Welcome to our third blog dedicated to the Technology Services Industry Association’s (TSIA’s) report titled, The State of Field Services: 2013. Our first blog, 11 Areas of Service Optimization for 2013, highlights specific areas where field service software can help with optimization. The second blog focuses on the top 2 critical and growing service issues. This final blog in this series highlights the top two of four technology industry trends and their impact on field services: (1) technology, specifically field service software, has a much larger role in delivering service excellence with a reduced workforce and (2) consumption-based pricing models require a much better understanding of the customer.

According to TSIA’s report titled, The State of Field Services: 2013, the top 2 critical and growing service issues are:

    1. Missed service level agreements (SLAs) because organizations are stretched so thin
    2. Service maintenance contracts are not being renewed at the expected levels

In our experience, there are two main causes for missed SLAs...

The State of Field Services: 2013 report from the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) provides an overall snapshot of the Field Service industry based upon benchmarking data. The report highlights the top 11 areas that field service companies are working to optimize in 2013. Among these are scheduling and dispatch, part and logistics, reverse logistics, mobility, and depot and repair operations. For those of you also planning on optimizing any of these areas, below are some tips on how good field service software and reverse logistics software will help. 
 

What is a choreography for reverse logistics? Most people associate the word choreography with a dance or a play, since the word itself means a carefully planned or executed movement or organization of people, things, or an event. A similar concept can be applied to reverse logistics since it deals with the movement of products or parts through an organization of people and companies.  This Reverse Logistics choreography is configured as a planned movement (or a reverse logistics dance, if you will) to be precisely executed to your reverse logistics requirements. The choreography enables visibility into your entire reverse logistics supply chain so you can see the precise movements of your products and/or parts regardless of whether they reside internally within your company or externally with customers, suppliers, partners, or vendors.

Typically, software pricing models require you to purchase upfront, either for user-based licenses or as a subscription (monthly, annually, etc.). Some examples of these models include the Vendor Client Model, Fixed Price Model, and Time and Material Model. However, there is a different model that is becoming more predominant in the software industry, and it’s called Transactional-Based Pricing. This is a flexible pricing model that can be structured by call, claim, transaction, etc. Read the blog for more information.

In our last two blogs, based on the Technology Services Industry Association’s (TSIA) report Field Service Offer Accept Rates Nearly 100%, we discussed the 3 reasons why field service acceptance rates are so high (context, personalization, and immediacy) and the 3 ways to increase field service offer extensions (training, offer identification, and incentives). Today, we’re discussing the 3 ways to increase your on-site acceptance rate: signature capture, credit card authorizations, and offer management. These not only improve productivity, but also drive additional revenue, of course.

In this struggling economy, most companies are either looking for ways to cut costs or to increase revenue. To investigate this further, TSIA has gathered information from 1,000 customers in their Consumer Home Services Survey and has found some interesting data on cross-selling and up-selling while in the field.

The economy has been rough for practically every industry. I don’t think anyone can argue that. However, we believe that the service industry has been hit even harder and many service executives are struggling with the financial aspects of their business. They’re finding it more and more challenging to verify the positive fiscal impact of their efforts. In a bottom-line driven culture, service executives must be able to prove their monetary worth, so how can we achieve that daunting task?
 

The new year is right around the corner. It’s a time to reorganize, revive, and start fresh.  Do you have a new technology project scheduled for 2013? Are you trying to improve operational efficiency and finally align your processes with your objectives? In order to be effective, you must first focus on the single most important element in determining the success of your new project: processes. Business Process Mapping will help you do that, and we’ve summarized our blog series in an infographic that outlines the 4 steps necessary for success.

Have you heard about Starbucks’ new $7.00 cup of coffee? Yes, a $7.00 cup of coffee. There’s nothing extraordinarily special about it. It doesn’t come with a silver-lined lid or with gold flakes on top. It’s just a special roast from a rare bean. Who would buy this coffee? We have a feeling coffee connoisseurs, trendsetters, and regular coffee drinkers who want to see if they can taste the difference will all buy into this. But is Starbucks trying to get away with something? It may seem that way, but if Starbucks keeps their customer service up to par, they’ll be in the clear and people will continue to buy, buy, buy.

According to Aberdeen Group’s State of Service Management report, customers with satisfaction scores over 90% retain 92% of their customers, experience 7% service revenue growth year over year, and have 32% service margins. The importance of tracking customer satisfaction is obvious.

So hopefully you are collecting customer satisfaction data, but are you using that feedback in a way that closes the loop with the customer and integrating that valuable data back into your service organization? This is often a big disconnect for companies and causes three main issues: incomplete resolution of customer issues, failure to identify customer and operational trends, and lack of visibility from customer facing staff.

Take a second to think about it…how many times a week do you hear the term “cloud”? It’s become such a predominant part of the business world, and for good reason. The cloud is being used to deliver innovative functionality like technology before it could not. It’s easy to scale up or down, has a very quick implementation time, and gives you more rapid access to information and sharing. It can also be used to fill very specific gaps as well as standardize applications and business processes while requiring minimal involvement from IT departments. Have you seen the latest TSIA survey results regarding cloud adoption?

There’s so much chatter lately about doing more with less. Driving new revenue opportunities while cutting costs. It seems like an impossible feat, but once you look at it in a different light, it might become as simple as fixing a pipe that’s leaking revenue. How can you expect to increase profits while your money is literally going out the door? See how leaky your field service revenue pipe is by rating the following on a scale of 1-5.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

To get a Business Process Mapping project off the ground, you’ll need to build a business case to allocate resources to the project. Your first step is to make sure you have a clear understanding of why you want to embark on this project. A generic statement like ‘to improve our processes’ isn’t enough. Whether you are trying to fix a problem or address an opportunity, you need a compelling business case. This starts with a clear understanding of the business reason(s) for the project, exactly what you are trying to improve, and why it needs to be improved including the benefits of the improvements and the consequences of not making the improvements.

 Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now that we’ve addressed the first two steps in Business Process Mapping, Process Identification and Information Gathering, it’s time to analyze the third step: Interviewing and Mapping. Here you want to break down each process into the individual steps being performed (from start to finish) and document work that is actually being done from the people actually doing the work, not what is supposed to be done or what you think is happening. 

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Information gathering is the second step in Business Process Mapping. In this step, you need to conduct process interviews and review any existing documentation to gather information on and have a full understanding of 8 specific areas. 

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is the first in a series of blogs expanding on the four steps to perform Business Process Mapping (BPM) we addressed in our webinar, Take Your Service Operation from OK to Very Good: Best Practices in Business Process Mapping. On the webinar, John Ragsdale, Vice President of Technology Research with TSIA, highlighted the importance of defining processes before any technology project. Today, we’ll address the first step, Process Identification: Using a customer scorecard to keep customers at the forefront of your processes.

Does your business have systems and processes that are disjointed?

Feel like your service organization is falling into a deep hole? Are your service profits flat-lining? Your ERP system could very well be a big part of the problem. ERP systems were built from a product perspective. It may have service modules added on, but fundamentally, the system is meant to support products. Managing services is a whole different ball game.

Look for these 5 warning signs that your ERP software might be killing your service business…
 

I recently asked this question on LinkedIn and I got so many great responses! Below are the top 3. 

In your contact center, what’s your primary goal? Are you focused on responding to customers as quickly as possible, or are you more concerned with fully resolving their problems, including potential underlying issues, even if it takes a little longer?
 

Consulting Services Inc. (CSI) is an IT consulting firm that was struggling to manage time and attendance for a staff of over 300 employees who mostly work remotely across the country. The company manages a wide range of contracts with vastly differing time reporting requirements and their process was mostly manual and very labor intensive.

Last week, we attended the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting. The event had a record turnout and we had a great few days of learning and networking. The keynote speaker was Steven M. R. Covey, who did a great presentation on trust. His points really hit home for any service organization. He stated that when you increase trust, you decrease customer churn, reduce employee disengagement, increase efficiency, and much more. Who wouldn’t like to accomplish all of those things?

Forbes published an interesting article declaring The End of ERP. The article contends that more and more companies are moving to a subscription model (think Netflix for movies and Pandora for music), which focuses on recurring customers rather than one-time product customers.  While not every company fits a subscription model, the focus on recurring service revenue should not be lost. Let’s face it, when a company sells a product, that customer relationship is not over. Often there is additional service revenue that can be generated from that customer.

If you joined us for our webinar titled, “2012 Service Delivery Automation Benchmark Results–How to stop revenue leakage & drive more revenue from services,” you heard Bill Pollock, president of Strategies for Growth SM, the official research partner of The Service Council TM, share the results of the Service Delivery Automation Benchmark Report, as well as got a look at some of the key trends and challenges that will likely have the greatest impact on the service industry in 2012. Mr. Pollock also provided a closer view into the future of cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) solutions.
 

When asked about service delivery goals, the preference for cloud-based solutions came out on top, with 60% preferring hosted/cloud solutions.
 

2012

You thought it was the year of the dragon, but it could very well be the year of the customer...
 

What do top performing organizations and best-in-class companies have in common?

 

Can anyone really argue against the importance of training? Regardless of the economy, how can any company afford to hire employees without properly training them?
 

In a recent field service benchmarking study done by WBR, a whopping 61% of all surveyed said they would change or optimize processes in order to scale their knowledge base for an ever-expanding array of products. Optimizing processes beat out Knowledge Management Software and additional resources. So what does this say about a company’s existing business processes?
 

How many different systems do you need to log into to get the critical customer and service data you need? More than one? More than two? More than 5…? When you have disparate databases and systems that don’t talk to each other, that hinders your overall business process. Learn how to resolve customer inquiries, diagnose service issues, and determine the proper resolution steps quickly and effectively.

In over 100 product companies (including hardware and software companies, SaaS providers, large companies, mid-sized companies, etc.) that have been benchmarked with TSIA, data shows that the average revenue mix is roughly 60/40, where 60% of total company revenues are coming from products and 40% are coming from services.
 

Welcome to the fourth installment of our series of blogs based on the Service Revenue Trends joint research report from Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) and CSDP. The report is based on extensive TSIA research including benchmarking and industry surveys.
 

We hope you got a chance to read our first installment of our series of blogs based on the Service Revenue Trends joint research report from Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) and CSDP. The report is based on extensive TSIA research including benchmarking and industry surveys related to the revenue trends of product companies.


Today, we’re exploring how the “services pulsar” is impacting technology companies.

In an independent report titled, “The BT Scorecard — Essential Metrics for BT Transformation” published by Forrester Research Inc. on May 24, 2011, the essential metrics for business technology transformation is discussed.

This is the first in a series of blogs based on the Service Revenue Trends, a joint research report from the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) and CSDP. The report is based on extensive TSIA research including benchmarking and industry surveys related to the revenue trends of product companies.

Are you in the danger zone? How do you avoid a failed field service solution or service lifecycle management project?

Service people are everywhere. But are you really in the service industry if you care about billable time?

This is a basic mantra, but does it really make sense?

From cloud computing to Fusion to mobile applications, here’s a look at what conversations with industry analysts and recent market data are predicting for 2011 ERP outcomes…

This is the time of year to reflect and be grateful for the good things we have in our lives; friends, family, our job…but when was the last time you were thankful for your health? If you’re anything like me, it was the last time you were sick...It’s funny how so much of the time we never appreciate the things we have until we realize we can lose them.

Would you prefer Scenario A or Scenario B?

So you think you are an old timer? Here as some terms that may bring back some memories:
CE (Customer Engineer), FE (Field Engineer), CSR (Customer Support Representative). All of these terms meant the same thing to a client in need of help. It was that person that came to their rescue when things did not go as planned. These people were the very heart beat of companies that were in the service business.

Send some (or all!) of your people home. They can work from there and save you money and themselves time and money (no gas, a tax write off for their home office space, etc.). Today technology has made it possible for employees to home report. The key here is to have responsible high character folks in your organization. If you do trust them, then there are many jobs that can be performed at home just as easily if not more easily than going to an office every day. Your staff can be more effective if they don’t have to get ready and drive to work. You may even find that you’re getting more hours from salaried people than ever before.

I read recently that one of the top 3 frustrations about dealing with service providers is being transferred to multiple representatives to get a problem solved. This has happened to each of us, and it can be very tedious and trying on your patience. So, service companies, why don’t you become the expert of your own product!

The top 5 major bad habits to break and tools for transformation.

“Become your customer for a day to better understand what they want."
--Aaron Kwittken, CEO of Kwittken & Co.

I recently attended an Improv show featuring Orny Adams, and he joked about calling a company, tediously entering your lengthy account number, only to have a person pick up the phone a couple minutes later and say, “What’s your account number?”

A couple of months ago, I was on an airplane watching the flight attendant go through the pantomime of safety instructions and reading the accompanying illustrated safety card when something captured my thoughts. They instruct you to put your own oxygen mask on before you go on to help anyone else. This is an extreme example, but what better way to point out that you cannot care for anyone else effectively if you don’t care for yourself first and foremost.

Last week, I ate a Chinese restaurant in my area. I’ve been eating there on and off for years, but because of the great food. Their service was always kind of bland and they’re out of the way from my house, so I’d only go there if I was in the area. They’ve recently gotten new management and my experience last week was completely different.

Being of the younger generation (I just graduated from college in '09), I am very much engulfed with the advent of new technology. My peers were among the first to buy CD players back in elementary school, and then were the first to buy ipods/iphones/ipads when they came out. And there were several malfunctions of these Apple products upon their release. Each version seems to have several problems before they work out the kinks, and it doesn’t matter to us—we just need to get our hands on it—be the firsts to have that. That’s the thing with my generation—everyone’s looking for the newest technology.

The advent of automation has had some casualties…human interaction and customer service are, sad to say, two prime examples.

The Customer Puzzle…it won’t work if one piece is missing!

Service is a touchy topic. Everyone’s views and expectations of it are different. Not to mention, you’ll get different service everywhere you go.

Since I began working for a service company, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to how companies can improve their customer service.

Instead of finding real solutions to their problems, do you treat your customers like dollar signs and push unnecessary products on them? Did you ever think that by doing this, you may actually be losing money?

I recently read an article that discussed a great new trend in progressive companies...

The only constant is change. It’s inevitable, especially in the year 2010. New technologies are coming out every day. New businesses emerge, new processes are created, and if you’re not up to speed, you’re going to get left behind. There’s no excuse to have an outdated company. If you stick to your old ways and aren’t at least flexible about changing them, you’re going to get broken.

Want some great ideas about how to better your business and corporate culture? Ask your employees!
You would be hard pressed to find people with more knowledge of the ins and outs of your daily business than your own employees, and yet they are so regularly an untapped source of knowledge.

This may sound like a refresher course on a subject we all learned in kindergarten, but it bears repeating because I see this rule broken every day both in business and social interactions. Be kind to others!

Customer Service is ultimately more important than sales. We’ll state that right from the beginning because we truly believe that. Why is it more important? Because you need to retain customers, of course! It costs less to retain a customer (utilizing the services of customer service reps) than to acquire a new one (services from salespeople)...

As a company, as a manager, or even just as a human being, you desire respect.  You want to be treated fairly and correctly by those around you in personal and in business relationships. But how does one earn this elusive respect?  There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to go about it.

So what is the right way...?

Reactive service—we all do it. It’s an integral part of what a good service company has to offer. For example, a customer calls in with a complaint, and you take care of it. Job done. However, fixing problems once they happen doesn’t always prevent the problem from reoccurring...

Ever wonder how you could be the best service representative you could be? Or would you like to know how to train your service people to be the best they could be? I’ve compiled a list of the top five characteristics of a great service representative. Incorporate them as soon as possible!

External brand experiences are just the tip of the iceberg...

I have recently participated in a lot of discussions on what extraordinary customer service means. To one person, it could mean bending the rules to satisfy their needs, and to the next it could be greeting them, but not pestering too much while shopping. Here is a list of some of the things that make up “extraordinary service…”

Does anyone else hate automated phone services as much as I do? I recently had to call into a certain company’s customer support line and my experience confirmed—once again—that automated support can be the most frustrating time-waster ever...

The one rule all companies should adhere to...

We were taught at a very young age to work together in teams. Quotes like, “There’s no ‘I’ in ‘Teamwork’!”, “TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More”, and, “A job worth doing is worth doing together,” lined the halls in my elementary school. We learned this alongside sportsmanship, commitment, and respect.

I recently started a discussion on LinkedIn where I asked if anyone had a recipe for building great customer relationships, and the results were pretty impressive. But what struck me as amazing, was the strong common theme amongst most of the responses...

There is one key ingredient in providing extraordinary service that can never faked or replaced, and that is…having the right attitude!

The terms flexibility and consistency may sound contradictory, but when combined in the workplace, they are very powerful tools.

We've all heard the Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. Have you heard of the Platinum rule? Treat others the way THEY want to be treated...

I recently started a discussion about trust and building more solid customer relationships on LinkedIn, and the results were overwhelming. Every person said that there is a definite connection.

Take our quiz to see if you're a Service Hero, Apathetic Agent, or Service Zero...

There are few things in life that I can say with as much absolute certainty as I can say this: I LOVE MY DOGS!!!

Service organizations have many things in common, while each also has very unique approaches. We all share the same final goal of giving / providing a solution to our customer’s request. We live in a world that ultimately is very subjective, in that what we want (need) is not only a solution to the problem, but also a happy customer. We are constantly proving our worth through our dedication, commitment, abilities and responsiveness to our customer. We do ask from the person or group of people we serve to trust in us. We spend our lives proving that the trust put in us is earned and deserved. We earn this trust by listening.

On a recent discussion on LinkedIn, a Strativity Group study was brought to my attention. I had never seen the results of the 2009 Customer Experience Consumer Study which was conducted from April to May of 2009 and surveyed 1994 consumers from North America. The results are definitely worth a look...

Service Relationship Management (SRM) is the unique bridge between Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). This hybrid approach to service focuses on the end-to-end service delivery life-cycle and embraces the concept of service as a relationship and a revenue generator, rather than a cost center.

There are several ways to improve your business, which could be anything from automation to business processes. The better you become at your process, the faster you will see your return on investment...

One of the most important concepts in the service industry is to retain valued repeat customers while pursuing new opportunities. The current customers can and will help you gain new business. The key is to make sure you know what your clientele will think and say about you. Simple word of mouth can be just as effective as advertisements, networking and a go-getter sales staff. A reference is good to have, but a true believer will also be proactive in their simple day to day communications with others. People that find a good thing will talk about it. If you find a good doctor, attorney, or plumber, don’t you tell your friends about it? The opposite is also true. If the service you provided to a customer was inadequate, that will also be talked about...

If any of these sound like you, it's time to rethink your customer service methods...

It might be a wonder why CSDP’s logo is tiger eyes. Perhaps this will make some sense of it…

When faced with this burning question, most people believe that you should forget about your weaknesses and focus on making your strengths even stronger. However, as the expression goes, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” We believe that you should tend to your weaknesses in order to better your general skill set rather than only focusing on your strengths. In order to be the best at what you do, we believe you must be strong in every area, not just in one. After all, a ship with expensive, state-of-the-art sails is useless if there are holes in its hull.

Send some or all of your people home. They can work from there and save you money and themselves time and money (no gas, a tax write off for their home office space, etc..). Today technology has made it possible for employees to home report. The key here is to have responsible high character folks in your organization. If you do trust them, then there are many jobs that can be performed at home just as easily if not more easily than going to an office every day. Your staff can be more effective if they don’t have to get ready and drive to work. You may even find that you’re getting more hours from salaried people than ever before...

We, as service organizations, seem to have many things in common despite our very unique approaches to service. No matter how different our approaches may be, we all seem to share the same ultimate goal: Providing a solution to our customer’s request. But as service driven individuals, we can’t stop there...

Knowledge base technology is centered on the idea that a system can warehouse and deliver information to an end user. This type of information is similar to a question/answer platform. The kinds of delivered information can be...