The good organization of an after-sales department is essential in order to deliver good service. That's why you should take a close look at your service structure.
The roles described do not necessarily correspond to individual persons, positions or headcounts. It is entirely possible that individual employees are responsible for several of the following areas of responsibility. For many companies, this is not feasible otherwise, as their after-sales departments are not large enough.
In larger companies, on the other hand, it makes sense to assign a colleague to each role who is exclusively responsible for fulfilling it. Specialists always achieve better results than generalists. In addition, these explicit role splits result in clear interfaces and problems in the processes can be identified and resolved much more easily.
1. after-sales manager
After-Sales should be planned just as strategically as all other areas of a company. However, service often receives too little attention. An after-sales manager is also known as a service manager and maintains an overview of the entire organization of a department. They manage the entire department.
Tasks of the after-sales manager:
- - Increase / maintain customer satisfaction, efficiency and profitability of the after-sales unit
- - Definition and release of price lists
- - Development of a target image for the after-sales unit
- - Initialization and tracking of improvement projects
- - Handling critical customer complaints
- - Long-term capacity planning (volume & skills)
- - Alignment with other functions in the company (sales, production, R&D, etc.)
Here you can find out what requirements the profession of Service Managers and how to master them successfully.
2nd Manager Field Force
The Field Force Manager is responsible for the supervision and management of the field service technicians and takes care of all organizational activities arising in this context. The further development of the service technicians in the field also falls within his area of responsibility.
Tasks of the Field Force Manager:
- - Operational management of field service technicians
- - Supporting the after-sales manager in strategic capacity planning (volume & skills) for the sales force
- - Supporting the after-sales manager in developing targets and breaking them down into targets for the field force
- - Training and qualification planning
- - Motivating and developing field service technicians
- - Specification and control of standards in field service
- - Gemba walks (accompanying technicians on field assignments to give them direct feedback on their work and check compliance with quality standards).
- - Review and approval of travel expense reports
3. manager remote support
The back office also requires a strategic organization in order to achieve the company's goals efficiently. This is where the remote support manager comes into play. The smooth running of back office activities and the further development of employees are his most important concerns.
Tasks of the Remote Support Manager:
- - Operational management of the technicians employed in the back office
- - Supporting the after-sales manager in strategic capacity planning (volume & skills) for the back office
- - Supporting the after-sales manager in developing targets and breaking them down into targets for remote support
- - Training and qualification planning
- - Motivating and developing office technicians
- - Specification and control of standards in remote support
4th Manager Spare Parts
The spare parts manager is responsible for the smooth and profitable running of the spare parts business. The tasks of the spare parts manager do not include the operational processing (shipping) of the spare parts business. In some companies, this is organized by the after-sales department itself, but in most cases it is handled by logistics.
Tasks of the Spare Parts Manager:
- - Operational management of employees in the Spare Parts division
- - Supporting the After-Sales Manager in strategic capacity planning (volume & skills) for the Spare Parts Business
- - Supporting the after-sales manager in developing targets and breaking them down into targets for the spare parts business
- - Development and adaptation of pricing logic for spare parts
- - Training and qualification planning
- - Motivating and developing technicians in the spare parts area
- - Specification and control of standards in the area of spare parts
5. sales agent after-sales
For after-sales departments of an appropriate size, it is highly advisable to employ a sales agent in after-sales. However, this task is often performed by a colleague from the regular sales department (machine sales). The Differences between product and service sales However, this often means that the sale of services does not really take off in this constellation. That's why a specialist in the After-sales sales a real benefit for your company.
Tasks of the Sales Agent After-Sales:
- - Distribution of after-sales services
- - Regular customer visits to identify and generate demand
- - After-sales representation at trade fairs and customer events
- - Coordination with primary product sales to identify and generate demand
- - Marketing of new after-sales services
6. field service technician
Field service technicians are the backbone of your service department. They carry out maintenance, repairs and installations. They are also the figurehead of your company. The impression they make on customers is crucial to the success of a company.
Tasks of the service technicians:
- - Implementation of field operations
- - Informing the deployment planner in the event of deviations from target times in order to ensure necessary rescheduling in good time
- - Documentation of the work carried out
- - Discussing the activities with the customer at the end of an assignment
- - Identifying sales potential and passing it on to the after-sales sales agent
Due to their ongoing customer contact, it may seem sensible, Service technicians also involved in the sale of services to be commissioned. This also results in disadvantages and risks. However, if implemented well, the bottom line is that it offers excellent sales opportunities.
7. call center agent
The call center agent is responsible for answering telephone calls and is usually the first person to contact the customer in the event of problems and faults. They should therefore have a calm and communicative manner.
Tasks of the Call Center Agent:
- - Answering customer calls
- - Documentation of the customer problem and clarification of the situation
- - Assessing the urgency of a claim and documenting it
- - Forwarding the documentation to remote support technicians
8. remote support technician
The office technicians do not carry out field visits, but try to rectify faults remotely and together with the customer. The telephone is usually used here, but new technologies such as VR glasses and teleservice solutions can also be used to avoid field visits.
Tasks of the office technician:
- - Problem analysis via telephone, teleservice, email, etc.
- - Final prioritization of the case
- - Solving problems remotely
- - Triggering field service assignments if no solution can be found remotely and handover to the assignment planner
- - Ordering necessary spare parts for field operations
- - Documentation of activities in customer-related cases
- - Remote support for the Field Force (Field Service Technicians)
9. mission dispatcher
The deployment planner coordinates the deployment of service technicians with the customer and schedules the necessary personnel. They should have good organizational skills and an excellent overview.
Tasks of the deployment planner:
- - Arrangement of deployment dates with customers
- - Optimal deployment planning for field service technicians
- - Ordering the necessary special tools for use
- - Ensure that technicians and necessary spare parts arrive at the customer's premises at the same time
10. installation coordinator (or manager)
In many organizations, there is no specialist coordinator for the implementation of installations. This is a great pity, as experience has shown that a lot of money is wasted due to inefficient planning.
Tasks of the Installation Coordinator:
- - Coordination of commissioning with the customer
- - Interface function between customers and all internal departments (deployment planning, management, sales, etc.)
- - Inspection of construction sites before machines are delivered to ensure the necessary customer preparations
- - Check whether target times for the installations are met
A few principles must be observed when carrying out installations to save costs.
11. maintenance coordinator (maintenance manager)
Maintenance is usually also planned by the operations planner. However, the operations planner is often very busy with his main activities - especially due to short-term repair assignments. They are also constantly plagued by the fear of not having enough capacity.
He may therefore even deliberately neglect to schedule maintenance. In most cases, however, he simply forgets this part. The maintenance coordinator, on the other hand, should plan proactively. A certain percentage of the capacity is made available to him for this purpose. This enables them to reduce travel times and ensure fewer dissatisfied customers who are visited too late or not at all.
Tasks of the maintenance coordinator:
- - Proactive planning of maintenance work
- - Scheduling maintenance appointments with the customer
- - Ordering maintenance-relevant consumable parts or maintenance kits
- - Ordering special tools required for maintenance
- - Management and maintenance of maintenance contracts and coordination with the After-Sales Sales Agent when contracts expire and/or need to be renewed
To Implement maintenance efficientlythese must be planned proactively. A few other helpful aspects should also be taken into account.
12. tool coordinator (or tool manager)
A specialized tool manager is also not a matter of course in all organizations. This role is often performed by the office staff or the deployment planner. However, this often leads to tools being in a desolate state, no longer being certified or arriving at the customer too late. It therefore makes sense to appoint a central person responsible for coordinating the tools.
"In fact, it sometimes happens that tools are forgotten at the customer's premises. If no one arranges for the tools to be returned during the hectic day-to-day business, it sometimes only becomes apparent months later that a specific tool is missing. This is another reason why a central coordinator makes sense." - Dr. Simon Tonat
Tasks of the Tool Manager:
- - Sending and arranging the return transportation of special tools
- - Incoming inspection of return shipments (completeness & condition) and reporting to management if a complaint needs to be made to the technician, logistics service provider or customer
- - Regular certification of the special tool (e.g. calibration)
- - Management and planning of the tool inventory
13th Digitization Lead (Representative for Digitization)
Digitalization is also changing the service. It can be helpful to assign the role of digitalization officer to a specific employee. Service managers or department heads often only take care of the introduction of innovations in the field of digitalization as a "hobby".
As a result, it often takes a very long time for anything to happen here or the projects end up being a failure because they are played off against day-to-day business. However, digitalization is becoming increasingly important, which is why it makes sense to appoint someone responsible for it.
Tasks of the Digitization Lead:
- - Setting up digitization projects and initiatives together with management
- - Operational project management and implementation responsibility for digitization projects
- - Continuous exchange with other companies and start-ups in the field of after-sales digitization
- - Responsibility and management of the digitalization budget
14. service admin
A service administrator checks that the activities of a service department are properly documented. They keep an eye on the paperwork and take care of invoice processing.
Tasks of the Service Admin:
- - Checking the technician documentation for completeness
- - Clarification of open points
- - Creation of invoices in the ERP system
- - Sending invoices to customers
15. escalation manager (escalation or complaints manager)
There are often employees in a department who are very good at talking to customers about complaints. They simply achieve better results in the Dealing with dissatisfied customers than the responsible group or department heads, who have to deal with such problems on the side. It therefore makes sense to assign a central employee with the task of Compensation negotiations to take over.
Tasks of the escalation manager:
- - Management of (serious) customer complaints that could not be resolved in the first instance
- - Regular feedback to management on customer complaints that are in progress
- - Supporting management in complaint negotiations in the event of escalation to top management
- - Feedback to management on final negotiation results
- - Feedback to management on any process weaknesses identified in order to eliminate them in the future
The appointment of an escalation manager is a good lever to Reduce after-sales costs. But not the only one.
Feel free to check your department to see if all these roles are in place and efficiently distributed. If your After Sales department is smaller, you will of course have to assign some roles to one and the same colleague. The list provides a good overview of the tasks that arise in After Sales.
