Following on from the online survey (http://www.servicemanagement365.com/Business_Analytics/Article413360.aspx) conducted by Service Management earlier this year, entitled Predicting the service landscape in 2010, senior managers and directors from the service industry recently gathered to discuss the results.

The debate, staged for 21/2 hours, covered a variety of topics throughout the absorbing event, resulting in several of the delegates inviting others to remain in contact in the future. Having studied the results, those in attendance used these as a reference point during the free-flowing debate.

An encouraging aspect of the survey was the importance attached to the training of field workers and proved to be one of many results that were endorsed by the round table discussion.

Brian Murphy, customer technical support manager for Bosch Thermotechnic, stated that his company’s service team is seen as an important part of the product package offered to customers: ‘The support we offer our customers through speed of service, technical excellence and attitude of all our team from head office staff to engineers is of great importance to Bosch.’

John Mackrell, Talaris global service solutions manager, compared the results of the survey, which showed that investing in technology was perceived as being much more important in 2010. ‘However when asked what is the single most important investment that you will make to prepare for 2010, the biggest answer by far was people and training, which is a timely reminder that the key to delivering quality service is properly trained, equipped, and motivated staff who enjoy what they are doing.’

The majority of the delegates had implemented mobile working solutions of various complexity. The subject of training led to discussion of how this should tie in with issues surrounding the introduction of new working practices. Obtaining acceptance from the workforce to ensure the system was used to best effect was a major topic within this.

Raymond Smith, group technology strategy development manager of Scottish Water, explained that his company is currently focused on the roll out of a new scheduling system: ‘We have a hefty plan in place to ensure proper training not only on the system but on the business process too.

'The intention is to instil the new ways of working as a prerequisite. To supplement this we are also training up a number of ‘champions’ to help bed things in and have all the team leaders on board to get the management angle aligned to what we’re doing.’

Ignoring instructions

Further comments on the importance of gaining buy-in from engineers included examples of engineers ignoring instructions from the office and following their own schedule, while another contribution related how field workers had wrapped tin foil around antennas to hide from tracking systems. With effective training and communication, however, the consensus of opinion was that these reactions could be avoided for the good of all concerned.

This prompted Peter Walkem, Fujifilm service logistics manager, to raise the subject of change management and how it has become another highly important aspect for companies to consider when introducing new work practices. Hemberg also agreed: ‘Small changes sometimes are difficult to achieve because of the resistance for change to overcome. It might be better to make one big step. When you overcome the difficulties, then real progress will be made.’

Mackrell further endorsed this message: ‘Implementing technology alone will deliver limited benefits. To gain maximum benefits from mobility you have to actively drive change into your business processes to maximise the benefits from real time data and not simply create unused capacity.’ Routley stated that the importance of change management and working with the workforce to get their support had been noted by Xerox, leading to further invest in this area.

Further thoughts were expressed by Smith, who said Scottish Water takes change management very seriously: ‘While we progress fast towards the first of a phased go live of our implementation, it has become very clear that it’s the people bits that will make the difference and not so much the software or the application itself.'

Return on investment

Additional contributions stated that change needed to be sufficiently significant to avoid staff carrying on in the same way as before. While many companies have lost out through trying to do too much, it was also possible to do too little. Although initially disruptive, major changes to work practices could dramatically increase the benefits and return on investment if managed correctly.

The discussion then turned to the problems experienced by some companies caused by engineers feeling isolated following the implementation of mobile working solutions. This was again a major issue that needed to be addressed urgently if problems in the future were to be avoided, delegates agreed.

‘At Bosch we encourage our team of Regional Managers to get out and spend time with their engineers as much as possible,’ said Murphy. ‘They will have regular meetings in groups to develop a team culture and managers will have joint visits with engineers. We also have communication meetings twice a year where we get field operatives together in large numbers to present business updates, what we have done and are going to do, but also have feedback from the field operatives on their ideas and issues.’

Trevor Ratcliffe, GC UK service support and sub contracts manager, Kodak, found the subject of engineer isolation fascinating. He stated that this emphasised the importance of engineer participation in any new system, which is only as good as the input. ‘Live updates can only happen if the FE has the technology and the understanding to perform the live update,’ he said.

Differentiating factor

The point was then raised on how a service call could provide customers with a positive opinion of the company when a prompt and efficient solution was delivered, encouraging customer loyalty. The online survey had highlighted how companies viewed service as providing the main differentiating factor, another result endorsed by the meeting.

‘A service call allows the company to show how good its operation is and can help to engender a positive image with the customer and encourage continued loyalty in the future,’ said Routley. ‘If nothing goes wrong, however, future decisions can be made purely on price comparison, so service can be the key differentiator.’ He was joined in this by Mackrell: ‘The real test of a good service business is how it is able to deal with exceptions, how well it communicates and acts when things go wrong.’

Another result of the survey indicated that many companies expected SLAs to become more complex and demanding. There were a number of views expressed around the table on this point. ‘Our customers expect us to meet high standards of break-fix performance, but they also need us to work with them to develop ever better technical solutions to improve their businesses,’ said Walkem. ‘This can be a challenge when working with companies who change their buyers frequently.’

There were further contributions by the majority of delegates on this subject, including the following by Ratcliffe: ‘Our customer needs will also evolve as competition and demands become greater, therefore tougher SLA's will be a by product of those market forces. We know that the one thing the customer wants is for the field engineer to get there quickly because this means the call can be closed quicker, so any means to process the call with the right information, using technical people to triage the call and order spare parts, automated resource planning to suggest the best engineer will be invaluable.’

An alternative opinion within the meeting said that a growing number of customers had been through the cycle of increasingly complicated SLAs and were now reverting to paying for whatever level of service is required to keep their clients happy.

Automated scheduling

Several of the delegates thought that automated scheduling would be increasingly seen as the best means with which to meet SLA requirements. ‘We would not be able to deliver the high expectations that our customers expect from us without a scheduling tool,’ said Murphy.

‘Good field management is also critical, ensuring we communicate what we are doing and why to the team. We need to demonstrate how the system works and parameters, why it does what it does and if an engineer has a question make sure it is answered. We should never forget that we are working to assist them better in supporting our customers when they need our assistance.’

Hemberg, however, advised caution in this area: ‘Automatic scheduling of the field service engineers only works when the competences and skills of the field service engineers are well known and if the competences needed for the jobs are well known. Automatically scheduling for complex jobs in complex environments might therefore not work.’

‘I always thought the importance of dynamic scheduling would play an increasingly important role in the way we support our customers’ needs,’ said Ratcliffe. ‘What we mustn't forget is the value of the personal involvement, people of course, as they can work with many more influences that could change on a day-to-day perspective as the business evolves, so people and dynamic scheduling should work hand-in-hand, rather than relying on one or the other.’

Scheduling required a number of factors to be carefully considered for everything to work smoothly, said Murphy: ‘Getting the engineers set up correctly is as important as matching the right skill sets against each activity. Aligning these skill sets against the skills and qualifications of the engineers is vital for the system to work effectively.’

Frank Wood, Elesco managing director, thought there should be a move toward the standardisation of service management systems. ‘The move to improve and monitor service standards is our constant theme and can only be fully achieved by Europe-wide use of a standard software system.

Conservative outlook

'Most service companies in the brown, grey and white goods markets are small, owner-run businesses, but recently there has been a trend towards bigger groupings. This is healthy, because the small firms often show negative features, such as an aging work force and inadequate capital, resulting in a conservative outlook and less market diversification.

‘Weakness in dealing with their often giant customers results in excessively low prices and low investment and a multiplicity of software systems, making standardisation almost impossible,’ Wood concluded.

With discussion continuing on a free flowing basis, concern was expressed by a number of delegates on the subject of problems experienced in lost time on site. Engineers were arriving on time, it was said, only for them to be kept waiting by the client.

Some had found that customers would not accept the waiting time as part of the call, leading to difficulties in a number of areas. It was suggested that customers were frequently unaware of the effect this could have on the engineer and the company’s work schedule and that this should be diplomatically explained to the client.

The event was considered a success by all those in attendance, with appreciation expressed during the meeting for the enthusiasm and honesty with which everyone present approached the discussion. Having heard the thoughts and experiences of their peers, many stated that these ideas would be further explored to bring further benefits to their own business.