ClickSoftware

Art of outsourcing

2009-11-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

Whilst on holidays recently, I finished reading a book titled “War PLC – The rise of the new corporate mercenary” which looks into the evolution of corporate soldiers (mercenaries) and the privatisation of war. The United States and the UK have outsourced key military and security functions to private military companies to carry out; primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Functions that have been outsourced include: logistical support, training military personnel, operating and maintaining military weapons, interrogation and translating.

This article is not about the morals and justification of such activities, but more so to highlight the fact that there seems to be no limit to outsourcing! No longer is it just outsourcing of research & development, manufacturing or information technology; it is also about national security, charity work and the latest outsourcing industry – wombs.

So the question remains: Where will it end? Potential outsourcing opportunities:
· Husband/wife duties… on second thought this can already be done: garden maintenance, housekeeping, cooking...
· Raising a child or have boarding schools already done this?
· Education – (this is reliant on technology - but assuming that the technology is invented) you can outsource your MBA degree to an individual, they can complete the MBA course, and once the MBA course is completed, all the information gathered by this individual during the course is downloaded into your mind

From a service standpoint – there have been and always will be a multitude of questions:
1. Where does outsourcing stop?
2. How much should be outsourced?
3. How do you measure the success of outsourcing? Is it a simple price calculation? Where does quality of service come into it? How about customer experience?

In July 2009, Sprint announced that it had outsourced all the maintenance of its network to Ericsson; is this a sign of things to come in the service industry?
Author: George Chondros

Seriously, How Tough is Panasonic ToughBook?

2009-10-20T09:37:00.002-04:00

Some of our ClickMobile customers are using Panasonic ToughBooks, but I doubt if any of them took the time (and courage) to check how tough those beasts can really get...

We, in ClickSoftware decided to go al the way and check it ourselves!
Luckily, someone already did it for us...

So here's a short video by Forbes, showing the capabilities of the ToughBook, and if you think that surviving a tiger's teeth and carrying a real elephant's weight is considered to be tough - then it's tough!

Author: Gil Bouhnick

Wan't more mobile? Visit the Mobilefever blog for all mobile, all the time.

How to select a mobile device - Part #1 (Keyboard)

2009-10-05T10:22:00.013-04:00

When it comes to picking the best mobile device for your organization, there are many parameters that needs to be considered. Price, performance, operating system, ease of maintenance, security, stability, resistance, usability, memory, screen size, compatibility with the mobile software and more.

The "How to select a mobile device" guide is based on our experience and includes some tips you will hopefully find useful.

In this part of the guide: Keyboard.

One of the questions I often get relates to the keyboard, especially when thinking about PDAs.
There are many kinds of form factors, many of them without a keyboard, so if your business requires a lot of typing, it’s obvious that a virtual keyboard may cause a problem of accuracy and speed. In such cases I would recommend on having a device with a physical keyboard.
If the business nature include drawing on maps, capturing signatures, and a simple selection process from drop down lists, a physical keyboard might not be critical (although my personal feeling is that a physical keyboard is always an advantage).

So now the next question would be: what kind of keyboard?

Numeric only? Full QWERTY keyboard? A clamshell style like in BlackBerry devices or maybe a sliding keyboard like the HTC Tilt/Touch Pro?

This question should be answered by looking at both the hardware and software requirements. Here, again, the required field processes will determine.

Many organizations use their mobile to capture mostly numeric data.In such cases, a numeric keyboard will have the advantage of bigger keys, simple use etc.

If the mobile data capturing involves text, or if the application includes a heavy use of messages, mails, etc. – numeric keyboard may frustrate the users, full QWERTY will speed up the writing speed.

Remember, in the field - simplicity of the mobile solution is very important. minimum clicks make life much more simple.

Sliding keyboards are very popular. There are many successful devices like HTC Touch Pro, Sony Ericsson XPeria, Nokia N97 which are considered to be very good in terms of productivity. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of those devices mainly due to the fact they require opening the keyboard every time you want to type, which is usually done by 2 hands.Thinking of field conditions, using 2 hands to perform a simple typing might not be optimal.

The keyboard problem is less significant when talking about PC computers (laptops and tablets) because all the mobile computers allow connecting a keyboard extension. Trying to use the virtual keyboard will convince anybody that a physical one is a must.

Selecting the keyboard is a perfect example where a decision should be a made after considering both hardware and software.

The last thing you want to do is make a decision based on IT or price considerations only, make a massive purchase of hundreds of devices and then find out that it doesn’t fit the nature of the mobile software.

ClickMobile customers often approach us for recommendations and information about different mobile devices. We have a wide list of certified devices and a set of recommendations.For more information do not hesitate to contact us through one of our communication channels.

Author: Gil Bouhnick

Wan't more mobile? Visit the Mobilefever blog for all mobile, all the time.

Project Success = On Time + Within Budget … + Full User Acceptance?

2009-09-23T14:22:00.001-04:00

At the end of each project I ask clients for lessons learned. The most commonly cited takeaway is the importance of getting the employees who are affected by the project onboard with the new implementation. As one client told me recently about a ClickSchedule implementation, “If our dispatchers and technicians hadn’t accepted the new software, we would have failed. They meant everything to the success of this project.” In other words, it’s not enough to install some software and assume the implementation is a success. We only achieve success in a project if we also help our people adjust to the change. How do we know when we have done this successfully?

Success is the point at which our people have accepted the change and can’t imagine going back to the old way of doing things.

Change is a big deal. Routine and habit are comfortable; change is not. We tend to be creatures of habit, and unfortunately workforce management projects tend to disrupt employees’ routines and daily habits. Change is hard. Therefore, we must develop a plan to help them through it. This sounds great, but how do we, as a team, do this?

When helping clients develop a plan to guide employees through the change and accept the implementation, I ask them to focus on three core components:

1. COMMUNICATE: Frequent, two-way communication is critical. This includes both conveying information and listening to their concerns.
2. MOTIVATE: While you may be motivated, it doesn’t mean everyone else is. Identify specific motivations for changing to the new way.
3. EDUCATE: End users need to be educated on the coming change. Rarely do employees feel that they have been over educated on a new system.

By carefully creating the right plan at the beginning of the project focused on the three components above, and implementing the plan, you can achieve true project success:
On Time + Within Budget + Full User Acceptance = Project Success

Author: Felisa Berg

Speed and flexibility

2009-09-09T10:03:00.003-04:00

I once listened to NFL quarterback Steve Young describe how San Francisco 49er coaches carefully scripted each play in the week before a game. Every offensive player was assigned precise pass routes, blocking assignments, running lanes, etc. Young explained each play worked perfectly in practice but the moment the ball was snapped in the real game, everything changed. A block was missed. A receiver slipped. The defense lined up in a different formation or blitzed unexpectedly. He said the success or failure of the play was determined not so much by how it was originally outlined but rather the ability of players to make the right adjustments to on-the-field changes as they occurred.

How does this apply to the service world?

Service organizations often start the day with a schedule that looks flawless. All the engineers have their jobs lined up for the day, the amount of ‘white space’ on the Gantt chart is minimal, it’s happy days. Or is it? Even before the day begins engineers have called in sick so reworking of the schedule is immediately required. Once the day begins everything begins to unravel. Customers are not at home, jobs take longer or shorter to complete than expected, traffic jams, and so on...Success or Failure (possibly relating to customer satisfaction, revenues, costs) is determined by an organization’s ability to make “real time” adjustments to the schedule as the day progresses.

The combination of integrated scheduling, mobility and location based services together with continuous communication (SMS, Email, IVR) gives service organizations the speed and flexibility needed to make these real time adjustments.

Does your organization have the technology infrastructure to make the right adjustments during the day of service?

Service Sustainability: Let’s track and save

2009-08-18T11:03:00.001-04:00

Sustainable and environmentally-responsible operations are emerging as an issue that will play a key role in planning and evaluation for years to come. Clickipedia referred to this a couple of times, most recently on the July 24, 2009 post titled “Managing field service sustainability”, asking readers whether they have a sustainability initiative in their organizations, and if so, what form does it take. We have already received some answers – please keep them coming!

It’s a good thing that Clickipedia is not alone on this: it wouldn’t be a very interesting subject if Clickipedia was the only place to focus attention on it. As you may imagine, extensive research and market analysis have been going on for quite a while. To mention just one example, Gartner published their report “IT Organizations Will Need Eight Technologies to Provide 'Greener' Services” back in 2007, citing “Field Technician Scheduling Optimization” at the top of their list. Since then, companies have started to think about how to systematically manage their sustainability initiatives. Last week, AMR Research’s “First Thing Monday” blog gave a snapshot of the current situation on their post “Sustainability Software: Forget Cap and Trade, Let’s Track and Save”, showing that there are still many challenges ahead. Still, the emergence of such roles as Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), and the appointment of sustainability council, may indicate a better climate for sustainability in the future (weak pun intended…). The AMR post also mentions that we need to look beyond carbon and GHG (greenhouse gases), and suggests looking at water usage and conservation next – a great point, in my opinion.

Seems like the first challenge is measuring current environmental impact and establishing a baseline. The environmental benefits are clear. The business case is simple in principle, but it still needs quantification and assessment. Is “track and save”, in AMR’s words, on your agenda?
Author: Israel Beniaminy

Welcome to Service Town

2009-08-03T14:12:00.004-04:00

The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event; any similarity to existing people, organizations, locations or innovations is purely coincidental.

For better viewing, you may click here to enlarge the above image.

Author: Israel Beniaminy

Knowing Your Twitter Reputation

2009-07-29T14:14:00.005-04:00

Service companies beware! With social media becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society, tales of bad service experiences can rapidly spread to hundreds of people in a matter of seconds. In a competitive environment such as this, customer service has never been more important for business. And in a tight economy, personal recommendations from friends, family, and like business people are becoming more and more important to consumers.

In the world of service, one upset customer can now easily tweet to hundreds of followers about their personal experience; quickly putting the reputation of service companies of all kinds at risk.

But don’t take my word for it. Below is just a sampling of today’s tweets from “patiently” waiting customers….

Redbox: Never ever use UPS. Day’s wasted waiting indoors for the delivery, bad service and excuses...

Roz_B: Waiting for customer service… if I needed this call to save my life, I’d be out of luck :(

Koronis: Still waiting for service, in a crappy restaurant

Simplydotnl: Left the hospital after waiting an hour for my appointment. Nice service!

Holoprojector: In the service waiting room at CarMax. I’ll be here a while; a weight loss infomercial is on. Where’s my cyanide…

Neenia: I’ve been waiting for 45min here at Globe’s crappy service center!!!

Zillatron: Waiting for @qtron’s pickup service. Also, it’s fracking cold!

Dereham: Waiting for the service man to service the boiler. It is a horrible day.

_Kel_: Worst cust service ever, been waiting @ Optus shop for 25 mins now without any acknowledgement.

WesAtHome: I’m still at home, waiting for the HVAC service person to arrive….

Himesbaker: Waiting to hear from Time Warner for phone service

BonzoBonnie: Waiting for a service guy. It is hard to be patient

Author: Jennifer Shea

Managing Field Service Sustainability

2009-07-24T13:17:00.003-04:00

As Charles Warner (collaborator of Mark Twain) said, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it."

Well, by now everybody’s talking about environmental responsibility, emissions, carbon footprint and sustainability. Unlike the weather, some of us, some of the time, are actually doing something about it. It does not matter whether we do it for ourselves, for the next generations, for the planet, for meeting government regulations, just for that “feel-good” feeling, or for any combination of reasons. What does matter is that we examine our actions to see whether we’re really contributing to sustainability, measure the impact, and look for ways to do better.

Back in 2007, we asked some members of the service community to tell us what they see as the top contributions to greener field service, and we posted several answers together with our “top ten tips for green service” at http://www.clicksoftware.com/pages/ServiceBusinessReview/2007/9/. Of course, we at ClickSoftware weren’t the only, or even the first, to point out the potential for sustainability initiatives in field service. After all, by its very nature field service involves travel as well as use of consumables and spare parts. There must be something in there we could improve upon, right?

Indeed there is. And it gets better: Greener service is, in many cases, more profitable service. Drive too many miles and you find yourself paying twice: once for the miles (gas, vehicle maintenance etc.) and once for the hours spent driving instead of serving. Replace too many parts before you find which part was actually faulty and you find that all the parts you removed go back into the logistics chain, incurring costs as well as environmental impact (and that’s the best case – at worst, the removed parts are not even recycled). Discover that you lack the part you need, or that your customer is not at home when you arrive, and you‘re forced to drive there again the next day. Furthermore, good service has further beneficial repercussions: Equipment which is better-maintained not only causes fewer emergency service calls: often, it also requires less energy and generates less emissions.

Therefore, any steps that you take to reduce number of visits (eliminate the second visit – or even the first visit if you use remote diagnostics and maintenance), optimize routing of the visits you do make, reduce use of consumables and spare parts and keep equipment at to performance condition must be good for the finance people as well as for the planet they – and we – all inhabit.

Does this sound convincing? Probably, but in many cases it still leaves a lot of hard work to be done: proving and quantifying the impact, in order to make the business case and to make the sustainability case. If you haven’t taken such initiatives already, you may need hard, reliable numbers in order to get the go-ahead. If you have, you may need the numbers in order to showcase your achievements – whether you need to do so for showing your customers and employees that you care about the environment, or whether you need it in order to satisfy government regulations, qualify for tax cuts etc.

This is where I’d like to hand over to you, readers of the Clickipedia blog. Do you have a sustainability initiative in your organization? What organizational form does it take? What are its goals? How does it set actions and measure results? Is the initiative specific to the field service operations or do they extend across the overall corporation? To what extent has sustainability become important to how you manage your field service business and set your strategy? Will it become more important in the future?

ClickSoftware and Apples? You’d Never Believe It!

2009-07-16T16:44:00.002-04:00

As an organization that is listed on the Nasdaq, the open trading of our stock is very common and there is therefore quite a large personal ownership of ClickSoftware’s stock. And, on the whole, we have no idea who you are. Yes, there are the institutional investors, and employees, but a large proportion of the stock is owned by, well, whom? You are anonymous...with some exceptions.

One of our known long-term personal investors is an insightful man, who posts often astute messages onto financial forums evangelizing and analyzing ClickSoftware. And how do I know this? Simple, I read them, all of them. It’s a great barometer about personal investors’ sentiments and, of course, gossip and rumor! (I’d hate to be the last to find out!) He is, unquestionably, a major supporter of ClickSoftware – our products, and the organization as a whole.

And what does he do for a living? He grows apples.

Now, this got me thinking. What does a software vendor that creates intelligent optimization technology for the efficient scheduling of mobile resources have in common with apple growing? Other than desiring potential increases in the stock price, obviously your answer is ‘absolutely nothing whatsoever’. And, of course, you’d be wrong...so don’t be so hasty! Here’s my view.

Every day, many thousands of field resources are assigned to service events using our products across multiple industries – telecommunications, utilities, retail, healthcare, home services, and hi-tech are just some examples. And at the end of every service event is a customer or a consumer. If there’s a power outage then we want our supply restored ‘now’. If we have ordered a new kitchen appliance, then we want it delivered tomorrow, and not next week. If our broadband service is down then we can’t live and communicate anymore so, again, we want our service restored immediately! You get the picture – the customer is becoming increasingly demanding and the more service organizations meet those demands, the more customers’ expectations will increase that service quality will become “even better” next time.

And this is where ClickSoftware’s products enter the story. By driving the maximum efficiency from service organizations we can, and do, make customers’ lives better. Service is restored faster. Products are delivered more quickly. Appointment windows are more precise. Customers are happier. This is the essence of ClickSoftware and why personal investors promote our products. The more service organizations that are utilizing optimization software for the management of their mobile workforce, the better it is for everyone.

So whether you grow apples for a living, milk cows, or anything else, ClickSoftware’s products touch the lives of people who don’t even know that we’re a major part of creating satisfaction in their lives. ClickSoftware wants our customers to be excellent and make their customers happy – that’s the common connection between optimization software and any trade.

To our apple-growing personal investor (you know who you are, and I know you read this blog), thank you for your ongoing support of ClickSoftware!

Author: Stewart Hill

Service that could really use a lift

2009-07-13T09:02:00.001-04:00

I never considered myself a lazy individual, but I do admit to having a particular liking for the natural convenience of things. As Winston Churchill once said, “Why stand when you can sit?” Well I hold this mentality when it comes to walking up several flights of stairs as opposed to leaning comfortably against the back wall of an elevator.

A few months back I moved from the Back Bay in Boston down to the waterfront on Boston Harbor. Moving from an old brownstone/walk-up unit to a full service building was of great appeal to me. The thought of not having to haul up ten bags of groceries up four flights of stairs was very nice…and to be able to park my car in a garage right beneath my apartment building – priceless.

After having lived in my new building for a few months, I quickly became used to the new conveniences that were afforded me – garbage/recycling rooms on every floor, washer/dryer in the units, elevators covering the 20 floors of the building. But one morning I pressed the elevator button and it took what seemed like an eternity for the elevator door to open. Finally, one of the three elevator doors opened, and it was at full capacity. “Are you kidding me?” I thought as I stood motionless and began pressing the elevator button incessantly again. In waiting, a small crowd of my neighbors had joined me in the hallway.

About three days later, okay, two minutes, the elevator doors opened again. Full. OMG, I’m going to lose it. (Notice how the thought of walking the 13 flights of stairs had not crossed my mind at this point – but forget that! I wear 4-inch heels every day of my life…you try hoofing it up or down a stairwell in those things!)

All in all it took me almost 15 minutes to finally find space in one of the elevators to get to my parking garage. You could quite literally sense the aggravation on each and every person in the elevator. As is customary in the States, everyone normally just watches the numbers of the floors in an elevator go up or down and doesn’t communicate with one another – I would imagine it’s something to do with personal space. But on that morning, it was a nice bonding moment amongst my neighbors – we were all airing our grievances about how one of the elevators was out of service. That was day one.

Here we are almost two months later and that elevator still has not been fixed! Oh, we’ve all seen the service people from Thyssenkrupp working on it….at first we were told by building management that they didn’t have the right part, then the part they thought they needed was the wrong one….then they needed to order a part that wouldn’t be in for a month. It’s now become the joke of the building…seriously it’s comical. We can send a man to the moon, but we can’t fix an elevator??!! Give me a break! Great, I guess everyone will soon come to realize that I’m not actually 5’ 8” – stupid elevator…the only thing lifted in this situation is my agitation level. Never underestimate the beautiful convenience proper service can bring to the world….I know I won’t.

Author: Joanna Larivee

Smart Metering and how it affects future field engineers

2009-07-06T09:44:00.001-04:00

Life is busy at ClickSoftware, so I have not blogged for quite some time now but I have given in under the pressure to write something new! Well, when I say ‘write’ something, what I really mean is ‘borrow’ someone else’s thoughts. And for a good reason too. Let me explain.

For quite some time now, the subjects of the ‘smart grid’ and ‘smart metering’ have been muttered and how they will transform our lives by giving consumers more guidance on our energy consumption and patterns, and help to change our behaviour. There will also be no need to send meter readers to our homes anymore again helping the environment by reducing carbon emissions. And in May 2009, the British Government announced plans for every home in Britain to be equipped with smart meters by the end of 2020. A massive project – 26 million electricity, and 22 million gas meters need installing costing over £7bn...and we’re all very excited about it. Well, maybe.

But no-one seems to be thinking ahead much about how the face of field engineering could change in this new high tech environment. That is, until now. In his article “Future Workforce: Meeting the Demands of Tomorrow's Utility” on the Energy Pulse website, Ryan Cook discusses this very point. Imagine this, today if we have issues with, let’s say, our gas meter then the field engineering challenge is somewhat straightforward as a gas qualified engineer with current accreditations will attend to the problem. But what about the future? It could be a network problem that requires a different type of engineer to attend. Who would have imagined that this could actually be an IT challenge and not a gas one? Interesting and thought provoking stuff so it’s worth a read...which is why I didn’t ‘write’ something new here!

So, while utility organizations are now mobilizing themselves for the national roll-out of smart metering and the associated technologies in Britain and other countries, now is the time to start planning ahead for the field engineering workforce of the future. Installing smart meters is just the beginning.

Author: Stewart Hill

Prison Break

2009-06-16T09:58:00.003-04:00

Have you ever been stuck at home waiting for the engineer to arrive? Did you feel like a prisoner in your own home? Too scared to pop out down to the shops for even ten minutes for fear of coming home to that dreaded note that reads something like this:

‘How dare you leave the house to run a quick errand? You knew that I could arrive at some point between 8am and 12pm. You have wasted my time and meant that I will miss my personal target for the day

P.S .Good luck getting through to our call centre to reschedule your appointment.’

Okay, so I exaggerate. The note actually read ‘Sorry we missed you. Please call our call centre to book a new appointment.’ It is so frustrating (to put it mildly) when this happens. It is even more frustrating when I know that technology exists today that can make this experience a thing of the past. Service businesses need to start leveraging this technology for “day of service” expectation management. Expectation Management is all about continuous communication between the service provider and the customer regarding the expected arrival time of the field engineer.

Research shows that skilled expectation management is critical for achieving customer satisfaction, and close communication is an inseparable part of managing expectations. Service businesses can take advantage of the wide spectrum of today’s anytime/anywhere communications technologies (email, text messaging, voice messaging and Internet-based service appointment booking) to ensure they stay in control of the appointment lifecycle no matter what happens out in the field.

To paraphrase the script of the Norwich Union adverts of the 80s, when a crisis occurs it is important that a company doesn't allow it to turn into a drama. Clear, consistent and timely communication is critical when such events occur, in order to mitigate the potential impact the event will have on the business. Best-in-Class service businesses are starting to recognize the power of continuous communication. For these companies, the dreaded ‘sorry we missed you’ note is becoming a thing of the past. So they are also using less paper and helping the planet!

Once an appointment is scheduled, what communication channels does your company use to stay in touch with the customer?

Author: Simon Morris

20 years of change

2009-06-10T10:16:00.002-04:00

Next week, my wife and I will celebrate being married for 20 years. This may to some who know us, seem like a remarkable achievement. However, it is natural at these times of anniversaries and birthdays to look back and try to imagine life as it was.
So what was life like in 1989?

I think that ‘interesting’ is the word. It was the age before the internet, but what else was happening?
Protests in China in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Who can forget the tanks that were halted by a lone protester?

Other news included Poland electing first non-communist Prime Minister and Russian troops leaving Afghanistan after 9 years of occupation.

All these events were significant and marked the start of change, but for me, looking back, the biggest difference was that there was no internet. This meant that customers wanting to request any type of service, only had 2 choices of communicating with the service provider, either by telephone or by letter. It may be hard to imagine for adults, and impossible for children to imagine life without the internet. This allows us access and the ability to communicate with anybody or any company at any time. So the implication is that, instead of our letter reaching the supplier and them responding by letter, we expect an immediate response from our supplier.
Along with this has come increasing customer choice. If their supplier is not able to meet their request, then there is always the option of choosing a different supplier. Excellent customer service is the key to success as this is the contact between customer and employee. The ability to meet or exceed customer expectations is a key requirement.

Another key factor is employee satisfaction. A friend of mine recently purchased a new washing machine which then developed a problem. He called the manufacturer (who had outsourced the service to a 3rd party). He was given a service appointment which was a 4 hour window. The engineer arrived late, very stressed from having to drive far longer than the allocated 30 minutes. He was not a happy employee as he had this stress on a daily basis. Also late appointments meant that he did not get home until after 7pm at night. The result of this was an unhappy customer and an unhappy employee.

It seems that best-in-class service organizations try to eliminate this kind of a problem through better travel routing and more accurate appointment times and engineer skills. This in-turn helps reduce customer and employee churn as well as providing ‘green’ benefits through lower travel.

Did we talk about ‘green’ benefits 20 years ago? Probably not, but I am sure that we will certainly still be talking about them in 20 years time……

Author: Hugh Thomas-Davies

Service Not Included…

2009-06-01T11:01:00.006-04:00

Some might call it sheer luck, but I have experienced good levels of service in the UK. I like to think it’s more down to the fact that I’m a selective consumer and that I’m a good customer – I have expectations but they are not unrealistic, I’ll pay for a good service, and if the service provider exceeds my expectations I reward them with my loyalty and recommendations to friends.

Let me give you some examples:

·When Sky first released their SkyHD set top box, I was one of the first on the list to receive installation. As the date of the visit approached, my excitement was squashed with word from Sky that they had underestimated the demand and had to push back my visit. But, to sweeten the blow, they gave me a voucher for free movies for 3 months and the service installation would now be free, albeit 3 weeks late. I was happy with that, especially as they then gave us another 3 months free HD movies after the box was installed.

·My beloved Mini decided one day out- of- the- blue that reverse was not a direction she wanted to drive in and I had a Mini engineer on my doorstep the next day. The engineer called me on the day of service to warn me that he was going to be early and he arrived onsite before I did. He waited for me patiently and then got to work. He completed the job 20 minutes later and gave me a full brief of the problem and how he fixed it. Brilliant! When the Customer Services centre called me the next day to follow up, I gave them full marks for an excellent visit.

Anyway, 7 months ago I packed my things (along with my history of good service) and moved to Israel to live with my boyfriend.

A new law (part of the Consumer Protection Act, amendment 24, 2008 ) has been passed in Israel, which states that a service organization has to provide the customer with a maximum time window of 2 hours for a service visit. If the Service is delayed by 2 hours beyond the 2 hour slot provided, the customer can claim up to 300 NIS ($75USD) in compensation. In case of a 3 hour delay, the customer can claim up to 600 NIS ($150USD).

So why, despite this law being passed, can I now describe just 2 examples of my poor service history here in Israel?

·We had a problem with our new oven and called for an engineer. The customer service operator told us that we could have an appointment window of either 8am – 1pm or 1pm – 5pm. When my boyfriend reminded her of the new law, she quickly offered us a slot between 9-11am, 11am to 1pm and so on. We selected the time and then my boyfriend asked that the engineer call us 30 minutes before arrival. No, not possible we were told because we were taking a two hour slot. After much persuading, she finally agreed that the engineer would call us. On the day of service, the engineer did call but to tell us he had arrived and to ask where we were. Well, we were 20 minutes away at the office! Apparently he couldn’t wait and we would just have to re-book another visit.

·My boyfriend renewed the annual contract with YES, our satellite TV provider, on the premise that they would provide English subtitles to Hebrew programs. We then discovered the option one day in the system menu.

“Great!” my boyfriend roared when he discovered it, “I can watch my favourite programs and you can improve your Hebrew”. Everyone’s a winner! Well, not so. We called YES, because the English subtitles weren’t working on any channel and yet the Russian and Arabic subtitles were. The lady in the call centre told us that the subtitles don’t yet work on every channel, but she wasn’t able to tell us which channels they do work on and merely said that it worked for her in the call centre when she tested it. My boyfriend persisted and told her that this needed to be fixed – a contract renewal depended on it! She finally admitted that the subtitles weren’t working for her either and that it could be that they added the option to the menu because it’s a planned feature due in a future software release. Despite putting in a request for a call back, so far YES has not contacted us about this.

With mounting frustration, I had to ask my boyfriend whether this was another part of the culture that I would need to adjust to, or was it just that you can’t get good service in Israel?
His answer was simple: Service is not Included, it’s Expected.

If a consumer buys a TV and needs it serviced for some reason, the service is expected at no additional cost because you already paid for the TV. The product and service are not considered as two separate things and the majority of people are not willing to pay for service.

Little did I realize, that culture impacts on every aspect of life imaginable, even the service experience. Simply put, some cultures value service more highly than others so why should I expect people to behave the same here as in the UK?

The question remains, as I have found myself adjusting to many elements of the new culture I am surrounded by, will I come to expect service too?

Author: Erica Fortune

Shift planning my kid

2009-05-18T12:25:00.005-04:00

My wife, Tamar, and I are planning a trip to Italy without our (almost) 3 year old kid - Jonny. Well actually my wife is planning the trip itself while I am busy planning the arrangements for Jonny. As it turns out – this is not an easy task. Jonny needs a 24*7 adult to watch over him during our 10 day trip. The kindergarten does the trick for most of the days from about 8 AM till 4 PM, but I am still required to find out who will take him to and from the kindergarten, and of course watch over him from 4 PM till the morning after.

We have six potential candidates total – my brother, aunty Chen and Jonny’s grandparents. Each one comes with his or hers preferences (my brother has shifts of his own in his work place, Tamar’s mother has cheer leader sessions every other afternoon and my mother prefers not to watch over him during “Survivor”). There are different skills involved (like driving license, ability to prepare Jonny’s dinner and of course diaper skills) each candidate having a subset. I need to make sure that my roster is fair, since I must not give the impression that I prefer my parents over my wife’sJ. So creating a shift plan that gives the required coverage and also takes into consideration the personal preferences, mix of skills and fairness is, as I said, not an easy task. It is even harder taking into account that my plan is just a plan – during the vacation things change (illness, car breaks down) and there must be an easy way to change the plan so that Jonny is not left behind somewhere, hungry, wearing a dirty diaper and all alone!

Come to think of it – if I have a problem setting this 10 day plan then what can I say about the shift planner that needs to make sure that his city is protected 24*7 by the correct amount of cops every single day, or that there are enough firemen ready for any emergency. In fact, any call center, retail or transportation company needs the ability to plan shifts for many employees covering a lot of demands. Luckily for them we are currently developing a new ClickRoster product that should handle exactly this problem – making sure that we have the correct number of people working the right shifts to cover the demand, taking into account things like preferences, fairness and regulations. Usually ClickRoster will deal with a lot more than six resources and a single child, but for me, not regarding Italy but maybe next time, I will be able to insert the data and make ClickRoster plan the roster for Jonny, while I am planning the trip to Paris (?)

Author: Omer Meshar

Changing Perception by Focusing on the Benefits

2009-04-28T10:54:00.003-04:00

“Do you remember last week when we read in the paper that taxes may increase by 15%?” I’m back in the 9th grade listening to my social studies teacher. He is holding up today’s newspaper. “Today they announced that instead of a 15% increase, they’ve managed to reduce it to only 7%. How many of you are pretty relieved by this?” We all raise our hands. He looks disappointed. “They’ve successfully altered your expectations by changing what you are comparing. Right now you are comparing the 7% tax increase to the 15% increase. Forget about the 15%. Remember, they’re still raising taxes by 7%!”

It’s interesting how our perceptions change based on what we focus on. Us students saw a 7% hike instead of a 15% hike. Our teacher saw a 7% hike. What I experienced in my 7th grade social studies class was similar to what I saw recently with a client.

The client implemented a pilot phase of ClickSchedule. While most stakeholders were excited and have seen significant benefits, the technicians weren’t happy. Why did they have to be micro managed? They only saw that instead of managing their own day, they now had to physically call their dispatcher to report the start and finish of each assignment.

The 7% tax instead of the 15%: Next we are implementing ClickMobile. Technicians were excited to learn that they’ll no longer need to call their dispatcher. Instead, they only have to push one button on their mobile device to change statuses. They could still perceive this as micro managing, but now they’re happy that the process will be easy.

We’re back in the 9th grade. One of the students raises his hand. “But isn’t the tax increase to fund education? So while we have to pay more, we realize a benefit.” Now we were starting to look at the whole picture.

Once the technicians got past the initial micro managing concern, they soon realized that there are many benefits to using the new system. For example, moving from a labor intensive, paper-based timesheet process to automatic tracking. And knowing where the other technicians are in case they require assistance.

It’s interesting how we change our perceptions as we go through a process. We can either focus on the fact that our taxes are being raised by 7%, or we can understand that those taxes will go towards education. It’s up to us to help our technicians understand this bigger picture.

Author: Felisa Berg

Decision Making

2009-04-22T10:11:00.006-04:00

For many field service organizations, paper is a thing of the past; the entire information is digital and data is passed through wireless networks from the back-end systems to the field almost seamlessly.

There’s no doubt that for the individual level, having a mobile application in the field improves the quality of work, reduces human mistakes and thus, increases the efficiency.
But is that enough? How can organizations get to the next level and use of their mobile data to maximize their efficiency?

The answer lies in Decision Making. Decisions which are based on information only mobile technologies can supply.

The field users get the data they need in order to perform their work. In return they report back and send data to the back-end systems. Capturing those pieces of information in almost real-time can give the organization an advantage when trying to make better decisions.

GPS devices are a great example; using satellite navigators is a common way to reduce travel time and cost. But a bigger benefit can be achieved by using the real location of each field engineer to dispatch jobs more efficiently. Using LBS, emergency jobs can be assigned using precise information of the engineers’ location, idle time which is caused by unexpected jobs cancellations can be handled more wisely, etc.

During the day, plans which were built based on assumptions – are being changed.
Getting real-time information means that the system relies less on assumptions and more on the actual events such as status reports, traffic jams, arrivals to the sites, and delays in work.

Back-end services can also be accessed by the mobile application. For example, appointment booking, in case needed, can be launched from the field (in front of the customer), triggering logic services that will eventually book a future task in almost real-time. This, too, is a great example of combining mobile technologies and data with decision making.

Mobile technologies are the best way to turn your organization into a real time organization, but this can only happen with a combination of data transfer and automated decision making.

Author: Gil Bouhnick

What Makes a Mobile Field Service Champion?

2009-04-09T10:53:00.006-04:00

“96% of [Aberdeen’s] survey respondents claim that effective mobile field service-related process and solution are paramount to the performance of their service organization and that these tools have become more important given the uncertain economy and rising cost pressures.”- Aberdeen Mobile Field Service AXIS Report

Companies who implement effective mobile field service are able to reap benefits such as: increased service efficiency, improved Service Level Agreement compliance, boosted worker productivity, and increased service-based profitability. However, as most of you already know, getting effective mobile field service is not just as simple as acquiring mobile devices; it requires a strategic understanding of business processes and the selection of the best vendor to fit with your current and future strategies. Criteria such as integration, reporting, and two way transfer of data are all important things that can either improve or when not present, can detract from the results of mobile field service.

The recently released Aberdeen AXIS report provides an objective, fact based vendor assessment of Mobile Field Service vendors as well as recommendations and organization wide improvements that companies should consider when looking to leverage a mobile field service solution. Vendors represented on the Axis are illustrated by the performance of their customers as well as the visibility they received from the market as part of research. According to this research, a “Champion” on the chart is a vendor who has demonstrated superior proficiency in delivering both real value as well as the ability to serve and support its installed user base. A “Champion” vendor must demonstrate not only value delivered through best-in-class organization using their solution, but also proven market readiness determined by an assessment of the technology vendor’s current ability to serve the market based on over 250 objective assessment criteria. Additionally champion’s have the ability to adapt and respond to customer demand and market requirements. These traits are all crucial factors in the return that a mobile solution can deliver to your organization. In a time when everyone is looking to do more with less, can you afford to go with anyone but the best?

To find out who made the cut and read all of Aberdeen’s ratings and recommendations, download the full Mobile Field Service AXIS Report.

Author: Lauren LeBlanc

World of Service

2009-04-02T11:14:00.004-04:00

I’ve recently started playing World of Warcraft with my youngest son. Yes, I realize that I’ve crossed a line that I shall never uncross and I am okay with that. It’s good fun, and my son and I have a great time playing. We read strategy guides together, discuss which quests we should take, how best to kill the Clattering Scorpids, who’s cooler – the Taurans (him) or the Trolls (me) - and so on. It’s nice bonding time that I’m sure will dwindle as he moves into his teens.

So why am I writing about World of Warcraft on the ClickSoftware blog? Because I was surprised to see that there are actually a lot of similarities between World of Warcraft and our Service Optimization suite. Really!

· Both are very robust, powerful and complex applications that can provide a multitude of user experiences.
· Each application can be customized with product add-ins to satisfy the user’s requirements.
· There are countless ways to configure your own user experience.
· A shared theme is “being connected”. For World of Warcraft that means being connected to the internet community, for Service Optimization that means being connected to your entire service business.
· ClickSoftware and Blizzard Entertainment both stay connected to the end-user community to understand how to enhance the user experience.
See you online!

Author: Andrea Bach

Would you pay extra to speak with someone with your accent?

2009-03-25T10:17:00.006-04:00

TELSTRA is secretly offering customers a messaging service that charges them extra if they want to speak to "an Australian" instead of being diverted overseas (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25189122-2,00.html).

I was initially taken aback by this but it dawned on me that it was not such a bad thing. At the end of the day, if someone felt uncomfortable speaking to someone in a call centre overseas, then they could pay extra to speak to “an Australian”. As for me, I will not be using the talk to “an Australian” option.

Would you use this service?

Author: George Chondros

Amazing Service

2009-03-18T10:38:00.005-04:00

Most people have a story they like to share with their friends and colleagues about poor customer service. Many of us have more than one story! But how many of us talk about a positive customer service experience? In my experience, customer service needs to be ‘amazingly’ good for it to be talked about. But what is amazing service?

According to Kevin Stirtz, The Amazing Service Guy, ‘Amazing Service’ happens when your organization:

1. Delivers what your customers want, plus a little more,
2. In the context of your business,
3. Better than anyone else,
4. Every time with every customer - no exceptions and no excuses!

In the context of field service, ‘amazing service’ is extremely rare. Let’s take one scenario, where the customer is waiting at home for the engineer to arrive. We won’t explore the service experience up to this point but we will pick the story up with the engineer arriving at the customer site.

Now, the engineer (James) has arrived well within the scheduled appointment window but the customer (Mary) has just got off the phone from her child’s school. Despite having waited at home for the last couple of hours for the engineer to arrive, Mary now has to rush off to the school and cancel the appointment.

So, what happens next?

Conventional Service: James is really frustrated. He tells Mary that because of people like her he’s missing his quotas and getting paid less, and storms off.

Good Service: James is understanding of the situation, says “such things happen” and gives Mary a detailed list of channels that she can use to create a new appointment, including a case number so that she can avoid having to give all the details again.

Amazing Service: James, recognizing that Mary is in a rush, is able to instantly discover that while he can’t make it to his next job and back to Mary’s home, there is another engineer in the area with appropriate skills whose schedule can be rearranged to reach Mary after she returns from school, in about an hour and still within the arranged appointment window (if there is no such option, James can offer Mary alternative appointment slots by utilizing the mobile appointment booking capability on his mobile device). Either way, Mary is delighted that she does not need to telephone the contact centre again for another appointment. As well as creating customer delight, this ‘amazing service’ also helps to reduce call centre costs.

Check out this video to see an example of an employee going above and beyond their job description to help out a customer

What does your organization do for its customers that sets you apart from the competition?

Author: Simon Morris

Why Plan in such Unpredictable Economic Times?

2009-03-10T14:54:00.013-04:00

6 month DJIA value, Source: MSN Money

Every morning, my day starts with coffee and the news which as of late has become nearly myopic at its focus on the economy, its poor state, and the unpredictability of “what’s next.” So I, spending so much brain-CPU on planning in my job, can’t help but wonder, “What’s the point?”

The “universe” of outcomes we had to plan for previously included, “What if demand is 20% higher than we think?”, “What if we have a major storm?”, and “What if we have to go contractors for an additional 5% of our work?” But things have changed....

Now the “universe” of outcomes includes things like, “What if our service budget buys capacity for 60% of the work?”, “What if our largest competitor closes shop?”, and “What if we have layoffs and need to outsource much more of our work?” My challenge isn’t that all of the possibilities are bad, because they are not. Actually, for many companies there are as many opportunities as there are problems depending on perspective.

My challenge is the volatility and unpredictability. Having thought further however, I recognize that now i s the MOST important time to plan. As we often quote Dwight Eisenhower, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Neither the volatility nor the unpredictability changes the act of planning, or its value.

The future never has been predictable, which means that the purpose of planning has always, and continues to be to ‘rehearse’ decisions, understand the impacts, and derive the best course of action. For the near-term, these decisions are delivered with confidence. For the longer-term, the decisions provide consistent guidance with an expectation that plans may change.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Source: BBCNow

Long-term or near-term, plans spread consistent expectations to the entire operation. And for those surprises to come, economic and otherwise; planning enables us to minimize the cost of bad news, and maximize the value of opportunities – because we thought about it ahead of time.

So plan away my friends! And when someone asks you how you can do any effective planning in today’s business climate, just ask them if they change whether they “look before they leap” based on whether they are leaping into a good, bad, or predictable place. It doesn’t matter so much what you are planning for, but just that you are planning at all…

Author: Mike Karlskind

When Service “Freezes Over”

2009-02-26T16:20:00.005-05:00

Being a resident Bostonian, I’ve become pretty well equipped to handle the wrath of Mother Nature – sure, snow is beautiful when falling, but when over a foot of snow falls, well, that’s a different story. Just before the Christmas holiday, I became keenly aware of how paralyzed one can become when your winter wonderland becomes your worst service experience to date.

It was Friday, December 19th when the snow began to fall – and Boston braced for one of the biggest snowstorms in recent years. The snow fell fast and furious through the night, and by the time I awoke on Saturday morning, there was over a foot of snow. I was headed to New York for the weekend, but obviously, there was some major “digging out” that needed to be done before I could get in my car and hit the open road. After a bit of snow plowing, I packed my car (lugging bags of Christmas gifts for the family), got in, turned the key in the ignition, and nothing. My car was dead, and after two failed attempts at jumping the battery, I proceeded to call roadside assistance.

My first call to roadside assistance was at 9am. They estimated the wait time (due to the continuing weather conditions) for 10:30am. Just before 10:30am, my phone rang – and the automated message on the other end alerted me to the fact that my technician would be arriving within the next five minutes and I should wait near my vehicle. I thought, How cool is this? This company seems to really be on their game!

When the technician came he tried to jump the battery on the car to no avail. He told me he would have to tow my car to a nearby garage. But then the technician turned to me and said, “Oh wait, I can’t tow your car, it’s a 4-wheel drive– you’ll need a flatbed truck.” Now I was thinking, “uh, yeah, which I mentioned to the call center rep when I initially phoned in the service call!” (And so began the descent into what I’d like to term the “service underworld.”)

The technician told me he would put a new call in requesting a flatbed – and then he left. The new arrival time for the flatbed was slated for 12 Noon. OK – again, things could be so much worse, I could be on the side of the road in mounds of snow – at least I was in a warm home and could just relax. (You’ll see why this is important later!)

When the next service tech showed up with the flatbed, he said, “Which local garage is this going to?” To which I replied, “Actually it’s going to the BMW dealership on Comm Ave in Boston.” (I can tell by his annoyed glance that the call center person had not alerted him to the fact that he had to take the car 20 miles into the city as opposed to a local garage– wonderful). He proceeds to tell me that he can only take me to a local garage right now, or he can come back in about an hour after he takes care of a pileup of cars on 95 South. I chose the latter and go back into the house.

1pm comes…I phone the call center again, and they tell me that the technician should be back any moment. 1:30pm….2:00pm….2:30pm….3:00pm….nothing. Finally at 3:45pm (almost 4hours after the second service call) the flatbed arrived back at the house.

At 4:30pm my car finally made it to the dealership and I found out that it was a simple fix…I just needed a new battery. PHEW! I was back on my way. I picked up my car the next day. With a new snowstorm already in full swing, I re-packed my car and started on my way.

I got about 40 minutes into my drive when suddenly my coolant light came on, and my car started overheating …and I was forced to pull over. I will admit that this was not a moment where I would say I was well put together. There I was…stuck YET AGAIN and in need of roadside assistance. At this point I am starting to feel like Sisyphus but instead of rolling a rock up an incline for all eternity, I’m simply trying to drive my car through the snow. I can no longer see anything out of my windows…because the frost and snow is insane. I call the dealership and snap at them for obviously missing something…and then call roadside assistance who tells me that the wait time is over two hours due to inclement weather!! Wonderful…this time I’m stranded on a major roadway and not in the comfort of a warm home. (Guess I should not have thanked my lucky stars from my previous day’s experience – that will teach me).

I waited for roadside assistance for about two hours (feeling much like a character out of some Stephen King novel) and eventually my car was towed to a sister-dealership near the place where my car overheated. Suffice to say, roadside assistance certainly did not prep very well for the onslaught of snow we had received that weekend. I spent nearly a half day just trying to work through my roadside assistance issues – and my car dealership, they could also use a lesson or two about customer service as well! Oh and by the way, if anyone is curious as to who the roadside assistance company was, let’s just say I wouldn’t give them “an A”, (yet alone three) for streamlined service!

Author: Joanna Giannotti

The Journey to Service Excellence

2009-02-19T10:52:00.005-05:00

There are a variety of challenges associated with scheduling for a large and dynamic service organization. Many companies are just beginning to look at how technology can help them optimize their workforce and improve the service process. Direct Energy is not like most organizations; they have been on the workforce optimization journey for over 10 years. As I spent time this week, meeting with Dave Gosling and Tom Bolton from Direct Energy preparing for an upcoming webinar, I cannot help but be impressed with how dynamic scheduling, including the ability to act in real-time to changing events in the field, has enabled Direct Energy to increased productivity, reduced costs and meet their service commitments. Dave and Tom tell the story of a true “best-in-class” organization as well as the tips and tricks they learned along their journey to service excellence.

For more information or to register for this webinar, please visit the event website.