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…

April 16^th, 2009

By Giacomo Squintani, Marketing Manager EMEA, Servigistics

About a month ago, Managing Automation publisher Heather Holt-Knudsen wrote a piece called “Project 1985″. The article is both light-hearted and stimulating: in it, Holt-Knudsen sets out to live for a week without post-1985 technology (although, within a few lines, such total ban was lowered to using phone ahead of e-mail, not using one-line replies in e-mail, no texting, and only tweeting once a day).

The project never actually took off. In Part 2 of the article, Holt-Knudsen recognises that the issues that frustrate her about technology today do not actually lie within technology itself, rather in the way we have allowed ourselves to become addicted to it. As she points out, “Perhaps all I need to do is ease up versus completely give it up. It’s like what any successful diet requires: portion control.”

Information overload is a danger to which we are all exposed. Whereas in 1985 obtaining data was the key challenge, today differentiating what holds value from what does not is often the main issue. So, when technology does what technology should do (and lends a helping hand), it should be welcome. Turning our back on technology for the sake of it is not progress.

Back in 1985, my interaction with IT was limited to Nintendo handheld games such as “Donkey Kong”. But I remember with equal fondness University life, and research undertaken at library desks with paper books (remember them?) as Internet terminals were only just emerging - the nearest to a computerised search was the process through which you located the book you needed. So, for all the cursing I occasionally do when my Inbox is overflowing, I am forever grateful that I have the opportunity to do what I do at this moment in history - in an age when technologies are at their most interactive, interoperable (hey, when I started out on a Macintosh LC II I couldn’t share files with the rest of the world…) and deliver measurable results.

The same principles apply in Service. We sometimes curse at talking heads and IVR menus, longing for that old-fashioned human touch instead of technological abuse. At the other end of the relationship, somebody may well be counting the beans and the saved costs, though not necessarily the lost customers. But the technology in itself is rarely flawed: rather, we should marvel at what techies all over the world have achieved, and ensure their output is channeled in a value-adding fashion. When it improves productivity and the customer relationship, when it increases visibility over the Service operation and reduces costs, when it improves efficiency throughout the supply chain… basically, when it makes life easier for everybody involved, then technology has delivered upon its timeless promise. That’s the dessert we all wait for.

Now - where did I put that Rubik’s cube? Because let me tell you - you couldn’t find the solution online back in 1985…

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.