Many companies are adopting particularly ambitious growth strategies for their services, especially in the context of the current volatile and difficult market environment. The primary aim is to compensate for the weaknesses of the primary product business. As many of the identified levers are of a service nature, their realization often goes hand in hand with a planned increase in resources. Put simply: the hours bring the money!
However, the increasing shortage of skilled workers on all sides is having a particularly strong impact on field service. Many service organizations are still underestimating this trend. However, it has a massive impact on how transformation and growth projects in customer service can be planned and implemented.
Admittedly: The title of this article is somewhat drastically worded to grab your attention. Of course, the field service technician is not an entirely endangered species. There will still be machine breakdowns in the future that can only be rectified by visiting the customer. And you will also find technicians for this. But perhaps not as many as you would like.
Supply bottlenecks and staff shortages are the main problems in service today
There are two main problems that service organizations are currently facing. The first problem is the omnipresent supply bottlenecks. Supply chains are fragile due to war and the pandemic. Important parts are often difficult to procure. This is particularly true for electronic components. These are usually manufactured in Asia, but the political situation makes it difficult to get hold of them. A decision often has to be made as to whether the parts will be used to build a new machine or repair an existing one. A conflict that has never been as pronounced in the recent past as it is today.
The second problem is the shortage of skilled workers. It is very difficult to find good technicians. The problems are even greater in the field than in the office. This is a problem above all because a large proportion of the paid services on which growth plans are generally based are provided in the field. At the same time, many technicians today no longer want to work in the field due to the high workload that the job entails. For many, office work seems to be a far more relaxed field of work. Even if there are downsides here too, of course. But going to soccer training on Wednesday evenings or having dinner with the family at 7 p.m. is generally not a problem in the office.
The job of a service technician is associated with very high demands and stress.
In many cases, a field service technician is constantly on the road and often spends his nights in a hotel instead of at home with his family. Larger companies with many machines in the field can, of course, regionalize the responsibilities of their personnel so that technicians are at home in the evening. However, this is not always possible.
In the past, on-site assembly and service work were also very well-paid jobs in companies. However, this attractiveness factor has been gradually reduced in the vast majority of companies over the last twenty years, not least with the introduction of uniform pay grades for technical professions. Today, field service technicians earn only marginally more than their colleagues in the office or other technical professions. If you then factor in the additional workload and stress levels, work in the field has been significantly devalued. This is one of the reasons why it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill vacancies.
Many companies misjudge the situation
Nevertheless, companies often design portfolios to realize their growth ambitions that rely precisely on this increasingly rare resource of field service technicians. They simply don't think at all about whether they can even build up the necessary resources to serve them. After all, there is a positive business case and that is why the jobs are approved. That's how the world used to work. Today, however, you have the problem that a vacancy often doesn't help you because you can't fill it.
Of course we want to promote service and, for example, increase the service contract ratio. However, this may not always work in the future in the way that companies imagine today and lived yesterday.
We are the very last people who will advise you against expanding your service business simply because staff are difficult to find. However, it is important to recognize the problems and take them into consideration. In this way, you can avoid some problems. Turning a blind eye to this development cannot be the last word in wisdom. We must therefore develop smart solutions to problems.
How should companies respond
An important goal must be to shift more and more assignments from the field to the office. The use of technology can help you to emphasize remote support. VR technology and smart glasses, for example, make it possible to guide customers remotely and in some cases save your technician a long journey. However, these technologies are not yet widely used.
At the same time Field service operations more efficient carried out and be standardizedThis reduces unnecessary operations and reworking and cuts the processing time required per job.
In addition, old dogmas regarding the interface with the customer may need to be reviewed. Whereas in the past, a deliberately protective approach was taken in order to build up a dependency on the customer side, this strategy should be reconsidered in future. It may not be necessary to hold a protective hand over every piece of technical information. Perhaps a split can be found so that simpler tasks can be taken on by the customers themselves and you as the manufacturer can focus on the more complex issues. This also has the advantage that you may then be able to translate your expertise into a better price and therefore a higher margin.
Also Self-service-solutions can help customers to help themselves. If your solutions in this area are well done, you can also get paid for access to them.
Ultimately, service cannot hide from the changes in the labor market. Companies need to realize that they may end up lacking the personnel for some ambitious growth projects, especially in field service. Of course, there are always technicians who are made for the field and who really enjoy their life on the road. But there will be fewer of them in the future. Countermeasures must be taken to ensure that this trend does not have too much of an impact on business development. The latest technology and an intelligent transformation of the service portfolio offer opportunities here.
