Strategic Service Management

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…

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.