Transforming Targeted Market Research into Improved Customer Satisfaction & Retention

Market Research Is Not an End unto Itself – It’s Basically a Tool for Identifying Opportunities and Preventing Problems

No services organization ever went bankrupt as a result of investing money in market research that delivered actionable results, and provided a positive Return on Investment (ROI). It is only those organizations that have wrongly invested a great deal of money in “untested” areas that could have been better served by conducting the appropriate market research first.

Read SFG℠‘s latest Analysts Take paper on the value of Market Research in terms of its ability to help you transform your Services organization.

Click here to access the paper: Transforming Market Research into Customer Sat & Retention (20-06-11-v01)-compressed

Download Our Complimentary Webcast on “The Case for Remote Expertise”, Hosted by Help Lightning, and Featuring Bill Pollock

[On Thursday, January 30th, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST, we presented a complimentary Webcast on the topic of “The Case for Remote Expertise“. The Webcast was hosted by Help Lightning, the leading Augmented Reality provider of Virtual Interactive Presence, and featured me, Bill Pollock, as the guest speaker.

If you missed the Webcast, no need to worry! Simply click on the following link to access a complimentary copy of the archived Webcast, along with a copy of our companion Analysts Take white paper: http://tiny.cc/sfg-webcast.]

Webcast Overview:

The findings from Strategies For Growth℠‘s 2020 Remote Expertise Benchmark Survey clearly identify the following as the primary reasons influencing a services organization’s drive to incorporate Remote Expertise capabilities into their field service operations:

• 65%  To improve upon current levels of Customer Satisfaction
• 64%  Ability to meet (or exceed) our customers’ services expectations
• 62%  To diagnose problems faster, and with greater accuracy

As a result of an ongoing technology explosion, increased competition and reduced margins, meeting the desired goals of customer satisfaction and services profitability remains a major challenge for many organizations. What is your organization doing to run its field service operations more effectively – and cost-effectively?

By viewing the webcast, you can learn:

• What the leading global Services Organizations are doing with respect to embracing – and incorporating – new technologies into their services operations
• What the real benefits are associated with moving to a Remote Expertise service delivery model
• What obstacles and potential pratfalls you might experience along the way
• How to emulate the strategic and tactical actions presently being taken and/or planned by the leading Services Organizations

In the meantime, for more information on this topic, or on any other aspects of Field Service Management (FSM) or Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), please be sure to visit our Blogsite at www.PollockOnService.com for trending thoughts and commentary on the global services market.

Again, to access both the complimentary Webcast and companion Analysts Take white paper, simply please go to: http://tiny.cc/sfg-webcast.

Invitation to Register for a Complimentary Webcast on “The Case for Remote Expertise”, Hosted by Help Lightning, and Featuring Bill Pollock

To All Field and Remote Services Professionals,

 

I would like to extend you an invitation to join me on Thursday, January 30th, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST for a complimentary webcast on the topic of “The Case for Remote Expertise“. The Webcast will be hosted by Help Lightning, the leading Augmented Reality provider of Virtual Interactive Presence, and will feature me, Bill Pollock, President of Strategies For Growth℠, as the guest speaker.

 

Simply click on the following link to complete your complimentary registration (and please feel free to forward this invitation to any of your business colleagues): http://tiny.cc/sfg-webcast

 

Webcast Overview:

The findings from Strategies For Growth℠^‘s 2020 Remote Expertise Benchmark Survey clearly identify the following as the primary reasons influencing a services organization’s drive to incorporate Remote Expertise capabilities into their field service operations:

• 65%  To improve upon current levels of Customer Satisfaction
• 64%  Ability to meet (or exceed) our customers’ services expectations
• 62%  To diagnose problems faster, and with greater accuracy 

As a result of an ongoing technology explosion, increased competition and reduced margins, meeting the desired goals of customer satisfaction and services profitability remains a major challenge for many organizations. What is your organization doing to run its field service operations more effectively – and cost-effectively?

 

Please join me, and Webcast host, Help Lightning, for our complimentary Webcast, on Thursday, January 30th from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST to learn:

• What the leading global Services Organizations are doing with respect to embracing – and incorporating – new technologies into their services operations
• What the real benefits are associated with moving to a Remote Expertise service delivery model
• What obstacles and potential pratfalls you might experience along the way
• How to emulate the strategic and tactical actions presently being taken and/or planned by the leading Services Organizations

I hope you and your team will be able to join us then! In the meantime, please be sure to visit our blogsite at www.PollockOnService.com for more trending thoughts and commentary on the global services market.

 

To register for this complimentary Webcast, please go to: http://tiny.cc/sfg-webcast.

 

I hope to see you there!

Best regards,

Bill

Lessons Learned from WBR’s 2019 Field Service Amelia Island Conference – Advancing Service Together through Innovation, Cross-Industry Best Practices & Transformation

[WBR’s annual Field Service Amelia Island conference is one of the premier Field Services event of the year – and this year was, once again, no exception! More than 350 field service professionals attended the conference from August 18 – 21, 2019.

The following is a brief excerpt from SFG℠‘s “Lessons Learned …” Analysts Take report, written and distributed under the auspices of WBR. Our suggestion? Don’t read the following excerpt – go to the bottom of the page and download a complementary copy of the full report, and read up on what the key players in the field services community had to say with respect to “Advancing Service Together!“]

Since 2003, WBR has been bringing together the world’s leading services organizations to “benchmark, establish best practices, embrace new technologies and build a strong network to enhance its attendees’ services businesses and field operations.” Each successive conference over the past 16 years has provided participants with “future-facing content and a mix of interactive session formats that ensure [they can] learn and network most effectively.” As such, these annual (and mid-year) Field Service events are designed to set up its attendees “for maximum profitability and competitiveness in [their] service business.”

And this year’s Amelia Island event did not disappoint, as the nearly 400 onsite attendees would most likely attest!

“At Field Service Amelia Island I learned that Field Service professionals love to learn new ways to improve service delivery since that is often the first (and only) personal contact a customer has with their brand. They are especially eager to explore what technology can do to optimize their field service fleets to get them to job sites efficiently and safely.”

– Carol Roden, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Lytx

The main theme for WBR’s 2019 Field Service Palm Springs conference was billed as “Advancing Service Together”, similar to the Palm Springs event held earlier in the year – and the succession of speakers, presenters, moderators, panel participants and practitioners all supported that theme throughout the conference by sharing examples (i.e., mostly success stories) about how it takes a strong commitment to teamwork to have any chance of meeting, let alone exceeding, management goals for improving employee and customer satisfaction – while at the same time, driving increased services revenue streams and making a profit by doing so.

“After attending the Field Service Conference on Amelia Island, the importance of disruptive service, and understanding that what got our businesses to their current level of success will not take them to the next level of success is evident. In an XAAS world, those organizations that embrace these transformations with technology and culture will win!”

– Mary Flake, General Manager – Coastal Southeast Service, Comfort Systems USA

The ”Lessons Learned” at the conference were many, and we have attempted to summarize the main sessions (and lessons learned) in the text that follows. Please note that not all of the sessions are highlighted and summarized in this document; however, there are many others that are available through WBR directly. Also, if you missed the chance to have one of your “lesson learned” quotes included in this paper, … well, there’s always next year in Palm Springs or, again, at Amelia Island!

Each of the three Main Days of the conference had a particular focus, beginning with Day One setting its sights on “Technology and Process Innovation for Efficiency”; Day Two focusing on “Disruptive Service & Customer Value; and Day Three focusing on “Leadership & Service Revenue Generation.”

Overall, WBR’s 2019 Field Service Amelia Island conference gave every attendee the opportunity to learn, question, network, buy/sell and interact with vendors, practitioners, editors, writers, industry experts, consultants, research analysts, peers and competitors and every other important person or company in the field services business.

The temperature was not as hot as in Palm Springs, earlier in the year – but the topics covered at the conference were still “red hot”. One of the key learnings from this year’s event is that “the main benefit of this conference is that it represents a middle ground between what we all learned last year, and what we will expect to learn next year.” As such, this year’s conference represented another key milestone in the Journey that we, as an industry, are taking along with our customers.

At the risk of repeating myself from the “Lessons Learned …” Analyst Take paper distributed following this year’s Palm Springs conference, I believe the following quote still stands true:

“As Bob Dylan once wrote and sang, ‘The times, they are a’changin’.    He must have been singing about the field services industry!”

– Bill Pollock, President & Principal Consulting Analyst
Strategies For Growth℠

Here’s looking forward to seeing you all at Palm Springs and Amelia Island again next year!

[To download a complementary copy of the full “Lessons Learned …” report, simply click here: @@@ 2019 Field Service Amelia Island Analysts Take Report (Final Draft – 19-09-17).]

Salesforce Goes All In on ClickSoftware

Click’s Scheduling Optimization Module was Just a Teaser! Now, Salesforce has Gone All In, and Click’s Found a Home!

On August 7, 2019, after months of speculation – and negotiations – Salesforce, the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire ClickSoftware, an acknowledged leader in Field Service Management (FSM) solutions.

Finally, the perennially open question of “What’s going on with ClickSoftware; Will it stay private? Will it be acquired by SAP? Will it go public again?” will officially end! This has been somewhat off-putting for many of the company’s potential customers in the past. However, as of the close of the deal, we will all know exactly what’s happened to ClickSoftware!

Read our Analysts Take paper on the acquisition of ClickSoftware by Salesforce, and see how the industry is reacting with respect to its potential impact on the FSM solution competitive landscape: Salesforce Acquisition of ClickSoftware (19-08-13).

[BTW – Have you already taken SFG℠‘s 2019 Servitization Journey Benchmark Survey? If yes, then, thank you! If no, please accept our invitation to take the survey by clicking on the following Weblink: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFGServ19. Thanks!]

Global Field Service Management (FSM) Trends for 2019/2020 – and Beyond!

The results of Strategies For Growth^SM‘s (SFG^SM) 2019 Field Service Management (FSM) Tracking Survey reveal a healthy – and expanding – global services market that appears to have clearly rebounded from the economic downturns and upheavals experienced over the previous 10 years or so (i.e., since the 2008 economic bust). In fact, the global FSM market is now poised to make significant strides forward in terms of growth, technology adoption and the integration of those technologies into existing (and improved) services operating plans and processes.

However, there are still many obstacles along the way, and those Field Services Organizations (FSOs) that are not prepared to adapt to the “new” way of running a services operation will be ill-prepared to compete on a head-to-head basis with those that are. For example, the top future challenges cited by survey respondents as likely having the greatest impact on their ability to acquire and/or integrate new technologies into their existing field service operations may be summarized as follows:

• 43%  Return-on-Investment (ROI) on the acquisition of new technology
• 34%  Identifying all of the required functionality for the organization
• 30%  Cost of new technology
• 28%  Potential disruption from new technology implementation and burn-in
• 27%  Obtaining management “buy-in” for new technology acquisition

Other challenges, such as selecting the most effective FSM solution (19%) and integrating new technologies into existing FSM solution platforms (16%) are also cited as rounding out the top challenges facing the global FSO base.

The good news is that there are also significant and distinct opportunities, or benefits, that can be realized by FSOs, regardless of type, size or coverage, through the acquisition and integration of these new technologies. For many FSOs, these may include:

• 39%  Ability to run a more efficient field service operation by eliminating silos, etc.
• 37%  Improving customer satisfaction
• 36%  Ability to provide customers with an end-to-end engagement relationship
• 27%  Establishing (or strengthening) a competitive advantage
• 27%  Improving field technician utilization and productivity
• 25%  Reducing Total Cost of Operations (TCO)

But these opportunities and benefits do not automatically produce themselves – there needs to be a formal plan for attaining these goals, and many of the leading FSOs already seem to know how to go about making it happen.

The 2019 survey results also reveal that more than two-thirds (71%) of global FSOs currently run their services operations as profit centers, rather than as cost centers. This percent represents an increase from roughly 66% only three years earlier, but more than 10 percentage points above roughly a decade ago. In fact, the percent increases to 74% for those FSOs attaining 90% or greater customer satisfaction, and up to 81% for Best Practices FSOs that also achieve 30% or greater services profitability.

As we move through the uncharted waters of 2019, 2020 and beyond, the future state of the global Field Service Management (FSM) market will depend largely on which strategic actions FSOs plan to take in the ensuing 12 months or so. Since these actions will be directly linked to the multitude of drivers that are most likely to influence decision making within the global services community, this would be an excellent place to start!

The 2019 survey results reveal that the top drivers cited as being most influential on the future success of FSOs may be categorized into three main areas:

1. Need to improve service workforce utilization, productivity and process efficiencies
2. Meeting (or exceeding) customer demand for quicker response and improved asset availability
3. Internal mandate to drive increased service profitability and revenues

However, once the key market drivers are firmly identified, FSOs need to create – and implement – the most effective strategic planning actions to address them head-on. As identified in SFG^SM‘s 2019 survey, the most commonly implemented strategic actions, currently, are:

• 47%  Develop and/or improve KPIs used to measure field service performance
• 43%  Invest in mobile tools to support field technicians
• 38%  Automate existing manual field service processes and activities
• 34%  Integrate new technologies into existing field service operations

The question then arises: What can your FSO realize from aggressively addressing each of these challenges and opportunities head-on, recognizing the key market drivers, and taking the strategic (and tactical) actions to take the organization to the next level?

The answer is simple! The average FSO is currently attaining 37% services profitability and 84% customer satisfaction (although 26% are not even attaining 20% profitability, and 20% are not attaining 80% satisfaction). Therefore, while the opportunity is there, not all FSOs have their operations in order to aspire to the next levels of Best Practices.

So, … if your organization is not currently attaining desired levels of profitability and satisfaction – or even worse, finds itself among those not even attaining lower levels of performance – now would be the perfect time to consider acquiring a Field Service Management (FSM) (or a Connected Field Service, or CFS) solution that can help it to attain these loftier levels, without losing any more ground to the industry leaders who have already taken the appropriate actions.

[BTW – Have you already taken SFG℠‘s 2019 Servitization Journey Benchmark Survey? If yes, then, thank you! If no, please accept our invitation to take the survey by clicking on the following Weblink: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFGServ19. Thanks!]

Matching Your Services to the Customer’s Total Service and Support Needs

The customer’s need for basic product service and support is quite simple; essentially, when their equipment is down, and they need it back up and running as soon as possible. You may typically consider this as being the customer’s “core” need for basic systems and equipment service and support.

In most cases this will involve a simple, rather than complex, repair process; typically the kind of repair that the service technician has made countless times, over and over again. For repeat customers, the service technician will already be familiar with the equipment, along with its respective service history, as well as having some insight with respect to how the customer actually uses the equipment on a day-to-day basis. He or she will probably also have all the documentation and tools they need to make the repair and, probably, all of the necessary parts as well.

For most customers, this will be all they need – plain and simple. However, there will always be the chance for exceptions, and you should be prepared to address them as quickly as possible. Some examples include cases where the customer believes that what they are asking for is “basic” equipment service and support, but it is really value-added, or “over and above the call of duty” support.

For example, once the field technician arrives on-site, some customers may ask it to perform the next scheduled preventive maintenance at the same time since it was already scheduled for later in the week. While this may seem like a reasonable request from the customer’s perspective, it could possibly wreak havoc with the day’s service call schedule and, if no additional time is available, cannot easily be done. At times like this, the service technician will typically check in with its dispatcher to see whether performing an impromptu PM call is even feasible.

However, in most cases, all that is typically required in cases such as these is to inform the customer that the exclusive goal for this particular visit is to get the equipment up and running as quickly as possible, and that their scheduled preventive maintenance can best be accomplished at its pre-designated time.

While the service technician may have a clear understanding of the difference between “basic” and “value-added” equipment service and support, it cannot always assume that the customer will share the same understanding. It all comes down, ultimately, to the basic understanding of the difference between customers’ wants and needs, and the service technician’s ability to manage them appropriately.

By understanding the difference between the customers’ various needs and wants, and handling them accordingly, the service technician will already be far along the road toward matching the company’s services to the customer’s total needs. There is generally a big difference between customers’ “basic” and “value-added” product service and support needs; however, we may define their “total” needs as essentially encompassing everything they want, need, and expect to receive from their services provider, in general – and their field technician, in particular.

For example, the customer’s total needs may be nothing more than the coupling of their basic and value-added needs, all delivered to them in a timely, skilled, courteous, and professional manner. As such, the service technician’s performance at each of these levels of customer service becomes very critical. For example, if the customer perceives that the technician is unable to satisfactorily deliver even their most “basic” equipment service and support needs, they will be even less likely to believe that it can meet their “value-added” needs. Compounding the issue would be their perception that the field technician can’t even comport itself in a professional or courteous manner.

Ultimately, customers will be depending on their field technicians to not only provide the physical repair of their installed equipment, but to also serve as a technical adviser, trainer, applications specialist, service call scheduler, customer service representative, and primary go-to person for general inquiries, new product information, parts ordering, and anything else they can think of. Again, while it is not necessarily the technician’s responsibility to serve in all of these roles, they should at least be prepared to serve as a “channel” between the customer and everyone else within the organization who actually has these individual responsibilities.

In this way, the service technician can also position itself in the minds of its customers as someone who is “personally” responsible for supporting their “total” service and support needs, even if all they are doing is supporting their equipment on-site, and acting as an intermediary between and among the other various departments within the company’s service and sales organizations.

It is important to remember that even if the service technician is doing everything it is supposed to be doing within their specific service responsibility, the customer’s needs will generally always be greater than services alone, and they will continually be counted on to point them in the right direction, make the appropriate recommendations, lead them to the right people within the sales or other services organizations, and generally support them in all of their “total” service and support needs.

Invitation to Register for Two Webinars Covering the U.S./Canada & UK/Europe FSM Markets

To All Field Service Management (FSM) Professionals:

We invite you to register for our two complimentary Webinars on Thursday, February 7th – less than one week from today!

x

• Webinar #1*: “UK/Europe Still Lags Behind the U.S. with Respect to FSM Performance”; Thursday, 7 February at 13:30 GMT (8:30 am ET)

• Webinar #2*: “The State of Field Service Management (FSM) in 2019 – and Beyond”; Thursday, February 7, at 11:30 am ET (16:30 GMT)

Click here to register for one, or both, Webinars

Based on the results of the 2018 Strategies for Growth^℠ FSM Benchmark Tracking Update Survey, here are some of the key Market Drivers that will be revealed:

• A majority of global Field Services Organizations (FSOs) presently manage their service operations as a profit center (60% for UK/Europe, and 55% for the U.S./Canada)
• A majority of global FSOs are currently using CRM and Contract Management apps to drive their services business
• The average services profitability realized by U.S./Canada FSOs is 32%, compared to 36% for UK/Europe FSOsx

[BTW – If you haven’t taken it yet, the survey link for SFG℠’s  2019 Field Service Management Tracking Survey is: 

• https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019_FSM

Thank you in advance for your participation. Hope to see you there!

x

Bill

Using Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) to Support Your Customers While You’re Servicing Their Equipment

[Before you read our latest Blog, why not spend 15 minutes or less taking our latest Field Service Management (FSM) Tracking Survey? This is our fifth FSM Survey since 2011, and we would love to share the results with you once we’re finished with the data processing and analysis – sometime in late March! The survey link is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019_FSM. And, oh yeah, after you finish, please don’t forget to read our Blog!. Thanks, Bill] 

Every day you deal with a multitude of customers who vary by type, size, installed base, usage, personality and everything else that ultimately differentiates one customer from another. However, one thing always remains constant – their business systems and equipment are critically Important to their day-to-day business operations. Despite this common thread that runs through virtually all of the customers you support, it is still important to recognize that each customer account will likely be different in terms of:

• The various types, brands, models and numbers of units they have installed at their respective sites;
• The ages of the individual units that are covered under their various Service Level Agreements (SLAs), or supported via a Time & Materials (T&M) basis;
• The usage patterns of the equipment at their individual locations (i.e., continuous intermittent use; single vs.multiple shifts; simple vs.complex multifunctional peripheral applications; and so on);
• The volume, capacity or throughput they regularly execute; and
• Many other unique and/or specific differentiators.

For some of your customers, their equipment is an integral component of what they do on a day-to-day basis. Customers in all industry segments, whether it be legal, financial, medical, real estate, government, or other highly-demanding markets, will tell you that their systems and equipment are essential to their business operations, and that when their equipment is down, their production is severely affected. For some, even a small piece of connected equipment may be the only means they have for providing their customers with a receipt, order confirmation, or other important transaction-generated documents. In fact, for many in the latter category, their reliance on the equipment you support may be even more critical to them (at least on a relative basis).

Regardless of the specific industry market segment or type of customer, there will always be a basic level of reliance on the business systems and equipment they have installed at their facility. In addition, you will find that your customers will also be relying heavily on your organization to ensure that their equipment is always up and running as required – and as expected. As such, it is important to recognize that in the customer’s mind, if the equipment is not working optimally – regardless of the technology that may have been built into it – it is worthless.

Since there is just so much that the customer is either inclined or permitted to do in order to get the equipment back in working order following a failure, in most cases, your field technicians will be the sole entities that they can count on to make that happen (that is, aside from remote monitoring and diagnostics, etc.). Accordingly, they will need to approach the servicing and support of the equipment with a great deal of professionalism and responsibility. Customers usually do not care whether the cause of an equipment problem is due to a hardware or software failure; a paper jam; or whether it was the unit’s fault, their fault, or nobody’s fault in particular. All they know is that when they needed to use the equipment, it simply did not work.

This is typically where the organization’s field technicians come into the picture. In many cases, they represent the only “real” physical manifestation of the service and support that keeps their equipment up and running – or at the very least, they may represent their first line of service and support defense. Your customers may rely heavily on the equipment itself to support their day-to-day business operations; but they rely even more on your organization and your field technicians to ensure that the equipment can continually do what it is supposed to do.

This is a unique area where most services organizations – and their dealers and distributors – can use some help! The good news is that there is a Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) software solution available for users in every industry, size and geographic coverage segment. The implementation of an SLM solution can provide a comprehensive set of integrated business solutions that empower strategic initiatives while driving tactical execution.

Companies that install, repair, and maintain business systems and equipment can increase their competitive advantage, grow top-line revenue, and bolster bottom-line profitability through the use of an effective SLM solution. Among the basic features and benefits of SLM functionality for a typical Field Services Organization (FSO) may best be summarized as follows:

• Comprehensive Contract and Service Level Management
• Service and Sales Integration
• Increased Help Desk/Contact Center Effectiveness
• Field Service Efficiencies

Comprehensive Contract and Service Level Management

• Through SLM, customer contracts and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can be structured in ways that best fit the business, as well as the businesses of their respective customers. Key items such as maintenance and repair service; preventative (or predictive) maintenance; remote monitoring, diagnostics and repair; and draw-down contracts can all be easily established and managed. As such, the organization’s services management can be assured that all of the obligations of its customers’ SLAs are well-planned for – and met – and that all of its mission-critical commitments to the customer are being honored.

In this way, services revenues are maximized, and there is little risk of experiencing lost revenues. Company representatives can quickly and easily verify both the customer and vendor entitlements, thereby eliminating any costs that might otherwise be associated with providing customers with parts, consumables or services they are not entitled to under the terms and conditions of any existing warranties or contracts. This also ensures that any and all dealer claims will be quickly processed.

Service and Sales Integration

• The Service and Sales Integration functionality of an SLM software suite can be relied on to enable the manufacturer’s and dealer organizations’ field service technicians and contact center personnel to more thoroughly service the company’s accounts, while also driving increased revenue in the process. By placing intuitive, easy-to-use sales tools into the hands of the appropriate service employees, the number of new opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell equipment, parts and consumables to existing customers will increase multifold.

The organization’s service technicians are out in the field every day talking to, and interfacing with, its customers; why not also provide them with the tools and resources they can use to close – or at least open – additional sales opportunities within this virtually captive customer base!

Increased Help Desk/Contact Center Effectiveness

• SLM can also allow the organization to increase its call handling efficiencies, especially in the areas of first-call resolution and call avoidance rates. This will ultimately result in the lowering of internal service costs, and commensurate improvements in existing levels of customer satisfaction and retention. In many ways, business systems and equipment services have been somewhat commoditized over the years, and the only way that one services organization (or its dealers) can establishment a competitive advantage over another is to differentiate (i.e., improve) the way in which they support the customer base after the initial sale.

The best way to do this is to provide superior levels of help desk and call center support empowered by a robust SLM capability. By arming your call center personnel with accurate and up-to-date customer and installed equipment base information – be it entitlement, configuration, or marketing campaign data – the organization will be able to greatly increase its ability to sell, cross-sell, and upsell its entire portfolio of products, services, parts and consumables.

Field Service Efficiencies

• Leveraging the field service automation tools inherent in the SLM software allows the organization to optimize its field force capacity utilization, resulting in significant operational efficiencies as field technicians quickly become empowered to increase revenue generation and recovery. By streamlining and managing the invoice process, billing cycles will be lowered, as will other key areas, such as Day Sales Outstanding (DSO), etc.

These improvements will almost immediately go directly to the bottom line as you will be able to manage your cash flow and receivables much more effectively. Similarly, by streamlining and managing your service inventories (such as trunk stock) more effectively, you will also be able to realize significant inventory cost reductions.

What many OEMs and dealer organizations seek is an end-to-end, enterprise-wide SLM solution that addresses the complete equipment/service lifecycle, from lead generation and sales quotation, to service and billing, through asset retirement. They are looking for a solution that both integrates and optimizes the critical business processes that all services organizations have to face with respect to providing their customers with the levels of service and support they require.

Services organizations that provide their customers with any combination of products, parts, services and consumables must be able to not only fix the customers’ equipment, but to fix the customer as well; however, the ability to do so may vary greatly from one organization to another. However, the most successful organizations will ultimately be the ones that have the right mix of management, personnel, tools, resources and solutions (i.e., Service Lifecycle Management), all working together to provide their customers with the levels of service and support they require – and expect!

The Global Warranty Services Market Appears to Be Moving Toward a More Expansive Period of Growth in 2019!

[After conducting our fifth annual Warranty Chain Management (WCM) Benchmark Survey in Q3/Q4, 2018, Strategies For Growth℠ has put together a new results package consisting of an Analysts Take paper, a Webinar and a 2019 WCM Conference workshop and presentation on “The State of Warranty Chain Management (WCM) for 2019 – and Beyond!”. The Webinar was hosted by Mize, Inc. on January 17, 2019 at 1 PM EST. However, you can download a copy of the webinar at https://info.m-ize.com/webinar-on-benchmark-and-optimize-warranty-management. Mize is also distributing copies of the Analysts Take paper at the 2019 WCM Conference in Orlando, FL, March 12 – 14, 2019.

The following is an excerpt from the January 10, 2019 issue of Warranty Week. Read the entire article, including illustrative charts and additional commentary, at Warranty Week.]

The 2019 survey results reflect all of the signals for an expanding market growth over at least the next 12 months, and probably beyond. Nearly two-thirds of respondent organizations are already running their services operations as profit centers with their own P&Ls, and annual warranty-related budgets are expected to increase-over-decline by a ratio of more than three-to-one. This has all of the makings for a fast-growing market.

Further, we are seeing an uptick in the percent of warranty services organizations taking steps to improve their respective planning and forecasting activities, and restructuring, as necessary, for improved warranty management oversight and accountability.

As such, all of the key aspects that can be used to signify both operational and financial improvements seem to be there, leading to an optimistic expectation for accelerated growth in the industry over the next 12 months.

Presently, 63% of respondent organizations manage service as a profit center, keeping pretty much in line with the findings for other related components of the global services industry (e.g., the field services segment, etc.). For many organizations, running services as a profit center allows them to focus more on the processes that may be used to generate higher levels of profitability, which represents one of the three main “clusters” of key factors currently driving the global market.

Warranty Management Organizations Are, Once Again, First and Foremost, Customer-Focused

The respondents to the survey have also once again clearly identified the specific drivers that are pushing them to aspire to the attainment of higher levels of performance. In fact, they have provided responses that solidify that there are still three main “clusters” of factors that drive their respective businesses: Customer-focused, Product Quality-focused and Profit-focused – and in that order.

For example, among the Customer-focused drivers, post-sale customer satisfaction issues (60%, up from 58% in 2018, and only 42% in 2017), the desire to improve customer retention (43%), and customer demand for improved warranty services (40%) remain as the top three drivers with respect to optimizing overall service performance. No other drivers are cited by more than just over one-quarter (28%) of respondents.

The next “cluster” of drivers is Product Quality-focused, and is represented by product defect-related costs (28%) and dealing with inferior/deficient product quality (23%). The third “cluster”, Profit-focused, is represented solely by an internal mandate to drive increased service profitability (23%). As such, the warranty chain management community has made it clear that it is squarely focused on, first, satisfying – and retaining – its customers; second, dedicated to improving product quality-related issues; and third, mandated to drive increased services profitability – again, in that specific order.

These results suggest a continuation of the relative “normalcy” that has characterized the Warranty Chain Management segment over the past several years – that is, a return to focusing on customers, rather than spending most of their time and resources wrestling with cost reductions and other financial issues. Obviously, while financial considerations are still critically important, the industry focus has shifted back, as it always does, squarely on the customer’s needs, requirements, preferences and expectations.

The Greatest Challenges Facing Today’s Warranty Management Initiatives

Aside from the top clusters of customer-, product quality- and profit-focused drivers, warranty services managers are also faced with myriad additional challenges that come from many different areas. The top challenge, as cited by nearly two-thirds (63%) of the survey respondents, is the ability to identify the root cause of product failures. However, nearly half (45%) also cite cost recovery from suppliers as one of their top three challenges. Further, between 28% and 30% of respondents also cite repair management (30%), claims processing time and accuracy (30%), and sale of extended warranties (28%) as significant challenges as well.

Based on the 2019 survey results, the greatest challenges facing warranty services managers today align closely with the key market drivers, as well as with the current and planned strategic actions to be taken. As a result, these data continue to reflect an environment where overall improvements are likely to transpire in the next 12 months, thereby leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction and the further stimulation of financial growth for the segment.

Analysts Take on the Global WCM Community

However, building upon the survey findings from previous years, only a small majority of warranty managers (57%) report that they are satisfied with their company’s warranty claims processing time – and only 22% are “extremely satisfied”. Although these percents represent a significant increase over previous years’ surveys, there are still more than one-in-five (22%) that are currently “somewhat dissatisfied” with their company’s warranty claims processing time performance.

Ashok Kartham, founder & CEO of Mize, concurs adding that “the companies can achieve the key goals of improving customer satisfaction and profitability of service business by connecting all stakeholders and processes in warranty and service contracts. Companies need to connect with customers directly to improve self-service and grow service contract sales. Service technicians need to be enabled to make better diagnostic and repair decisions upfront. Supplier collaboration needs to be improved to drive product quality. Companies can move beyond claims processing to drive customer satisfaction and grow additional revenues from innovative service offerings.”

Kartham further explains that “the warranty industry is facing significant challenges and opportunities with increased customer expectations for product uptime and predictive maintenance. The Mize Connected Customer Experience platform, and Warranty Management solution, enable companies to transform warranty to be a profit center. We are excited to bring the industry benchmarking and best practices to help companies optimize the entire warranty lifecycle and maximize the customer lifetime value.”

[Again, to download a copy of the Webinar, or to obtain a copy of the companion Analysts Take paper, simply click here: https://info.m-ize.com/webinar-on-benchmark-and-optimize-warranty-management.]