Tag Archive for: customer service expert

, , , ,

Disappointed with Technician Efforts in Making Recommendations to Customers? Teach Them the “5 Ps”.

In his book, Coaching for Improved Work Performance[1], Ferdinand Fournies notes that, although there are 16 reasons why employees do not do what they are supposed to do, 99% of the time it is because of only two – they either don’t know what they are supposed to do or don’t know how to do it.  If you are disappointed by your technicians’ efforts in making recommendations to your customers, try teaching your technicians the 5 P’s for making recommendations.

The 5 Ps refers to the five steps technicians can use to effectively communicate their recommendations to the customer for those product and services that they feel will help their customers to be better off.  This simple approach addresses why the customer should take action. It is easy to remember and it works as follows:

Permission:  Every recommendation should start with asking “Permission” from the customer to proceed.  It is as simple as stating the topic of conversation and then asking if they have time for that conversation now.  For example, “Mrs. Customer, I just completed the maintenance service and I have a recommendation that will eliminate these unexpected failures and significantly reduce your energy usage.  Would you have just a few moments to talk about this now?” Asking permission shows empathy for the customer’s situation and, if the customer is too busy, allows them to reconnect at a more suitable time.

Problem:  The “Problem” is simply a statement of what has been found that would benefit from your recommendation.  Ideally the problem statement can be reduced to a few simple sentences.  For instance, “Mr. Customer, both of your units are over 18 years old and at the end of their useful life.  As a result, you will continue to experience unexpected failures and parts will be increasingly hard to come by.  It’s only a matter of time before you experience an extended and costly breakdown.”

Proposal:  In this context, “Proposal” simply means a statement indicating what can be done to address the problem.  In our case, our proposal might look like this, “This would be a good time to consider replacing the old units with new higher efficiency units.  Because the existing units are working now, we can schedule the replacements at a time which will cause the least amount of disruption.”

Payoff:  The fourth P, “Payoff”, refers to the benefits the customer can expect by taking action.  Continuing our example, we might say, “The new units should give you years of trouble free operation and will significantly reduce energy consumption.  Not only will the energy savings pay back your initial investment while your tenants enjoy a more comfortable workplace, but you can relax knowing that you are contributing to a greener environment.”

Pose:  The fifth and final P is “Pose” as in “pose a question”.  It is simply the call to action at the end of the conversation.  Here are some examples:  “Would you like us to put a proposal together for you so you can evaluate the options?”  “Would you like me to arrange to have someone call you from our office to discuss this further?”  “Would you like us to go ahead with this recommendation for you?”

I encourage you to introduce the 5 Ps to your team and look for opportunities for them to practice.  Set aside a few minutes at each safety/service meeting for the team to role-play for example.  As the field team becomes more comfortable with the approach, they will become more comfortable in using it to make recommendations to the customer that will motivate them to take action.  And, by proactively making more recommendations to customers, your field team will be offering a higher level of service.

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.

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

 – William James

[1] F.F. Fournies, Coaching for Improved Work Performance, McGraw-Hill, 2000
, , , ,

6 Steps to Support Your Technicians in Making Beneficial Recommendations to Customers

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

 

, , , ,

BYOB Service – The Competitive Edge

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

, , , ,

Do Your Techs Promote your Services? Why not Tell your Customers?

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

,

Too Much Focus on “Upselling”? A Cautionary Tale

customer service expert

I had a negative experience last week with a car rental firm that I have dealt with faithfully for many years. If not resolved, this experience will cost the company my business. The issues arose because I believe the company in question has too much focus on upselling by their front line personnel at the expense of serving the interests of the customer. This is a cautionary tale for all service providers who engage their field service teams in business development.

I rented a car at the airport in Denver. As the clerk processed my rental, she advised me that she had a Chevy Cruze available. There was no mention that there would be an extra charge for the vehicle and I initialled and signed the various parts of the form as I have done so many times before.

When I returned the vehicle three days later, the total was higher than I had expected it to be. (The confirmation I receive when reserving the vehicle gives the estimated total costs.) When I looked closely, the receipt indicated that I had paid an additional “upgrade fee”. It wasn’t a lot of money in the scheme of things but there was a principle at stake. Read more

, ,

How Proactive is Your Field Service Team? – Take the Test

service technican training expert

Just how proactive is your field service team? Perhaps the best way to find that out is to take a test to evaluate your performance against the Proactive Service® best practices.

As service leaders, our long-term success will be determined by our ability to deliver an exceptional service that our customers value and are willing to pay. As importantly, it must be a service experience that differentiates us from our competitors. Engaging our technicians in proactive business development is one such strategy that can deliver on these prerequisites because, if approached correctly, it can help our customers be measurably better off for having engaged us. Customers that recognize the unique value we provide, reward us with more business, with their recommendations to others and with their loyalty.

The question becomes, how well are we doing in our efforts to differentiate our business in this way and what additional steps can we take to become even better? The answer can be found by:

  • Comparing our business to industry best practices
  • Realistically evaluating our performance against each practice
  • Identifying actions and timelines to make improvements where needed

We have created a self-evaluation checklist that will allow you to evaluate your progress against Proactive Service® best practices. It is available for anyone who would like to download it from our website. It covers six key areas of performance measurement. These are: Read more

, ,

I-CARE – 5 Steps to Work Orders that Shout “Value”

service tech training expert

During our workshops, we discuss the importance of the quality of the written word and how it helps the customer recognize the value that we provide in the work performed. This easy acronym – I-CARE –highlights the 5 steps to create work orders that shout “value”.

When I have the opportunity to speak with service managers, one of the discussion points that inevitably comes up is about the quality of the work order summaries written by their service technicians. It seems that in many organizations, the quality of the written summaries of work is all over the map – from very poor to excellent. When I ask if they have clear and simple guidelines to help their busy technicians to consistently write well, they often admit that those guidelines are still on the “to do” list.

The quality of the written work order summary is important for a number of reasons. One reason is that the customer relies on the summary to give them a sense of the quality of the work that was performed. Because of the nature of our work, it is unlikely that our customers will be able to objectively assess the quality themselves. A clear, concise and comprehensive summary will communicate more value than a simple “fixed unit” on the report. Another reason for complete and concise reports is that the report may become an important document if there is ever a dispute about what work was actually performed. Yet another reason is that a complete and concise report will save time in the long run. Think of your own organization. How many times has the technician had to be interrupted in the field to answer a question about the work performed that could have been prevented if the work order summary description was more complete? Read more

, ,

The Limiting Reality of Getting Technicians to “Sell” – 4 Reasons Why

service tech training expertHow we define the world impacts our perception of it.  How we define our technicians’ role in promoting our services is no exception.  This blog post is about the limiting reality of getting technicians to “sell” and the 4 reasons why this is the case.

Maslow is attributed as saying, “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”  This sentiment applies to how we view the role of service technicians.  If we see the proactive efforts of technicians to identify and speak to the customer about our services as that of a “salesperson” then everything they do in this regard looks like “selling”.  Unfortunately, this viewpoint greatly limits our imagination to capture the real value in what our technicians are providing.  This constrains our ability to capitalize on these efforts as a valuable and differentiated service offering. Read more

, , ,

Want your Technicians More Proactive in Promoting your Services? Your Perspective May be Getting in the Way

service tech training expertMany service managers I speak to see value in encouraging technicians to be more proactive in business development. Although many of those are taking steps to implement a formal plan for their service teams, many fail to achieve the results that they seek. If you want your technicians to be more proactive in promoting your services, check out your perspective. It might be getting in the way.

When it comes to engaging technicians in promoting services, many service managers see the role of selling as different from the role of service. They often describe selling and service as distinct and almost unrelated activities. With this view, when someone is selling they are not serving and when someone is serving they are not selling. The chart below illustrates this view of the relationship between selling and service activities.

The Distinct Activities of Selling and Serving

Read more

, , ,

4 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Technician “Sales” Training Programs

service tech training

Are you thinking of providing “sales” training for your technicians on how to promote your services? Before making a decision, consider what you want the training to achieve. Below are 4 questions that are key when evaluating training programs that can help you ensure you get a higher ROI.

Those of you who have read my book and subscribe to this blog know that I feel that the technician is in a unique position to identify opportunities that the customer can act on to help them operate their facilities and/or processes more effectively. In fact, I believe that technicians have an obligation to reach out to the customer to discuss these opportunities to help and to assist them in making informed decisions. To me, this really isn’t selling at all, but rather an important part of the service.  And, this approach has a significant benefit. My experience indicates that service firms that engage their technicians in this way will create a sustainable competitive advantage and be rewarded with more business, higher customer satisfaction and unprecedented levels of retention.

Read more