Episode 279

In this episode of the Unscripted Podcast, host Sarah Nicastro shares a synopsis of attending Field Service East in Orlando on August 13th, 2024. She discusses the importance of customer centricity and the role of technology in improving employee and customer experiences.

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The Show Notes

Sarah - 00:00:00:

I think it's an important reminder for service leaders to keep in mind that as you look to what the impact of AI can be or how it can expand within your business, you also need to be keeping an eye on everything else. And that includes other technologies, but it also includes things like leadership and culture and engagement and, you know, soft skills and customer sentiment. 

Hello, welcome to the UNSCRIPTED podcast, where you'll find discussions on what matters most in service, leadership, and business transformation. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. Let's jump in. 

I am flying solo today to do a brief recap or summary for you all of the Field Service East event, which took place August 13th through the 15th in sunny Orlando. So, I will start this by saying I was only at the event for day one. So I was speaking on day one. I attended the majority of the sessions on day one and did as much networking and interacting and talking with people as humanly possible in one day, but I did have to depart on day two. So this won't be a comprehensive recap because I wasn't at the event for the entire thing. But I actually had the opportunity to kick off the first day of the event with a keynote session where I spoke about, so the theme for the day was talking about customer centricity. And I wanted to reinforce the connection between the importance of employee experience and customer experience. So I think, you know, that's a connection that I hope everyone understands well at this point, but I think we're at various phases of organizations taking that understanding and actually operating from a place of understanding that and aligning actions to that understanding. So what I spoke about is not only that connection, but from a technology standpoint, how we need to really evolve our thinking from technology being, seen as something that can, you know, drive productivity, drive efficiency for organizations and broaden that to also consider the ways in which it can be leveraged to improve the employee experience. So this is not to say, of course, that, you know, managing costs, maximizing efficiency, or improving productivity are not important. It's simply to say that companies that are leading, I think, are doing so by considering not only the ways that technology investments can benefit the business, but also how leveraging technology to improve the employee experience can also benefit the business while benefiting those employees. So I gave some examples, in which I summarized an article that we can link in the show notes, but that was my session, and enjoyed kicking off the day. I actually really like going first, because you get it out of the way, the hard work is done, and then, you know, you can just enjoy from there. So I had the opportunity to introduce some of the speakers throughout the morning and also moderate a panel discussion, which I'll speak about momentarily. But after I spoke, Greg Ratcliff, who is the chief innovation officer at Vertiv, did a keynote on essentially the importance of data. What I really liked, so he got up, are you guys ready to nerd out? Which, you know, isn't really my thing, but it was great. But what he talked about was this evolution from paper-based service to essentially digital paper to data-driven service. And I think it's really interesting because, you know, I've said this before, you know, the term digital transformation is just so broad and can be very confusing in some ways, right? Because, transformation to me gives the connotation of transforming from one thing to the next thing, right? But really we're talking about a digital journey. And I think the initial wave or waves of transformation that a lot of service organizations did digitally was really just to replace paper-based processes with digital paper-based processes, right? We weren't significantly leveraging data. We weren't really optimizing. We weren't layering in, you know, remote capabilities and AI and really adding intelligence to that process. And today, all of those things are not only possible but happening, which significantly increases complexity and also opportunity, which is exciting. So Greg did a great session on some of those things and what that looks like at Vertiv and how they're thinking about it, what they're working toward, et cetera. So, then there were a couple of other sessions, one from Aquant, one from ServiceMax. I had the opportunity to host a panel discussion with Greg, who I mentioned from Vertiv, Craig Bruns from Crown Equipment, and Logan Lewis from EnterBridge. And the panel discussion was on essentially build versus buy. And to be completely honest with you all, when I got the information that that was the topic, I was kind of surprised because, I don't know, to me, and I understand I have bias here, but to me, I think there's very few arguments today to build. And we actually talked about this in the panel discussion. And I think Greg made the point that even within the last five years, the field service management solutions that are available have become so much more sophisticated, sophisticated and accessible that, you know, there would be, it would be hard to defend the idea of not leveraging something that, you know, that much work, effort, time, resource, et cetera, has been put into. Now that we talked about, you know, obviously some of the advantages of building, which is mostly control. But I think, you know, by and large, we're just at a point where, for a company to have the volume of knowledge and resource that it takes to do that well is pretty rare. So it was an interesting conversation nonetheless. And we talked about some things that, you know, really were applicable no matter what. So, you know, building business case and ensuring adoption and things like that. It was an interesting chat. Craig from Crown also had a session of his own on that day and talked about their initiative of leave no tech behind. And so what they're doing from a technology perspective to make sure that their technicians are well enabled in the field to make sure that they have access to everything they need to have access to from history to knowledge to support and all of the different pieces of technology in place, throughout the service journey to make sure that those technicians are properly equipped and enabled. So I also had an interesting conversation about the idea of both the benefits and potential debt of legacy. So talking about how when a company has had continued success or sustainable success for years and years and years and has, a reputable brand and has a very well-defined customer base and customer experience, you know, to what point does that sort of exacerbate or breed status quo, like embracing the status quo versus when and where and how do you select the points of opportunity for innovation or change? And I think it's a really interesting question. I think, you know, we talk about that quite a bit from the perspective of companies who are ‘servitizing’ the business or companies who want to introduce as a service offerings, because that's sort of a fundamental shift in how those companies are operating. This conversation was less in should we fundamentally change how we do business, more in do you miss the boat if you get very stuck in, well, what's working is working really, well, and don't look to external inspiration or other industries and how they're innovating. Like, is there potential to be disrupted if you aren't more actively seeking areas to innovate? I don't have the answer. I think certainly, you know, the idea of just leaning into the status quo and just avoiding change because what's working has been working and is working well. I don't think it's the right path. You know, I think companies like, well, I mean, we won't name names, but, you know, there are companies that have been significantly disrupted that aren't even around anymore that I think would agree. You know, you want to be looking toward the future and what's next and what's around you and what's happening and what could happen. But, you know, when you have customers that are very happy with the current ecosystem, you know, that does present a challenge of making sure that you dedicate the time and energy to that. And also that you continue to honor the legacy business that's working well while you also look for those areas of opportunity. I don't think any of you would be surprised to hear that AI came up in every session, and I would expect that, of course. You know, it's, again, something that is holding potential to add a lot of intelligence into companies, digital journeys and to really bring a new wave of capability. But I had an interesting chat with someone and the way he worded it is, I understand that AI is something we need to be thinking about, but it isn't everything. And I think that person was frustrated that, you know, it was so front and center that it seemed like there was maybe not enough space to be talking about some of the other things. And I think it's an important reminder for all of us. You know, I think, it's an important reminder for service leaders to keep in mind that as you look to what the impact of AI can be or how it can expand within your business, you also need to be keeping an eye on everything else. And that includes other technologies, but it also includes things like leadership and culture and engagement and, you know, soft skills and customer sentiment and, you know, all sorts of things. And I think, you know, when it comes to the event organizers in this space and the technology providers, you know, it's also important to keep perspective on the fact that while AI is uniquely positioned to really change a lot in terms of how intelligently and how automated and how, you know, modern operations can become, there are still a lot of other factors in play within these businesses from a technology standpoint and far beyond that these folks are needing help with, that they're seeking knowledge on, that they are wanting to interact with resources and with one another on. And so I think this idea of, yes, AI is definitely something that we need to be talking about and thinking about and learning about and discovering. And we need to continue thinking about and learning about and sharing about all of the other things that are on the minds of service leaders today and into the future. So those were my tidbits from the event. It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to catch more of the content that was being presented. However, I did talk to a few folks there and plan to reach out to some others who were sharing insights on other topics to see if they would be willing to come here on the podcast and share some of those insights with you as well. So stay tuned, and hopefully we'll have more for you soon. 

You can take a look at the article that I wrote summarizing my keynote at futureoffieldservice.com and you can find a bunch of other things there as well. If you enjoy the UNSCRIPTED podcast, I hope you'll take an opportunity to rate or leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. The podcast is published in partnership with IFS. You can learn more at ifs.com. And as always, thank you for listening.