Episode 290

In this episode of the Unscripted Podcast, host Sarah Nicastro Sarah shares what stood out to her from last week’s Field Service Europe event in Amsterdam. She discusses how industry leaders like Yasir Sheikh advocate for a shift from traditional service models to proactive, value-driven strategies, the role of change management in technology adoption, the interconnectedness of employee engagement, and how digitalization is reshaping customer interactions.

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Episode Highlights:

Sarah - 00:00:00:

What he was talking about here is just the reality that we talk about a lot on the podcast and in future of field services content of there's a lot of opportunity today to redefine how we are delivering service in ways that are both more efficient, but also provide a better outcome to customers. And so I think it's time we really reflect on what that means for everyone's business and the people that are not already down that path need to be thinking about how it fits for them. So when we think about predictive service or remote capabilities, there's different technologies that can play a role in evolving your service delivery model.

Welcome to the Unscripted podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. I am just back from Amsterdam for Field Service Europe and thought I would share some of what stood out to me from my two days at the event. So this is a little bit of my personal highlights, what I took note of, I obviously was not able to attend every session. So this isn't a comprehensive review, but just a bit of an overview for folks that maybe weren't able to be at the event or were there and are curious what stood out in my mind.

So on day one, there was a keynote from Yasir Sheikh with Honeywell talking about predictive service. And there were a couple little terms that he used that I thought were clever and accurate. So one was break-fix is breaking the bank. The second was the status quo is too slow. So really what he was talking about here is just the reality that we talk about a lot on the podcast and in Future of Field Services content, there's a lot of opportunity today to redefine how we are delivering service in ways that are both more efficient, but also provide a better outcome to customers. And so I think it's time we really reflect on what that means for everyone's business. And the people that are not already down that path need to be thinking about how it fits for them. So when we think about predictive service or remote capabilities. There's different technologies that can play a role in evolving your service delivery model. There's different options that are a fit for different types of organizations or different industries, different customer relationships. But the reality is to Yasir's point, break-fix is breaking the bank and the status quo is too slow. So it's time to be looking at more modern options.

There was a question from the audience that morning about the idea of how do we monetize predictive or remote service? And I think this is a really interesting question. It's one that comes up a lot in these types of conversations. And to me, this is really where the idea of service transformation connects into business transformation, because being able to monetize predictive service or remote service capabilities really comes down to changing the conversation with your customers from more of a transactional conversation, which is what you're having in the break-fix scenario, to a value-based conversation. So one that is tied to the outcomes that you are providing, regardless of the service delivery model that is helping you achieve those outcomes. So I think when people ask that question or say that they're struggling to have customers be willing to pay for remote resolution, it's always sort of an indicator to me that they're not, they're changing the operational aspects of the business, but they're not. In parallel changing the commercial conversations with their customers to be based around that value.

There was next a panel discussion talking about first mover risks and rewards. So being an early adopter and when is that beneficial or when is it potentially risky? And the takeaway I took from this conversation is the idea of be an early adopter of innovation, not necessarily technology. So being a first mover isn't about adopting every new technology feature that comes along. It's about continually looking at how you innovate and improve your business. And sometimes that will mean leveraging the latest technology. Sometimes it's a process change. Sometimes it's a new offering to your customers, etc. Really thinking about it from the perspective of the business challenges and the business opportunities, not just from the perspective of leveraging every different facet of technology that's available in a non-cohesive manner. There was also the point made that sometimes first mover doesn't necessarily mean getting ahead if change management is overlooked and therefore adoption is poor. So the panelists shared some examples of when their organizations were first movers, but ultimately fell behind because of the execution of that investment. So you can be early to the game, but if you don't do a good job of getting stakeholder buy-in and managing that change, you may ultimately find yourself behind someone who is a little bit later to adopt, but better at the process of implementing that tool or technology into their operations.

I had some sort of ad hoc chats with a couple of different folks around AI and The consensus seemed to be that, yes, it's important, and they certainly want to take part in conversations around the development of AI and how best to leverage it, etc. But also feel that having those conversations needs to be well-balanced with having conversations about other areas of service. So are we doing everything we need to do within our core business? Are we fully leveraging the technologies that we already have in place? Have we reflected on and optimized our processes, etc.? So just kind of reflecting on the fact that, yes, it's an important technological advancement and one that will certainly have an impact on our space, but that there is a lot of other pieces to the puzzle to continue talking about.

I hosted a session on day one with Marcus Bazzi, who is the product owner for OneService at Alfa Laval. Alfa Laval is currently in the midst of a global service transformation with IFS. And Marcus spoke about the catalyst for that transformation, the selection of IFS as its field service management provider, what the key criteria were, what the objectives of the transformation are, and where they are in that process. So the company currently is about 70% through their global deployment and expects to complete that process in January. And what I really loved about the session Marcus and I did is how he shared the success they've had around managing change. So change management is often the area of challenge, friction, failure, if we're being honest, in a lot of transformation projects. And that is commonly something that's brought up when I ask people, what lesson did you learn? What would you do differently? It would be that change management didn't get enough focus. It would be that change management didn't get enough focus. It wasn't planned well enough. It was under-prioritized. It was cut from the budget. It was rushed through, et cetera. And we know that it's critically important. We talk about it all the time, but time and time again, companies somehow fall into the trap of overlooking it or not doing it thoroughly enough. And what Marcus shared is the effort that Alfa Laval put into planning for change management. And they have this process that consists of a part that they do before each location is next to have their turn to implement. So they have a team that goes in before. That area's deployment begins. They familiarize them with the solution. They talk about the why behind the project. They ask or they take questions. They listen to feedback. They give people an opportunity to really understand what's coming before they get to the point where they're asking them to do anything with it. And then they have a four-week hypercare timeframe for each location as they're deploying. So the team is very hands-on in providing support walking them through the use of the technology, making sure they feel comfortable with it, making sure that they can ask any questions they have, get any support they need, give any feedback that they have. And then they have a support process for after each location has deployed so that folks know where they can go if they have issues or they have questions or they have thoughts about what would make the solution better. So Mark has talked about this three-step process that they have, but also shared, some anecdotes from the company's CEO about how that focus on change management has made this the smoothest technology deployment that they have ever had. And it's because they not only thought about that three-step process, but they have made sure stakeholders have been involved since early on. They make sure that everyone feels they have an outlet to ask questions and share feedback. So it was really nice to take part in a session where it was a storybook, a story of change management success and the benefit that's provided to Alfa Laval through this process versus one where you're ultimately sharing lessons learned. So that was really cool.

On day two, Marco Hugo Gutierrez of Tetra Pak opened with a keynote on the new economics of service profitability. Absolutely loved this session. Marco talked about the importance of having harmony between your financials, employee engagement, and customer experience. So he talked about it in the form of being three sides of a triangle and how each are equally important. He gave some examples of what happens within the business if any one of those three sides of the triangle are out of balance. So if you stop focusing on any one of the three of those, there's specific challenges that are commonly going to surface. He then went on to share some of the specific steps Tetra Pak has taken in each of those three areas. To make improvements, to make sure that there's equal and ample focus being put into each of them, not any one of them, but all of them, and talked about the impact that's had on their business. I think the reality is that of those three sides of the triangle, if there's one that companies are going to overlook, it's employee engagement. And there was some really good reinforcement within what he shared about why that is foolish and how it will harm the business. If you are really looking at the impact and specifically the long-term impact of that type of mentality. And I just think looking at the interconnectedness of those three things and keeping in mind the importance of each of them and the weighting of each of them, it's such an important mentality and he delivered the session very well.

There was a panel discussion around how digitalization is changing customer touchpoints, which are still important, which are maybe becoming obsolete, et cetera. And Alvaro Pombo moderated that session. And I loved, he gave the reminder at the beginning about how Jeff Bezos has an empty chair in every meeting to represent the customer. And it's such a small thing, but I think it's a powerful reminder to be thinking in every scenario, in every decision about that customer lens and how will this impact our customer? How does this benefit our customer? What would our customers say about this change? Particularly when you're thinking about, do our customers still want to have to place a call to make an appointment? Or would all of our customers be comfortable if placing a call in this specific scenario was not an option? So really thinking about each and every decision with the customer in mind.

Kiera Maiello of Thermo Fisher spoke about the importance of global data harmonization in the business, not only in operations, but in commercial and beyond. And she said, and gave again some insight on how Thermo has tackled that harmonization, which was great information on its own, but also becomes doubly important for companies that are looking to better leverage or further leverage AI, which is most. So that was a good session as well.

Johnson Controls and AECOM spoke about revolutionizing field service decarbonization, which I was A, happy to see being covered, and B, happy for the specifics that they gave on not only the growing importance of decarbonization and the various stakeholders that it is mattering more and more to, but also some of the opportunities specifically within field service to have a positive impact. There was a panel discussion on work-life balance, and it was a great conversation. There were a lot of good things covered. But what stood out to me is that each of the three leaders, that Maureen was speaking to in this session, all emphasize the importance of FaceTime, face-to-face time with and among their Teams and getting to know your reports one-to-one. So these leaders spoke about how it's nearly impossible to be a good leader and to help your reports progress through their career and also to identify when they're having a struggle if you don't invest the time to get to know them on a personal level and just what difference that makes when it comes to understanding what work-life balance means to each of them, understanding what their priorities are, keeping in mind that things like work-life balance, even mental health, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. So it really comes down to getting to know people well, one-on-one. And often I think people look for a shortcut to that because it's time-consuming, it can be expensive. But when you have Teams who are often in isolation, it's so incredibly important as a leader to invest that time.

Barrett Haugren of Tetra Pak shared about the company's one-service transformation and talked about their four key pillars. So people, process, systems, and data and shared some great lessons learned. Barrett has been with Tetra Pak for, I think, 30 years and has been through a number of different transformation journeys and had some really good input on how they've structured this transformation, what they're learning as they go, and things for the audience to keep in mind. In the closing panel, it was sort of an ask me anything, ask the experts anything. One person asked, they said, AI will standardize a lot. So what does future differentiation look like? Where does it come from if we standardize a lot of these touch points or possibly remove a lot of touch points? I thought it was a really good question, and I was intrigued by the responses. So one of the participants said, that differentiation will always come from the warm feeling, which can come from many different things. To some customers, that's the personal relationship. To some customers, that's quick and seamless resolution, whatever it is that's going to give them that feeling. Another said they don't believe AI will affect differentiation. And the third sort of clarified that in saying, AI ultimately should assist in areas where we don't have differentiated value and highlight the areas where we do and we're strong in our differentiation. And I really like that point. I think I agree that if you understand your customers well, and you know what matters to them, AI isn't something that's going to take away or risk taking away your competitive differentiation. It's something that's going to minimize a lot of the noise that is not your competitors differentiation really interesting stuff.

So that is my personal highlights from Field Service Europe 2024. It was wonderful to see so many friendly faces and have an opportunity to catch up with some different folks. I know I shared on social during Unleashed a few weeks ago, how much the opportunity to get together in person with people means to me. I just talked about that in the lens of the leadership context and it's just true all around. There is I love Teams and I love Zoom. They are great tools, but there's no substitute for being able to get together with people in real life. So it was a pleasure to be there. Although after three weeks of travel, I'm also very happy to be home and looking forward to staying put for a while, but we'll certainly look forward to the next. So we will have some more coverage on futurefieldservice.com. So be sure to keep an eye out there for things related to each of these topics. We recently released a report that we did with, with our standout 50 leaders. So if you haven't had a look for that, please jump over to the website and take a look. There's a lot of great information in there. And so that can all be found at futurefieldservice.com. The Unscripted podcast is published in partnership with IFS. You can learn more at ifs.com. And as always, thank you for listening.