We all know about the changing customer environment and the need to satisfy customers who are becoming more and more demanding.  But what many companies miss is that service engineers are also only too well aware of these changes, but often through lack of leadership from senior management, the junior management and even engineers often have to use their initiative and make a number of changes to keep customers happy.

Change management in the service environment is very different to the manufacturing or office-based environments, and it requires consideration of some very different issues.  Chain of command, information collection and communication issues require a very different perspective in a "four-walled" environment. 

Change management has to be executed at all levels through the organisation from the MD down to the junior engineers.  However, historically this exercise has been done separately by each department and each would probably have had different systems in place.  The result might have been an improvement locally in each operation but ultimately it could only have had minimal impact on the performance of the whole operation.  Many IT technology providers have recognised the need to provide integrated software to help join up the activities, however unless the departments work in harmony, using consistent measures, problems will rapidly become evident.

Lack of leadership or understanding has been highlighted for me by discussions on the role and positioning of service operations and customer relationship management (CRM).  CRM has had a rocky ride for the last few years with the opinions of detractors often formed following unsuccessful implementations.  Problems stemmed from confusion as to whether companies were implementing a concept, a software tool, process or practices. With little or no measurement in place it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the level of success or otherwise.

Over the last two years a number of companies have begun to consider CRM as a methodology that might be appropriate to the service environment.  This was highlighted in research undertaken 18 months ago, which discovered a real move towards CRM as a service concept, and not necessarily just a sales concept. 

Further research has indicated that enterprise application providers are broadening the application of CRM tools across the whole business and not just in the sales department. For example, Microsoft is just about to launch an upgraded CRM solution, and Oracle is in the process of buying leading specialist provider, Siebel, while many best of breed providers are including a CRM component within their solution.
 
It would appear that the technology market is driving this shift of thinking.  This is all very well, but many standard service operations are ill-prepared to assume the role of information gatherer required by this concept.  The service industry association, the AFSMI has just concluded a nine-month grass roots investigation of the services industry, which has highlighted a significant move towards the service role in customer relationship management.  One high profile service leader commented that his service operation's core competency was "customer relationship building".

Mark Turner, the editor of Service Management, held three breakfast briefing sessions at Service Management Europe (SME) recently, and the most popular topic was the impact of mobile digital GPRS devices, as businesses try to reproduce a production-line level of surveillance out in the field.  Unfortunately such strictures are often introduced to compensate for poor management. 

Managing a distributed workforce is not straightforward and much trust is given to engineers, but a lack of disciplined management will gradually erode the engineer's respect for their management and less trustworthy behaviour may be the consequence (resulting in the reputation gained by engineers for low productivity).  In such instances the results from the use of GPRS systems have been poor.  However, when introduced to improve an operation by enhancing engineer utilisation and reducing time wasted, by such things as down-loading visit clearance information over the phone, there have been significant improvements - in some cases approaching a 20% improvement in closed visits per day. 

One reason for the improvement in calls cleared is that the information required is more clearly defined at the start so that it can be captured easily in codes and short phrases.  This is a valuable by-product of introducing hand held devices, as the enhanced accuracy of the feedback information to call dispatchers and diagnosis teams will improve the knowledge base regarding faults and their diagnosis.  However, if the information is not structured properly, there will be problems when these devices are introduced.  In one instance, engineers did not even like leaving messages on visit closure for the call dispatchers if the lines were busy, the reason being that the message was free format, and as a result often lacked vital facts. The creation of a simple script for the engineers to follow improved the accuracy and also made the download of the message easier. 

Although many companies can see the obvious value of changing their ways of working, they do not understand the extent to which the operation will have to change, and that it requires a radical shift in thinking across all levels in the service operation, and the rest of the business.  Many have assumed that the utilisation of various applications will solve problems; the challenge is that change in a service operation is not a straightforward exercise, although quite often there are some basics that will significantly help the process, if applied correctly. 

Some of the more enlightened application solution providers are now investing time in working with their customers to support the necessary changes in thinking and process layout. The following is intended to provide some insights into the right attitude to adopt.  Change can enable your business to take advantage of the skill sets available within your service organisation whether they are obvious or not, and present them as part of, or even a leading component in, achieving the new ways of working essential to achieve effective customer relationship delivery.

The different levels of process rigour in place in service environments also cause an imbalance in levels of IT integration, resulting in miscommunication and gaps in information.  Recognising the real impact of issues like these is critical to the successful implementation of change.  Many companies introduce new ideas with no real understanding of the implications, which is one reason why I recommend that operations use a balanced scorecard, to chart the trade-offs across the whole business of changes to one area. 

This should reduce the problems associated with changing one aspect of an operation, in isolation.  As service becomes more encompassing, from providing remote fixes through to sophisticated solutions, the need for departments to integrate becomes more and more compelling, and the need to gain acceptance of the importance of each department is a key element of change management in the services environment.

When considering change, you need to take into account the following five factors:

•  The impact that the change will have on the way the business interfaces with the customer
•  The cultural impact that the change will have on the whole of the organisation
•  The measurement of the impact of the change
•  The impact that the change will have on existing processes
•  The cultural impact of the change specifically in the service department

These factors are far reaching, though in many cases they are not fully assessed.  If they are assessed it is usually in isolation, but this is insufficient because any minor changes within each factor will be made without consideration of other areas.  Serious problems can arise as a consequence.  The reason why a holistic approach to change in the service environment has become so popular is that many companies are addressing the need of integrating call centres and field operations into a single entity, and at the same time significantly changing the way they interface with the customer.  Interfering with an interface department at any time is fraught with danger as the customer may see a dis-jointed approach.

A business attempting to increase its capacity by increasing the number of calls fixed remotely, needs to be fully aware of the impact on the customer as the scenario changes. The simple calls will be cleared remotely, requiring significantly improved information feedback to improve fault diagnosis, and as the format changes from face-to-face contact to remote, consideration must be given to how the customer will view the lack of engineer contact time.

The key aspect to bear in mind when undertaking change in the service operation is that it now requires an integration of functions.  The increasing complexity of service operations means that the number of options available will increase dramatically, so that converting a group of independent cost-centre, reactive functions into a single fully-fledged profit centre operation will not be a straightforward activity.  But when it is achieved, it will generate revenue through improved capacity management, enhanced customer service, and increased customer loyalty, and provide a solid basis upon which to grow.

steve.downton@downtonconsulting.com        www.downtonconsulting.com