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.
Maximizing service profitability comes from tightly linking the technician to the machine (equipment to be serviced) in a holistic way with artificial intelligence (AI) that is tightly integrated into the business. To maximize service profits, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform needs to be well thought out to maximize technician efficiency on every visit through a predictive maintenance program. The IoT platform is a piece that cannot stand on its own and must be tightly integrated with a highly disciplined supply chain strategy.
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.
I am happy to be contributing a new short series I’m calling "Stories From The Field Service Frontline" that I hope you will find both humorous and informative. These are true stories from actual service calls placed by customers and tell the tales of what the field technician experienced. I hope you enjoy them and encourage you to share your own stories with us!
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.
Service organizations with 150 field technicians (or less) can have the same difficulties delivering service as larger enterprise companies. However, due to their smaller size, they have limited resources in critical areas; financial, personnel, expertise, versus larger competitors. So how does a service company of this size not only stay competitive but thrive in today’s marketplace?
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.
Technology isn’t new – it’s what makes things new. It’s like that old BASF television commercial – “we don’t make the products you buy; we make the products you buy, better.” Well, for customer support in general, and the services industry in particular, technology is the primary thing that makes the services you sell better – and more profitable, too. But, there’s more to customer support than merely applying the right technology!
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.
Nothing happens for equipment manufacturers until something is sold. Nothing to install, nothing to service, nothing to renew. Great hardware and equipment manufacturers have been built on great engineers creating great products for great salespeople to sell. And the best of the best repeated this cycle as often as they could. Even talk of additional services revolved around the initial product sale. These “attached service” offers included customization, installation, support and maintenance contracts, and training on how to use the equipment. Then, every 18-24 months, engineers developed a product refresh and the cycle started all over again. However, customer and supplier discussions are changing.
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