Your Non-Negotiables
8/10/2018
I’ve had countless conversations with field service leaders that feel overwhelmed by the process of selecting technology to improve their businesses. This holds especially true for field service software, because there are so many solutions to evaluate. With the exception of large organizations that may have a dedicated solution selection and implementation team, field service leaders are trying to fit this process of solution evaluation in amidst their already busy “day job.”
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3 Reasons Customer Experience Initiatives Are Failing
8/8/2018
Customer experience (CX) has become a major focus for field service organizations. While it is getting a lot of attention, recent research from Gartner indicates that CX initiatives are falling short. Gartner reports that “The goal of CX is to meet and exceed customer expectations, but while 48 percent say their CX efforts exceed management’s expectations, just 22 percent of CX leaders report their CX efforts exceed customers’ expectations.”
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Field Service Automation Vs. Field Service Optimization: What’s The Difference?
7/31/2018
I’m going to jump right to answering the question in the headline and then go on to explain why I felt it important to make this distinction. Field service automation refers to the use of today’s technologies to replace manual tasks. Field service optimization is the process of improving and transforming the business, which includes the use of field service automation.
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Pon Cat Modernizes Field Service To Boost Efficiency, Improve Visibility
7/19/2018
By replacing outdated systems with a modern field automation system, Pon Cat has improved productivity by 5% and eliminated payment for non-billable hours.
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Women In Field Service: A Female Field Technician’s Perspective
6/29/2018
In my conversations with field service leaders, one of the most pressing issues coming up again and again is the quest to find – and attract - new talent. As a woman covering the field service space, I’ve of course noticed how male-skewed the profession is – and I’ve thought many times about how broadening the appeal of the job to women would make a significant impact for companies struggling in their recruiting and hiring efforts. I’m in no way saying that hiring women is the complete answer to the labor issue field service organizations are facing – the issue is further-reaching and multifaceted, but it is an important part of the conversation.
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Find AI Confusing Or Intimidating? Here’s Some Good News
6/28/2018
If you’ve ever found yourself reading about how AI is the next big thing in field service and felt like you wanted to run in the other direction, I’ve got some good news for you. I was reading today in this article about Noodle.ai, a San Francisco-based startup that provides enterprise AI-as-a-service.
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Ask The Board: What Is The #1 Metric By Which You Measure Field Service Success?
6/27/2018
We all know that we can’t improve what we don’t measure. As field service has become modernized and more sophisticated, so too have the metrics by which field service organizations measure progress and determine success. I’m commonly asked “what is the most important metric used to determine field service success?” and while I think it does depend on both your service model and the areas in which your company needs to improve most, you’ll see below there are some definite commonalities.
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Fail Forward: Mastering Customer Experience Doesn’t Mean Expecting Perfection
6/26/2018
With the hyper-focus that exists on customer experience among field service organizations today, I think there’s a misperception that mastering customer experience equals delivering perfect service. While there’s nothing wrong with aspiring to deliver excellent – even perfect – experiences, it is simply not realistic that it will occur 100 percent of the time.
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The Field Service Trickle-Down Effect: Why SMBs Should Be Embracing The Service Evolution
6/25/2018
This column is for those of you out there in the SMB category that might be reading some of the articles I’ve written on companies like Vivint, ServiceMaster, or BUNN thinking, “that’s nice, but not practical for me.” You’ve got that wrong! In the decade I’ve been covering the field service space, there has always been a trickle-down effect at play. The largest service companies are early adopters of a trend, shift, or technology – they lead the charge on embracing change and adopting new business processes and tools. Then that change trickles down through tier after tier of service organization, to even some of the smallest. Just because you’re running a small service business doesn’t mean you can’t – or shouldn’t – be innovative.
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Ask The Board: The Biggest Challenges Facing Field Service Today
6/21/2018
With the Field Technologies Editorial Board in place, I plan to do regular “Ask The Board” columns where I can share insight from members on an array of topics. To kick things off, I asked the members to share some perspective on the biggest challenges they are currently facing in their roles.