Q&A talks Bob Landsfield, CEO of Skymira in Milford, about the role of technology in improving customer service through better communications with technicians in the field.
Q: An Aberdeen Research Group recently studied mobility and the extension of the service enterprise. One of the findings was successful leaders treat mobility as an extension of their IT and business strategy. Why is that?
A: Business leaders cannot ignore the impact of mobility on their operations. The Aberdeen Research documents a significant financial advantage for companies with best-in-class service performance versus laggard companies. For example, a small company with as few as 10 field service technicians can trim costs by over $750,000 per year while a company deploying 100 technicians can realize cost reductions of nearly $8 million per year.
Q: There’s an interesting stat on performance by service professionals that shows the average first-time fix performance is 65 percent with best-in-class considered 82 percent. In baseball, those would be decent on-base percentages but it seems pretty bad for customer service. Why are those numbers so low?
A: The Aberdeen survey identified the primary reason for failing to resolve customer issues on the first visit is due to the technician not having the necessary part. Technician’s lack of access to information and improper issue diagnosis are other contributing factors. A properly deployed field service application provides the company with a means for tracking the number of first-time fixes, the reasons for return visits, time on task and other key metrics. The system also provides the ability to add functionality such as parts management that would ensure the technician is equipped with the proper parts for resolving the customer’s issue on the first visit.
Q: It’s probably because we used a baseball analogy that we noticed one of the report’s recommendations is to continue to push data driven collaboration across an entire organization (like outlined in the current movie Moneyball.”) Does that problem still exist? Does the right hand not know why the left hand is doing something in big organizations?
A: The problem is pervasive, particularly among companies still reliant on paper-based systems. Companies that tightly integrate field service data with back-office systems realize the greatest improvement in business process efficiency while saving the most money.
Q: The report also says in field service the importance of mobility cannot be downplayed. How does a service company determine the best mobility tools? What elements should they be seeking for successful applications?
A: Service companies have a major challenge of not only selecting the best mobility tools today but also picking a solution that will grow with their company over time and not become obsolete in 18 months. To mitigate this risk, companies should consider vendors with extensive mobile data experience. Best-in-class field service operations incorporate all of the following in their mobility solutions:
• Eliminate paper;
• Applications work on a wide variety of smart phones, tablets and laptops;
• Field service applications are usable in an off-line mode when an internet connection is not present;
• Real-time integration of mobile field service data with back-office systems;
• Dashboards to monitor on-demand performance metrics.
Q: One of the elements your company highlights about its solutions is they work on any browser-equipped smart phone, tablet or laptop. Isn’t that kind of integration standard or are most software solutions tied to specific Hardware and operating systems?
A: Broadly speaking, applications fall into two categories. Those that are installed directly on the device such as apps downloaded from Apple’s App Store or those that use a browser. Apps that are downloaded and installed directly
on the device will only work on that device while apps designed to work in a browser environment will work on any device that has a browser. There are software companies offering development tools that purport to make apps work on both Android and IPhone operating systems however, this requires significant IT expertise and support.
Q: Where does Skymira fit into the picture for the improvement of service professionals? What products is it putting forth that address these issues?
A: Skymira is a leading provider of mobile business apps and M2M telemetry services. Our easy to use, intuitive apps are deployable on any browser equipped smart phone, tablet or laptop and communicate over WiFi, cellular and satellite networks. Skymira’s mobiGateway provides a unifying platform essential for integrating mobile data with back-office systems while ensuring a consistent look and feel for all mobile apps deployed across the company.
Download Original Article