Strategic Service Management

It’s that time of year again. MillwardBrownOptimor have published their Top 100 Brandz ranking, and corporate marketers are either celebrating or justifying in boardroom around the globe.

But should marketers alone take in these findings? Or does customer perception break down any barrier between Service and Marketing that may exist on Org Charts?

If you are in either Marketing or Service, I recommend you take in the “Trends” on page 10 of the report. What are its key SSM implications?

As people stay in during the recession, home shopping / home services are on the rise. Not only does that mean more deliveries, but also a greater need for repairs as users invest, for example, in coffee machines to cut down on trips to coffee houses. Do you deliver? Have you optimised your routing and scheduling? Is your parts planning reliable? Do you have the required visibility to exceed your customers’ expectations in your management of vans and technicians?

People buying equipment for home use, or putting off major new investments (which goes a long way to explaining the 22% hit suffered by the car segment), opens up an opportunity for service parts pricing. How are you positioned to take advantage of it?

Apple grew 14%; BlackBerry 100%. Where once we had phones, now we have… handheld life organisers. This trend is supported by growth in network brands: Vodafone is up by 46%, AT&T by 67%, O2 by 36%. We are increasingly connected, which (when managed…) benefits our efficiency (in and out of the office). But it also means our expectations rise. Why can’t a delivery be scheduled more accurately? Why can’t a tech turn up with the right part? We are all more aware of technology’s potential – and accept no excuses for failure to leverage it.

Such increased technical sophistication also means we are often happy to fix minor problems ourselves – a scenario that expedites repair time and dramatically reduces costs for all involved. Do you have the technology to remotely support your customers?

At Servigistics, we have long underlined product commoditisation. Branding is a critical path to differentiation. Is it achieved through good marketing? Is it achieved through good service?

Let’s look at it this way: I would challenge anybody to achieve differentiation in 2009 without good marketing or good service. Which is why SSM goes beyond managing your Service operation, and encompasses your entire business. And, in your quest to win and retain customers, you create fictitious barriers between Service and Marketing at your peril.

best,

g.o.s.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

The good news is… looks like I’m not alone.

The bad news is…

Well, come on – people shouldn’t be dreaming dreams in 140 characters, or dream of the new iPhone hardware as they ponder whether to splash out or not. That’s not what the resting hours are for.

This is what happens to us when we overdose on technology. It happens to all of us, at some point – and the effects are clear to see. Because, fundamentally, we are hunter/gatherers, not e-mailers or twitterers. And, at least in our sleep, we should revert to our fundamental nature.

Our fundamental nature… are there aspects of it that we may want to dust off for the workplace? Or would that simply go against centuries of evolution theory?

Some of the most successful sales people I’ve worked with don’t appear to have embraced the great technological revolution. Their world doesn’t appear to move any faster now than it did five, ten years ago; they still listen and observe, like old-fashioned hunters. But wise hunters, who know that it will be easier to gather the prey when it approaches them rather than to chase it round in circles. (And they have embraced the good technology bits, by the way – just not the distractions.)

In a world where the divide between sales and service is increasingly blurred, similar key considerations apply. Sure, techs have to be more proactive. But, in getting the job done, they should never jeopardise the possibility to take in the environment around them, and consider how they may turn it to their advantage.

If today we live in the iWorld, then the ‘i’ can often be seen as standing for ‘instant’. And when great service is instant, everybody is happy – especially the customer. But, when a compromise has to be made between great service and instant service… compromise on quality at your peril. And, once you’ve got job done as quickly as possible, to keep your customers happy – why miss out on an opportunity to spend five minutes finding out what’s going on at a site? Why not try and gather further info that will increase your colleagues’ (and company’s) effectiveness?

If that’s what being hunters and gatherers is all about, then a “back to basics” approach (supported by technology for storage and analysis) is not necessarily a bad thing…

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

Earlier this week, The Economist reported on how staff-motivation schemes may be feeling the impact of the recession. You may be experiencing it yourself: as corners are cut, those elements that are not seen as directly linking to revenue, and which take up time that could be devoted to primary activities, are most endangered. Of course, the line between perception and reality is blurred: as The Economist reports, “Towers Perrin, a consulting firm, found that between 2002 and 2006 companies with excellent records in motivating staff generated an average annual return over the period that was 9.3 percentage points higher than that of the companies in the S&P 500 stockmarket index”. Their message is clear: dismiss the value of motivation at your peril.

This article in last October’s Harvard Business Review did a pretty good job of pinpointing four key areas to focus on for motivating employees. However, in times of trouble, our focus shifts towards corporate stability, rather than individual benefits. We can go back to basics, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: we pursue Self-Actualisation and Esteem only when Safety is taken care of. When this is no longer a given, our perspective changes – and, with it, our behaviour. The best healthcare and pension plans in the land are worth nothing without a job underpinning them.

If this blog entry could guarantee you safeguarding your job, it probably wouldn’t be publicly accessible – and I would retire on selling the formula. But this is anything but The Age of Guarantees. Furthermore, how you go about re-engaging your staff (and yourself?) within your organisation depends on specifics that a generic entry cannot address. You should be aware, however, of changing behavioural patterns around you.

But I will make one point I believe is relevant to us all. As you look to cut costs, close that deal, refocus… don’t lose sight of the importance of customer service.

Companies that excel in customer service foster an atmosphere that improves both internal and external relationships. Furthermore, remember:

·         Winning a new customer costs as much as five times as much as retaining an existing one – and that’s before you’ve built up any loyalty or knowledge;

·         Customers who become advocates are an amazing marketing tool; unhappy customers are a potential barrier to growth;

·         Dealing with happy customers motivates staff. Solving issues for appreciating customers gives a great buzz. But dealing with unhappy customers, not being able to help them… that leads to high turnover rates. And high agency fees…

·         If your products and service are at the premium end of the scale, this is the time to be engaging with customers – to ensure you are not threatened by low-cost alternatives

This is not just about niceties. Even in a recession, excellent customer service makes sound financial, commercial sense – throughout your value chain. It’s only normal for you to lose sight of this, at times. But, if you let your competitors make the mistake on a long-term basis and you keep your eyes on the prize, you will come out of these time a stronger player for it.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

Greetings from Paris.

That always sounds extravagant, doesn’t it? Well, don’t get carried away. I have a checkered history with accommodation in this beautiful city, and tonight’s tipped the balance the wrong way.

I am here for a two-day User Conference with our European Pricing customers. And ‘here’, more specifically, is the Radisson SAS near CDG: convenient, practical, respected. The sort of place you associate with good service; an impression that I have had reinforced in the past few weeks, during which I’ve dealt from afar with the hotel’s Commercial Department to get the event set up. Nothing has been too much trouble for them.

Then came tonight. I cleared customs, and duly waited for my shuttle bus at Terminal 2B. It’s a Sunday night, so I appreciate the service will be relatively infrequent. Some thirty minutes later though, having seen the Hilton’s shuttle go past me for the fourth or fifth time, it’s hard not to wonder.

A couple of hotel guests waiting with me are on the phone to the hotel, who assures them it’s ten minutes away. Trouble is, they had done that 25′ earlier - equally abruptly. Now it’s bad enough when expectations are mismanaged by the local pizza delivery joint: but this is a hotel brand that prides itself on service, leveraging it to charge a premium price. Does it know what’s going on? If not, why not? If so, why the blatant misinformation?

In the end, I waited 50′ for the shuttle. How long the other two guests waited, I daren’t imagine because when it finally arrived, there was only one seat available. Since they were travelling together, they kindly offered it to me. They weren’t as docile towards the driver or the hotel reception, over the phone. The waiting had been bad; the deceit, unnecessarily aggravating. I wouldn’t want to be in the driver’s shoes as he heads back to pick them up from here, which he seemed to be doing - even after Reception had guaranteed them another shuttle was already en route and would be with them five minutes after ‘mine’…

Whatever you sell, your customers are not idiots. Most customers tend to have greater patience than you may think. They accept things go wrong - indeed, fix their problems well and their loyalty will be higher than had they never existed. That’s why Dell showcases its Enterprise Command Center to illustrate how it helps its customers: because doing so exceptionally well is a true competitive differentiator.

What customers don’t accept is being lied to. That’s just insulting. While it’s no more insulting than it ever was, it is easier to get found out, since there are just too many sources of information available for customers not to verify what they’re being told. And it’s too easy for customers to share their dissatisfaction within minutes, as you are proving by reading this.

If you can’t always be truly exceptional, at least always be exceptionally true.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

When the company that’s owned the top spot in the Interbrand Global Brand List for the past eight years makes a move, others follow. Or, at the very least, they take note.

Coca-Cola has released… no, not its secret formula, but the carbon footprint of its various brands. That’s right: we now know that “a 330ml can of Coca-Cola sold in Great Britain has a carbon footprint of 170 grams and the same sized can of ‘diet Coke’ or ‘Coke Zero’ has a footprint of 150 grams. A 330ml glass bottle of ‘Coca-Cola’ has a footprint of 360 grams”.

So - what does that mean? Does it make Coca-Cola green, because it’s facing up to its corporate social responsibility and working on programs to reduce its footprint? Given what happened when it tried to improve its formula in the 1980s, could this be a key strategy for the company - as it leaves the product alone and looks at how CSR can enhance the brand? That was the view the Chief Executive took last year…

Will you soon be surrounded by analysts measuring your company’s carbon footprint? Or is that already the case? Of course, not everybody’s customers react as strongly as Coke’s when products are tweaked - most welcome changes. And, in companies where funds are harder to come by, product managers are still likely to shout louder. Yet this announcement is unlikely to remain isolated… would you bet against carbon footprint becoming an integral part of Annual Reports, alongside EPS and ROCE, in ten years’ time? That’s the way the Environmental Protection Agency is heading in the US…

But don’t panic just yet. Service can play a major role in reducing carbon footprint - all along boosting profitability. Cutting unnecessary trips through routing and scheduling and by ensuring techs have the right part, reducing inventory levels, improving remote support… it’s only natural to look at this from a business perspective, and to how it improves first time fill- and fix-rates, or calls/day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But you know what? There’s nothing wrong in acknowledging that it cuts down your carbon footprint, either. That’s when it all starts tying together. Neat, eh?

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

I wanted to expand on the concept covered in the previous entry to explore a key benefit of excellence in service - one that is all the more critical in the current climate.

We have seen throughout this blog how service delivers profitability on a sustainable basis. It helps you retain profitable customers at a time when, rightly or wrongly (don’t get me started on this one - not here…) marketing spend is typically cut; it offers differentiation at a time that product commoditisation is rife. Sure, mass customisation is happening; but technology makes that easier to copy than differentiation built on people and processes; differentiation, that is, built on service.

So these uncertain times call for proven solutions and methodologies. As President Obama said on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Inauguration Day, “Our workers are no less productive, our minds not less inventive, our services no less needed, our capacity remains undiminished”. He was addressing a US crowd, but such statements ring true around the globe. Yet what these times are compromising is the critical link between that invention and the financial gains it stands to deliver.

Let’s take one simple example, since everybody else seems to be doing the same: Twitter. Do you tweet? I’ve only just started (feel free to follow me), out of a mixture of curiosity and fascination. The phenomenon itself is gathering attention, but so is curiosity over how it will make money. Indeed, is there any money in Web 2.0? I expect Apple and its network of independent iPhone Apps writers would merrily tweet ‘yes’. But, for many, the question mark (and the cloud of the previous dotcom crash) hovers.

With service, there are no such debates. There is room for constant improvement, in which technology (including Web 2.0) can play a significant part; but the fundamentals are a given. Look after your customers, and they’ll look after you. And, when the winds are howling and the levies are cracking, as is the case all around us, it’s imperative to ensure we excel at the basics before attempting to stretch. Many a great offerings have failed due to bad timing. But there is no such thing as a bad time for great service. Service always delivers.

That’s what makes service sexy. Because it’s not about comparing a sweaty technician with a funky website. It’s about knowing whom you can count on when it matters. And, if your customers can count on your service infrastructure to deliver, so can you - to deliver profits. And that’s always worth tweeting about.

By Shannon Rentner, Director, Servigistics

We’ve been saying it ever since I started working here: post-sale service can not only be a competitive differentiator, but it can also be a source of revenue. Yeah, yeah, and I sound like a broken record - oh wait, people under the age of 30 may not understand that reference to records….

In fact, service made the cover of BusinessWeek once again – but as fellow service blogger John Wild points out – “What was missing was the Business to Business sector in which extreme customer service is so important now.”

Wild also reminds readers that “the end business customers (those that rely on the equipment they’ve purchased or leased to remain performing or to be service ready) are a fickle bunch. They’re paying for performance (up time) and expect it. Let them down, and they’ll start looking elsewhere for products that perform better or that are serviced better. So this challenge hits right at home in the field service and service parts logistics environment.”

That means that the right part better arrive with the right technician at the right time at the right location…or else you’ll miss your SLA or the client will simply do business with someone else in the future.  

Why some many business publications fail to mention B2B post-sale service is perhaps due to the fact that it’s just not sexy.  After all, the fun comes from buying – not maintaining or repairing, right?

Wrong. Post-sale service  is sexy. It’s sustainable, socially responsible, profitable and catching on. Hope your business is ready!

Selling global strategic service management solutions requires worldwide travel. So in addition to our blogs about post-sale service and the related solutions, we also want to offer our readers valuable hints and tips about places that meet the necessary standards for cleanliness, Wi-Fi connectivity, and thriftiness - all the while ensuring you can actually tell when you’re in Amsterdam rather than Düsseldorf, Paris rather than London – off the beaten “chain hotel” path. You’ll also find information on local eateries, running locations, and offer transportation tip for the cost-conscious but curious business traveler.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

ACCOMMODATION

Amsterdam is, unsurprisingly, awash with chain hotels - both in the centre and near Schiphol Airport. But the centre also features a number of small hotels built within traditional Dutch buildings. They lack the size and scale to command great star ratings, but how long are you going to spend there? Our favourite is the Bellevue, a recovered building with Wi-Fi throughout where the rooms offer comfort you’d expect for a lot more than the €77/night we paid (the beds alone just about warrant that…). But the hotel’s biggest asset has to be its location - just a few minutes’ walk from Dam Square, and literally two minutes across the road from Central Station. Breakfast is served from 7am on weekdays - when we were in town, the selection was broad (from cooked to staple Dutch ham and cheese), although the more time-constrained amongst you may need to allow for an extra few minutes as there was never more than one staff on hand.

FOOD

You won’t struggle to find a cuisine of your liking in Amsterdam. Indonesian and Argentine restaurants are all over the place, and there are even a few Italian and… er, Dutch places, too. On our last trip, we opted for an Indian meal at Moti Mahal, just five minutes from the hotel en route to Dam Square - and our hunch was rewarded with a fine selection.

After enjoying your meal, you won’t be short of options should you care for a pre-bedtime drink - either in a traditional Dutch bar, or in a more ‘international’ environment (the city’s not short on Irish or British-style pubs, which can be useful if you’re missing a sporting event). Just remember that “Coffeeshops” are not the best places for a coffee…

GETTING IN AND OUT OF THE CENTRE

When arriving via Schiphol, Amsterdam’s ring road is no smoother than most others in Europe - hopping in a cab can cost time and money. Since trains connect Schiphol and Central Station every quarter of an hour and take between ten and twenty minutes, costing just over €3, the railways offer best value on all fronts. It is also the reason why we prefer to stay centrally and travel in the morning rather than stay near the airport, if we have to make that choice - with additional savings on hotel costs.

MIND MY BIKE

You have little to fear from car drivers in the Netherlands. But watch out for cyclists! They will rarely stop, and could come at you from any angle. The Dutch pedestrians have little problem with this - each and every one of them has been, or still is, a cyclist themselves. But, if you’re not used to it, make sure you take every care.

RUNNING OPTIONS

To maintain your fitness, get on over to Vondel Park - in the south-west of the city. It’s not bike-free, but it’s a safer option than most.

OTHERS

Oh, one could write a whole book on this section… But we won’t bother. Just enjoy the canals. And, if your watch has GPS and indicates sea level, don’t look - or you might get a sinking feeling.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

For anybody who has just landed on Earth from a far-flung planet, here’s a very brief (and over-simplistic) overview of global economics:

• Once upon a time, people made things for people who would buy them. This was called the ‘Manufacturing Economy’;
• Then, as raw materials and labour, got expensive, people slowed down on making things, and spent more time selling things you could not actually touch or feel, such as financial products. This was called the ‘Service Economy’.
• Then a lot of people who had sold a lot of financial products suddenly realised there was a big hole in the economy, and thought that maybe making things was not that bad, after all. But people across the Service Economy had learned some valuable lessons about looking after customers once things had been made, too. So then…

Well, then is now. The next stage is the one we’re writing now. How is today’s history looking?

Our children, and our grandchildren, will be the ultimate of judges of that - if not in the classrooms, then certainly with their payslips, which will determine how many of our “financial programs” they find themselves funding. But some trends are already emerging - and could prove valuable for any Manager.

• Successful OEMs will need to master both Manufacturing and Service, providing both quality products and after-sales services. As Pierfrancesco Manenti at “Manufacturing Insights” predicts, “Manufacturers will enhance their capabilities as providers of services”. Excelling at either manufacturing or service may suffice in certain B2C industries, where replacement costs are ludicrously low; but they are the exception. And no strategy should be based upon exceptions;
• Successful OEMs must not forget what made them successful in the first place - and continue to leverage their core expertise while building new strengths around them. But that need not entail developing those new capabilities in-house - as we saw previously, collaboration is an effect of the downturn that has benefits to contribute in times of growth, too. And outsourcing / acquiring skills is nothing to be ashamed about if it allows companies to deliver excellence in the fields that made them leaders

Balancing the quest for in-house improvement with the ability to identify areas where procuring those capabilities externally is the wiser option will be a hallmark of any successful manager in the current downturn, during which ROI will be a key decision influencer. But this is a valuable skill that should not be thrown out with the doom and gloom when the economy starts to recover. Servigistics is a software solutions company, recognised as a leader in its field - a field that, while we may expand, we will generally stick to. Yet there are manufacturers who seek to maximise the value of their SSM operation by developing in-house solutions, when the cost of a Servigistics implementation could probably be covered by the savings realised in the additional development time of a bespoke product. I’ll leave you with that thought.

Shannon Rentner, Senior Manager, Servigistics

Driving home from work the other evening I was listening to the radio and heard a commercial for AT&T’s new service: ConnecTech. Now, when I first heard the announcer say ConnecTech, I honestly thought he was saying “Kinetic” but with an initial “o” sound.  So it’s a difficult to pronounce name, it goes to show that service is selling.

Forget about Target partnering with Zip Express. The new belle at the ball who claims to “out-Geek” Best Buy’s Geek Squad (forgive the mixed metaphors) is AT&T’s ConnecTech, which is now available for residential customers in all 50 states, whether they use AT&T or not. Customers can request home theater installation, computer and home network setup, and a host of TV, computer, and network repairs - all right at home.

So, I may not need AT&T as my cell phone carrier and I may already have a DSL provider, but I certainly will need help at some time for a malfunctioning computer or a broken plasma TV that I won’t want to lug into the local electronics store.

So once again, it comes down to the service - especially when spending for new products is almost nil.

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

Long-term… How do you define long-term?

Whatever your answer, I have little doubt that it is a shorter timeframe than the one you’d have volunteered five years ago - and equally so that it is a greater timeframe than the one you might volunteer in five years’ time. On the most basic of graphs, we can imagine an inverse relationship between how we perceive “long-term” and the impact of uncertainty - in itself, rising:

Fig. 1: The Growing Burden of Perceived Uncertainty and Short-Termism

This, in itself, is nothing new -

jump in a time machine and you’ll find the graph holds true throughout history. That’s why I cautiously talk about a ‘perception’, rather than a reality - and show those two components plateau out, as beyond a certain level they cannot continue their respective paths. However, some argue that, whereas in the past periods of disruption were followed by stabilisation, as keeping up with the pace of progress set by revolutionary advancements was simply impossible, we have now entered “the age of constant disruption” - with technologies continuously evolving at a constant rate. Add into the mix the speed at which information can flow and people be mobilised, the interconnection of our financial markets, and you have to seriously question whether “long-term certainty”, as prior generations understood it, will ever return.

So - why bother with strategic planning? Why not live from one day to the next? After all, whether you’re an outgoing US President, an embattled UK Prime Minister or any other world leader, you’re probably blaming the state of the economy on factors beyond your control. And if the White House and Number Ten aren’t in control of their destiny, what chance have you or I got?

Do not be mistaken - the overwhelming strength of external forces is no justification to abandon ourselves to their pull. Quite the opposite: now more than ever, strategic planning is fundamental to success. Equally critical, however, is the ability to plan with flexibility - and review individual components on a daily basis without compromising on the bigger picture.

That is why Strategic Service Management (SSM) is critical during a downturn. SSM brings together the tools to measure progress towards goals for “old school long-term” and daily, indeed hourly, operational KPIs - the performance that matters to customers, more concerned with your ability to meet 4-hour SLAs than 3-year grand plans. Companies that lock those grand plans in a cupboard for a thousand days are unlikely to succeed not only in the current downturn, but also in subsequent periods of growth (hold on tight, they will come) - for they too will be uncertain, and require swift action. Where yesterday rapid reaction sufficed, today preemptive action is necessary - and that’s what Servigistics’ solutions enable, across all levels of management, delivering tangible results.

From having the right part to pricing it correctly, from having the right technician on the job to optimising the flow of information and enjoying a holistic view of your service business, even when it seems as if the world all around you is crumbling there are plenty of key components of the jigsaw you hold securely in your hand. Servigistics provides proven SSM tools to place them in the right place - and claw back some of the certainty for which you so rightly long.

Make it, Sell it, Service it

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

If you’re struggling as a manufacturer in the current climate (or if you want to avoid membership in this club), there is an article out there that is well worth your time.

It may well be that you’ve already caught “Britain’s Lonely High-Flyer” in this week’s “The Economist” - or maybe its introductory piece, “What Rolls-Royce Can Teach Britain”. Both articles look at Rolls-Royce, and how “the way in which it has melded technology and service” offers “much to suggest that it will weather an economic downturn better than its rivals”.

 ”The China Effect” has relegated Britain’s share of world merchandise exports to just over 3% - yet the UK ranks second for services. And, whereas Rolls-Royce generated only 20% of turnover through aftermarket in 1981, and 40% in 2001, post-sales now contributes to the majority of the group’s revenue.

 Can everybody be a Rolls-Royce? Can everybody implement strategies based on “adding value through the provision of product-related services”? Well, maybe not everybody can maintain products for decades… I don’t expect to be using the same digital camera in 2029, downturn or no downturn. But the principle is transferable - and we can all learn from the leaders. After all, “the success of Rolls-Royce suggests that the world will not be neatly divided into firms (or countries) that make things and those that sell services. Flying high depends on being able to do both”.

By Sebastian Urbina, product manager, Servigistics

On a commuter flight one Friday night from NYC to Atlanta, I ended up speaking to the two people sitting next to me.  That should worthy of note in and of itself. I generally limit the comments to my row-mates to “Excuse me” as I head to the restroom if I’m on an inside seat and “You’re Welcome” if I’m the one inconvenienced by their bodily needs.  I’ve had overnights flights in which we haven’t even reached that level of communication due to the  “don’t bug me I’m on the plane and don’t want to know your life story” approach.

This time, my row-mates were two consultants from competing software companies.  I originally thought it was funny and tried making fun of the situation, but they didn’t seem to care.  Both were road warriors with years of experience as the Monday morning to Friday afternoon.  Me, a former cubicle monkey converted into a stay-at-home-laptop-on-lap-coach worker, was eager to hear the war stories.  However, one of the consultants, a married woman, was talking about her husband.  Normally, this would be enough for me to tune out the conversation as old woman’s gossip, but this was interesting.

She was talking about how her husband, a non road-warrior, complained when airplanes were late and plans went awry.  She would just tell him to relax and not worry about it.  Apparently, the discussions went on ad nauseum and the husband simply could not understand how she would not be bothered by incompetence.

It wasn’t until he became a fellow road-warrior himself that he understood her patience and stopped complaining.  She explained that the experience of being on flights so much taught her that “stuff happens” so it no longer caused her grief or stress. Once her husband started travelling he developed the same tolerance.

The actual underlying problem here is not that airlines have poor service.  (As someone once stuck in the airport at the beginning of a month long back-packing trip through Southeast Asia, I can assure you they do.)   The problem here is that expectations are poorly managed.

People buy airline tickets expecting a service, a service that includes on time arrival.  That is why airlines have schedules.  Services based on a schedule are generally controlled tightly, just as anyone trying to get on a German train arriving at a station 2 minutes too late can tell you.  We do understand that things happen; however, we believe these are rare events that generally do not affect us - especially if we only travel sporadically. Now the veteran air commuter had enough experience to know that she had to reset her expectations.  When things went wrong she expected it and, thu,s was not fussed or stressed.  She is a much happier person than her husband was as her expectations were in-line with the service offered.

This got my thinking into the wider range of services.  I started feeling that most angry customers are probably a result of improper expectations.  If you buy a 30 year old car and the radiator falls out are you upset?  You probably are somewhat, but less than if you had just bought a brand new car and the same thing happens.

Lets analyze this situation, in both cases you are buying a car (new to you) and it breaks down shortly afterwards.  The difference in reaction is complex, but it is fully based on your expectations.  You do not expect a new car to break down but you could expect a very old car to have problems.  The person who bought the new car will cause havoc and complain about the quality of product.  This drop in customer service can have serious consequences for a company.

However, it is not enough to simply try and reset expectations.  Lower service expectations come with a drop in revenue.  There is a joint Toyota-GM car factory in northwest United States.  The cars coming from the factory are identical but the GM cars were selling for less money purely based on the brand on the car.  This was a result of the expectation placed on the car based on the manufacturer.

This type of situation created a conundrum: you need high expectations to ensure a price premium, but they can’t be too high or those expectations will result in terrible costumer service, which would undermine the process.

Managing expectations should thus become paramount for any company.  Set them to high and bad costumer service will skyrocket; set them too low and you will end up being priced down.   I guess the obvious solution is to set high expectations and deliver on them.

My row-mate would not have had discussions with her husband about the pathetic state of the industry, if the industry had been able to deliver on the costumer’s expectations by simple changes unrelated to weather, like increasing flight times (giving greater margin of error) and increasing maintenance cycles (reducing unexpected mechanical problems).  Guess we know what the industry values.

by Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager, EMEA, Servigistics

Last-minute shopping and trolley fights in the aisles. TV schedules crammed with repeats and specials. That sudden realisation you forgot to send someone a card as theirs hits your doormat. Yep, it’s that time of year again.

It’s that time when we look out through the mist of our window and hazard some predictions for the New Year. If you’re in Finance and you got your predictions right last year, why are you reading this? You should be enjoying your retirement. As for the rest of us, here are five predictions for 2009:

1.      Vendors will have to show unprecedented flexibility on payment terms. In software, SAAS will garner further popularity, both for its technical and financial benefits, and vendors unable to provide “software as a service” solutions may not be around to read the 2010 predictions;

2.      The roles of Field Technician and Account Manager will continue to merge, as companies seek both to reduce costs and leverage the on-site contact enjoyed by their The roles of Field Technician and Account Manager will continue to merge, as companies seek both to reduce costs and leverage the on-site contact enjoyed by their mobile workforce. The success of the new role (already in some places called Technical Account Manager), for employees and employers alike, will be heavily dependent upon clarity of goals and training in the newer part of the role, and on the ability to measure those;

3.      The drive to regain control of technicians’ schedules will encompass preventive, predictive maintenance and self-fix solutions. In its April 2008 “The Maturity of Product Service” report, AberdeenGroup spoke about an “increased focus of service and manufacturing firms on preventive and often predictive maintenance processes”, highlighting “the drive for zero downtime [as] the primary reason for the 41% increase in the percentage of assets being monitored remotely over the last year” - a trend which the current climate can only strengthen. In 2008, 26% of Best-in-Class companies had a Knowledge Management solution in place, against a general backdrop of 19%. Will you join the elite?

4.      Optimising after-sales pricing will play a critical role in driving profitability from stagnating sales volumes, and in locking out grey market competitors;

5.  Mobile devices will continue to deliver on their promise, limited more by privacy concerns than technology. Expect to receive time-limited, segmented special offers by SMS when your favourite retailer tracks you within half a mile of one of its stores before long, as the High Street fights back against the recommendations systems of its online competitors… and expect to deploy your mobile device more and more frequently in a business context.

Whether you’re managing the grocery budget or a multi-million dollar corporate budget, at times like these there is a danger of underestimating the importance of the long-term and making unhealthy decisions. So reducing SLA levels as a means to cut inventory is not recommended. Companies that prove uncompromising in their investment in service, on the other hand, will be best placed to ride the bumpy ride that 2009 will prove, and to establish strong foundations for the new world order that will follow, maybe sometime in 2010. But those who forget the lessons that have been learnt in recent years… they are in serious danger of making some costly mistakes all over again.

Let’s not leave it twelve months to discuss these predictions - what are you expecting from the New Year? And, whatever your goals for 2009, here’s wishing you all the best in achieving them!

5.    Mobile devices will continue to deliver on their promise, limited more by privacy concerns than technology. Expect to receive time-limited, segmented special offers by SMS when your favourite retailer tracks you within half a mile of one of its stores before long, as the High Street fights back against the recommendations systems of its online competitors… and expect to deploy your mobile device more and more frequently in a business context.

Whether you’re managing the grocery budget or a multi-million dollar corporate budget, in times like these there is a danger of underestimating the importance of the long-term and making unhealthy decisions. So reducing SLA levels as a means to cut inventory is not recommended. Companies that prove uncompromising in their investment in service, on the other hand, will be best placed to endure the bumpy ride that 2009 will prove and to establish strong foundations for the new world order that will follow, maybe sometime in 2010. But those who forget the lessons that have been learnt in recent years… they are in serious danger of making some costly mistakes all over again.

Let’s not leave it twelve months to discuss these predictions - what are you expecting from the New Year? And, whatever your goals for 2009, here’s wishing you all the best in achieving them!

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager, EMEA, Servigistics

At Servigistics, we have been underlining the strategic value of service for manufacturers for several years now. But how has after-sales impacted other industries - industries where “after-sales service” does not always involve service parts, often embracing offerings which customers appreciate just as much? Let’s take a look at some of the vendors whose items you may be hoping to find in your stocking:

LiveNation

Remember record deals? An artist would submit a demo, and, if successful, sign for a record company. CBS, Atlantic, Motown… names that are entrenched in the minds of music lovers. But recording deals aren’t what it’s about anymore in a world where music downloads and cheap CDs have turned recorded music into little more than the opening gambit. Enter players like LiveNation, with deals covering both albums (the product) and tours (the service) for household names like Madonna, reportedly set to earn $120m over 10 years from the venture. CD prices may be falling, but concert tickets show no sign of doing so… How much is an album an artistic statement - and how much is it becoming a means to attract an audience?

Apple

As Harvard Business Review correctly points out in its December 2008 lead article, when the iPod landed in 2003 it was not the first of its kind. The Rio had hit the stores in 1998, and the Cabo 64 in 2000. The products had been there for some time. What was missing was a reliable, legal after-sales infrastructure to enrich the initial offering. Enter the iTunes Store - and enter a market revolution. By providing a means of enriching the initial product, Apple saved digital music from piracy - and, quite possibly, saved itself.

Low Cost Carriers (LCCs)

In a downturn economy, how will LCCs (who have cut just about all the costs there are to cut) fare against rising fuel prices and increasingly low levels of disposable income? What will determine their survival?

To a large extent, it won’t be fares. Of course, they will help - not least in ensuring passenger load factors (the percentage of available seats sold) still outperform those of the traditional, more expensive carriers. But the bottom lines of players like EasyJet, Ryanair and Air Berlin are helped by far more than mere e-ticket sales. A recent poll of 12,000 airline professionals found that 56% of them believed that “the best way at this time for airlines to effectively battle rising costs is to charge fees for amenities that were once included in the price of a ticket”. When announcing Q3 2008 net profits of €35m, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary commented that “ancillary revenues [...] grew by 30% to €111m. Ancillary penetration continues to increase, and we are on target to achieve our ancillary sales objective of 20% of revenues over the next 3 years”.

The initial sale truly is “breaking down”… Sure, good ideas have backfired on some airlines - a lot of it is about communication (to customers, staff and press). You can read a lot more about Ancillary Revenue in the Airline Industry here. But what’s happening in your industry? As service offers scope for competitive differentiation, are customers expecting more for their initial buck - or are they getting used to offerings being broken down into individual components?

Happy Holidays!<-->

By Shannon Rentner, Senior Manager, Servigistics

Forrester Research just published two reports in December that demonstrate how critical customer experience is a company’s competitiveness.

While I can’t include the entire report here, if you have Forrester access, you should check them out:

• December 12, 2008. Customer Experience In A Down Economy, by Harley Manning and Moira Dorsey
• December 12, 2008. The Customer Experience Index, 2008 by Bruce D. Temkin

Some key points that we’ve been making have been verified in these reports. For example, in the “Customer Experience in a Down Economy” report, Forrester affirms that there is a direct connection between “a great customer experience and increased revenues.”

In the “Customer Experience Index, 2008,” Forrester reports that a good customer experience fosters customer loyalty. While that may sound banal, customer loyalty translates into additional purchases by the customer. In fact, according to the March 24, 2008, “The Business Impact of Customer Experience” report, “customer experience quality could cause a swing of $242 million for a large bank and $184 million for a large retailer.”

While banking doesn’t require service parts or service techs, a retailer just might. Consider once again, Best Buy, the nation’s largest electronics retailer, with $44 billion in annual revenue. While it, too, is getting pounded by the drop in consumer spending, Fitch Ratings, a leading global rating agency committed to providing the world’s credit markets with independent, timely and prospective credit opinions, says that Best Buy’s reputation for outstanding service that helped it become the number one electronics retailer will help it weather the storm.

[The day after this post, The New York Times reported that Best Buy will have to cut workers due to significant losses. The CEO Bradbury H. Anderson, said in a statement, "We believe that there has been a dramatic and potentially long-lasting change in consumer behavior as people adjust to the new realities of the marketplace."  One new reality, as we've blogged about in the past, is the  "repair vs. replace" attitude for consumers and industrial customers alike, putting a critical emphasis on getting service parts management in order. Companies that can perform well on after-sales service will have a clear advantage in this market, according to Walter Weart, Outsourced Logistics.]

In fact, Best Buy’s technical support business, aka Geek Squad, has been such a huge profit center for the company that other retailers are jumping on board. Target recently hired Zip Express, a company started by a former Best Buy employee, to compete with Best Buy on service.[1] Once again, this demonstrates that it’s not just about the price.

Finally, speaking of electronic gadgets and service, “The Business Impact of Customer Experience” report found that a cable television provider and a cell phone provider were most prone to customers taking their business to a competitor based on customer experience. Therefore, service delivery is extremely important in those asset-and-field-service intensive environments.

Like always, we welcome your feedback. Have any good/bad service experiences to report? We’d love to read about them!

[1] Zinn Fromm, Laura. “In Hard Times, Is Best Buy’s Best Good Enough?” The New York Times, Dec. 7, 2008.

by Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager, EMEA

From the moment you first sent an e-mail, you knew that things were never going to be the same again, at home or at work. With the Holiday Season truly upon us, are you escaping those checkout queues and putting on a Christmas CD as you surf for gifts? If, like me, you are (well, minus the CD), you are a challenge – to the retail marketers for whom seasonal in-store promotions and glitzy shop windows are of no use.

Of course, many of those skills have been successfully transferred to e-mail – and enhanced in the process. But what about our less frivolous investments – those that are set to last a few years (the Web 2.0 age equivalent of what our parents would call a “lifetime”)? What are the implications for us – both as marketers and customers?

Research in Motion experienced one such implication quite clearly in the UK recently. As they launched their BlackBerry Storm model with a marketing campaign worthy of its name, they could not foresee the online backlash. In particular, popular comedian and TV personality Stephen Fry caught the imagination with a Twitter comment – and, while he made a point of stating that “Yes, I blame n’works more than RIM”, his paragraph “Problems are terrible lag: inaccurate t’screen, awful, slow and fiddly text input. I SO wanted to like it” was still sufficient for the BBC to ask: “Can Stephen Fry kill a gadget?”

Yet, for every negative side of a coin, there’s an upside. Web 2.0 allows the smarter players to turn junk mail into viral marketing. We accept comments from people we like and trust far more than corporate communications. The problem for marketers is that this can mean losing control.

The key reason Service is both a threat and an opportunity today is the “2:11 Principle”. This states that customers receiving good service will share their experience with two people, whereas those receiving poor service will tell eleven. Now take a second to consider how everyday Web surfers have taken over the Net from the critics, and how they influence opinion through social networking, blogs and even review sections on e-commerce sites. Your Service team was late resolving a call? The product was delivered late? What before was a private matter between customer and the Customer Services Department is now as public as the Internet itself. And, while commercial buyers may be more reluctant to air grievances online, don’t think you’re immune if you’re operating in B2B.

But easy on the Prozac. Your Service team exceeded expectations? They always deliver on time? Hey, it works both ways. Positive enthusiasm may not match angry venom, but it still has a role to play. When, in 2007, TechRepublic asked “What bothers you when you are a customer?”, it received 132 responses; when it asked “What do you remember about good service you received?”, just 12 comments followed. But that just makes the praise (such as this heaped on Dell for the speedy replacement of a faulty hard drive) all the more valuable.

Will great post-sale service ever help turn a terrible product into a success? Unlikely, but not impossible. Will bad service ever turn a great product into a failure? You bet. So make sure you take care of your customers for the long-term – long after the excitement of opening the box is gone. And leverage the Web to make sure tomorrow’s customers know how happy today’s customers are.

With the real-time applications and connectivity it enables, Web 2.0 has taken away many excuses. And for Service to be a threat to your business is one of them.

by Sebastian Urbina, Product Manager

A month ago I thought I had found a killer deal on a new HD TV: a 37” High Definition TV for $450 at an online retailer.

I had never used the retailer before, but since I’m technophile, I went ahead with full confidence in the website. After all, I trusted the site that referred me, and they do analyze the sites they refer users to. Additionally, I was paying with my trusty American Express with their great consumer protection policies.

I was excited. Not just with the new TV, but also with having found a good deal.

There is something magical about high definition that makes college football so much better; it’s almost like you are there. Of course, nothing is like being at the stadium. Nevertheless, I wanted my High-Def TV, and I wanted to see the individual leaves of grass on the field.

It turned out the price was actually $500 as I had to pay for shipping, but $500 for a new HD TV seemed pretty good.

A few days later, the door bell rang and I received the big box. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I ripped it open and started arranging it in my living room. Within moments, I was watching Judge Judy in High Definition. I would have chosen another show, but really, Tuesday early afternoon the channel selection, is well, limited. Despite my lack of interest in the show, Judge was crystal clear, and I could see every pore in her judicious face.

A month later the unfortunate occurred: My TV wouldn’t turn on.

Now the fine print of a purchase comes into play. The TV is branded “Scott;” turns out it’s basically a rebranded Aiko. Another company I had never heard of. There is a refrub in the fine print. Turns out refurb means refurbished, which means this was broken, but the manufacturer hope it’s fixed. I called the online retailer. They told me I have to contact the manufacturer, but it should be covered since I’m within 90 days of the purchase date.

I contacted them and explained the situation; they tell me to send them a receipt. I forwarded the confirmation email in and was told to wait 5-7 business days before I’d learn if the warranty was approved.

A week later I called to check in and was told that the receipt hadn’t been received. Fortunately, I wrote down the name of the agent that I had talked to the week before and asked for her. She informed me that I can’t just forward the receipt because it’s too easy to modify. They need it faxed in. So I called the retailer, who told me how to get a receipt form their website and how they could fax it in. I went online, created a pdf of the website and emailed it in. Apparently, that was enough to satisfy the receipt requirement. Next, I had to wait for the warranty department to come through.

A week later they contacted me and requested that I ship them the bad TV. That would cost me $100 - A quarter of the price! Good service would have offered me one of three possible solutions:

1. A refund
2. An in-home technician to service it
3. A new TV with return shipment paid for so that I can replace one with the other and ship the bad one back.

Not this company. I called them multiple times, argued with costumer service, asked to speak to the warranty department, supervisors, and different agents - all to no avail.

The retailer is equally unaccommodating until I threatened to dispute the charge through my credit card company.

So now I’m fuming. Do I waste another $100 chasing a TV that may be returned to me bad again or attempt to recover the cost through my credit card? Why do I have to be in this position? It’s a bit frustrating that all it would take to make me a repeat costumer would be good customer service. And instead of ranting about what went wrong, I could be lavishing praise on them for taking care of a frustrated costumer.

In the future, I’d rather pay more for a product – if it includes outstanding and reliable service – than find the best “deal.” After this ordeal, good service is worth the extra money.

By Shannon Rentner, Senior Manager, Servigistics

If there’s a company, or an industry, that receives the MOST complaints about service, it would have to be the cable company.

Have you seen the youtube segment of the cable field service tech who actually FALLS ASLEEP during a service call?

Friend after friend and colleague after colleague have shared stories about missed service calls, faulty equipment, misdiagnosed problems, multiple service calls because the tech couldn’t fix the issue on the first call, and the best story of all – the one where the service tech shows up to repair the AC unit when the call was for a cable service tech. How the wires got crossed on that one I’ll never know.

Nevertheless, it amazes me that cable companies continue to thrive despite such dismal service. But most people don’t have a choice: Either go with the cable service provide in your region or go satellite – with nothing in between.

Until Now.

I am one of those customers who experienced poor service. I took a morning off of work to wait for the cable guy. I waited and waited until noon approached, called the company, and they assured me he was on his way. Five hours later, he finally appeared. He didn’t have the right part to fix my problem. So I had to miss another morning of work to wait for the service tech. Once again, the morning turned into an entire day. And still, he couldn’t fix the problem.

In the meantime, the cable company continued to charge me for cable service, that’s right – the cable service that wasn’t working. So I cancelled it, knowing that I had NO other options at the time, except for some old rabbit ears from the 70’s handed down to me from my parents. Needless to say, I couldn’t watch TV. Which isn’t so bad given the new study that announced watching TV is a sign of depression… The finding, announced on Thursday, November 15, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 as part of the General Social Survey.

However, the only thing that depressed me was the cable company. So what’s an average person to do to access her favorite shows and movies?

Watch out cable company, average Jane now has OPTIONS thanks to the internet. And it’s about time. Oh wait, I also had to find an alternative internet provider service, which I obtained through my cell phone provider. A teeny tiny device that provides clear, constant internet service at $69 per month. Not bad and no service calls required!

I signed up for Netflix. Blockbuster or Netflix provides access to not only movies, but also TV episodes from seasons past. And thanks to the Netflix ready device, I can watch unlimited shows/movies on my TV at a much cheaper price. While I may miss the new episodes, it’s only a matter of time before companies like Netflix, itunes, Blockbuster, etc. figure out a way to offer TV online without the cable company.

Once viewers have access options, the true differentiator will be service – I wonder how Netflix service techs work? Haven’t had a problem yet….

You know you hate it.

You know you also feel sorry for that guy.

That guy.

I could write about the recession, but that guy offers a bit of hope amidst the gloom and doom of today’s headlines.

What guy? That pesky sales guy. Calling during your dinner. Calling on your cell phone [how did he get that number?] Calling when….

Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s just annoying that he calls. And when you say “I’m not interested” and slam down the phone, you know you feel bad. Think of how that guy feels hearing that more than 50 times a day. Who’d want to be that guy?

Truth is, we’re all that guy once in awhile. We don’t need to pick up a phone and cold call, but we all must play salesman for a season. ‘Oh not me, I’m an accountant’ you may be saying, or ‘No way, I’m in IT’.

Those silos are gone. And in this cash-strapped, credit poor, paranoid economy, that’s good news. As more and more doors are slammed in salesmen’s faces, businesses are going to need a contingency plan – or a back door.

According to James Alexander of Alexander Consulting, that back door is a customer’s trusted advisor, or his service technician. Think about it– a field technician can actually visit a client’s home or business and assess not only the current problem, but can sell a system upgrade or even additional services – something to which the front-end salesperson couldn’t access.

It’s similar to automobile repair. You take your car in for a grease, oil and filter, but then you find out your brake pad are about to go. So what’s a customer to do? Spend more money on brake pads. Or the tires need to be replaced. Or the transmission flushed. Or whatever else. That’s a way to make money on service while delivering excellent service.

The Field Technician enters a customer’s business or home to repair a problem, but with a little training, he’ll learn how to assess a situation for a new service or product sale. Think of Best Buy’s service person visiting a customer to repair a desktop computer, and the service person could potentially sell not only a printer/fax machine, but also a plasma screen television and surround sound. Or maybe he could sell a lease on an entire networked computer system.

Apply the same concept to B2B. It may be difficult for your salesperson to access an existing client who has been ordered to freeze all spending, but the field technician will pay a visit and see what the real needs are –and, in fact, he may be able to sell something that could save your client a bundle of money. This happens all the time with complex products and systems where the end user may not be maximizing its performance due to a missing piece or an outdated system/product. It gets complicated, so bring in the trusted advisor.

At least the trusted advisor or field tech will never have to be that guy all the time, but he sure can play his part in adding to the bottom line.

It’s good to hear that we’re not the only company extolling the virtues [and profit margins] of service.

I just returned from ASU’s Center for Services Leadership Symposium on “Competing Through Service” in Phoenix, where an impressive array of industry leaders and academics discussed the growing significance of service as a competitive differentiator. Featured speakers included executives from Cisco, IBM, Sony, Cox Communications, Best Buy and even the online ‘upstart,’ Zappos.

While much of the discussion and presentations centered on service at the point of sale, I did take home some key points on post sale service.

According to Gary Bridge, Ph.D., SVP and Global Lead, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco Systems, automobile manufacturers make about 1 percent profit on the initial auto sale and 22 percent profit on the aftermarket services.

1. Sean Skelley, SVP, Services, Best Buy Inc., reported that Best Buy’s Geek Squad performs service on only 40 percent of the computers it sells and the remaining 60 percent comes from competitors purchased elsewhere.
2. A study on service from the hotel industry found that service recovery had a significant impact on customer loyalty – and future sales. Customers who experienced a service issue and received quick and helpful resolution reported that they were more likely to recommend the hotel to a friend or colleague than customers who experienced no service issues.
3. All the speakers agreed that businesses in the future cannot win on product price due to commoditization. Instead, businesses must compete with value – and service is an enormous factor in that.
4. James Alexander of Alexander Consulting shared that the majority of technology services organizations, to off-set shrinking profit margins on products, expect their field service techs to aggressively help sell services and solutions. Think about it– a field technician can actually visit a client’s home or business and assess not only the current problem, but can sell a system upgrade or even additional services – something that the front-end salesperson wouldn’t see.

More interesting facts, figures and anecdotes to come!

Yesterday was Election Day and as a technology guy, I both love and hate to see the technology in our system.  As I was waiting in line, one of the machines that load the ballot into the smart card stopped doing its only function.  Of course, no one in the polling station had a clue how to fix it.  So we went from two registration lines down to one.  I was almost at the front of the line, so it really didn’t affect me.  However, I hate to think about all the poor people behind me, their line just got longer and they didn’t even know it.

Technology is great when it works and we’ve all become more increasing more dependent on it.    I think we all feel better about electronic voting rather than the “hanging chad” alternative, but it also can be a bit scary.  How do I know my vote has been counted?  How do I know the machines work?  Paper trail or no paper trail…  I find it interesting that we all can love technology on one side like cell phones, HDTV, and Roomba but hate it when it comes to something like voting. 

Do we love technology when it comes to service? (You do remember that this is a blog about service right??)    I would say yes.  Let me give two very recent and relevant examples.  I had to have two service techs on my house over the last two months.  One tech was there to fix the oven; the other was to do maintenance on the heating system before it got cold.  The difference between the two was night and day. 

The oven tech showed up late, couldn’t find the address, and documented everything on three part forms.  The heating tech was on time, used GPS for the location, and documented everything on a handheld.  The oven tech needed a check and just wrote PAID on my goldenrod copy of the form.  The heating tech just had me sign the handheld and said my account would be billed. 

Now I could only imagine if the oven tech didn’t fix the problem.  Did the right copy of the form make it back to headquarters?  Did their copy show that I had paid?  Did they know what the tech fixed when he was out at my house?  What about the make and model of my oven? 

The heating place had me covered; they knew the make and models, had payment history, and when the tech started and stop my job, all in the system.  I’ll take the technology-based system any day.  Investment in technology for service makes sense from a customer satisfaction and well as it can be a money saver.  Aberdeen just published a report that said putting mobile devices in the hand of techs increases productivity, boosts first-time fix rates, saves money, and increases margins.  All things people are looking to do in this economy.  Investing a little in technology can return tremendous savings. 

Now if the polling places had better service or we could vote on-line, I guess that’s just wishful thinking.

As a tech reporter for the Austin Business Journal, the stories that would make me drool were the ones that seemed like science fiction, not news.

Hi-tech start-up promises to deliver a refrigerator that does the shopping for you – for example, automatically orders milk when you’re almost out or gathers and orders the ingredients for Monday night dinner.

The Matrix pitch: a C-level executive from a leading computer company told me about his work on a brain implant that would enable you to download information directly into the brain.

Almost ten years later, I’ve still not found a “smart” refrigerator and we have yet to download data directly into our brains, but look what we do have: ShopSavvy, a price comparison engine on Google’s G1 phone. It will transform the entire shopping experience.

Yesterday, my friend showed me how it works. Using the phone, he scanned the bar code on his baby daughter’s giraffe and Voila! There was the price of the giraffe listed on multiple sites, both online stores and bricks-and-mortar shops in his area selling that item by using the G1’s built-in GPS.

Imagine a similar tool for service. Simply input the model number, or scan the bar-code, with a brief description of the problem and Voila! There’s a list of the service providers in your area and estimates of price and time to repair the problem. It’s not as far off as those smart refrigerators and brain implant, so service businesses better have the people, parts, prices, knowledge and processes automated optimized and automated to make way for the Brave New World of service.

However, we’re one step closer to that level of automation through service knowledge management. Today, you can actually diagnose the problem on-line even before you pick up the phone to ask for outside assistance. That way, if you just need to plug the machine into the wall or clean a sock from the filter, you can save a ton of money. Conversely, call center reps can do the same before they send the issue to dispatch, and dispatchers can better manage the field techs based on problem-diagnosis. And the best part of all of it: Field techs can use knowledge management to guide them through the repair process if they face an issue they can’t diagnose on the field. Saves the customer money (you don’t have to pay for multiple home visits); saves the company money ( truck rolls only once); and the field tech can access the intellectual capital of more experienced techs who have retired (without lugging around multiple manuals that would require hours of page-turning to find an adequate diagnosis and solution).

Of course, I’m still waiting for the day that my washing machine can predict imminent failure before it even happens. And then walk me through the repair itself. And then give me a backrub….

I think for most people, it’s pretty clear; we’d rather not need service.

We’d rather not need to call about an error on our credit card, take our car to the shop, or invite a repairman into our homes. We’d much rather have things that “just work.” The classic example is the POTS, which is going the way of the dinosaur, but remember how reliable the dial tone was? The phone company created a service that was reliable 99.999% or five nines reliable, which meant the phone was out for about 5 minutes a year. Don’t you wish your cell phone was a tenth as reliable?

We know that’s not the real world; things break and need service. So, in fulfilling that commitment lies an opportunity. I started reading about something this week called “service recovery.” This concept is that excellent service can trigger better customer loyalty than if the customer never needs service to begin with. I think this was illustrated in my laptop example. I am much more loyal to this manufacturer after I needed service than before.

The question with service recovery is if it’s just rare and whether or not it can be fostered within a company as a competitive advantage. I think it can be and while rare, the alternative is much worse for your company. A new survey done by the Harris Interactive shows that 84% of people are willing to share a negative customer experience. So while you customers might not be as willing to sing your praises, they are sure willing to speak ill of you.

Some other interesting data points in that survey as well: 87% of people have stopped doing business with a company due to bad service. So when you looking at reducing your spend in service next year due to economic factors, make sure you account for all the new customers you’ll have to acquire to replace the ones that leave. A typical manufacturer will spend 8-10 times the amount of money acquiring a customer than making the ones they have loyal. Even through for many of these companies, service and parts can generate three times the amount of the original sale, as reported by both McKinsey and AMR. Where do you think the wise investment would be?

A final point out of that Harris study: 58% of people are willing to pay for a better experience. Shannon mentioned that in this post. I am a prime example of that; I will pay to be treated better. I pay for AppleCare, VIP tickets to shows, or commercial-free radio. I think there are many more people out there like me who would be willing to shell out a few extra bucks for the promise of an above average experience. If individuals are willing to pay for better service, shouldn’t your company invest as well?

Sounds like an episode of HBO’s “True Blood” - the one that features vampires - but it’s not.

In fact, it’s not even related to television or film. It happened at a local deli.

Some Servigistics colleagues and I walked over to a popular deli during our lunch hour to feast on some fresh subs. The line ran long and the number of employees low. The woman in front of me ordered a tuna sub on wheat, as did I, but the customer in front of her had ordered roast beef.

While the employee took the order from my colleague who ordered after me, the woman said aloud to any employee that would listen, “Uhm, excuse me. There’s blood on my sandwich!”

No joke.

Only one employee paid attention to her. With a look of annoyance, he moved over to face her behind the counter where the sub makers placed blocks of cheese and deli meat on the stainless steel slicer in order to prepare the subs.

She pointed to her tuna sub on wheat that was placed next to the meat slicer.

“Some blood from that beef fell on my sandwich,” she said.

“What?” the employee said.

“Blood,” she said. “On my tuna sandwich there,” and she pointed to her tuna sub.

He lifted the bun off the top of it. “I don’t see anything,” he said.

She insisted that she saw blood fall somewhere on her sandwich.

The employee let out an exasperated sigh and lifted the piece of cheese up from the tuna fish.

“I don’t see anything,” he insisted.

The woman tried one more time to explain that blood had spurted on her sandwich. It was obvious that she was NOT going to eat that sub. Instead of offering to make another one, the employee just looked at her, insisting that HE didn’t see any blood. I didn’t either, but she sure did. Real or not, the woman threw up her hands and walked out of the store.

No doubt she’d never return. And I’m sure once her friends and acquaintances heard of blood spattered sandwiches and poor customer service, no doubt they’d never return either.

When my colleagues and I finally sat down with our sandwiches, one of them said he’d never return to that deli after witnessing the spectacle. Blood or not, the employees’ reaction was inexcusable, he said.

How much business did this deli just lose? How spoiled had their brand become?

Certainly the loss will amount to more than the $4.29 tuna mini-sub. Blood or no blood, the employee should’ve offered to make her a fresh sandwich. A satisfied customer, positive word-of-mouth and relieved patrons would have been worth the cost.

Before I became a professional spinstress, I harbored aspirations of becoming a documentary photographer, in the same vein as a Mary Ellen Mark. Part of my preparation included a summer at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, where I documented contemporary Registered Women Maine Guides.

What I discovered - apart from learning how to fly fish, tie flies, light a cigarette on a boat in a rainstorm, and make bananas foster on an open fire - was that becoming a guide is no easy feat. While I won’t drill down into all the details at this time, what I will discuss is the role of service as it pertains to guiding.

It’s no longer the end result that differentiates one guide from the next – just like in today’s commoditized and globalized market, it’s not the end product that will attract new business or foster customer loyalty – but the service provided along the journey. Think about it: Most professional guides will help you land the big kahuna – whether it’s a fish or a deer or a caribou – but do you want to squat on a log eating baked beans from a can or do you want a nice meal after a long day of trekking in the woods or fishing in the river?

I documented two women guides in their early thirties who were just starting their own guiding business. In order to cut their teeth and prove to the old school guides that they had what it took, they joined an old-timer on a weekend hunting trip.

At the end of the weekend, the two women agreed that old-timer knew how to hunt, but he sure didn’t know much about customer service. His gear was ratty and moldy. The tents had holes in the floor as well as the roof. For lunch, he tossed them PB&J sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and squished from being stuffed in the bottom of his pack. For dinner, the old-timer stuck the cans of baked beans in the campfire coals, pulled out dirty utensils and then passed each of the women her own warmed can. He used his fingers to dig out the beans that were burned to the bottom of the can.

What these two women offered was excellent service plus the big kahuna. By offering gourmet meals, clean and comfortable tents, state-of-the-art gear and fly-fishing expertise, these two women were creating a service model that would put the old-school guides out of business. And they’d get paid a lot more to do so.

Isn’t that true for most businesses in the 21^st century? Whether it be a telephone system or a computer server, products and price being about the same, I’m selecting the business that offers me the best service package and I’ll even pay more for it.

And if you ever want to fly-fish in Maine, check out Kennebec Tidewater Charters. You’ll improve your fly-casting, catch a fish and enjoy great service along the way.

It was the worst of times; it was the best of times.

So, as with everyone, the economy is top of mind. I promise that I’ll talk about technology soon, but the current events seem so much more relevant today. My bank was just purchased by another bank. While this doesn’t scare me - I know the money is safe - but I know the service levels are not.

That bank and I have a history for the better part of a decade. I had a horrible customer service experience with them. They have been on a purchasing tear for most of that decade; I’ve been paying avoid them. Somehow we keep running into each other. I’ve canceled credit cards, moved mortgages, and closed accounts all to avoid ever being its customer again.

What did it do? The bank sent me an account statement that said one thing, and I acted on that information, and it wound up being incorrect. The fall out was about a hundred dollars. Rather than admitting the issue and refunding me the difference, the bank rep. proceeded to tell me he understood my confusion but there was nothing they could do. Most of the call center employees didn’t even have the information to even know what I was talking about. Faxes, letters, escalations and countless hours on hold, they did nothing. I even called the local consumer advocate and he admitted defeat. Hence, my current fear and loathing of this bank.

Now, a positive customer experience: I had bought a laptop for my MBA program to keep my school stuff separate from all my other work and personal data. It was near the very end of the program and, of course, the laptop dies. The machine will not start; the screen will not even light. I was in a panic so I rushed to the local retail location. The store took in my machine, did a full backup to a local hard drive at the store and allowed me to pull critical files to a USB key. The store rep. told me the repair will take about 7 business days.

I relax and head back to class a few days later. Oh no, I had forgotten to pull a semester’s worth of notes onto the USB key . The final was on Friday but the machine was due back on Monday. I run back to the store, but the backup they took was just an image file, not the files. I’m sunk. However, a fast thinking technician said he could restore the files to a loaner machine, pull the files, and give them to me.

However, he feared that he’d have to charge me the restore fee. Who cares?!? Get me my files!

The tech told me to come back in an hour so I spent the time drinking too much Starbucks. When I return, there’s the laptop with all my files. I pulled them off greedily and went to pay, but they waived the fee. The tech said it had been a slow day and no big deal. I passed my test on Friday and picked up my machine early Saturday.

My experiences show how powerful the customer experience can be either in the positive or the negative.

I have spent time and money avoiding one company and I’ll do the same to enforce loyalty with another. I have hence bought three more computers from that same company and I have spent hours on the phone and well over a thousand dollars to avoid that other bank.

Was a $100 dollars worth me never being a customer again? Was an hour of an employee’s time worth a customer for life? Do you think I don’t share those experiences with friends and family?

I believe a small investment in customer service can save millions in customer acquisition costs and brand equity. Companies need to consider this experience when they think that customer commitments are unimportant. I am sure there are people with the same opinions due to an out-of-stock part, late technician, or out-of-whack price.

Excuse me, now, I need to do the research to find another bank. <–>

The customer experience is the concept that drives Strategic Service Management. A customer, or her product purchased from a manufacturer, needs attention and looks to you (the manufacturer) for assistance. In the past, many businesses deemed this transaction to be a necessary evil and a cost center.

But today, in light of the commoditization of finished goods, shrinking product margins and increasing global competition, the delivery of service as a means of enhancing the customer experience has become an opportunity – one that can foster loyalty AND serve as a competitive differentiator and a profit center.

What I hope to accomplish in this blog is to uncover opportunities lost and won by businesses in the service business. In addition, Ross Rankin, VP of Product Marketing, will discuss the more technical components of the post-sale service space.

First, here’s an opportunity lost as well as won by my cell phone provider.

Due to my abhorrence of long lines, I would rather perform all of my transactions online: shopping, bill-paying, correspondence, scheduling, etc. Therefore, I ordered a phone upgrade along with what I though was a Connection Card but was really a memory drive on the provider’s site.

When I went to the local cell phone carrier’s store to return the memory drive, I was greeted by three different representatives and asked to wait. When a representative finally asked me what I needed, I said I wanted to exchange the drive for a connection card.

“Do you have a receipt?” The representative asked.

“Yes, it’s online,” I said. “Let me log-in to the site and I’ll show you.”

“No, that won’t work,” he said. “We can’t access that from here and I need a bar-code.”

What? No access to the site? Are you joking? Nevertheless, it was a Saturday, it was annoying, but I returned home, searched for a receipt and found only a packing slip that did not list prices. However, I was turned down once again. I needed a copy of the receipt that listed the price I paid. Only, there was no such receipt except for my overall phone bill online.

Why can’t cell phone providers synch up the store with the site?

After sharing my pain with friends, family and colleagues, I realized this is not an unusual phenomenon. We may do our shopping online, but we all want bricks-and-mortar service and! And I’ll choose the provider who will meet that need.

Before I dropped them as my provider, I decided to pay one last visit to a different store.

The difference in service was astonishing. While I did have a short wait until, the representative made the exchange, explained the new charges and walked my through Connection Card set-up. I was so pleased that I not only agreed to sign a two-year contract, but I also upgraded my plan.

Now there’s service leading to loyalty and increased margins. If I could just figure out how to use my new phone….