ThinkTank Reflections: Will the ongoing digitalisation of the field service sector lead to a greater importance of on-site field service?
ThinkTank Reflections: Will the ongoing digitalisation of the field service sector lead to a greater importance of on-site field service?
As we move further and further down the line of digital transformation, in-person interactions are becoming less and less frequent.
This has been further compounded by the much wider adoption of remote service in our industry, the benefits of which have now been accepted by both service providers and customers. However, one of the often cited benefits of the on-site service call is that the customer has direct and in-person access to a subject matter expert and trusted advisor – again, something of benefit to both the service provider and the customer.
Is this something that we may be putting at risk as we continue to digitalise field service?
It is a nuanced question and one that came to the fore at the November 2022 iteration of the FSN Think Tank Sessions.
“One thing that I believe we will begin to see emerge here, which we have touched on a little bit already in this discussion, is in a world of increasing digitalisation, in-person human-to-human interactions will be less frequent, yet we all inherently know that such interactions play a significant role in building meaningful relationships and establishing trust between organisations,” Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News commented.
“So if an organisation has moved down a path where remote connection is the primary means of delivering service and maintenance, and so the majority of service points become digital, to refer back to Holland’s observation earlier, I think there’s a massive value in having a role that potentially combines some preventative maintenance with an audit of assets on site, I see that as potentially being a massively important role in the future of service operations,” he explained.
“The way I see it is somebody coming into the factory floor in, say, a manufacturing environment, spending time with the assets to ensure everything is fully optimised and then spending time with the customer to talk them through the work that has been done both on-site but also perhaps other remote updates that may be less visible to the customer, and advising them of potential opportunities for future improvements or raising awareness of issues that may not be urgent today but will need to be resolved in a specific timeframe.
“To do that, we will need someone with the technical expertise, but also someone who can shine in that ambassadorial role,” he continued.
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"That human interface is going to shift to other kinds of values I believe if we are to assume that we will indeed see that impact of digitalisation in simplifying the work going within different industries." - Jan van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum.
“The benefit to the customer for such an approach is going to be significant, but the benefit to the service provider, of still having experienced eyes and ears on site, who is trusted by the customer is beneficial in so many different ways also.
“I have seen that approach adopted in certain organisations but not too often – but I do truly believe that as site visits become less frequent for engineers and technicians, this type of role will become more frequent – where account management, customer success, service and sales all come together in one customer interaction,” Oldland concluded.
“When thinking about how roles may evolve in the future, you must disconnect that from the current activities that may become less complex and look at other values you can bring to your relationship with the customer,” replied Jan van Veen, Managing Director, moreMomentum.
“For example, we are assuming that on-site maintenance requires an expert to undertake that role because this is where the complexity lies. However, as we start to see things like the ‘design for service’ initiatives developing pace, perhaps in the future, we don’t need an expert on-site to do that maintenance and fixing. Perhaps, the complexity of fixing is already taken care of somewhere else within the cycle?” Van Veen asked.
“However, we then need to start adding some other value to the customer, which is via human interaction,” he continued.
“So perhaps that is not centred around the maintenance, but instead solving complex issues about optimising the whole process, or maybe reducing energy consumption etc.
"Service delivery managers can bring the full picture to life for the customer. They can feed the data into a spreadsheet and show a customer the electricity used when the machines sat there idle and explain that seventy or eighty per cent of what the energy they’re using." Ged Cranny, Senior Consultant, Konica Minolta BEU
“So that human interface is going to shift to other kinds of values I believe if we are to assume that we will indeed see that impact of digitalisation in simplifying the work going within different industries. At the moment, some industries are already very swiftly seeing the start of such changes, while in others, we may see a much slower uptake,” concluded Van Veen.
“What is being described here is a service delivery manager,” countered Ged Cranny, Senior Consultant, Konica Minolta BEU.
“That’s where you take your people, look at the data you’re acquiring from the system, take on board feedback and input from the customer, and then go back to the customer with solid and practical advice.
“For example, perhaps we have, say, seven hundred machines across a customer’s install base and maybe twenty per cent of them are not making the life they need to do, and perhaps others are doing two hundred per cent of the expected life,” explained Cranny.
“So going in and optimising that situation, moving machines about for the customer and saying to them, we’re going to optimise your fleet, so you get the best output for what you’re using. In the old days, most service companies would have just sold a new set of assets or machines. Still, for the organisations that see the importance of demonstrating ongoing value through the service operation, then that approach has changed.
“We made that change a long-time ago, and what is being described around the table today and where I can see that mirrored in my organisation is a service delivery manager,” Cranny continued.
“All the things we designed for service, which was to monitor the switches and how the machines work, also tell us when the machines are working. That means our Service Delivery Managers could advise our customers about their usage, for example, ‘you’ve got your machines on twenty-four hours a day, but you’re only working with them for forty minutes. Why are you doing that? You could turn these machines off and save money this year.’
“If the engineer for example, turns on the power saving, we often then get a complaint from the customer shortly after, where they have had to wait twenty seconds for the machine to warm up. Service delivery managers can bring the full picture to life for the customer. They can feed the data into a spreadsheet and show a customer the electricity used when the machines sat there idle and explain that 70 or 80% of what the energy they’re using electricity in our machines is actually when it’s idle – so the engineer who put that power saver on for you has actually saved you x amount of money,” he concluded.
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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