Now, when I sit down with customers to discuss service, more often the discussion is with the whole board and is about issues affecting the whole business and not just service.  In fact, the interest now centres around acquiring and keeping profitable customers and this is seen as the responsibility of all departments.  How a business interfaces with customers is fundamentally changing, and in much the same way as the changing role of service has been accepted, so marketing and sales now have to accommodate different customer expectations.

Many terms have been coined for sales personnel including “box shifters” or “tin shifters” where the primary purpose is to shift product - get the signature and move on.  Sales training once consisted of closure techniques;  in much the same way the engineer was taught all they needed to know about the box (or the tin) so that they could repair it, get the signature and move on.  Engineers were sometimes known as grunts because if anyone spoke to them they would grunt rather than converse, removing the possibility of saying something wrong or wasting time on pleasantries.

I present these two extremes because stereotypical attitudes still prevail, albeit less extreme over time - in essence the similarity between sales and service was that both were obliged (through their performance measures) to focus on the machine and productivity, with little focus on the longevity of the product, or the loyalty of the customer.

Both functions have moved away from such a model, and figure 1 illustrates the gradual shift in attitude, demonstrating what this means to both functions.  Sales personnel have become much more product and customer solution focused, and service engineers have become trusted advisors, sensitive to the needs of the customer, the capability of the equipment and the way the customer uses it. Salesmen have not become service engineers so why should service engineers be required to become sales personnel?

Here we have a dilemma, as research indicates that there is a certain expectation that service engineers become sales personnel, though not in the vein of the sales stereotype outlined above, but as ambassadors for their firm as providers of true value for their customers.
 
Figure 1

The developing role of service engineers is to work in a consultative role, with the customer, to understand their needs and then pass on this knowledge and understanding, supporting the account team to articulate the value of a total solution which provides an answer to the customer needs.

Changing the focus of businesses towards retaining customers and reducing churn offers the opportunity to reduce costs because acquiring new customers can be expensive.  However, with a limited number of sales personnel and limited marketing budgets, many companies are now beginning to look to resources within their business that can provide more cost-effective ways of retaining existing customers. The result is that the task of retaining customers falls onto the shoulders of engineers, by supporting the sales effort with existing customers and thereby effectively increasing the number of those involved in sales in the businesses. 

Some existing service engineers will already be considered problem solvers or even trusted advisors by their customers, and possess many of the skills required, or will find it easy to assimilate them and are willing to have their roles broadened.  It is important for a business to recognise, however, that originally the engineers were not necessarily recruited for (or would even desire) the new role and do not have the capabilities, or attitude required. 

Yet, many companies have found that service personnel do make excellent consultative salesman and can migrate much more effectively across the disciplines, as they already have much better product knowledge and infinitely more understanding of customer needs. The biggest gap in the skill set for most service engineers is an understanding of the commercial value of what they provide and are prone to undersell their own worth. This is why service operations have found it so difficult to place a value on their input, beyond a tangible break/fix which is the most obvious demonstrable skill.

There is reason for concern when businesses consider using their service engineers as salesmen without fully understanding the implications, and the opinion of their sales personnel, customers and engineers of doing so, and the shift in mind set required to effectively change the paradigm of their business.  As the grids above illustrate, selling is not a skill that has been required for the service engineers, just as fixing equipment isn’t a performance skill required in a salesman.

The objective must be for both these teams to work together. But stereotyping has consistently worked against achieving this, with each seeing the other as an incarnation of the worst type of character they can imagine, and an opponent rather than an ally.
It is with this as a consideration that the real concept of an integrated customer relationship management team makes sense, when the role of the sales, service and marketing departments is to work together to form a strong bond between the supplier and the customer over a number of areas, creating a bond which is designed to withstand occasional problems, (which are bound to arise), and also provide the most effective solutions that satisfy a number of criteria.
Many companies have begun to achieve this synchronicity through building account teams that combine marketing, sales and service, and seek to invest time in the customer, pooling information on the customer, respecting each other’s competencies and capabilities to enable them, together, to provide solutions.  The advantage of teamwork is that there are clear demarcation lines for each person’s role and the different skill sets.

The most effective types of account teams are made up of personnel from the whole business (not just sales and service), as the real value of the business is the brand which includes all aspects of the business from the product, service, front office, back office and admin support, all desiring to deliver maximum customer value.

Unfortunately these roles are not effectively represented in many account teams, but such adoption should be considered (in particular Marketing, Manufacturing and R&D) as they play an extremely important role in any interplay with the customer.  Such aspects could be considered as reinforcing the two sides of the grid, with manufacturing supporting the machine, and marketing supporting the customer, as shown in figure 2

Figure 2

Few service operations, even when operating with an inclusive accounts team, manage to provide effective and valuable information into either their manufacturing or sales operation regarding the customer or the product characteristics.  Often no one seems to seek information or respond to information given, more often than not because it has never been available so people work around the problem, but the service operation must ensure that the business realises the value of the information that can be provided and seeks ways of providing it. 

Manufacturing and sales tend to focus on the new product and any extra go-better features and options, rather than considering the equipment in the field - the attitude is that past sales are in the past, and any work spent on it is seen as lost time.  Against time to market deadlines, this focus on new product is probably valid, however, the service operation and the customer lives with the current situation and both are keen to deal with product problems that are current and would use on-going test data and examples to avoid future mistakes, particularly early life failures and warranty costs.

The relationship between product and service has been one of a distrustful distance and has caused infamous service comments like “Who sold you that” because of the experience with the product in the field.  The service team, as an extension of manufacturing in the field, and manufacturing and R&D as an extension of service in the factory, will produce a relationship that will be much more productive and effective.  As an important part of their role, there is a real need for service managers and service directors to prove the value of service.  Many MDs and CEOs are demonstrating a growing awareness of the importance of considering their brand in terms of individual tailored product and service per customer, and have begun to recognise the true value of combining their teams to work with and support each other.  Understanding how the customers use the product and the stresses and strains different customers impose, assists companies to understand the different product requirements of the market and to create loyalty within their customer base and a differentiation which raises the barrier to competition.