One of your technicians has just made a recommendation on a critical piece of equipment.  It is old, parts are hard to find and a failure will have catastrophic results. The customer hesitates and says something like, “Leave it with me and let me think about it.”  Underlying this statement could be an objection.  It is for times like these that it makes sense to help your technicians have the skills/tools ready to (or be prepared to) handle customer objections.

You might be wondering why I am using sales terminology when I insist that the technician’s act of making recommendations is not a sale but a service.  It is because in situations like these letting the matter go without investigating the customer’s reason for their hesitation does not fulfill our obligation to serve the customer in the best way possible.  Let’s examine why.

Why the customer may hesitate

The customer may hesitate for several reasons.  Perhaps they really do want to think about it, do the math and make a financial determination and that will take time.  Perhaps they need the approval of someone else or have another company that they would have do the work.  Maybe they are sceptical of the solution or don’t fully trust the technician. Or maybe they do not fully understand the risk of not taking action or the benefit of moving forward and therefore cannot make a fully informed decision.

Regardless, if the stakes are high, then the technician should be prepared to explore the cause of hesitation further and try to address their concerns if appropriate.  By not doing so, they are letting the customer make a choice that he/she may later regret and they certainly won’t thank us if they do.  And, it certainly won’t be helpful if we say something like, “You should have listened to me when I told you to …” when things do go as the technician predicted.

What we can do

  1. Ensure your technicians are aware of and expect that the customer may have concerns about any recommendation.
  2. Help your technicians be prepared to explore any concerns and have a plan to address them if they do arise.
  3. Have a backup plan if the technician is unsuccessful.

“Do you mind if I ask the reason for your hesitation?”

Let’s go back to the example of an imminent equipment failure.  The risk to the customer is high and yet they may say, “Leave it with me and let me think about it.”

Keeping in mind that the customer may genuinely wish to think about the issue, your technician can ask a simple question to help them get to the underlying concern.  “Do you mind if I ask the reason for your hesitation?” Chances are, the customer will answer this question with underlying cause for their hesitation.

By exploring the apparent concern of the customer, the technician will be in a better position to help the customer assess the recommendation and make a more informed decision.

Here are just a few examples of what to expect:

  • Hesitation based on scepticism: “My last service company never mentioned this” (often happens when you win a contract from a competitor and the technician has not had time to build trust) or “You guys have been looking after my equipment for the past 10 years, how come you’re just bringing this up now?”
  • Hesitation based on current buying habits: “I already have a company that can do that work for me.”
  • Hesitation based on uncertainty: “I am not sure if it will …”
  • Hesitation based on pricing and/or budgets: “We don’t have any reserve in the budget.”

With these examples in hand, you can help spend some time during your safety/service meetings with your technicians to help them develop a professional response to each of them if they do arise.  The customer may still say “no” despite your technician’s best efforts but at least the decision will be a better informed one.

Have a back up plan. 

What if the technician was unable to deal with the customer’s underlying concern and the matter is of some urgency?  An equipment failure for example could be catastrophic.  Should they push harder?  My answer is that they should not.

However, they should not drop the matter either.  I suggest that you have in place a process where in these circumstances, the technician can alert management so that a responsible follow-up with the customer can be taken by the manager or the sales team.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“He who hesitates is last.”

 – Mae West

I recently read Daniel Pink’s book, Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and found that the conclusions from the book are directly relevant for those managers who are looking for ways to encourage their technicians to proactively promote their products and services.  These conclusions made me question, “Is it time to stop paying technicians for leads?”

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Rewards

In Drive, Pink presents compelling evidence that extrinsic rewards for completing certain tasks – for example, external rewards such as commissions, lump sum payments, etc. – do not always work and can even cause harm.  According to Pink, this is particularly true where the task is not routine and when it entails thinking and creativity.

The evidence suggests that creative tasks, such as evaluating and presenting the best solution for addressing a particular need, provide their own rewards in the doing.  These are called intrinsic rewards because the reward comes from performing the task rather than from an external source.  In situations like these, it is the reward of actually completing the task itself that largely motivates the employee to continue.

This last point is consistent with what I have experienced in my work with technicians.  There are many field service professionals who naturally bring ideas to the customer without any prompting or incentives.  They do this because they see it as part of the service they provide.  They get satisfaction and take pride from the fact that they are truly helping the customer.  They don’t need extrinsic rewards to get them to act; their reward comes from the act itself.

The Problem with Extrinsic Rewards

The problem with extrinsic rewards is that they can diminish intrinsic motivation for doing a task and turn that task from an interesting part of the job, into a menial chore.  But that is not all that Pink found to be problematic about extrinsic rewards.  Diminishing intrinsic motivation is just the first of the “Seven Deadly Flaws”[1] as described by the author.  The other six flaws of extrinsic rewards are:

  1. They can diminish performance.
  2. They can crush creativity.
  3. They can crowd out good behaviour.
  4. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behaviour.
  5. They can become addictive.
  6. They can foster short-term thinking.

What Can Be Done?

So, what can we do if we want to encourage this proactive behaviour on the part of our technicians?  Here are some ideas:

  • Ensure that the baseline compensation is fair and adequate.
  • Constantly reinforce the fact that the act of identifying opportunities to help and speaking to the customer about them is an integral part of the service provided. As part of this, showcase examples of where technicians have acted in this way and how it specifically has helped the customer.
  • Openly praise and provide feedback to reinforce desired behaviours.
  • Offer rewards that are not contingent on the individual act of promoting services, but which recognize group-wide achievement. Pink calls these types of rewards “now that” rewards – as in, “now that you have achieved this, here is a reward to recognize that achievement.”  These are rewards that are not typically communicated in advance.  Pink cautions that this approach can lose its effectiveness if the “now that” rewards become expected (or contingent) rewards.

In the end, I think it all comes down to how we think about the task of making recommendations to customers.  If we see this task as part of the service, then we should treat and support it like we do all other services.  If we don’t provide extrinsic rewards for completing routine repairs for example, does it really make sense to do so for making recommendations?  The evidence suggests that offering extrinsic rewards may have the opposite effect to what we intend.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what
you want them to do because they want to do it.”

 – Dwight D. Eisenhower

[1] Daniel H. Pink, Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York:  Riverhead Books, 2009), p. 59.

What is a simple question that delivers exceptional service and generates profitable revenue? It’s the one question that every field service technician should ask.  So, why isn’t every field service technician asking it?

In our workshops, we discuss the value that field service professionals provide by bringing opportunities to our customers’ attention that can help them operate their facilities/processes more effectively.  One way to uncover these opportunities is to ask this question, “Is there anything else that I can help you with today?”

Strangely, only 10% to 20% are asking this question

When I ask how many in attendance ask that question, I am amazed that typically only 10% or 20% put up their hands.  And I am further amazed at how enthusiastic those who do ask the question are about the value that they are creating by asking it.  To drive the point home of how valuable this question is for the customer, I simply ask those who do use the question a few questions.  The discussion usually goes like this:

Jim: Tell me, when you ask the question, how does the customer respond?  Do they tell you that it is none of your business?

Tech: [Chuckle] Of course not.  Actually, they appreciate the question.  I often get one of three responses:

  1. Can’t think of anything.
  2. Thanks for reminding me.  We have been having …
  3. You guys don’t happen to do [some service need], do you?

Jim: Do you think your customers appreciate the fact that you ask that question?

Tech: Sure do. It reminds them of something that they intended to speak to me about.  Sometimes we get opportunities to provide services that they didn’t previously buy from us because they didn’t know we did it.  It also provides clues to potential underlying problems that we can help with.

Jim: Can you think of any reason why you should not ask the question?

Tech: No.  It’s a great question.  It’s good for the customer and it’s good for us.

Why don’t more service managers ensure their field service teams asks?

If this question is of such value and is appreciated by customers, why don’t more of us as service managers ensure that everyone on our field service team ask it?  One reason I suppose, is the one given to me by some of the attendees.  They tell me that they don’t ask the question because they will not have time to respond to the customer’s request if it does arise.  They have other customers to attend to and don’t have a lot of “spare time” to address additional issues.  Although I can see their point, does it have to be a reason not to ask?  And, if we don’t ask the question, who will the customer turn to to get any outstanding issues resolved?

Make asking the question a part of your service technician’s routine

My suggestion is to make the question part of the service discussion at the end (or the beginning) of each service call, and then teach the technicians how to address the three typical customer responses (see above).  We can clarify with our field teams what our expectations are for “having a quick look” and what they can say to delay any follow up without giving the impression of putting the customer off.  If time is really an issue, we can provide clear steps the field team can take to get another team member to deal with the issue.

This questions provides great customer service and may help your bottom line

By asking if there is anything else that we can do for the customer today, we provide an excellent service to the customer by reminding them of issues they wanted to talk to us about, uncovering larger issues that may be underlying the customer’s response and informing the customer of other things we do as a service organization.  No doubt we have some on our team that provide this level of service for our customers.  Why not all?

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”

– Eugene Ionesco

Your field service team can add tremendous value to your service relationships when they recommend products and services that you can provide that will help your customers be better off.  They are in a unique position to do this; they have the knowledge of the technology, an inside understanding of your customer’s current processes and equipment and, hopefully an appreciation of your customer’s goals and objectives.  They also have proximity to the customer.  The question is however, if you engage your technicians in promoting your services, do you tell your customers?

Do You Tell Your Customers?

I recently spoke at the Field Service Forum in Amsterdam.  I asked how many of the attendees either formally or informally encouraged their technicians to proactively recommend their services to their customers.  About 60% of the room raised their hands.  I then asked how many of those who raised their hands told their customers that they were engaging their technicians in this way and not a single person responded that they did.  This is entirely consistent with other discussions that I have had.

How about you?  Do you tell your customers?  Do you tell them that you are encouraging your technicians to look for products and services to recommend to them?  If you are not, you are missing out on an important opportunity.

Why Not?

Let’s examine one of the reasons why we seem so hesitant to let our customers know about the promotion of products and services by our technicians.  I believe that underlying our reluctance is that we tend to see the actions of our technicians as a “selling” activity.  And, it’s hard to promote “selling” as a benefit to our customers.

Where is the value for the customer in a conversation that goes like this?  “Mr./Mrs. Customer, I want you to know that we have encouraged our technicians to look for opportunities for us to sell you more services so that we can increase the revenues we receive from you.”  It’s hard to see any value in this statement, regardless of how noble our intentions or those of our field service team are.

Remember, It is a Service

The key is to keep in mind that we want our technicians to use their expertise and proximity to look for opportunities to help the customer and raise these with the customer when they find them.  This is valuable because the actions of our technicians can truly help our customers to be better off and to achieve their business goals.  Their recommendations therefore, are a service.

Yes, as service providers, we do benefit from this proactive activity through increased service revenues, but those revenues are our reward in return for the value of the service that we provide.  By regarding the proactive activities of our technicians through a service lens, it becomes easier to promote their activities just like we would any other service that we provide.

Have this Conversation with your Customers

An excellent way to promote the proactive actions of our technicians is to have this conversation with our customers.  “Mr./Mrs. Customer, we have provided direction and training to our technicians to encourage them to look for opportunities to help you operate your facility/processes more effectively while they are performing the service.  Would you have any objection when they find something that will help you achieve your business goals, if they bring the opportunity to your attention?”

By explaining the actions of our technicians in this way, we are able to communicate the value of their efforts for the customer.

If you formally or informally engage your technicians in business development activities, I encourage you to tell your customers – and let them know why it is of value for them.

Promote their efforts to your customers as a point of difference.  Let them know that you are providing your “heads” as well as your “hands”.  When they recognize the value of these efforts and benefit from the resulting recommendations, they will be delighted that you have engaged your technicians in this way.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

– Woodrow Wilson

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that roughly 30% of all food produced worldwide is lost or wasted, along with all of the resources (water, fuel, fertilizers, etc.) necessary to get that food to consumers.[1]  The statistic brought to mind a compelling advertisement I saw a couple of years ago and got me wondering if we can draw parallels between how we manage food budgets and training investments.

The advertisement was created to make consumers aware of the enormity of the issue.  I can’t recall the exact details but I remember the image of a man at a barbeque with a grill full of food.  He is moving the food to a serving plate.  Every second or third time he bypasses the plate and puts the food directly into a garbage bin.  It is through the absurd nature of the act (who would cook dinner only to throw it directly in the garbage?) that makes the advertisement so effective.  Its point is that, although we would never dream of wasting food by throwing it directly into the bin, we effectively do just that when we throw out the leftovers three days later. This compelling image was intended to help consumers look at the issue in a new light.

Which brings me to training investments.  Like food consumers, no one knowingly makes an expenditure on training their teams with any intent of wasting that investment.  And yet, depending on how well we as managers support the training, we are effectively doing so.

Several years ago, James D. Kirkpatrick, consultant, author and trainer, made a presentation at an event hosted by the Canadian Society for Training and Development.  He presented a chart depicting the relative contribution to training effectiveness between management support and training quality.  He indicated that 25% of a training program’s effectiveness can be attributed to how management positions and introduces the training before the event takes place.  A further 50% of effectiveness will be the result of how management follows up and supports the training after the event.  According to his presentation, only 25% of training effectiveness can be attributed to the quality of the training itself.

This is not to say that the quality of the training itself is not important.  Obviously we want to ensure that the training content and delivery is of the highest quality.  Rather, it is speaking to the important role management has in ensuring that participants get the most that they can from the training event.  Without this support, Kirkpatrick’s research suggests that, like the food commercial outlined above, we are likely throwing training dollars directly into to the garbage bin.

Here are three things that we can do to get the greatest return from our training dollars in terms of skills adoption and behaviour change.

  1. Before the Training Takes Place. Introduce the training in context of how it will benefit the participants. What will they learn?  Why will this be beneficial?  What results should they expect by implementing the new skills?  Prepare for the training and provide necessary backup so that attendees can participate fully.  Arrange a venue that is suitable for the training purpose.
  1. During the Training. Although it is not always possible or practical to participate in all training that takes place, make a point of participating fully in training events when it makes sense.  Get an advance copy of the training materials and review them carefully.  Make notes in the margin of the workbook about examples from the day-to-day lives of the attendees that can help illustrate key points.  Participate in the training and avoid sitting at the back of the room eyes glued to the computer or cell phone.  Let others speak and avoid dominating the conversation, while making contributions of key points that are not otherwise raised.  Network with participants during breaks to get a sense of how they feel about the workshop and the key points they are learning. Be enthusiastic throughout the workshop.
  1. After the Training. Follow up with participants and assess how clearly they see the relevance of the training to their day-to-day activities.  Spend time to see how well they are applying the new skills and constructively provide feedback and coaching where applicable.  Identify key behaviours to review in future meetings and provide opportunities to practice new skills (role plays for example) when practical.

No one wants to throw training resources into the waste bin.  A good way to prevent this from happening is to recognize and act on our role as managers to support, reinforce and coach new skills and behaviours.  We must remember that, in reality, we are not paid for what we do but for what our team does.  Therefore it makes sense to do what we can to help our teams to be the best that they can be.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.”

– Margaret Fuller

[1] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at:  http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/

Coaching Concept

When I managed a service business several years ago, we introduced a new initiative where we wanted to stress the importance that we in management had in ensuring the success of the project and we adopted the motto “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”  We challenged ourselves to measure our performance through the lens of that motto and, if performance was not up to plan, ask ourselves as managers what we can personally do to get things on track.  Especially in the way of supporting our technicians when it came to making beneficial recommendations to our customers.

I have the good fortune to work with businesses that have embarked on a strategy of engaging their field service teams in promoting their products and services and, through this work, I am reminded of that motto. Even though it is the proactive actions of the technicians that actually generate the opportunities, it is squarely the responsibility of those that manage them to ensure that they act as expected and that they act well.

With that in mind, here are six steps that you can take to encourage and support your team to ensure they perform at their best when identifying and presenting opportunities to help their customers.

  1. Teach your technicians how to do what you want them to do. For some of your technicians, speaking to the customer seems to come naturally but for the majority it is uncomfortable and feels “foreign”.  Conversations such as these however are a skill and, like any skill, can be learned.  Our job as manager is to teach our technicians what to do so that they have a studied approach they can apply when the next opportunity arises.
  2. Let them practice. If you learned to drive on a manual transmission vehicle, you may recall how uncomfortable and perhaps terrifying it was when you first started.  Everything seemed so complicated, particularly since you had to do so many things at once while still keeping your attention on what was going on around you.  With practice, you soon became more comfortable – to the point that now, you probably don’t even think about the individual steps you are taking to drive smoothly through traffic.  This is the same for engaging in customer conversations about recommended products and services.  Practice allows your technicians to learn the skills more quickly and in a “safe” environment.  More practice leads to higher comfort with the approach and when they do find an opportunity to help a customer, they will be much more likely to take the initiative to make beneficial recommendations.
  3. Recognize efforts from the customers’ perspective. Technician recommendations that can help your customers operate more effectively are a valuable service – as important a service as fixing or maintaining the equipment itself.  Instead of recognizing the technicians efforts solely from your bottom line, acknowledge how their efforts have contributed to the overall success of the customer.
  4. Share customer satisfaction results. If you solicit customer feedback about your services, I encourage you to add a question or two to measure the customer satisfaction about the technicians’ proactive efforts.  For example, you could ask something like, “How satisfied were you with our technician’s ability to make recommendations that can help you run your business more effectively?”  As these scores trend upward, it will reinforce the value of your technicians’ efforts and help them realize that the customer really does see value in their proactive recommendations.
  5. Seek and act on feedback from your technicians. Ask your technicians how they feel about their efforts in executing the strategy and what they feel would be helpful to keep them focused and on-track.  Through an open channel you will get great insight into what is working and what is potentially holding your team back.  Whenever possible, act on their feedback quickly to demonstrate the value of their insight and the importance that you place on their initiative.
  6. Join your technicians in the field. If practical, set aside some time to ride along with your techs to meet key customers and observe them in action.  This provides a wonderful opportunity to provide on-site coaching for the technician about their proactive efforts in real time.  It also allows you to meet the customer and reinforce why your technicians are asked to make recommendations and the added value it provides for your customers.

Technicians who make proactive recommendations of products and services that will help the customer be better off are providing an exceptional service.  As managers, our role is to take the steps that will help them execute this plan as effectively as possible.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”

– William H. Johnsen

 

Close up of human hand holding brain

I don’t need to tell you that field service is a competitive business and getting more so with each passing day. Customers are more knowledgeable and demanding, competitors are innovative and tough, and the great things you do for your customers are often overlooked. It’s time to bring BYOB service to your customers and gain the competitive edge. BYOB stands for “Bring Your Own Brains” and the service company that offers this service encourages their technicians to bring their heads as well as their hands when providing a service for a customer.

In today’s competitive environment, the best way to stand out from the crowd and to take market share is to demonstrate to your customers that they are better off for having hired you. Not only is their equipment running in tip-top condition, which is what they would expect by engaging a professional and competent company like yours, but they can say that your efforts have made a contribution to their business that was beyond the scope of the work you were contracted to perform. Maybe because of their relationship with you they are operating more efficiently or safely. Perhaps your recommendations have helped them extend asset life or achieve some sort of important recognition or goal. Regardless, they can look to your relationship as bringing much more value than simply keeping the equipment running and they will reward you by renewing their contract and telling their friends and colleagues.

Of course, the only way to help your customers to be better off is to recognize what is important to them and identify and communicate those actions that the customer can take that will help them make improvements. Our field team plays a critical role here because they are the ones in the best position to gain an understanding of the customer’s challenges and goals and recognize steps that can be taken to address them.

This is where BYOB Service comes in. This helps technicians recognize that a critical part of the service that they provide is looking for ways they can help that customer achieve their goals and helping the customer recognize the value in taking action. BYOB Service providers show their field personnel that proactive conversations with their customers about their recommendations is not selling, but rather an integral part of the service that they provide. BYOB Service companies nourish and build upon the brains of their technicians through training, coaching and practice.

How about your service offering? Do you provide BYOB Service for your customers? Do your technicians recognize that their job is more than fixing things and keeping the equipment running efficiently? Do you and your management team nourish the proactive efforts of your technicians through ongoing training and constant coaching and support? Do your customers recognize your efforts and can they say they are measurably better off for having engaged you?

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.”

Woodrow Wilson

Discount and commission concept represented by percentage sign.

If you have encouraged your technicians to promote your services, you may be considering ways to recognize their efforts.  Perhaps one of the most obvious approaches is to pay them a commission based on the number of opportunities identified or on the value of the resulting order.  If you are thinking of paying your technicians a commission for new business consider these 5 key points. Read more

service technician training program

Do you have an expectation (formal or informal) for your technicians to promote your services to your customers? If so, why not tell your customers?

I spoke at a conference recently in Europe where we discussed the engagement of field service teams in business development. The attendees were senior level service executives from many well recognized global companies. I asked how many of their companies had a formal expectation and program to engage their technicians in promoting their products and services. Most indicated that they had. I then asked how many have informed their customers about their technicians’ actions. No one raised a hand. Read more

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click to enlarge

I’m often asked how to enthusiastically engage technicians in business promotion to create a service experience like the one I describe in my book, Beyond GREAT SERVICE, The Technician’s Role in Proactive Business Growth. In answer to this question, here is a summary of the 5 Steps to a service experience that is beyond great.

Critical to our success is the recognition by technician and management alike, that business promotion is an important part of the service delivery and not a sale. They must appreciate that when we take proactive steps to make these recommendations that will help our customers to be better off we greatly enhance the service value and the service experience. With the intention of promoting our services to help our customers, this proactive approach will become a significant differentiator in a competitive environment where service providers must fight for every dollar and fight for the right to hold, maintain and develop customer relationships.

With this in mind, here are the 5 steps that you can take to deliver a service experience that is beyond great. Read more