Last Mile Worker

Not using any subs, WOW, come on man.   Our future will continue to move towards a blended workforce, those internal to our organization and those external. Trust, visibility of subcontractor individuals, and clarity of work scope are the three primary elements that prevent most contractors from leveraging subcontractor labor with any regularity. Certainly I would be remiss by not adding our "ego" to that list, those service organizations that are still hung up on "I must self-perform everything". Times are definitely changing and if your organization is not prepared to deal with external labor then you will be left behind. Let's define for a moment what we mean by subcontractor: most of the time we refer to an organization as well as one-person companies.   Consider some of these concerns and potential remedies: Trust:   how many times has a sub poached our customers and / or employees?   Or, as you ask for help they go around you and squ

Welcome to McDonald's would you like fries with that burger?   Well my friends that is pull through, a situation in the field where you can better serve your client by suggesting additional work items related to the current context of your activity. However, pull-through does not have to be limited to the work at which you are currently performing, it can also be opportunities discovered while talking with the end-user or walking through their site. The challenge is the balance between what is an appropriate recommendation, what borders on trying to sell more items than the client needs, and how does the field worker have faith that the office will follow through on the opportunity. These three elements, more than just the simple process of finding something that needs to be repaired, are what can make or break the success of pull-through within your organization. Career-based service workers are in this business for one reason, their strong desire to help others. In the

I've been involved in amateur racing for many years now, other than draining my pockets of cash spent on tires and track fees, many disciplines we learn on the track can be easily carried over into safe driving habits. Relax It's funny because when you're in a hurry you often feel compelled to go as fast as possible, weaving through traffic, running close to the person in front of you, driving erratically. Did you know that data shows that driving just a few miles over the speed limit in traffic does not normally gain you any time; however, does disproportionally wear your brakes, tires, and erodes your fuel economy.   So what's the big deal? Test this theory sometime when you're in moderate traffic, I bet you will be sitting right next to if not ahead of that vehicle. Look ahead In racing we always concentrate on looking as far ahead as possible. The brain has already processed information which is close to you; what you need to focus on is wh

We all know that one of the biggest challenges in the service business is managing customer expectations and response times. The simple fact is certain times of year there is much more demand than we have in supply (techs).   In all of the years I've been involved in service, I would venture to say that this challenge between supply and demand is the root cause of anxiety amongst our customers.   We have hidden behind a veil of excuses in the past that weren't easy to track. For instance if we were not able to return to your location we might blame it on the parts, "hey once the parts arrive we will certainly come out and fix your equipment". All along we delicately balance what resources we have to satisfy the best paying and squeakiest wheel requests. The expectations of our customers, and frankly the transparency that computerized systems often provide, we must break the mold and stop hiding behind these excuses. Why can't we just provide the facts?  

Understanding the big picture is absolutely critical in providing superior service. We are not talking about being able to replace the part or a series of parts with the hopes that you are actually fixing the root problem, this is not service and simply describes "parts changers". We know that just because you replace a compressor or a VFD does not mean that the service technician really understands the entire operation and most importantly how the repair impacts the customers confidence and/or perception. While the big picture is often defined as a 20,000 foot perspective, and ignored by many detail oriented people, it is important to understand the entire lifecycle of an asset because it is within this understanding that you will actually improve the level of service you are delivering to your client. As time goes by our "big picture" will become a bit fuzzy as the results of emerging technology. Black boxes, or those items which we cannot see the inside

Stick with what you know and repeat often. When I think about maintenance, regardless of type of contract, I think about consistency, consistency, consistency. The motivation behind writing this post is to encourage you to either build or bolster your existing maintenance base, here are some things to consider: most maintenance contracts should yield between 5% and 7% additional revenue above and beyond the contract value.   Building trust between you and your clients organization will result in additional service activity. Full risk contracts, or those where you were charging one flat amount and taking all of the financial risk, can be profitable.   Watch out for the age of the equipment, service call track record, and customer disposition pull-through opportunities can be constrained with full risk contracts unless the scope of work is very specific. This can be a bit of a slippery slope. The perception of a customer

The proper blend of labor, also referred to as crew mix, can make or break a service business. There is a misconception that crew mix is really only about retrofits, projects, and construction teams of workers, certainly not the case.   If the business is not carefully examining the type of work being sold, the contracts being signed, and the general mix of labor (specifically with regards to burden rates) than you will see a disconnect between the cost of your labor and requirements of the service obligation. For purpose of this conversation we will use union terms; apprentice – or those at a lower skill and cost rate, journeyman – higher skills and higher costs. So you have built a fantastic business over the years, you have very loyal employees and a service crew of let's say 15 people. All of that is great news and congratulations. You may notice that the makeup of your crew over this period of time (x number of years) has moved into a heavily weighted journeymen-base

For years my work has been focused on elevating the conditions for the last mile of the field workers. The most recent chapter, which started a couple of years ago, has been around taking advantage of the consumerization of asset-based digital fingerprints. Many refer to this as IoT or the Internet of things. While the concept of IoT is not new the amount of information which we are collecting, essentially based on the affordability of the event producer, is tremendous. However, we now have to make actionable this information in a meaningful and relevant way which compels a different outcome at the point of service. This interaction with the field worker is the area which has piqued my interest regarding the use of conversational bots. When you start to conduct research you discover that these bots (computer-based logical routines and conversational threads) are operating all around you. Sometimes people confuse these bots with sophisticated search algorithms, this is not the

Often times we find ourselves competing against perception, and we all know that our customer's perception is our reality. Do you find it frustrating when faced with competing against OEM-based service? For some reason there is a belief that the OEM, or the manufacturer of the equipment, has the "inside" edge regarding service on a particular piece of equipment. In some cases when the manufacturer has controlled the ability for anyone to purchase materials this is indeed a distinctive advantage for the OEM (not to mention a BS move). However, savvy customers are now refusing to put up with this type of "lock up" process which restricts them to only use manufacture-based service folks.   Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with OEM-based service people. During my second decade in the service business I worked for a manufacture in Texas. We manufactured pump stations for oil and gas, chemical, offshore, golf and ski. I was brought in to help

When you think about the definition of empathy, which is to understand and share feelings of another, you may be curious why this would be included in posts regarding the operation of a service business. When I think about empathy from a service technicians point of view, and one who spent most of his career troubleshooting problems, empathy for me is as strong as one of my previous posts on LSD. The closer a person can get to understanding the initial design intent of a control system or operating environment, the better off they will be in suggesting potential modifications, repairs or updates. I never really thought about the sales side of the equation until my later years, and of course as you can imagine empathy plays a significant role with a salesperson, the closer you get to understanding the customers challenges, the higher the probability of close. Over the years, while interacting with many different service providers, I have discovered that sometimes people just g

The bane of many technicians existence is completing their paperwork. It goes without saying that if we are going to charge a customer "x" we should at least tell them what we did in some comprehensible manner. What does the customer really want… a summarization which wraps up what has occurred; if the call was related to troubleshooting, what can be done to avoid this incident in the future.   Certainly an explanation as suggested requires more than just pure documentation of the events which have occurred during a service call (scheduled or unscheduled). Drawing conclusions, leaning on intuition, and having the ability to articulate   passed, current, and future scenarios, is where the challenge exists for many field workers. Remember for a moment the last time that you were composing a correspondence that contained technical information. You probably wrote a little more than you should have, reviewed it, moved some things around and hopefully removed some of the

Years ago, when I was a field service tech, my specialty was control systems and VFDs. Those were the days filled with opportunities to help folks, be challenged by new problems, and come up with some pretty creative solutions! A large piece of equipment or control system is filled with thousands of wires. Our job is to break it down in quadrants and focus on one circuit at a time. "Halving" challenges, in other words looking at problems and cutting them in half and then half again until you finally find the solution.   My father taught me many things and the ability to apply simplicity to troubleshooting was one of the greatest. To this day I still think about challenges in the same manner, although after 35 years in the trade I have now spent 2/3 of that time out of the field (on a day to day basis).   It really is all about LSD. I have learned over the years when I apply a little LSD to any situation it suddenly becomes better. Of course, the LSD I speak of is Lo

The title of this post is absolutely ludicrous. Certainly most of you are scoffing at the idea that we would even bring this topic up, that is the topic of safety. Are you the one saying, "hey I already provide safety for my workers". One of the most ridiculous parts of this title and subject is the interpretation of what providing safety is all about. We have all heard the slogans, safety is job one, safety is our responsibility, so many times in so many companies it is simply lip service. Has safety in your organization devolved similar to training, you are basically providing whatever is required to keep you "legal" and in compliance? If so, shame on you. In my mind safety it is not about the OSHA 10 course or the video on slips trips and falls, instead it is about the company and its culture. Down deep inside all of us, forgetting about the influence that business and margins may have on some of our decisions, we want to keep everybody safe. Unfortunat

Now that is a question that people have been attempting to answer forever. I have spent the majority of my career trying to move service more towards science than the art. The answer to that statement is, it all depends on the type of service being delivered. For instance, a preventative maintenance is much closer to science as it is clearly defined regarding what actions need to be taken for a desired result. When you look at unscheduled activity, or service calls, levels of troubleshooting are heavily weighted towards being an art.   Service calls take finesse, intuition, experience, knowledge, and attitude all blended together to come up with sometimes magical solutions. When I think about a really good service person, regardless of industry, they are people who have a series of traits that are very consistent. From my experience these traits include curiosity, a deep hunger for understanding, the ability to experiment and have the confidence to make mistakes, solid domain

Hasn't this "big brother" conversation gotten a little bit tired? After the first conversation around this topic in the late 90s, it still amazes me that people are having issues with location-based services enabled on their mobile devices and leveraged in a corporation for field worker efficiency.   I have always personally believed that if you are not doing anything wrong than who really cares?   Location services can be found in many of the applications currently used including apps like WAZE and YELP.   If you are reading this and thinking, I'm concerned about my privacy, then I have one simple suggestion for you, move to the Northern Territory in Canada and lose your telephone. You and those mean ass Moose can   have your own conversations using Dixie cups and a piece of string.    As with many things in 2016 the trick is finding a software partner which cannot only consume, store and understand the data; but most importantly make it relevant to your business

Why do I really care if my field technicians are enthusiastic or not? When you look at a person's work output, as directly related to workforce sciences, you come up with three primary ingredients required to achieve your desired results.   These ingredients are; attitudes, attributes, and capabilities and when mixed properly with enabling tools can yield unbelievable outputs. So what does any of this have to do with routine maintenance? If your maintenance routines actually become way too routine then pretty soon performance will be replaced with complacency. In order to keep any piece of equipment running as trouble-free as possible the maintenance performed, and the thoroughness of the inspection and tasks at hand, have a direct impact on the asset's life expectancy.   There are some strategies that help service organizations keep the enthusiasm at all-time highs. Switch techs from time to time :   One of the best ways to ensure maintenance is being performed prope

Your organization may be providing the best service in your market, hell even 10 times better than your nearest competitor (a topic for another post). None of it really matters if the customer's perception of you is poor or your service delivery is just like everyone else. Certainly you have heard the saying "perception is reality" there is no place this is more true than when it comes to service delivery. Odds are that if you are reading this post you are one that is seeking different perspectives and ways to increase the customer value you're currently providing your clients. Here are a few things to consider, listed from simple to sophisticated: appointments : when meeting with your clients face-to-face, either sales or service, consider using meeting invitations where the client may accept and have that meeting land on their calendars. For a bit of added flair use a product like "FindTime" that allows your client to vote and

The plain simple truth is most service businesses would not survive without parts.   On one extreme parts can be considered materials for projects; or those parts you sell during a service call. How many service companies do you know that would allow a client to say… "just send somebody and I will provide the parts". Unfortunately, as we all know this happens many times in commercial building environments where management companies may want to procure their own materials. Of course, from a revenue and profitability perspective (because a lot of us apply the hardware model to price parts, the smaller the dollar value the higher the mark-up) parts are important.   One of the biggest challenges service organizations have, regardless of size, is the ability to compel purchasing behavior. When you take a project that is for the most part being managed by either a procurement manager or a project manager, the purchasing of materials can be fairly straightforward. In the o

First and foremost when I think about differentiation in the service business I immediately think about ways to create additional value for our clients. The trick is to create this value in such a way that it is easy for your organizations culture to adopt, affordable to implement, and very difficult to replicate by your competitors. One of the challenges within service businesses is not only finding the time but finding the right opportunity to create differentiated ideas. The fact of the matter is that service is a blocking and tackling business. We often get so mired down in the details, that at the end of the day there is little room left for conceptualizing and visualizing out-of-the-box approaches. Make no mistake though, if you can figure out a way within your organization to carve out the time required to allow those creative minds in your employ to express themselves, you will come up with tools and processes which create value and differentiation. The size of a serv

For me, a service business is made up of obsequious hoop jumpers on one side (service) and a contract based annuity stream (maintenance) on the other side. While many may agree, the act of building a strong annuity-based business is not a walk in the park. Imagine selling something every day that was completely intangible. Add to that a layer that in many cases your end-user has no idea whether you have performed the service or not. Yet as many studies have shown performing preventative maintenance on equipment is well worth the investment in the long run if your objective is to preserve the value of your assets. Years ago on one of my first trips to the Middle East I clearly remember having this discussion with our local representatives. They looked at me in pure bewilderment as they had no idea what I was even talking about because at that time when a building got 5 to 7 years old they would simply tip it over and build it again with all new equipment. What is the value of mainte

Leaving your customer with the sensation that they are highly revered to your organization, isn't that what customer service is all about? However, in order to obtain that level of connection wouldn't it help if every individual which touched the customer sincerely understood what service you are providing? If we go back to my core belief, expressed in other posts, "people want to do the right thing". Taking that at face value, it leaves our primary jobs as mentors and educators. Many complicate this topic by blaming it on the generations, as a matter of fact that is where I was at when I started to think about composing this post. It is true in some ways that over the years our culture in America has changed. You can experience this by visiting different parts of the United States, for instance go to the deep South and you will get a different level of customer service then you may on either of our coasts. Yet that is really a scapegoat to avoid the root pr

The culture of a workforce cannot be overlooked. Day-to-day actions and decisions of every individual are largely influenced by the culture of the organization. The reputation of any organization’s ethics, integrity, and professionalism can be either shattered or lifted based on a single interaction with an individual worker. Work environments devoid of motivation lead to safety concerns, sub-optimal work output, and complacency.   Science reveals several motivational outlooks that people might experience at work every day.   Three are optimal motivational outlooks -aligned, integrated, and inherent -which imply positive intrinsic motivation.   Service, in all industries, is an art and the canvas is expressed in a way that an individual approaches an issue and the perception of expertise the client has with that individual.   Organizations dealing with work activities understand this, and that the perception of their company is all about the experience; those touch points are

It is just hard to imagine that one of the most common reasons maintenance contracts are lost is because people don't show up and don't pay attention to the details.   In many cases maintenance is an investment to keep the life of your asset running for a protracted period of time. However the length on many maintenance contracts is not even close to the life expectancy of that equipment, so if you don't really have any idea what maintenance is being performed then how do you really know if it's being done to your specification? Thus, it really boils down to business elements, assuming that you are actually performing the work, our focus needs to be on how you are differentiated. Let's take a look at a couple of the most common business-related reasons why people lose maintenance contracts. Not showing up ; managing contracts can be complicated between the sites, number of assets, and the frequencies at which items need to be maintained, can a

The fact of the matter is that you really have no idea where your field workers are if you don't have some form of connection between their location and your operation.   It seems that many folks can wrap their heads around the idea of GPS and how it makes sense for business, both from the field and office perspectives. When properly positioned logic will prevail, that is, if there is an underlying foundation of trust. Things can get really jacked up if a plan for GPS in trucks or on the technicians person, is discussed and implemented without a broad understanding of the business purpose. If we believe that people want to do the right thing then for the most part this should be a nonissue, with the exception of those individuals that are doing things outside of the lines of prudent behavior. So the fundamental reason why GPS tracking fails, or causes turmoil within a business, has really nothing to do with the tracking or the technology! You need to sit down and ask yourself,

This could definitely be one of those topics where you may be hearing voices. One voice, used when speaking with others, is telling folks that your career and the ability to make a difference is much more important than what you are being paid. While on the other hand your other voice, and I have noticed this voice gets louder and softer depending upon your age and circumstances, may be screaming get as much as you can for the work you're currently performing.   Isn't it really all about purpose?   How else can you explain schoolteachers, police and firemen, and the United States Military; all driven by the visceral desire to help and change people's lives. We certainly know, with the exception of a few in the aforementioned careers, they are not in it for the money (indeed, something seems very backwards here).   Evidence exists (@mercer) that shows if you are paying a worker within the normal range of income for their position then it is likely that being motivated by

Oh yeah, visual inspections are why God gave us eyes.   There is not a single machine learning, IoT, computerized environment that can match the skills a human's brain can assess and deliver based on visual feedback. The trick is making sure that the person connected to those eyeballs actually knows what they are looking for!   Face it, aren't the best workers those that can recognize an issue long before it becomes a problem? So instead, is the challenge really not that they can visually see, but instead that they can comprehend and correlate potential challenges? While we have many different definitions for "wisdom" in context of this topic, I think about it as those individuals which have had the most experience, both good and bad. Coincidentally I am a firm believer that the best service people are those that make the most frequent mistakes. When I was in the field I had lots of experience screwing things up. The difference is that I would always check and tri