Servitization: “The delivery of a service component as an added value, when providing products.” Wikipedia
“70% of manufacturing companies that were on the Fortune 1000 list ten years ago have vanished. Survivors include IBM, Boeing, General Motors, John Deere, Rolls Royce, and Philips – they are market leaders because they continuously renew offerings, recharge capabilities and redesign their organisations.” PA Consulting 2014
If you haven’t already please read “Made to serve” Timothy Baines and Howard Lightfoot, often called the “the Bible of servitization.” It defines an existing trend that manufacturers have needed to adopt in mature markets, to transform themselves and their offerings to their customers. Sounds familiar, right?
In an article featured in The Sunday Times of London, Baines covers the past, present, and future of servitization:
- Working with Xerox’s Managed Print Services, reports Professor Baines, customers get “document solutions” – not just printing equipment. He writes, “Contracts are based on pay per use, over two years or more, with risks managed by the manufacturer, and a commitment to rolling process improvement and cost savings.”
- Rolls-Royce’s TotalCare service plan guarantees product performance by taking responsibility for it. Rolls-Royce doesn’t simply sell an airplane engine – they sell the hours they keep the engine up and running. This not only increases customer intimacy and service revenues – it has identified new market opportunities. “Services such as TotalCare,” writes Baines, “have supported the creation of new low-cost airlines.”
The Customer Experience Is Everything
Professor Baines said regarding the customer experience…
“The practice of servitization is shifting the manufacturer’s primary perspective from the product or service itself to the overall customer experience. Everything a manufacturer does to develop a product or deliver a service must ultimately pay off in providing the customer with the right experience they need or anticipate from the use of the product or the service outcome.
It’s precisely this customer experience-driven value proposition that a manufacturer committed to servitization should sell to customers. The promise of adding value through servitization holds continually, throughout the product’s useful life. Ideally the manufacturer will, at every stage, over-deliver on the servitization promise, providing a total experience that delightfully exceeds the customer’s expectations for value”
Delivering a great customer service as a differentiator
Top 3 factors consumers base their choice of a new service provider on:
- 60% Customer Service
- 64% Price
- 49% Products
The 6-top global customer service frustrations:
- Having to contact a service provider several times for the same reason
- Waiting on hold for a prolonged period
- Dealing with unfriendly or impolite CSRs (Customer Service Representative)
- Having a service provider deliver something different, from what they originally promised
- Having to repeat the same information to multiple CSRs or across multiple channels
- Dealing with employees or self-service sites that cannot answer their questions
Number 1 customer service expectation is about time
- 71% of consumers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a Service Provider (SP) can do in order to provide good service
- 55% of global consumers now start online (of which 28% use a mobile device, instead of phone or computer) to solve their support issue
- 75% of companies view customer service as a competitive differentiator (up 18% in 2 years) (2016 figures)
- 62% of global consumers switched SP’s due to poor customer services (4% increase 2012 to 2013)
- 45 percent of executives with Web or mobile self-service capabilities report measurable reductions in phone inquiries and 39 percent report less email traffic
eesyQ provides a great customer experience “digital front-end” tool and the supplier / service provider with a lower cost of operation through huge savings:
eesyQ has developed a collaborative platform that enables intuitive management of all the assets & service contracts within an organization. Thanks to eesyQ’s mobile technology you can use the eesyQ app within any type of business setting, even if no one uses PCs or has a desktop. We believe a significant part of handling orders and planning service requests can be automated.
We simplify the communication and activities between providers & customers, delivering key insights to management teams and enabling workers to focus on their core tasks.
With eesyQ’s mobile technology, it’s possible to automate communication to suppliers on recurrent topics, avoiding repetition. Reduce the communication with suppliers and service providers to 2 clicks. Enable requests in seconds rather than hours or days, from any location, for any asset, to any supplier, at any time. This allows your employees to focus 100% of their time on core operations. eesyQ centralizes assets and supplier management communication in ONE mobile app. The tool enables both end-users and service provider to directly communicate with each other, thus eliminating unused customer web-portals which lead to more phone calls or e-mails. The result is massive productivity and time savings.
Order & request service in just 2 clicks!
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The eesyQ solution, part of the ISN-Partners portfolio delivers the next generation of service and supply chain management. This includes indoor and outdoor event reporting, ticketing and customer / supplier follow-up. Hosted via a B2B platform it enables participants to “communicate” specific to all assets and services, direct to providers within a collaboration platform.
The platform also integrates with existing ERP, Ticketing and other enterprise systems, and provides a discreet mobile communication channel which can then be used for additional information exchange between participants.
The perfect mobile collaboration tool for your MPS offering, which decentralizes and automates all communication from users to suppliers, thus eliminating the need for lengthy and expensive call center operations, inbound telephone calls, or emails.