As a follow up to the podcast, read the IDC report Remote Service Without Losing Customer Engagement and the Human Experience to learn how to enhance service outcomes through remote service.
Service organizations are delivering resolution and quality experiences both in-person and remotely. How can service teams make certain that customers’ perception of service value stays high without the regular, physical presence of a technician onsite? In this episode Aly Pinder; Program Director, Service Innovation and Connected Products, IDC, speaks with Chris Wolff on how shifting service to a more remote model provides significant value around revenue growth, cost reduction and sustainability--and to customers, as well.
As a follow up to the podcast, read the IDC report Remote Service Without Losing Customer Engagement and the Human Experience to learn how to enhance service outcomes through remote service.
Service organizations are delivering resolution and quality experiences both in-person and remotely. How can service teams make certain that customers’ perception of service value stays high without the regular, physical presence of a technician onsite? In this episode Aly Pinder; Program Director, Service Innovation and Connected Products, IDC, speaks with Chris Wolff on how shifting service to a more remote model provides significant value around revenue growth, cost reduction and sustainability--and to customers, as well.
Welcome to speaking of service, the podcast that uncovers practical ways to grow service revenue control costs and improve customer satisfaction. If you're looking to innovate, gain a competitive edge, or just learn about the latest service trends, you've come to the right place in today's episode, Chris Wolf. VP of strategic partnerships sits down with Ali Pinder program, director of service, innovation and connected products at IDC to discuss how shifting service to a more remote model provides significant value around revenue, growth, cost reduction, and sustainability, and to customers as well.
Chris Wolf:Welcome to the show, uh, for all of us as end users of cell phones and cable contracts, we take it for granted that our providers can dial in to diagnose repair and provide excellent. To us remotely for users of industrial equipment, the stakes are a lot higher and the ability to provide smart and connected services is much different. In the before days, the companies who manufactured these industrial machines relied on incredibly talented field engineers and technicians to be the face of their brand to provide outstanding customer experience while assuring that the machines their customers were using were performing as advertised. Unfortunately, the pandemic turned all of that on its head. Ali Pinder is the services, innovation and connected products expert from IDC. Allie welcome to speaking of service. Hi Wolfie.
Ally Pinder:Uh, nice to be here today and thanks for having me, uh, you know, a lot of what I've seen over the last decade of research has been tied to whether or not service was an aftermarket activity, an after sales type of engagement between. Uh, a manufacturer and a customer over the last couple years, we've really seen how services become a differentiator for businesses. And much of my research is tied to how companies can think about leading with service, as opposed to being something that's done as an afterthought. And I I'd love to talk more about how that's impacted our businesses over the last couple years.
Chris Wolf:well, I think we all had an idea about what service was like in those before days. Uh, but I know during COVID we kind of celebrated those MacGyver moments when a user and a service technician would come up with creative ways to overcome social distancing and proximity to. Make services happen when they were necessary, but today's users are looking for more predictable, reliable type of a services engagement. What are you seeing having come out of COVID as the best practices around service delivery? Yeah, we really
Ally Pinder:got really good about looking, you know, looking at my iPad or going to YouTube and trying to figure out how to fix, you know, the washer dryer and my dishwasher. Um, When we think about a return to service or return to normal, a lot of what has changed and involved is the fact that you need to be more collaborative between the service provider and the end coach customer, whether or not human interaction can occur physically on site. A lot of our interactions have been couched with the fact that a technician doesn't have to be. Physically on site to solve a problem. They could remotely tap into diagnostics on a machine and performance, but also interact and engage with customers to resolve an issue efficiently without having to wait to schedule dispatch and route a truck to get on site.
Chris Wolf:Well, I know as somebody who has had all kinds of capital equipment in my life, as well as a washer dryer at home, I really valued the expertise of my service providers and the field technicians. I would be happy to pay for a service contract that would mitigate the risk of financial exposure. I might have as well as risk of downtime with any of my important equipment. And. I, I really associated the value of that investment with the person who showed up on site. In this new world where there's not a person showing up on site is how are companies creating that same, you know, intimacy with their customers?
Ally Pinder:Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think we all historically see a white van or white truck show up and that's the hero that's showing up to solve the problem of the day. Right. You know, it's gonna get fixed. It may not get fixed on the first visit, but at least by the second visit, there's gonna be resolution that occurs. And when you don't actually see someone show up, it really does. Your your mind, when you think of did something break, is it fixed? When will it be fixed? When can I get back to normal? Right. When you think about your own productivity, one of the things that organizations that we see are doing well in is ensuring that even if that technician isn't physically on site, that support agent isn't physically in front of the machine or in front of the customer, they're able to engage. Customer through some channel, whether that be, you know, a virtual, augmented, you know, remote type of engagement or collaboration or some other means, right. It's important to, to deliver a level of interaction and engagement, regardless of physical presence.
Chris Wolf:Well, it's an interesting challenge because the people who have that deep domain expertise, particularly in heavy duty industrial equipment, take a tremendous amount of pride in the work that they do and the IP that they've possessed, that's their own job security. Uh, how are those workers feeling about engaging with customers in this disconnected or maybe connected way?
Ally Pinder:You bring up a great point around, you know, institutional knowledge and expertise and you know, the 20, 25 years of fixing things and fixing problems for customers. I think you can still do that even if you're not physically in front of the asset. And I think one of the areas that we've seen organizations get really good is empowering their technicians and engineers to still have a conversation with customers through a different channel or different means, right. They can still solve a problem. They can still deliver knowledge and expertise. Both to the customer and to other technicians, I think a really hidden value proposition is how can you make that one, you know, very experienced seasoned technician that may be graying or balding like me really turn that expertise and knowledge into sharing with other technicians that may be more junior still learning on the job as you go go forward. I think there's really a way in which we can take that knowledge from one technician and disseminate that across an organization, whether directly to a customer remotely or to other technicians.
Chris Wolf:If I'm a CFO of a company that's been making equipment, I've got a lot of history that tells me what my cost inputs are and what my value drivers are for delivering service with people. And I have an understanding of the workforce that's necessary to support my. Stalled base and this new world, how are companies figuring out what is an aberration or what is business as usual in terms of the financial models that they're having to build during this change?
Ally Pinder:Yeah, it's a really, really insightful question, right? When you used to roll a truck in charge for work order, um, charge for consumables and parts, it was very clear, right? What you're paying for as a customer and what revenue you're getting as the manufacturer service provider, as we kind of shift. Business models into more, you know, as a service business models where you're paying for uptime and you know, this, this view that something's not gonna fail or at least predictively will be able to fix it before failure. You're changing the whole dynamic on how you're driving revenue streams within the business. I think one area that is. Almost more important than the line item and you know, how we're gonna, you know, account for these services is how you educate customers on the value they're receiving. Right. If I'm no longer seeing a truck show up or a technician, walk through my halls or actually turn a wrench, um, to fix an elevator, you know, what am I paying for? It's a premium to pay for as a, as a service business models. But if I don't actually see service happening, you know, Am I educated enough to know what value I'm getting from that relationship with the service provider. I think that's really, what's critical for that CFO and that that service organization is to be able to educate a customer on the value they're they're receiving and what they're actually paying for at a premium.
Chris Wolf:Well, if Uber totally disrupted the way consumers, what our expectations were of good service in getting from point a to point B, I'm sure this delivery of remote service is also creating all new kinds of expectations on the buyer side about what their service providers and machine operators, suppliers should be able to do. Are you seeing. Fair or unfair expectations on the buyer side.
Ally Pinder:Yeah. It all comes down to visibility. Right. And when I think about Uber Lyft or the dominoes pizza app, I. try to get a, a product or I want to have an outcome and I can see it all the way through the chain. Right. I have visibility into where my driver is, where my pizza is, how who's making it when it arrives and when I eat it. Right. Um, and I think that is the challenge for organizations today, as you get into more remote services and remote experiences, can you provide visibility into. Outcomes. Can you work with customers to give them a, a customer portal or an application that shows them all the way down the path that we're able to solve a problem before it failed? And this is how your pro productivity is improved based off of the services we provided prior to failure.
Chris Wolf:Well, if I'm an operator of a factory, I've got the United nations when it comes to languages that the equipment on my assembly line may be speaking. I've got many different suppliers whose machines may be speaking different protocols or proprietary languages. What are the best companies and suppliers doing to provide ecosystems that allow that connectivity and visibility, the telemetry coming off those machines in an organized way so that you can spot a problem as opposed to a specific failure.
Ally Pinder:We still only see that about 43% of products and equipment are connected today. You know, individual an IP address, you know, the ability to tap into real time performance data, you know, that leaves a whole lot of equipment that is not smart and connected. Right? So what we're seeing the best organizations do is get smart fast with regard to what assets are critical to business and who needs the information. When I think about data and the ability to, to, you know, interact with machines and solve problems, it's all about data relevance and data quality. Right? So when I see the, the best companies are putting the right information in front of the right users to solve the right problem. At the right time with the right part and right skills, right. It's ensuring that you're not just in a location impacting a business or, you know, trying to solve something, but you have the right insights to be able to deliver the outcomes that are expected. And I think that's what is important because to your point around ecosystems, and you know, you have data coming from all over the place, you know, Are your applications speaking to each other, is data flowing across the business? Does the technician not just see a static, you know, manual that was written 15 years ago that has evolved over time? You know, do they have up to date information? Can they interact in with that dynamic information? Do they have insights coming from CRM tools or other applications within the business to have the relevant information to make the right decisions at the.
Chris Wolf:It's gotta be very tempting for the MacGyver geniuses. Who've been working in a factory for a long period of time on the customer site to code up custom environments that would allow them to knit together, telemetry coming off disparate machines. And yet that seems incredibly challenging to sustain over a period of time. Are you seeing sort of an uprising from the machine provider? To move to open standards, to allow, you know, platforms and solutions to be created to aggregate that data. So
Ally Pinder:I'm not sure if it's fully opened by any means, but we're definitely beginning to see companies be open to SAS, you know, deployment models around technology and applications. Platform approaches to where data sits with across, um, uh, different, uh, silos of the business. You know, we continue to see organizations understand that it's not a one size fit all. I need a configurable application or platform that helps me do my job within my industry, but I need to be able to. innovate and scale at speed. What we all learned over the last two plus years is we can't go slow anymore. Right? Mm-hmm so those machine builders, those industrial equipment manufacturers, construction companies, you know, they all recognize that technology is your way forward at the speed in which disruption occurs. Right? If I think about that question in a different lens, you know, we're all being disrupted constantly by a variety of factors within our businesses, regardless of what business you're in and the ability. To interact with data quickly innovate quickly and scale is how I see best, uh, in class companies working
Chris Wolf:today. Well, I know you have interviewed and researched and spoken to some of the most innovative companies out there. What are the smartest executives doing in terms of making decisions today that open their possibilities in the future? And by contrast, have you seen folks making decisions today that have limited their choices in the future?
Ally Pinder:So I'll, I'll give you an analyst answer to a great question. You know, I, I, I think in a lot of ways, companies are trying to wrap their head around sustain disruption and the need to have innovation that continues to occur over time. Um, I think historically when we thought about investments in technology, it was to solve a specific use case, put out a specific fire and then move on. It didn't need to be connected to an enterprise strategy. The best companies today are thinking about their investments and their technology as a journey they're on, you know, we need to figure out where this, where we solve this problem, but how this problem builds up to solve other problems across the organization. Um, the companies that I see fail, um, are companies that still think in that siloed view, they still think of, you know, I have a problem today with, you know, work order management from field service perspective. Let's solve that with an applic. I have a problem with an aging workforce. So let's figure out how we can capture knowledge, institutional knowledge, and that's it. It's not, how does that problem fit into all the other problems and our growth trajectory over the next three or five years as we change our business models. Cause it's all moving at the same time, right? It's not just this problem today. It's how this problem impacts our ability to sell services and up time. Right. You need to continuously evolve and think through that lens, you know,
Chris Wolf:there's. Old proverb, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you wanna go far go together, how are organizations constrained with COVID and all of the financial and social pressures that they're facing, creating a collaborative environment amongst people under pressure. To make those decisions that will take into account a broader suite than what's just in front of them. I mean, that's a real cultural challenge,
Ally Pinder:I would think. Yeah. Uh, I mean, if, if you look back to pre pandemic life for a field service worker or, you know, someone supporting a customer, you know, a lot of the value they got out of the relationship between themselves and the customer was showing. It was getting in front of them. It was sharing a donut. It was having a conversation. It's, it's being that trusted advisor that can help not only have a laugh or joke or, you know, uh, talk through, you know, what's happening in the, in the football game the night before, or, you know, a basketball game, but how they. Really bonded with that end customer end user to show that they valued their business and them as a person. And when you remove that human interaction that occurs, you need to find a new way to ensure that you're able to engage from a personal level, um, between the service worker and the end customer. And I think how that is occurring is through more collaborative applications and technologies where you can not only see what they see, but you can inter have, uh, integration with. All of their customer data know I'm technician, Bob or all, um, I'm going to visit, you know, Wolfie, you know, I remember based off of our CRM data that, you know, she really enjoys, you know, X, Y, and Z, and let's, let's connect in that way. So I can still have that bond that I no longer can have in person, but I can have it remotely.
Chris Wolf:well, it's funny, you mentioned donuts because I look at our workforce today and I don't think, I think I'm the last one who eats a donut at this company. Most of the guys are eating power bars or kind bars or some other type of a cool bar that has very few calories and lots of, uh, protein, uh, it, and it makes it calls to mind that culture, uh, gap between our seasoned workers who have an incredibly, uh, deep and rich knowledge of how machines work with the. Kids on the block who are looking to be mentored by those folks, but also live a different lifestyle. You know, what are the best companies doing to capture the knowledge and retain the talent of those experienced workers, but also answer the kind of strange power. Dynamic that's happening with this newer workforce.
Ally Pinder:Yeah. And I still, I feel like every month there's a donut day and I, I, I, I go and make sure that I pick up my, my donuts when I can, I'm a big fan of a glaze donut. Um, so when, when you think about the, the, um, dynamic nature of the workforce today, where you have, you know, the season veterans who have 20. Plus years of expertise and knowledge of working with machines and people, um, and transferring that to, uh, more junior staff. I try not to say pejoratives like millennials or gen Z. Um, I know I look young, but I'm not, uh, you know, so it's, you know, they still have a, a, a desire to solve problems, complex problems. And I think what we can do is give them the tools. That allow them to be innovative, collaborative and solve problems. Right. I think one area where manufacturers sometimes fall down is they don't recognize that they are innovative companies that are doing really cool things and solving very complex problems that impact the world. Right. I, I think one of the areas that. I continue to see organizations get to is connecting remote operations and resolutions with sustainability. You know, if I can not roll a truck, I'm not using fuel. If I'm not putting an engineer on a plane, I'm saving, um, you know, the planet. So connecting those operational processes with the next generation of, of, of technicians or engineers or support agents is really a pathway to show that I may not be the Google Facebook, apple of the. But I'm a really cool company. That's doing great things around technology and you can solve complex problems today. It
Chris Wolf:was interesting in the, in the report that you wrote, that you talked about the value of every single truck roll, that companies may not feel that they're making a massive impact, but if you could reduce your workload by one truck roll per week per employee, That has a massive impact on your carbon footprint. Could you just talk a little bit more about that?
Ally Pinder:It does. I mean, I, I think historically we we've, we've earned money by rolling a truck, sending a technician out to physically get in front of a customer. We earned engagement because that technician got on site in front of a customer. What we're beginning to understand is we can prioritize when. Valuable experience needs to happen. And when we're just sending a technician out to diagnose a problem, right? I think one of the areas that I wanted to highlight in the report is with better smart, connected assets and products and equipment that is providing us insights. We don't need to send a technician out. To diagnose a problem. We should already know the problem. And so we can avoid that initial truck role or setting of a technician just to diagnose something, right. Why do we need a technician to get in front of the machine to figure out that that is wrong? Um, and so I think when organizations are starting to be more strategic about when they send someone and when they don't, but equating, equating that to the value of. Sending that technician out or sending that truck role and ensuring that you're able to align that simple value proposition with other goals we have around sustainability. And I think that's where the conversation needs to evolve. I, I, from my perspective, sustainability, you know, shouldn't be something that is a corporate marketing activity that we look to it, it should be that, but it should also be the value we're delivering to our employees and our customers to still solve their problems, but do something. And I think that's an opportunity for us to educate the market a little bit better.
Chris Wolf:What are you hearing from your colleagues about sustainability on the front end? I mean, we think about sustainability at the truck world level and enabling remote support, but I understand some of the most innovative companies are thinking about sustainability in their CAD application, as opposed to their augmented reality application, designing in sustainability to avoid those truck. Uh, have you seen any trends that you could speak to there?
Ally Pinder:Uh, so you bring up, you know, design and engineering quality. Um, you know, we continue to see, uh, not only design for sustainability, but design for service. And I think that's where going back to my previous statement around breaking down silos of information across the organization, leveraging data. Can inform and provide a new set of, you know, innovations, um, based off of having that service data. Right? If the engineering team doesn't know how a technician is interacting with an, you know, in-service piece of equipment, they can't then go back and, you know, think about something a little differently, right? If we share data and insights, we can then think about new ways in which we can solve a O problems. And I think that is where I see the market going from a, you know, a, a, a, maybe. Fully designed for sustainability, but definitely designed for serviceability, which then impacts sustainability.
Chris Wolf:It's been interesting to watch the growth and the different market segments that you cover. And I've been in just amazed by the market adoption of new CAD and PLM technologies that are feeding downstream, creating that digital thread down to the device level to enable serviceability and sustainability. And at the same time, perhaps the adoption of UHT and smart and connected technologies has lagged a bit in your report. You said that the percentage of devices that are connected now are in the forties. And then in the next three years, you expect that to zoom up to say the sixties, why isn't that happening faster?
Ally Pinder:Yeah, I think we always want everything to happen faster. Right. We expect that as, you know, technologists, as an analyst covering the space that, you know, we all get it right. Technology is an enabler for innovation at scale. Um, I think where the challenges occurred has been on whether or not. If I think back to, you know, there's an elevator manufacturer that has an elevator in, in a small town in Italy, right. That has been around for 120 years, right. That still needs to be serviced. That's not gonna be smart and connected. Um, and so the lag is coming from the fact that we have an install base of equipment that. Needs to that still has a useful life and end users and consumers, you know, are demanding that they continue to get more value out of assets that they've purchased. Right. And so I think the, the innovations are gonna come from whether or not we can retrofit fast enough. To get those, you know, dumb assets, excuse the pejorative to, you know, get smarter. Right. And I think when we look at data from five years ago, when we thought about the billions of devices, that'd be connected. A lot of that has come from the consumer world and not the industrial world because in the industrial world, you know, you're keeping equipment for 15, 20, 25 years. I don't see that as a constraint necessarily on all the great work that we can do. I just think companies are gonna have to prioritize. what products are critical to my business and let's get that connected as quickly as possible. So we can leverage a lot of that, um, data to be able to solve problems differently.
Chris Wolf:I love the charm of an Italian elevator operator and I love the convenience of getting into an elevator here at work and seeing that captivate screen, giving me the news and trusting that if that elevator were to stop, somebody would come get me. Um, Wasn't there an era where sensors would just solve all of this. If we could put sensors on everything, we would know everything that was going on in our worlds would get much better. How is sensitization, you know, excited, amplified, or people.
Ally Pinder:So when you, you think about getting AC data on things in real time, you assumed we'd all have access to that data. And we'd be intelligent about what data's coming off of those assets. I think one of the biggest challenges why we haven't seen such an evolution of the value proposition around connected things has been around the relevance of that data. And that data being connected to whether that be AI, artificial intelligence, or machine learning, to sift through all of those data points. You know, if you have a million data points around vibration or humidity, it's great. But what does it mean? What does it mean to me and how can I make a better decision off of that? And I think one of the ways in which I've seen the technology world get better, has been working with their customers to take that wealth and volume of data and turn it into just what they need. To solve their problems. It's great that it's connected. It's great that they're, we're getting information off of these assets, but what does it mean for my business and what does it mean for me? And can I be provided with the relevancy of that data?
Chris Wolf:Do you find that workers trust the data that comes off of
Ally Pinder:sensors? I think they trust it the first time, but if it's wrong, then they don't trust it. Um, I continue to, you know, I know that we're kind of joking around with the aging workforce and the, the younger workforce and as a younger person, you know, I do recall being. You know, having to leverage a landline, um, you know, in my younger days, but now when I think about my cell phone, if I'm in a, in my home and it doesn't work, I'm really frustrated, right. It should work. It is my phone. It's I'm in my house. Um, this is where I live. I should be able to make calls when you had a landline, it didn't didn't have that issue right. Of a drop call, especially within your home. I think when I talk to technicians and service leaders, historically, it's been, let's throw technology over the fence to them. They'll use it and love it. And it'll solve all of our problems. What we've found is when that is the way in which you interact and engage and implement technology, that first time it doesn't work for that technician or that service worker, they find a workaround because back to an earlier point, they wanna solve a problem. They're in front of a customer at a time of need. When failure has occurred, historically, they need to find the answer. And they're gonna find it. And so if you don't provide them with technology and tools, that will be right when they need it and relevant with relevant data and insights, they'll find a work around and that's, I think the biggest struggle and challenge for companies. So I'd
Chris Wolf:like to shift our topics just a little bit. I mean, I know you're talking with machine makers who are trying to decide how to make their machines, the most serviceable and the most value releasing possible. You're also talking with makers of software who are trying to enable that. And then you've got the owners of these machines who need to extract the maximum utility out of these devices. Uh, if you could think of those three categories. Do you have advice for a do and a do not for each of those folks these days as they kind of set themselves up for success throughout this change that's happening.
Ally Pinder:So I'll try to answer a six part question with one answer or response, right? Three separate set of stakeholders with a, do a do not. I think the one do across the board is to. Try to think strategically and how this impacts the final outcome you want to get to. So whether I'm the machine builder, you know, am I working with the right partners that have my right, uh, you know, my same goals in mind as they configure an application for me as a technology provider, you know, am I able to see how this is gonna be used in the field? You know, if I have a technology that can't be used in the bowels of a hospital, Is that good technology? It's good technology. It's just not useful. Right? And so I think that is an area where companies need to improve from a service organization perspective, you know, can I ensure that my technicians, my service people have the information they need to do their job again, is the product the capability gonna solve a problem today and solve a continued sustained.
Chris Wolf:Allie, these are fantastic points. Uh, I could speak to you all day, literally. Uh, but I know our listeners don't have time for that, nor do you, if you had some, uh, just one set of closing comments that you might relay on to our listeners, uh, What would you like to share with them?
Ally Pinder:Yeah, I think, you know, as we wrap up, uh, one thing I wanna leave the audience with is remote. Doesn't have to be disconnected. Right. I think when we got into this, you know, disrupted state that we've all been in for the last couple years now, we thought that, you know, the fact that I wasn't able to physically get in front of a machine or physically interact with someone, I. Was disconnected from that person. I think the opportunity as we move forward is to take the technology that we have available to us and still make connections between the service team and the end user and the customer consumer remote doesn't have to be disconnected
Chris Wolf:well, remote doesn't have to be disconnected. I think that says it all. As folks are disconnecting today, I invite you to join us on the next speaking of service podcast. Thanks every. Thank you. Thanks for listening
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