Seasons Greetings

On behalf of all the authors that have contributed to Clickipedia, we would like to wish our readers 'Happy Holidays' and a great New Year.

May all your gifts arrive on time and your service experiences be positive ones!

We look forward to hearing all about your festive service experiences (good, bad and ugly) in the New Year.

Service Ownership of the Converged Home

Let’s define this first. Many appliances in our homes, from “new” appliances like audio, video, copier/printers, and computers, to “traditional” appliances like dishwashers, refrigerators and laundry machines, have greater complexity. Complexity leads to failure. Given the diminishing ability that any of us has to fix these “smart” devices, the failure of wired, large, or “mounted” devices requires in home service. But given the unknown root cause of a plasma screen failure at the time of a service request, there is operational pressure on the service provider to send a technician schooled in simple cable TV testing and low-level wiring repair for example, given that the issue may not be with the plasma screen at all. (For the moment we will put aside the obvious market driver for greater machine-to-machine reporting upon the vendors).

Instead let’s take this requirement for a multi-skilled technician to its logical next step. Can the technician be trained in a way that would allow ad hoc repair and/or testing of other devices while on site, which would yield a higher bill-per-visit, and thus transform service from a 100% cost model to a partial revenue capability? Furthermore, given a wide variety of training options, couldn’t a proactive service provider begin to see every complex device in the home as a service opportunity? Pretty soon we’re talking real money.

And indeed some have already begun to move in that direction.
AT&T Inc. announces the launch of AT&T ConnecTech
“The home services industry represents a billion dollar marketplace,” says Carmen Nava, senior vice president, Consumer Marketing Operations for AT&T. “We’re using our strength in TV and broadband services to integrate both the product and care needs of today’s digital consumer.”

Obviously that billion was B.B. (before bail-out). But I digress.
The market potential is huge. The listing below is just a sample of the companies getting into the fray.

Geek Squad - Best Buy - http://www.geeksquad.com/?PSRCH
Firedog - Circuit City - http://firedog.com/
ConnecTech - AT&T - http://connectech.att.com/html/135/category/0/0/1/
ExpertCare - Verizon -http://surround.verizon.net/Shop/ExpertCare/Default.aspx
Solution Station - Dell for Wal-Mart - http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/07/walmart_getting_its_own_geek_squad_courtesy_of_dell-2.html
Zip Express - Target - http://www.zipinstallation.com/default.asp

But to be profitable, some key business implications (outlined below) must be addressed.

Implications of servicing the converged home
One of the thorniest implications concerns data privacy. Are my accounts, usages, histories, and linked services carefully protected? What are the limits of demographic data from the vendor’s point of view? Can the demographic data be re-sold? Or used by “sister” business units of the servicer? We’ll explore these further in another blog post.

Also to be examined in a future post are the operational implications from the dispatchers’ point of view. When does it make sense to endanger the remaining schedule for the day, in order to cross sell additional services on-site? How can the on-site technician avoid creating a “snake” perception in the client’s mind, when acting upon being in the right place at the right time?

Is it cost effective to have such a high degree of training per technician? Or would a tech-team approach, (by geography), render a similar level of positive customer experience, yet allow more efficient technician assignments when failure causes are suspected in advance? We’ll look at these later also. For the remainder of this post however let’s confine our consideration to the question of which are the most desirable service bundles, and which are less desirable?

No one is suggesting that I ask the visiting phlebotomist to also diagnose why the wireless network isn’t working any more. But it stands to reason that some service bundling can be derived from a reasonably (read: cost effective) trained skill set package. Basic wiring and key electrical knowledge is applicable for plasma mounting, cable signal delivery, DVD – DVR and internet activation. “White goods” technicians have long had a cross appliance capability (dishwasher – washing machine –dryer). I see that capability now extending to the refrigerator, the wine bar cooler and the Jenn-Air to name a few. But I note that the training will soon have to include the diagnosing and replacing of on-board chip based systems within these devices, and that will require training beyond pressure hoses and compressors. At a simplistic level then, there are three very basic service bundles (PC & Internet, Entertainment Devices, White Goods), with two (PC & Internet and Entertainment Devices) of them overlapping now in ways they did not just 10 years ago:

The price sensitivity for servicing White Goods is lower than that of the other two bundles. Anyone who has experienced a loss of internet based phone service has indeed been extremely inconvenienced, yet substitutions abound, (cell phones, work phones, e-mail). In the case of a broken refrigerator, losses are more tangible. I would not however place the service value of the PC based, and entertainment devices dramatically far behind White Goods. Anyone with a senior parent, who relies on a working television in a distant city, would place a relatively high value on the avoidance of travel and time costs just to replace a fuse or tighten a loose connection, notwithstanding the opportunity to spend a few moments with dear old mum or dad.

No doubt smart marketers have surveyed, and test-marketed the value of their service bundles. Service training costs have also been considered and thus, we are not likely to find a service with unacceptable costs to the provider. If you have some experience or thoughts relative to the bundling models, feel free to expand on these points.

Author: Rob Kaplan

Can Slower Service be Better Service?

All else being equal, the quicker you complete a service visit, the better for everyone involved. Isn’t this obvious?

Well, from time to time it pays to take a look at some obviously true statement and ask whether there are cases when it is not true. For example, take two service engineers, Alice and Bob, who both install and maintain computer and office equipment. Bob is courteous, professional and effective. He gets the job done and moves on to the next job. Alice does just as well, but she stays for a few more minutes, chats with the customer about how he views the service he’s receiving, and offers to check up on some other computer and office equipment (whether these are covered under the customer’s contract with Alice’s employer). Needless to say, Alice will only do this if the customer is also interested in this additional time and service. By the way, her main motivation is to improve the service experience; she isn’t attempting to sell more services, though Alice will present such options if the interaction with the customer calls for it.

Now, would you like your service organization to pick Alice or Bob as the role model? On the one hand, Alice may complete fewer tasks per day, generating lower direct service revenue than Bob does. She might even be providing, for free, services that Bob’s customer would have paid for. On the other hand, she builds up customer satisfaction, which reduces customer churn (which is notorious for its highly negative impact on revenues and profits) and helps bring in more customers. When we add these considerations together, is Alice’s behavior contributing or causing harm to the service organization’s business goals? How about Bob’s behavior?

This question seems difficult to answer. However, there is a hidden assumption here: As I told the story, Bob always rushes away to the next task, and Alice always takes some time to build up the relationship with the customer. I would say that according to this story, both Bob and Alice are behaving sub-optimally. They should act according to the situation: If the work day is expected to be very busy, or if any delay at the current location risks being late to the next job, Alice and Bob should get to the next task as soon as possible. However, even in the best-utilized workforces, some free time windows will occur, for some parts of the day of some service engineers. When Alice or Bob reach such a “free window”, they should consider investing some more time in each customer visit.

Now, how will the service engineer know whether to act like Bob or like Alice (as portrayed in the original example)? They can know some of it by examining the next task(s) scheduled for them, but this is not a good answer: First, the engineer would have to examine these tasks, and the promised SLA or appointment window for each, and also consider the travel time along the route to these tasks, which takes time and has to be done while the customer is watching. Second, even if the engineers do so, they may be missing some important information: For example, if higher-than-usual workloads are expected later in the day, it may makes sense for the engineer to get back to the central office as soon as possible even without being dispatched to any specific task. Who has all this information and can make this decision? Only the scheduling team back at the central office. However, they will not have the time to make this analysis for each and every service visit. Fortunately, they can get the service management software to do it for them. This software can make an intelligent decision for each task, and communicate it to the service engineer’s mobile device. It can also take more things into account, such as the value of that customer for the service organization, or the last time since a thorough checkup has been performed. If the software determines that it would be worthwhile to perform a few more steps, it can feed information about these steps directly into the mobile device, and the service engineer will be prompted with these steps as soon as he or she reports the task as completed successfully. As happens often in such cases, this kind of additional automation actually enhances the service experience – for example, if the service engineer says “a couple of service visits ago, we fixed your laser printer; has it been OK since? would you like me to run a quick check?”, it does not matter that this was prompted by software. All that matters is that the customer receives a clear message that the service organization cares about its customers. If you can deliver this message while still meeting all your service commitments to other customers, isn’t this something to aspire to?

Author: Israel Beniaminy

Augmented (Not Virtual) Reality and Service

I recently came across an interesting article in the Australian Business Review Weekly titled “Sight Unseen”; the topic of the article was Augmented Reality and how it would affect daily life.
Augmented Reality: The basic concept of augmented reality* (AR) is to superimpose graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment in real-time. An example of augmented reality is the technology behind heads-up displays (HUD) that has been providing fighter pilots with information about altitude, airspeed, weaponry since the 1960s. Nowadays, HUD technology can also be found in commercial aircraft and cars.The future of augmented reality might be wearing translucent goggles through which you can see the real world, as well as computer-generated images projected on top of that world.


Please note: augmented reality is not virtual reality; virtual reality is an artificial electronic environment that creates a sensory experience that allows a participant to believe and barely distinguish a virtual experience from a real one.


As I was reading the article, I kept thinking how augmented reality can be applied within the service industry. Here are some of the scenarios:

• A telecommunication technician can enter an exchange and automatically be displayed all the equipment that needs to be repaired based on their task schedule

• An electricity technician can look down a street and see the houses that are affected by the current power outage

• Instead of using GIS system on a laptop to view the companies assets, a technician can look at any direction and see all the assets within their heads up display. By looking at a specific asset a technician can be shown its maintenance schedule

• A office equipment technician repairing a printer can view installation instructions for a new part whilst installing that new part

• In retail stores, a customer can look at a product and see what sizes, shapes and colours it comes in, what it costs if they are a club member etc. Additionally, in a clothing store a customer can try on something without trying it on!

• Rather than just a audio tour, a tourist at the Forbidden Palace in Beijing can wear a pair of glasses that provides them with visual information about the artefact they are looking at, where they can buy souvenir replicas of this artefact, what the original intact artefact looked like etc

• Landscapers can walk around a garden manipulating the layout of the garden by adding trees, lighting, shrubs, pathways etc. In an instance, the customer can get a 3D view of what the garden will look like


Even though augmented reality has been around for over four decades, and technology is advancing rapidly (the technology behind retinal scan display (RSD), which displays the image directly onto the eye, has reduced the need for bulky headsets), it will still be a while before we see “real-life” applications and benefits of augmented reality.


Can you think of any additional scenarios where augmented reality can be used?
* Augmented Reality was coined in 1990 by Tom Caudell while working at Boeing developing technology to assist workers assemble cabling in aircrafts.


Author: George Chondros