The First Steps on the Road to Recovery

We have all talked about the importance of ensuring we can get onto the road to recovery as swiftly as possible. It is set to be a journey, but every journey begins with a single step. So how do we start rebuilding our service operations? What is that first step we must take?

Perhaps, the first step in plotting a path to recovery is to fully comprehend the devastating impact that the global lockdowns have had on industry worldwide. The road to recovery is going to be a long and iterative process.

 

As Ged Cranny, Konica Minolta, BEU explained “We’re expecting our revenues only to come back to 80% this year as companies and individuals start to adjust to the new working environments.

 

“Right now we’re starting to plan how we bring people back in to the business safely. In the last three weeks, we’ve seen the demand for site visits increase.”

 

“At the peak the demand dropped to 10%, of normal demand As lock down measures are lifted this demand has over the last 3 weeks increase to 55% of normal run rates utilising the Management dash boards we are monitoring the situation daily and working with HR to unfurlough as many technicians possible to support this demand while ensuring the safety of customers.”

 

However, as the adage goes, in every great crisis there also comes opportunity. In this, perhaps the greatest crisis of the modern era, we simply must seize the opportunity to ensure that what we build for tomorrow is better than what we had before. We each owe it to ourselves and those around us to ensure the suffering of 2020 has at least some silver lining to the dark clouds of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

“We have to use this as an opportunity to ensure we are no longer driving with our eyes locked on the rear-view mirror…”

 

We almost need to look at the last couple of months as an opportunity to perhaps just hit a bit of a big red reset button. We’ve had to do all of our rethinking. We have had to pay closer attention to the data coming in.

 

We have to use this as an opportunity to ensure we are no longer driving with our eyes locked on the rear-view mirror.

 

The other key point to consider as we plot our path towards the recovery is that while we are all in the trenches together, customers and service providers alike, the point on the journey that each of our organisations is on may be different, and so we must consider the wider business ecosystem we exist in as well.

 

As Jan van Veen, Founder, More Momentum explained, “I think the first thing we need to assess is whether or not we are yet in recovery mode? We must also consider if our customers are there as well or if they are still in a reactive mode to the crisis.”

 

“It is a difficult question to identify where crisis ends, and recovery begins, and maybe it’s also not good to stand still too long by that question…’

– Jan Van Veen, MoreMomentum

 

“It, of course, depends on a lot of factors both in our organisations and also within the markets we operate in as well,” Van Veen continues.

 

“However, what most service leaders or companies I am speaking with now are saying is that things are changing and have evolved from the first moment that the crisis hit us, but they are still are not sure what’s going to happen next. How are things going to look like in the winter or next year?

 

“So maybe it’s too soon to say it’s recovery, but things are different now than when we were totally locked down. Yet still many are circumnavigating and adapting to how things are evolving for the better or, the worse. It is a difficult question to identify where crisis ends, and recovery begins, and maybe it’s also not good to stand still too long by that question.”

 

“Things are happening as they happen; we must make sure that we’re flexible and adaptive and develop scenarios so that we can plan.”

 


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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