ServicePower Field Service Optimization Software

News: Articles

Creating a Better Customer Experience for Retailers through Improved Optimization

By Michael R. Blumberg

Traditionally, consumers who purchased products from the retail channel have been presented with limited options for service and support. For example, in the purchase of a major appliance such as a dishwasher or refrigerator, the consumer would have to first order the product from the retail establishment before a time and date for delivery and installation could be established. The typical approach to scheduling a service visit was that the consumer would leave his or her name and contact information with the store, who would in turn call the consumer at a later date to schedule a service visit. In many cases the scheduling and installation was performed by multiple third parties. This process was very “batch oriented” in the sense that the retail outlet would wait until they had enough orders to fill a technician’s workday or week. For consumers, this meant that they had no visibility or control over the scheduling of service requests; they could receive notification about the delivery anywhere from one day to one week after their original purchase, and quite often they would be given a half- or full-day window for delivery.

Once installed, if the appliance didn’t work properly, either due to failure or operator misuse, the consumer would again need to contact the retailer to schedule a service visit. The retailer would first need to determine if the consumer was entitled to service under warranty or if the request represented an out-of-warranty situation. Once warranty entitlement was established, the retailer could either refer the consumer to an authorized service provider, in which case the consumer would have to contact a service provider, or the retailer would take the consumer’s contact information and arrange a callback to schedule a visit from either their own or a third-party service technician. In the event the consumer wasn’t at home, or if the consumer was home but the technician lacked the proper skills or parts to complete the repair, the entire scheduling process was repeated again—increasing the probability that a consumer would cancel the purchase entirely because of poor service.

This scheduling scenario created not only a great deal of inconvenience and frustration for the consumer, but it also created inefficiencies for the retailer. The process often involved very labor intensive, manual processes. It was not uncommon for the retail service provider to make multiple telephone calls and multiple site visits in situations where the consumer was not available. For example, the scheduler would need to place a second call if the consumer wasn’t available to schedule a site visit, and if the consumer was not at home or available when the technician arrived, another visit would need to be scheduled, which would result in further service delays and inconvenience for the consumer. It also required coordination of multiple parties, which presented challenges with respect to the timeliness, accuracy, and integrity of consumer contact information.

Field technician productivity and the scheduling of site visits by the retail service provider was also problematic. Field technicians were given a specific number of site visits that they were required to complete, regardless of whether or not the consumer was at home or if the technician could complete the call in a timely manner. As a result, overtime was significant. In addition, technicians’ schedules and routes were planned by brute force against calendar days and line-of-sight mapping. It essentially involved routing calls according to where the technician began and ended his day.

Fortunately, advances in state-of-the-art scheduling and field service management systems, although not yet widely implemented, have allowed some retailers to overcome many of these inefficiencies. Today, through the deployment of retail based information systems, a store clerk can offer the consumer multiple options for the scheduling of deliveries and installations. These options are presented in terms of 2 to 4-hour, timebanded appointments that can be scheduled for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours from the time of purchase. Some retailers utilize this feature to offer standard (free) and premium (fee based) levels of service. This application in turn interfaces with a back-office system that can provide optimized route planning, scheduling, and dispatch of either retailer or third-party service technicians.

This retail-based, point-of-purchase application enables the store clerk to complete the warranty registration process on behalf of the consumer and offer the consumer the option to purchase an extended service warranty. In the event that the consumer experiences a problem with the product during the warranty period, he or she can contact the retailer’s call center and schedule a service request. The retailer’s call center operation can complete the warranty entitlement process and schedule the service request to either company-employed or third-party service technicians through the same underlying appointment booking and optimization engines discussed above.

The benefits of this new solution are multifold. First and foremost, the consumer is presented with an improved customer experience. The consumer is now empowered and in control of the scheduling process. Schedules are optimized according to actual workload capacity. Not only can the consumer request service at the point of purchase, but he or she can, in effect, negotiate with the store regarding what they believe is the best schedule. This reinforces the concept that the customer is “king.” The added convenience of point-of-purchase scheduling results in improved levels of customer service since appointments can be booked sooner, lead times reduced, and service visits completed sooner rather then later. The retailer and consumer are both in effect guaranteed that the service request will be performed on the time and date specified. The retailer can thus reduce the cost of visits due to fewer “no shows” and reduce lost revenue due to irate consumers canceling their purchase because of poor service.

In addition to better service quality, the retailer is also presented with opportunities to significantly reduce cost and improve productivity of service operations. By moving the scheduling process to the point of purchase, the retailer can reduce a portion of their call center labor expenses associated with scheduling of delivery and installation visits. With new optimized warranty entitlement, appointment booking, and scheduling applications, the service provider can ensure that field technicians complete more visits per day with less travel per visit, reduce errors and waste, improve visibility and control of field technicians, and improve sales revenue by reducing the number of no shows. In addition, this platform results in streamlined operations by eliminating the amount of time and effort associated with coordinating multiple processes and parties; a full service solution is thus established through a single contact.

D.F. Blumberg Associates, Inc. has completed significant market research and benchmarking in the area of retail-based systems. These efforts have identified a number of well known retailers within the U.S. who are implementing these types of applications. From Blumberg’s benchmarking studies of the state of the art, we have found that ServicePower offers an exceptional solution.

The ServicePower system is comprised of three main modules:

• ClaimWorks
A front-end job booking system, used in-store to record the sale and book the service visits on-line

• SERVICEPower
The automated appointment booking and schedule optimizing engine

• ServicePower Field Service Solutions
The middleware between ClaimWorks and SERVICEPower, and the route by which service technicians receive their optimized appointment schedules and arrange installation appointments. The unparalleled improvements in service quality, productivity, and efficiency that are achieved through integrated service solutions such as those identified above demonstrate the merits of re-engineering the service delivery process.

This can be accomplished with relative ease through the deployment of commercial-software-based and business process outsourcing solutions such as those offered by ServicePower. In addition to streamlining retail operations and eliminating unneeded costs, such improvements have had a major positive impact on customer satisfaction and the bottom line profitability of many retail operations. As with most industrial sectors, retail stores who recognize the strategic value of service can expect to benefit from making such improvements while also improving the shopping experience for their customers.

___________________________________________________________
Michael R. Blumberg, MBA, CMC, an authority on marketing research/strategy formulation in the high-technology service market, is president of D.F. Blumberg & Associates, Inc, a Fort Washington, PA based management consulting firm that provides client services in strategic planning, market research, productivity improvement, and management systems design and implementation. You may reach him at michaelb@dfba.com or (215) 643-9060.