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As part of an excellent analysts paper commissioned by ServicePower, Bill Pollock has provided an in-depth look at the service requirements for the security sector, here we take a look at an excerpt from that paper...

There are now more security systems players than ever, bringing refined ways of doing business and new efficiencies to the marketplace. In addition, there has been a complete transformation of the security installer/service technician into an “everything as a service” professional, supported by service delivery models that embrace Cloud technology, interactive services, predictive diagnostics and customer self-service.

The most successful companies will ultimately differentiate themselves with unique and seemingly indispensable services and solutions that make it easier for a consumer (or business) to be smarter, safer, and more cost-effective.

For those organizations that install, monitor, and maintain commercial or residential security systems, ServicePower enables faster, smarter service, so they can deliver on today’s consumer service preferences and expectations, while also reducing operational costs and driving new and more predictable revenue streams.

The five primary factors to focus on when evaluating alternative Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WM) solutions for the security services segment are critical to the success of the vendor/solution evaluation and selection processes.

They include:

• Customer Engagement – by offering a customized, self-service portal to enable customers to log in with their account number and report issues or order add-on security services, schedule the appointment, watch their installer/ service technician en route, and communicate with him or her, if needed; also to suggest relevant new cross-sell and/or upsell services during this key interaction opportunity.
• Smart Scheduling – the ability to pair parameters such as skills, certifications, and geography with the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for real-time scheduling to ensure that the best installer/service technician is assigned, at the least cost; and provide the opportunity to re-optimize schedules and routes in real-time to accommodate intra-day changes, increase on-time arrival and completed jobs per day, and decrease travel costs.
• Mobile Tech Enablement – to ensure that the installer/service technicians arrive with everything they need to get the job done the first time, driving consistent quality service delivery, improved productivity, and increased completion rates; also to provide a value-based experience by personalizing the customer’s experience via fully configurable mobile functionality which also improves schedule compliance and first-time installation/ fix rates, and proactively offer additional value-added security solutions while onsite to increase revenue.
• Contractor Management – to facilitate better management of outsourced or supplementary third-party contractor staff to quickly expand geographic reach or support changing demand; the ability to dynamically choose a contractor based on rank scores, credentials, crowd-sourced Better Business Bureau (BBB) info, and dynamic rules configuration; and confidently being able to book an appointment based on available time-slots, coupled with the ability to view the current job status and track overall progress.
• Reporting & Analytics – the ability to use real-time Business Intelligence (BI) to measure performance metrics, fine-tune future operations, and enhance the customer experience; along with the ability to access Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), scorecards and reports in real-time, from either mobile devices or the desktop, and share them both inside and outside the organization, as warranted.

The best FSM and WM solutions will also be those that include additional functionalities, such as:

• Claims Management
• Work Order Management
• Inventory, Asset and Contract Management
• Outsourced Managed Services

The main benefits that can be realized through the implementation and use of a Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WM) solution designed specifically for the security services segment are many, and quite compelling, as follows:

• Improve management control over service provisioning
• Reduce manual processes to create and manage field schedule routes, thereby reducing travel times
• Increase appointments, per day
• Less time spent on-site
• Enable improvements in overtime, travel, skills, and spares
• Grow revenue
• Increase customer engagement
• Serve customers more efficiently with convenient scheduling, increased first-time installation/ fix rates, and improved service levels
• Use Business Intelligence (BI) to better measure and improve service operations KPIs
• Research has shown that for a typical Fortune 1000 company, just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than US$65 million additional net income, according to Forbes.com.

These benefits, albeit on a smaller scale, can also be realized by small-to-medium-sized security services organizations as well.

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Accomplished industry veteran to lead IFS’s Global Service Management initiatives as IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces the appointment of field service industry veteran Marne Martin as President of IFS’s Service Management business unit and CEO of WorkWave.

The IFS Service Management business unit established under Marne will encompass the global IFS service management organization as well as WorkWave, acquired by IFS in September 2017, and have dedicated engineering, sales and marketing resources to address the unique needs of service management customers globally. Marne’s experience leading high-growth and expansion phases in both publicly and privately held companies will provide the leadership required to propel both brands into their next stages of growth and market expansion.

]As both President of IFS Service Management and CEO of WorkWave, Marne and her leadership team will continue to elevate the strategic importance of service management to the success of the overall IFS business. Marne will focus on ensuring the entire portfolio of IFS’s service management solutions provide customers with the business value they expect from a global industry leader in field service management (FSM).

“I am thrilled to be leading such a great organization and to be part of the overall IFS senior leadership team as we begin a new chapter in our company’s growth,” said Marne. “WorkWave continues to be an important asset to the overarching value proposition of IFS Service Management, and I look forward to working with the talented IFS and WorkWave teams to make sure IFS’s service management portfolio becomes even more customer-focused.”

With Marne’s appointment to its senior leadership team, IFS will be able to draw on her broad experience and proven track record to further increase the significance of the service business and grow its global market share.

IFS CEO Darren Roos said, “Marne’s domain experience will enable us to further develop the service management capability across the entire portfolio to deliver even more value to our customers. We remain completely focused on delivering solutions together with our partners that have an impact on the way our customers serve their customers.”

Prior to IFS, Marne served as CEO and led the executive leadership team at ServicePower Plc., a field service management software company, where she transformed its go-to-market strategy and shifted its focus to SaaS and managed services revenue, increasing pipeline every year during her tenure. Prior to that, she served as CFO of Norcon, Plc., a UK-based telecom and defense consulting firm, where she grew the company from a business largely dominant in only the Middle East to one diversified across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Martin is a winner of a number of awards including 2016 CEO Gamechanger of the Year (FSM) from ACQ 5 Global Awards and 2015 Field Service CEO of the Year from Executive Awards.

 

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Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing Officer, ServicePower explains why savvy service organisations understand that building an excellent customer experience must begin from the first interaction, but must continue through every service touch point onwards - and how IoT data can be a key tool in achieving that...

Customers purchase products and don’t interact with the OEM or retailer again until something fails. Thus, your next contact with the consumer is one in which your product has become their problem. You are behind the eight ball right out of the gate. 

While the industry has focused on metrics important for operational improvements, such as first-time fix rates, productivity, efficiency of field technicians and fuel utilization, all of which are critical to any business, we now must recognize that customer experience must be the driving force behind our strategies, the top priority for our operators, for sales and marketing and for our service teams.   

Considering the customer experience from the very beginning is the surest way to drive downstream revenue.  

Start at the Beginning 

Customer experience must be considered from the point a product is manufactured or sold, not simply from the perspective of field service downstream. 

Customer experience must be considered from the point a product is manufactured or sold, not simply from the perspective of field service downstream. Ensure that your product includes features which makes your customers’ experience with your product easy and helpful, that it meets expectations. Don’t stop there though. Make sure the product exceeds expectations. With the ease at which IoT sensors can be embedded in products and used to provide proactive new accessories and services, makes tapping into this technology a no-brainer.

IoT isn’t reserved for heavy industry. Consumers, both residential and commercial, are using IoT in their lives every. Use it to your advantage, and theirs. 

Take the Next Step 

Your responsibility to your customer doesn’t stop at the point you ship or sell a product or service. Once the product is in hand, make sure you’ve made it easy to connect with your organization in real time.

If a customer has questions about usage or features and functions, needs accessories or complementary products, or in the event, there is an issue with a product, omnichannel connectivity gives them the ability to connect with you in ways that are convenient for them.

Use web portals and mobile apps, use Smart Speakers. Image how much better a repair experience could be if Siri could schedule an appointment for your customer.  

Go Beyond Service Delivery 

Enabling field teams with technology with the information, part and tools required to fix a problem in the field is the minimum expectation of field service organizations now.

If you’re not there, and recent data suggests that almost 50% of field service teams are not, get there fast. Look to configurable, cross-platform mobile applications that you can deploy quickly, on any device, with the process and forms needed- by your employed or contracted field technicians- to get onsite and problem solve in real time.

But don’t stop there.

Tap into the data you’ve collected from manufacturing, the point of sale, IoT and service history to offer your customers more.Tap into the data you’ve collected from manufacturing, the point of sale, IoT and service history to offer your customers more. The data at your fingertips makes it possible for you to offer new services using that data, directly from your field technicians.

Make the customer happy with a single visit fix. Make them happier with maintenance contract offers that keep their products up and running longer. Delight your customers with proactive service and seamless communication with every member of the product lifecycle ecosystem.

Use the data and the technology available to both your organization and your customer, to seamlessly drive positive, profitable post-sale interactions with every customer.  

 

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Samir Gulati, Chief Marketing Officer with ServicePower joins the exclusive ranks of Field Service News associate columnists and in his first article explains why in a world of increasing customer demands field service delivery needs to be the platform from which you wow your customers...

Customers expect more from today’s service providers. In a service environment where consumers are connected to the internet and each other 24 hours a day, they expect the same connectivity and instant response from companies they do business with. Consider the popular pizza tracker technology.

We’ve seen the technology cheekily called a baby monitor for pizza. Who among us hasn’t watched the tracker move in the right direction, just to stall right before the pizza is due to be delivered, leaving us disappointed, anxious and hungry?

Though pizza has little in common with complex field service operations, the tracker concept is very applicable.

Though pizza has little in common with complex field service operations, the tracker concept is very applicable.Consumers today expect to have full access to your services. Field service technology with supports the entire service lifecycle, from entitlement to completion is so important in today’s environment given those expectations. Consumers expect to be able to schedule a service or maintenance event whenever, and on whatever device is convenient to them, just like ordering a pizza. Enabling your customers to digitally engage with you operational teams, faster and in a smarter way, is a critical first step to building brand loyalty and increasing future revenues.

Providing visibility, just like that pizza tracker, is also now expected by consumers. Digitally booking a service event, to your employed or contracted workforce, is the first step in a faster, smarter service experience for your consumers.

Providing visibility to the appointment, the tech’s schedule and his or her location on the day or service not only improves customer satisfaction by delivering complete transparency related to the service event, it reduces costs for your organization by eliminating phone calls that historically would have occurred related to the appointment. The latest field service management technology can also enable customers to do more. It provides the ability to review new services and product offers based on asset ownership and service history, while also enabling techs and consumers to communicate directly.

Better than the traditional call ahead while en route, or a dial on a screen showing location only, consumers can upload pictures and other information related to their service event such that techs are better prepared to arrive and complete the service event while onsite.

Pizza tracker technology delivers updates based on preprogrammed timing and a series of predefined events, with very little engagement from the actual delivery drivers. That’s not good enough in field service. Field service is complex. Better visibility for the consumer is great. It’s the first step in providing faster, smarter service. However, it’s only the last mile of great service delivery.

Smart field service technology better supports complex field service delivery models.The miles in between matter just as much.  Smart field service technology better supports complex field service delivery models. It enables technicians to be scheduled with the skills and required parts to complete a consumer’s service order on time. It provides the tech with product information, repair information, and access to expert resources, even AI-based digital assistants which can define how to fix a certain product using available information, versus having the tech swipe through pages of documentation on a device to find a solution.

Field service technology delivers a great customer experience because it enables your field techs to connect to your customers throughout the entire service lifecycle, delivering service in a smarter way.

For the operational teams, the pizza tracker seems to do little else than automate the order, eliminating phones calls to the store. In field service, complex operations require robust, often AI-based technology, to deliver great service beginning with entitlement. Field service technology is the foundation on which service delivery technology is built, enabling each to manage complex processes and engage employed or contracted technicians and consumers in a smarter way, to deliver faster, more complete service using a single field service solution.

AI schedule optimization drives productivity, no doubt. Unlike the pizza tracker which can take a single input, an order, and deliver a single output, the delivery status, AI can be used in field service to harness a multitude of inputs related to consumer requirements, tech skills, and other hard and soft constraints, while also incorporating the latest in mapping and location technologies, to deliver a schedule which reduces operational costs, but which also improves service delivery, ensuring techs arrive on time, with the parts and knowledge needed to complete the service event.

Integrated contractor management solutions can ensure a similarly seamless service experience using contracted labour. Mobile technology can support full onsite processes, ensuring smarter, faster on-site service delivery.

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Field Service Technician enablement is both an important topic but also a frequently rolled out buzz-phrase that we hear within our industry. Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower digs deeper into the topic and helps us cut through the hyperbole to understand the key facts within this topic...

Technicians today are not the technicians of the past. Their expectations are continuously evolving based on the ability to consume information and communicate instantaneously from their connected devices among themselves, with assets, the back office and the end consumer.

ServicePower’s mission is to drive an excellent service experience and grow the value of every consumer relationship. To do that, we must focus on the technician.

Much time the past five years was spent talking about IOT. Less was focused on what a connected world means for the technician, and what is needed to work smarter. We know productivity, first-time fix and proactive maintenance is the holy grail of profitability for service organizations and customer experience. The technician is the key to both.

Consumer expectation of a seamless, digital experience has impacted the industry greatly as have technology trends, yet a true focus on technician enablement is still spotty.Consumer expectation of a seamless, digital experience has impacted the industry greatly as have technology trends, yet a true focus on technician enablement is still spotty. Our “best-in-class” customers bring technicians into the process related to user experience, and how data and workflow changes enable experienced technicians to be hyper-productive and how novice technicians become fully functional, faster. Likewise, the businesses which service a wide variety of equipment, work, or parts need technology that has best-in-class capabilities around artificial intelligence, data model flexibility, IOT, diagnostics, and robust, flexible mobile applications. They likewise need a consumer or dealer portal to collect and send technicians key information such as customer, product or service history, service contract or service level agreements.

Service technicians have become the “single point of failure” in the customer interaction because typical technology driven from the CRM and ERP ill-prepares them with a lack of information. Sales and financial systems provide customer and billing information but do not enable a game-changing service experience that improves brand, market share or revenue.

We endeavour to enable technicians to perform more efficiently with fewer points of friction in their daily activities. Consider the following.

Evolving Labor Supply

All technicians want to be successful on the job. The emerging millennial workforce uses technology every day. We must use veterans’ skills and talents while utilizing millennials to drive technology adoption. Functionality exposed to technicians is important. However, flexible date models, customer, product, and diagnostic information, available before and during a job, is equally important. First-time fixes don’t happen by accident.

Enable Technicians with Technology

Field service management technology is itself evolving, through artificial intelligence, but also more versatile data models that can use IOT or predictive information to update work orders, create differentiated service workflows, or deploy updatable forms in real-time, based on diagnostics. Asset data, IOT diagnostics and service history deliver service insights digitally, on-site. The best vendors and newest product releases do more with technology to achieve and exceed traditional metrics.

Intelligent portals

Intelligent portals are game-changing. They can do more than simply enable a service or technician location. Portals can digitally deliver appointment offers, which in the past, only the call centre would have had the insights to do. They can facilitate better service by allowing customers to upload connected smart sensor data, fault codes, photographs or videos of failed products, and interact with triage and field technicians. Portals better inform customers and prepare technicians to resolve issues in a single truck roll.

The latest mapping and location technologies provide consumers improved visibility of appointments, near-by technicians with schedule availability, and technician arrival estimates. Portals delight the customer and improve call centre efficiency by digitally handling booking, confirming and rescheduling appointments automatically.

Portals can even use AI, asset and service history to intelligently offer customers new products, accessories and services, without ever interacting with a call centre, snail mail or email, and before the technician arrives.

Mobile technology

Mobile technology has come a long way in recent years. While scheduling optimized technicians and parts together, status, and capturing payment are still a challenge for some organizations, overall, field service companies can now also use mobile technology to provide better, more personalized service in the field to every customer.

Effective mobile solutions deliver relevant customer, asset, parts, and diagnostic information in real-timeMobile applications provide entitlement, customer availability, asset information and technician location, real-time inventory, payments, and timesheet capability, as well as work order and technician status updates. Leading solutions were built with 100% configurability and flexible data models, which provide the opportunity to customize service events, improve first-time fix rates and improve customer satisfaction. Effective mobile solutions deliver relevant customer, asset, parts, and diagnostic information in real-time, as well as provide task lists, pricing and payments, and survey delivery for a faster, smarter, more satisfying experience.

Mobile technology is the best way to enable technicians to deliver the best experience.

Siri, Echo, Alexa and Cortana Aren’t Enough

Digital assistants are cool, but how can we make them more helpful? Displaying navigation, making calls or texts is handy. Digital assistants integrated with data hubs can deliver useful customer, asset, and predictive intelligence to technicians which require it to improve service delivery. `

Digital assistants become more powerful when integrated with AI, machine learning algorithms, asset and service history, predictive and repair information, providing an entirely different kind of assistance to field technicians.

AI can analyze data to derive cognitive insights and deliver it through digital assistants, resulting in the holy grail of better tech enablement, customer experience, and financial performance of the service organization or brand.

Technician Enablement Means Transforming Field Service Experiences with Technology

Friendly, competent technicians enabled with game-changing technology are the future. Sales secure customers, but your service technology retains them, increases your share of their wallets and grows your brand.

Don’t just give face value to technician enablement, own it, and make it a priority. Your brand and your customers will thank you.

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Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower explains why Artificial Intelligence is going to be a fundamental part of the future of field service and why not all AI is on an equal footing...

In business, we are all now fully aware of the importance of collecting data. However, we are also painfully aware of just how easy it is to get overloaded by the sheer volumes of data we can collect.

An often quoted example that puts the sheer amount of data being generated around us into some sort of context is that a Boeing 787 will generate around 40TB per flight. If you were to play 40TBs of mp3s back to back it would take you 78 years to listen to every file. Yep, those data lakes are deep and quite frankly it’s no wonder some companies are beginning to drown in them.

And this is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into the question - and why it is set to play such an important role within the field service sector.

Ours is a sector in which excellence is being built on data.Ours is a sector in which excellence is being built on data. We are embracing IoT with both arms because it has the power to bring costs down for the service provider whilst increasing service standards for the customer. However, for us to fully see the promise IoT offers we need to turn to AI to help us make sense of all that data.

However, not all AI is equal.

It is often overlooked in conversations but there are very distinct different types of AI. You can have Algorithms that only do one thing. For example, in a law firm, they may have an AI algorithm that sorts through documentation for testimony in trails. Things like this are what are generally viewed as purpose-built AI algorithms, that are all about establishing simple efficiencies. Basically, an AI which is implemented by people and organisations who are searching across large data sets for tightly determined results.

Whilst it is by no means a simple task to develop and deploy such an algorithm when it comes to looking at AI in field service we are talking about a much more complex beast entirely.

For a start let’s just consider the various different types of service and touch points within the service cycle that AI can touch.

To begin with there are three obvious different areas of a field service business:

• Call centre activities
• Back office activities
• Field service activities

Then there are the various different types of information that needs to be factored in as well. For example, on any given service call we would be looking at a minimum for information on:

• The asset
• The customer
• Any service history
• Component level information
• Any complexities to service
• Warranty details

All of these elements only serve to create more complexities in the data - so AI designed to work its way through such levels of complexity is by default going to be a more sophisticated piece of programming.

However, the reason why AI is so important in field service is that we want a product that is flexible and configurable to how our field service businesses evolve and how we want to deliver service. The issue is if you are trying to cross-section a lot of data without AI algorithms that are configurable you are going to be wasting way too much time trying to build software that is one dimensional.

For example, you might build something that says if I get this preventative maintenance alert I am always going to do this. That might be OK for today but it might not fit with your business in a couple of years time.

For the requirements of field service organisations the power of a truly good AI algorithm is all about how robust is its ability to configure different processes.Then you’d have to sit back down with your IT group and your developers and kick off another two-year project on coding some other stuff. By then you’re way behind your competitors - who were able to just adjust some of the parameters on their AI algorithm.

This is why I firmly believe that for the requirements of field service organisations the power of a truly good AI algorithm is all about how robust is its ability to configure different processes.

The volume of the data that is coming out now and the direction that most businesses want to move in mean that we are now well and truly living in a Big Data world and we need to get used to it.

So we need AI to process the sheer amount of data but also we specifically need configurable AI services that will enable us to have the type of service experience that works for our brands and for our customers.

This is why we have been so focused on the development of AI at ServicePower and we were so pleased to be awarded a US patent for the AI algorithms that we’ve incorporated into our latest Customer Experience service solution - which you can see a demonstration of in our recent webinar available @ http://fs-ne.ws/XYbX30gQDeB

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With a new US patent approved for their Quantum Computing algorithm, Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower explains her vision for what the future of customer experience excellence will look like and outlines the path her organisation can offer to consumer-focused organisations as they begin rolling out a raft of new CX tools...

The last time Field Service News sat down and spoke with Marne Martin, ServicePower’s bold and ebullient CEO, for a formal interview, it was to discuss their recent acquisition by private equity firm Diversis at the beginning of this year.

At that point, Martin was keen to express the fact that it was she who had courted investment with a vision to expand upon their product suite more rapidly than they could through organic means alone and that this acquisition was not just another PE shark circling the rich pickings of the Field Service Management sector. At the time Martin commented ‘I felt that we were 75% and we were really looking for someone to get us to 100% of where we saw the opportunity in the sector not just for the current but in the future.”

I felt that we were 75% and we were really looking for someone to get us to 100% of where we saw the opportunity in the sector not just for the current but in the future.”Of course, many a CEO has said similar things in the past having just been acquired, a message of confidence is par for the course to keep the client base assured that their future is still safe in a steady pair of hands. But just how far along the path Martin outlined have ServicePower come in the last six months?

“We are completely thrilled with the progress we have made already in 2017” Martin responds when this question is put to her. “We’ve been supplementing the talent that we already have by bringing in some really great people and we will continue doing that, as it’s allowing us to constantly move forward with the development efforts and plans that we already had in place.”

One thing that has certainly seemed to materialise since the acquisition is a greater outward projection of where their core market lies. For Field Service Solution providers this can be a challenge within itself as field service straddles so many vertical industries, which whilst sharing many shared pain points and challenges, also have their own specific vertical nuances to be considered as well.

Yet whether it’s the result of some business refinement that came out of the acquisition process, or whether it is simply something they are now verbalising that little bit more, ServicePower now seem to have a very clear understanding of their target market.

“All of this [development] is around really expanding our dominance in consumer industries” Martin explained. “We sell B2B but we are enabling the consumer experience for our customers so we are essentially B2B2C primarily, ServicePower is really unique in dominating that positioning. The other field service providers are either more focused on preventative maintenance or other such aspects of the sector. We really are the only field service company that has this domination and focus in the consumer sector and that empower our customers to cultivate consumer experience as they deliver it - whether that be through different service routes or through different types of technicians.”

But how does this translate into actual developments of the solution?

“The new customer experience will incorporate a lot more of web service front end User Interfaces that we are coding with the latest programming standards,” Martin tells us.

It is really designed to give customers a better digital experience whilst also making call centres more productive and for the technicians“It is really designed to give customers a better digital experience whilst also making call centres more productive and for the technicians, the mobile tech enablement is better. We’ve done a huge amount of R&D on how integrated ecosystems deliver a much-improved customer experience but actually it is better for every stakeholder in the service continuum.”

“I firmly believe, and so do many of our customers, that the customer and the tech want the same thing - a great experience,” she continued.

“That is either an experience where things don’t break - because of processes like tailored proactive maintenance or incorporating IoT diagnostics to leverage what you know about the assets, or if they do require repair then we’re facilitating a repair experience that doesn’t necessarily require a truck roll, ideally they’re able to do some remote maintenance and fix it without coming into the client’s home.”

“However, if there does have to be a truck roll, if they do need to come to the client’s home - then they should be making sure they are coming into the home at a time that’s convenient for the customer and with the best knowledge about the asset possible - that is how you facilitate the first-time-fix. So now you are seeing the first few steps to making this all happen and soon you’ll also see some of the additional predictive types of improvements that we’re also rolling out with Smarter Field Service and the new algorithm.”

“In fact, we were recently awarded a new US patent for our quantum annealing work and you’ll definitely be seeing the further evolution of this vision as we move into 2018.”

Now, it was felt in some corners that it was ServicePower’s research work into Quantum Annealing that made them such an attractive proposition for investment in the first place. However, up until now the conversation had centred mainly around theoretical research ServicePower had undertaken.

But if this research work is set to move into the practical realm, then this could truly be a game changer for field service optimisation.

What I think will be the service experience of the future for our customers, is tying in the power of this quantum computing algorithm not just to do the traditional pipe of ‘technician-route-schedule-optimisation’ but also to think about optimisation across the different types of service.“What’s interesting to me and what I think will be the service experience of the future for our customers, is tying in the power of this quantum computing algorithm not just to do the traditional pipe of ‘technician-route-schedule-optimisation’ but also to think about optimisation across the different types of service. For example, having more flexible work queues or how you triage and route the delivery of service for a customer - all through digital enablement,” Martin explains.

“Say for example, a customer hits our new intelligent customer portal - you can send them to a process, you can use IoT diagnostic information, or upload photos or whatever type of triage type of information that you have, then depending on how you assess that you might then send them through to a work queue that is optimised and we can have a dynamic work-flow between back-office activities, call centre activities, technician experiences and triage assessment activities.”

“We’re actively thinking about how to use our quantum annealing algorithm in a more flexible way to optimise the total service experience. What I have seen is that even amongst our customers and prospects that have an IoT diagnostic group, they are not working that information into an integrated service experience.”

“They might have some techs that are trained in that or the might have an elite network that is doing it, but they are not tying it into the overall workflow and optimising a more efficient service experience.”

“Ultimately you only want to send a technician on site when you really have to and as much as possible you want to make sure that when the technician gets on-site they’re able to do what the customer really needs - which is, of course, a first-time-fix.”

This scenario is, of course, the ideal field service win-win-win. The customer is happier because they are back up and running, the engineer is happier because they have a better work-life balance and less angry customers and the board is happier because they are seeing improvements to the bottom line. Indeed, if it is achievable, we are getting close to field service nirvana.

Martin concludes: “We are also looking at how we can use the quantum computing power looking at demand forecasting, capacity planning, and parts information, focusing on consumer industries and how we deliver a great service experience. It is about so much more than just the technology – it is a whole integrated approach that looks at the digital journey with the customer, the call centre and mobile technician enablement.”

It seems that Martin and her team at ServicePower are undeniably still on the right path to deliver the future of customer experience.

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ServicePower Inc. a market leader in field service management solutions, has recently released a new Customer Experience service solution that combines its patented Artificial Intelligence engine with its new Gantt, maps, dashboards, improved technician mobile enablement features, and a new integrated registration, diagnostic, self-scheduling and point-of-sale enabled Customer Portal.

This integrated solution is new to the industry, being the first solution to help field service organisations drive a faster, smarter end-customer experience, while also improving the effectiveness of field technicians and operations teams.

“Customer experience is key. This product release uses the latest in artificial intelligence, real-time engagement and mobility tools to deliver a better, and more digitised experience,” said Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower. “Customers and technicians care about great service, which ServicePower now can deliver it in a differentiated way.  Our suite of solutions eliminate many of the frustrations customers experience when requesting installations, maintenance or service.”

ServicePower drives faster service for the end customer. 

The Customer Experience release empowers end-customer users to instantly book appointments through an integrated self-service portal, on any device, utilizing the patented AI technology. Relying on ServicePower to seamlessly book employed and credentialed contracted field technicians using its smart brokering technology, field service organisations can delight customers with faster response times and a consistent, branded service experience, while providing greater call center efficiencies at the same time. The new release also improves visibility for customers through real-time job status notifications and technician location information, enables customers to upload diagnostic and triage information, and engage with their technician as a trusted advisor. Customers gain improved control over their own experience, uploading and viewing job related information and configuring notifications from the platform.

ServicePower drives a smarter service experience for the mobile field technician.  

With the Customer Experience release the field service team gains a market leading set of capabilities, enabling predictive maintenance, higher repair success rates, and delivery of a more personalised service experience to end-customers. Technicians have access to a more complete customer data set, including all relevant job, customer, asset and part information to deliver higher first time fix rates, while being able to push data downstream, improving manufacturing and long-term product viability for customers.  Extensive product catalogs and pricing capabilities enable technicians to deliver parts, accessories and service offers in person, adding value to each customer interaction.

ServicePower drives a unified experience for service operations. 

The Customer Experience release enables field service operators to streamline field service operations, from entitlement and claims management to scheduling, labor and parts forecasting, reporting and analytics. ServicePower’s modern interfaces and patented AI-scheduling algorithm improves customer processes such as appointment booking, with employed or contracted field personnel, while driving productivity up and costs down.  Responsive, collaborative dashboards improve visibility of operations, driving improvements for both the customer and the technician.

Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower said “This latest Fall 2017 product release is all about changing the service paradigm to incorporate the latest in AI technology, digitisation, and a great user experience to empower the technician to deliver great service and the end-customer to manage their own engagement with service organisations, when and where they want, with clear visibility of technicians’ visits, so they know what’s going on. Technicians enjoy providing faster, smarter service, so they can delight the customer and provide more value. Our focus is about streamlining operations on a unified platform to provide a better experience for all, continuing to innovate with new features targeted across the entire service ecosystem.”

 

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ServicePower recently hosted an excellent webinar the discussed the Customer Experience release on which you can access here

 

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Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower explains why the connected customer is far more than just a marketing buzz phrase and focuses on the benefits of a truly unified platform...

In today’s consumer-centric economy, companies must do more than manufacture solid products for the home or business. Consumers consider the entire product lifetime value, from point of sale to the service experience, when deciding to buy.

They rely on sources other than brick and mortar showrooms to research and select products, often going to the web and most importantly other consumers’ reviews of products online. The connected consumer is no longer just marketing speak, and customers expect a differentiated service experience also from their connected devices or equipment.

What defines good service?

Whether providing service to a connected home or business, or simply on a faulty appliance or television, inspecting a wrecked automobile or damaged roof, installing a security system or a delivering healthcare supplies, ‘good service’ encompasses more than simply referring a consumer to a call center and then a service employee or contractor who may or may not call to schedule an appointment.

That model started changing in the early 1990’s with the growth in adoption of field service management software. Today, consumers expect more of service providers than scheduling an appointment and waiting for a technician to arrive.

What defines a great service experience?

A great service experience relies on improving the entire service lifecycle by providing Faster, Smarter Service on a Unified platform. The best field service management software supports the entire lifecycle, empowering consumers to digitally engage with you, enabling field technicians to deliver personalised service and providing a unified platform with modular functionality on which service operations can continuously optimise ongoing service delivery.

Let’s discuss how each below offers a digital, connected process that is differentiated from that of old.

Digital Engagement

Consumer engagement is critical to faster service. Providing an intelligent digital experience which enables customers to book appointments at their convenience with your trained and credentialed workforce, check status, communicate with technicians and track their locations is expected in today’s digital economy.

You also need one place that diagnostic data and added triage information available from the customer or the connected device or piece of equipment, service history, asset information that is easily available for both the customer and the technician. The days are gone where you want to send a technician out for something that can be handled remotely. Likewise, customers want to do more online, such as registering product purchases, buying additional products and services, and posting reviews of the service experience.

 

Consumers can research purchases and buy online, right now. Their expectations for service post-sale is exactly the same, and they also want their service experience to be ideally such that they want to buy more from the product or service brand.

The best field service management solutions easily engage consumers where, when and how they desire with the service contract provider.

Technician Enablement

Field service technicians, insurance adjusters, installers, delivery personnel- they are the heart and the face of the post-sale experience. As service industry employees, it is in their very nature to want to do well by your customers, to be faster and smarter at their jobs, so that they can delight every customer and walk away feeling accomplished. Enable them with the tools to do so as generally speaking, customers and technicians want the same thing – more up-time and better first time resolution rates.

Field service management and mobile software enables your teams to deliver faster, smarter service. Customer engagement software provides an end-to-end digital experience.

Artificial Intelligence-based scheduling software automatically positions techs for success, selecting the best resource for every job, and scheduling shorter, realistic service windows that techs can achieve, making service delivery faster for consumers. IoT integration revolutionises the service model, allowing field techs to proactively service and maintain products before they fail, and predicting future service requirements such that service contracts can be used to extend product life-cycles beyond the traditional break-fix model.

 

Mobile software with access to assets, inventory, service history, information and expert resources makes techs smarter at every appointment, armed to resolve issues through personalized service delivery, and adding value for consumers through additional services which improve the long term value of every product.

Unified Platform

Field service and mobile workforce management software set the stage for faster, smarter service delivery with a Unified - and integrated - platform.

Functional groups ranging from manufacturing and quality, to IT, marketing and sales, customer service and field service delivery require a unified platform which supports the full customer service lifecycle.

A unified platform improves your organisations ability to deliver faster, smarter services with employees, contractors or both, increasing service capacity and decreasing time to service. It can also standardises onsite process with configurable mobility, while decreasing the cost of service with schedule optimisation and dynamic, logic based contractor dispatching. No longer do you want to be making myopic decisions that don’t enhance your brand and the service experience for your customers.

 

A unified platform improves the process of performing service on your behalf for contractors, creating a faster, smarter model through integrated warranty claims management, which also reduces claim costs and fraud, ultimately better protecting warranty reserves.

A unified platform is the basis on which a great consumer experience is executed.

Transformational Service

The customers’ service experience with your organisation can be transformational.

Delivering faster, smarter service using a unified platform enables your field technicians to drive a better experience for your customers.

Customers experiencing great service become your most effective marketing and sales tools, loudly evangelizing about their experience through positive reviews, increasing sales, brand loyalty and long term service revenue.

ServicePower’s field service management solution empowers any organisation with a mobile workforce to deliver Faster, Smarter Service, while providing a Unified experience for customers, field technicians and your organisation.

We also offers a fully managed network of 3rd party service providers to enable rapid and high-quality on-demand “spill-over” servicing at peak times and in hard-to-reach locations across North America and the Europe.

 

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Marne Martin, CEO of ServicePower describes what field service management professionals should expect from their solution providers and offers some excellent intel on how to pick a partner that is right for your business...

Customer service, customer satisfaction, customer experience. Those are more than buzz word, more than trends in field service.

Field service organisations have recognised that to achieve the highest levels of retention and overall growth in consumers, they must focus on providing the highest levels of service. High service levels may mean faster service, less break-downs, higher first time fix in the field depending on the given industry and customer expectations, but regardless, the focus needs to be on what the customer wants.

We frequently find that the account management or sales organisations which hold the customer relationship budget, aren’t engaging as effectively as they could be with the service side of the organisation to put existing or new technology to use. Customer experience is about more than the CRM!

Using the latest in technology and mobile workforce management software, field service organisations are able to create a sales to service experience that is game changing and seamless.

Using robust integrations or other sorts of data inputs to take customer information in, utilise intelligent online portals which customers can use to engage, schedule, communicate, track service appointments and even purchase additional services makes service events a walk in the park versus a departure down the crevasse. Artificial intelligence, IoT and schedule optimisation software can improve the service experience through proactive services, real time appointment booking, higher schedule adherence and increased first time fix rates.

 

They can also facilitate scheduling your most important or more profitable customers first. Mobile software can enable field techs with the data, access and processes to delight each and every customer on every service call that mobile techs are truly enabled to be experts for every customer and asset by technology, not just their memory.

The question is, why should a field service organisation expect less than the best ‘customer experience’ itself from its FSM vendor?

Solution deployment

Field service management solutions are used by a wide range of organisations across many different verticals. The best FSM software should be configurable enough to support standard service processes, while also supporting processes unique to particular business requirement- without unexpected development.

And though business in general has become more accepting of cloud deployments, due to improved security, increased power of distributed computing and reduced costs related to hosted infrastructure, there remain industries, particularly in insurance, healthcare and finance, which cannot and will not migrate to a cloud-based deployment. The most versatile FSM vendors will not force migration to a newly built cloud platform simply to comply with its own roadmap, nor sunset functionality without providing similar, better options.

Look for vendors which can support your business today and in the future, based your requirements, not theirs.

Support

I find it ironic that with so much focus on improving the end-customer experience that so many FSM vendors in fact provide poor customer service to the field service organisation which they support.

Customer satisfaction isn’t solely focused on the end user. It starts with the sales process and moves through deployment, validation and recurring process improvement. The best FSM vendors define a solid picture of the desired end state for a deployment and then build a robust SOW around the deployment such that the intended outcome is achieved and improved upon without unanticipated cost or time overruns.

Evolving business requirements and changing consumer expectations dictate a continuously improved mobile workforce solution. To expect less than the incorporation of emerging technologies, new features and improved deployment options is ridiculous. Expect more. Rely on your FSM partner to proactively provide a better solution to support you and your customers, for the long term.

Value add

Deploying a software solution and walking away shouldn’t be the business norm. Nor is simply providing annual software upgrades the only ‘value added service’ you should expect. After all, you’re probably paying for support and maintenance. That’s what the fees are for!

Value added services are what increases your ability to provide the best customer experience to your customer, and in our mind, are really what define the best customer experience for your organisation.

The best FSM vendors can provide not only software solutions which improve your ability to execute the best service experience, but also your utilisation of the software, your labour strategy and possibly your labour capacity.

 

ServicePower’s team of experts excels at post sale value add.

Our teams, with an annual tenure of 15+ years working in software and field service management, work with your field service and IT teams to fine tune your deployment, prove your business case, improve performance, and plan for the evolution of your business and upgrades.

ServicePower also uniquely provides workforce strategy planning and outsourced managed services both in North America and EMEA.

Our client success teams have been on the ground, managing employed technicians and contractors for some of the biggest field service organisations in the world. We can lend that expertise to your teams in terms of evaluating your workforce, optimising your resources and executing a plan to integrate a contracted workforce element to maintain and improve your service levels.

We also offer a fully managed network of 3rd party service providers to enable rapid and high-quality on-demand “spill-over” servicing at peak times and in hard-to-reach locations across North America and the Europe.

ServicePower considers its clients partners, not ‘contracts’. We enter into relationships with the expectation that we’ll be our client partners trusted advisors, trusted providers of the best possible customer experience for themselves and their end customers.

 

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