If you have been following this series, then you have made significant progress toward creating a service that is beyond great. You have set the stage for the enthusiastic participation of your field service team in making proactive recommendations designed to help your customers achieve their business goals. You have established your starting point, created a clear vision for the future and identified potential hurdles that can negatively impact your success.
All of your hard work is about to pay off. It is time to identify the actions necessary to successfully implement your vision. Below, I organized the action development under a series of headings to simplify the process and included some questions to help you develop an action plan. (Click here for an overview of each heading listed below.) Use the table format below to record key actions for each heading and to identify who will be responsible for acting on them.
Ask yourself the following questions as you record each action:
- Is it actionable? (Is it specific enough that it can be defined as an action?)
- Is it measurable? (Can you demonstrate that it is completed?)
- Is it realistic? (Can it be achieved?)
This last point is important. If the action is not well defined, it will be difficult to implement. One example of an action that would not meet these criteria is:
“Improve our opportunity capture process”
In this case, the action is too vague to measure progress. It might be better to change this action to:
“Revise our opportunity capture process to clearly define how our field personnel will record opportunities identified in the field so that there in a single process that can be accessed by handheld devices in the field.”
Suggested Actions Headings:
Business Promotion as a Service
Once you have completed your list, ask yourself whether each action:
- Positions the proactive recommendations of your field team as unique and valuable services for your customers?
- Encourages enthusiastic engagement by your field service team?
Opportunity Capture
Do your actions:
- Reflect a clear expectation for your field team in addressing opportunities as they arise?
- Clearly indicate how opportunities are captured and communicated?
- Provide guidance on how technicians will be involved in any solutions?
Field Service Interactions with Customers
Do your actions:
- Ensure that there will be clear expectations of interacting with the customer when on site?
- Include a plan for questions your field team should ask to uncover opportunities?
- Provide for interpersonal soft-skills training to support your field team’s interactions with customers?
Tools and Processes to Support the Technician’s Efforts
Do your actions:
- Ensure that there is a clear process for managing opportunities?
- Capitalize on tools available to assist your field team?
- Facilitate the smooth transfer of information on opportunity status?
Understanding Your Company’s Products and Services
Do your actions:
- Include a plan to keep your field team current on your firm’s products and services?
- Encourage technicians to take responsibility for keeping themselves up-to-date?
- Create opportunities for your field team to practice customer conversations?
Collaboration with the Sales Team
Do your actions:
- Contribute to an environment of mutual respect between sales and service teams?
- Include the sales team’s participation in any part of your service and safety meetings?
- Encourage collaboration between sales and service for determining solutions for customers?
Other
Use this section to capture items that do not fit under the headings above. Once you have identified your actions, transfer these into a tool to manage projects. This will allow you to identify sub-actions, assign responsibilities, establish time lines and identify dependencies and prerequisites. The challenge now becomes implementation. In our next article, we will identify some factors to consider that will facilitate your efforts.
