The state of Field Service by Dominique Vaes

In this article you will find my key take-away's after having attended the two Field Service conferences organized in Amsterdam this week by #Salesforce (? Heart of Service ? with 500 attendees) and by #WBR (? Field Service Europe" with 250 participants). Attending this kind of conferences gives us the opportunity to meet, talk and listen to hundreds of peers active in the (field) service area, either from industry leaders or from service providers. It is then a good opportunity to share our view of "the state of Field Service".?

Field Service is all about people?

First of all, Field service has never been as important as it is today! More and more equipment needs to be maintained, with higher technical complexity, higher customer's expectations…? and with less technicians available on the market. Technology is continuously reshaping the service offering, both on equipment and on supporting the way Field Service Organizations (FSOs) operate. However, service business is more than ever a human centric activity, and the contact on site will never be fully replaced by technology. Keeping the world running smoothly is a tough job. Life is always ? on ? for service companies! And this is exciting!???

What impressed me the most when listening to the keynotes and talking to the attendees? It is the first time after years of participating in FS conferences and working closely with FSOs that I truly feel that the primary focus of service organizations isn’t any more on the efficiency and productivity but really on CE: maximizing the ? Employee Experience ?! Until a couple of months ago, and mainly before the COVID pandemic, focusing on people has always been a necessary evil. How many times did I hear in the past that "technicians are the most important asset of a company", such an ugly sentence used by engineers to manage humans as a capital, but without really meaning the profound sense of it. Many speakers have confirmed that one of their most important objectives is to really listen and integrate "the voice of the technicians" in the strategy of the FSOs. It is essential, knowing the scarcity of FS technicians and the increasing complexity of their jobs. It is now generally understood that if you treat your people well, they will treat your customers well and this is really a game changer in service companies! I'm personally convinced that technicians will select in the near future an employer not based anymore on salary or other fringe benefits, but mainly based on the company reputation on how they treat their employees!???

But how to focus on CE? More and more creative actions are implemented by FSOs to attract and retain technicians and to make them loyal to the company. I list some of the ones that have been discussed with several service managers and that might inspire you:??

• Creating a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging in the organization?
• Propose work life balance arrangements?
• Keep socializing with the team and keep organizing team events (even when facing economic downfall)?
• Promoting a team leader to interact and have close interactions with a small team of technicians (and not anymore having one supervisor to manage 200 technicians, as we saw in the past)?
• Propose career paths to reassure technicians on their future?
• Structure the way to share knowledge with newcomers and make their onboarding as easy as possible?
• Balance remote assistance vs on site visit to avoid unnecessary trips and also allow to technicians to focus on value added labour?
• Listening to the technicians through engagement surveys and by asking them to regularly participate to advisory boards to work on improvement solutions and to keep people engaged???

I'm sure there are many more way to increase the CE reputation of your company, and I would be pleased to hear additional ones from your company!???

Technology continues to reshape the Field Service experience?

What about the selection and adoption of technology to better organize the work on the field and to improve the service offering to the FSO's clients? This is a complex topic, and after having listened to the service managers, to the IT services providers and to the multiple keynotes, I would like to summarize the key challenges in a couple of points:???

• FSM-Field Service Management software is still a must have to automate and to drastically improve the way of operating on the field. This is considered as the basics to build the process foundations of any FSO. However, it is more and more complex to select the right platform when looking at the market with the presence of major FSM software companies like #SalesForceFSM, #IFSFSM, #MicrosoftFSM, #ServiceMax and niche companies like #OverIT, #Comarch, #RESCO. Furthermore, often “off the record”, almost all FSOs (but not all) admit that they are struggling to implement and get the adoption of the new solution in a reasonable timing. Lack of explanation on the expected benefits, lack of (re)training, lack of management's involvement, misunderstanding between the IT teams and the business team, lack of involvement of the technicians early enough in the project are some of the recurring attention points coming out of discussions. Expertise in this area seems to be welcome (this is where FSiM can help ;)!???
• I also observed a relative new trend in Field Service around “resource planning optimization”. Most of the #FSM software companies and several other niche actors are now proposing “stand-alone resource optimizers” which could be installed without being obliged to take the “full” FSM suite. This is the case of #IFSFSM now coming into competition with niche resource optimizing companies like #skedulo, #FSL, #BaxterPlanning, etc… This is an important move when we remember that “best-in-class” resource optimizers, if correctly implemented (and that’s an important if), allow to increase field efficiency by minimum 15%. The challenge for the Service Directors is now to understand the power of each algorithm (and then extrapolate the benefits), to select the right tool, and to implement it the right way. Luckily, we can help!?
• Also, interesting to note that the usage of ?remote assistance? (with or without augmented reality) is progressing in many organizations as it allows to better serve the clients, to ease the work of the technicians, to train technicians and customers and to be more productive.? Make your choice between advanced augmented reality solutions like #SightCall, #HelpLighting, #XMreality…or more classical ways to share videos like FaceTime, WhatsApp’s, TEAMS, …?
• "IoT" and "Digital twins" are not anymore considered as a "competitive advantage" by the leading service companies!????

As a reminder, "Digital Twins" are a Digital representation of your products. Once in place, your products can be monitored, diagnosed and repaired remotely in real time with the possibility to plan predictive activities. It also eases, among others benefits, the way to identify the right spare parts.?

These technologies have been implemented beyond the basic piloting phase. But its integration in the daily business and the right usage of the data to create value for the customer is the real competitive advantage: leading companies like #JohnsonControlInternational (that we are proud to serve as a client!) are paving the way in creating massive advantage for their clients and for their technicians while clearly increasing profitable recurring revenues out of their "equipment as a service" concepts.??

• "Metaverse" is not anymore science-fiction in Field Service! Parallel virtual universes allow your company to present your products to your clients and to your workforce. It is beginning to be used for training purposes in a virtual environment including the product, the teachers, your clients and your technicians. Industrial and service companies need to follow early adopters like #Nike and #Vuitton who started to invite their clients in their virtual shops during the pandemic. FSO's management teams should seriously look at it, to jump on the train of virtual reality! The better metaverse connections you have with your clients, the better business you will do! It is also considered as a very promising way to capture the knowledge of experienced workers and to easily transmit it to the next generation of workers. Not to be forgotten that today’s generation of youngsters are playing with metaverse every day. Some of them will be the CEOs of your company in 20-30 years, and they will drive the business with the technology they are used to play with today!?
• To close the loop with the CE, I recall one statement made by the founding partner of #Prontoforms: "Technicians are not afraid of technology, they are afraid of bad technology". This is so true! New technology needs… to work properly and needs to empower the technicians, not to block their creativity and their willingness to offer the best services to their clients. FSO’s need to structurally consult them and to include their feedback in all your Field Service 4.0 technology initiatives! Ensure for example that they have the possibility to easily challenge and modify the planning proposal made by the system. And let’s never forget that without them, the world simply stops running.??

People and Technology. Technology for People. To paraphrase Sean Gerety: “the technology you use does not impress your customers and your technicians. The experience you create with it, is everything”.? I suggest service manager to always keep it in mind when further developing their? “connected” Field Service eco-system.?

?Dominique VAES?

Founding Partner of www.FieldServiceinMotion.com??

Looking to drastically improve your Field Service Performance? Do you need actionable recommendations? Looking for support to implement your FSM software?? Just contact us !

Subsribe to the latest trends in Field Service

?"We ensure the success of your Field Service Digital Transformation"?