ThinkTank Reflections: Will the field service engineers and technicians of the future have a different skill-set of those we employ today?
ThinkTank Reflections: Will the field service engineers and technicians of the future have a different skill-set of those we employ today?
What will a successful field service engineer look like five years from now? Will they have less technical expertise as we can provide them with layers of support and knowledge through technology?
Or should we go the other way and ensure our in-house engineers have the best technical expertise in the market and amplify that as a USP in a world where we are likely to see an increasing number of third-party technicians? How powerful in a world of digitalisation will the face-to-face interaction that a field service opportunity presents become, and does it drive the need for excellent people skills in our field workers?
There are important considerations and multiple facets of all sides of this discussion many of which were brought to the fore during the November 2022 FSN Think Tank session.
“I imagine a scenario where many organisations developing advanced services will have to upskill their engineers or customer-facing employees,” offered Jan van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum.
“Yet, on the other hand, I also see how digitalisation may result in the de-skilling of much of the type of work undertaken by humans – which is something we have seen in other industries,” he continued.
“I think that is always the balance that must be considered in these disruptive changes.
“So you either have some alternative roles, which still keeps a certain level in the field, perhaps simultaneously working in another area and on other activities. However, if that doesn’t happen, then I’m not sure if the role of the field service engineer as a trusted advisor is easily replaced – it may be that the type of role and importance of the engineer on site is not that relevant to being trusted adviser in the future,” Van Veen suggested.
“For example, in telecoms, the field technician will get an instruction, such as ‘you have to respond this component to this component and run through this test protocol. No troubleshooting on site and possibly that person doesn’t even meet a customer. So in that scenario, then perhaps it makes more sense to organise your trusted advisors more with remote specialist roles?”
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"This means that the field service engineers, essentially just need to know how to use the tools, and our remote technical advisors are then able to give them the deep subject matter expertise as and when they need it, wherever they are in the world.” - Tom Bean, Service Manager, AB Graphic International
“In our organisation, we have remote technical advisors,” Tom Bean, Service Manager, AB Graphic International replied.
“We have an extensive product range, so the approach we have taken with the remote technical advisors is that they are each specialists in their engineering fields who can advise our on-site engineers where required.
“This means that the field service engineers, essentially just need to know how to use the tools, and our remote technical advisors are then able to give them the deep subject matter expertise as and when they need it, wherever they are in the world,” Bean added.
“One thing I have been trying to square in my mind around where we want our most experienced technicians in a world where remote service is becoming more and more prevalent is what happens when it goes wrong?” said Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News.
“I understand the benefit of having our most experienced engineers working remotely so they can offer guidance and support far more customers. However, if we look at one potential scenario, let’s say an organisation has a process for service triage where the customer log-in to a self-service portal and runs through an initial triage with a chatbot that helps diagnose the issue and offers some self-service tips.
“If these fail to provide a resolution, the customer is connected to a remote service solution, and the remote guidance expert is unable to troubleshoot the issue, so we still don’t have a resolution,” he added.
“At this point, perhaps after an escalation to a further remote expert, an on-site engineer would be dispatched if the issue remains unresolved. I think there is a compelling argument here that the engineer dispatched to the customer’s site is where we need someone with deep subject matter expertise because, at this point, the customer is facing three or four touch points that failed service,” he continued.
"We can absolutely narrow down the field of what to look for based on data points such as usage or time etc, and help the engineer or technician by providing a starting point for their efforts..." Kevin Herring, Senior Advisory Consultant - Field Service Management, ServiceNow
“At this point, it feels like we need the traditional field service engineer, the one with a cape on their back, to fly in and fix the problem to keep the customer onside. So there’s that element which, on the surface, suggests that there is a case to be made for having subject matter expertise remain in the field.
“However, the numbers would suggest that those those roles would be few and far between and perhaps so would be such scenarios, so perhaps it is too much of a cautious approach for a problem that will naturally disappear as field service evolves?” Oldland reflected.
“It seems almost inherent in the human psyche that we need face-to-face interaction,” offered Holland Winfield, UKI Service Lead, Lenovo.
“With the advent of every new technology, the fear is always humans made obsolete in the service process. However, no matter what it is, at every new introduction of technology, we find a way of putting that human back into the relationship. Therefore, if sales can sell a human engagement, whether that is as an upsell, or a standard inclusion that helps them differentiate, they always figure out a way to do it,” he added.
“One big part of this discussion is often centred around predictive maintenance,” added Kevin Herring, Senior Advisory Consultant – Field Service Management, ServiceNow.
“I think that while there is undoubtedly a lot that can be done in this area to bring in assisted elements within the triage process as well as on-site or remote service delivery, I don’t think we’ll ever replace the human insight required,” he continued.
“We can absolutely narrow down the field of what to look for based on data points such as usage or time etc, and help the engineer or technician by providing a starting point for their efforts – but I don’t think it will ever replace human expertise as the data volumes we generally see in most field service situations are not just large enough to provide fully predictive tools with the accuracy that would be required.”
All members of the Field Service Think Tanks are speaking from their own personal opinions which are not necessarily reflective of the organisations they work for.
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