Is your service team loyal to customers? Do they create value for them in every service delivered? Do your customers trust your service teams? These questions are simple to ask but difficult to answer and only leadership teams could answer them. It is because the leadership teams determine the purpose of service delivery, set the goal for service teams, and define the value that service teams must create for their customers.
Leadership communication is an effective tool and if used wisely it could help teams achieve greater value for the customers. It can inspire people to connect to a purpose. However in order to use the tool service leaders must take significant steps in the direction of creating a purpose and connecting to the team. As we know that not everyone processes information in the same way. It is necessary for the service leaders to work on building a service mindset in its people.
The service mindset is basically an outlook, which is about seeing the entire service delivery process from a value creation perspective.
Why Service Mindset is Important Now
Massive commoditization and rising customer expectations have pushed the service companies to create an edge through factors like customer experience, fast turnaround time, and ethical practices. While the modern technology is available to companies with the field service operations, it is the mindset they need to get on to build their competitive edge. Here are 3 ways how service leaders can help teams develop service mindset in??
3 Ways to Develop Service Mindset in Field Teams
Is mindset even a teachable thing? Can you make your service team think in a certain way? Perhaps so. Leading American psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck says that people usually have two types of mindset; fixed mindset and growth mindset.
Where people with a fixed mindset fear challenges and do not believe in learning and development, those with a growth mindset show resilience in the face of setbacks and nurture a strong belief in learning and development. According to Dr. Dweck, it is possible for people to develop a new mindset through learning, experience, and practices. Field service leaders can use her techniques to create a service mindset in field teams, which is also a key characteristic of people in a growth mindset. Here are 3 things that must be done to achieve a service mindset.
1. Connect the Service Team to a Higher Purpose
Have you ever asked your field service teams the purpose of service delivery? Is it to fix a machine or to reduce the downtime of the factory or to make the customers happy or help them manage a profitable business? Why is your team doing what they are doing? What is the ultimate goal of the service?
Research has proven that teams working for higher purposes are more loyal to customers and have more dedication towards the company and its clients. According to a survey by Net Impact, two-third of the workforce are willing to take a 15% pay cut if they find the purpose of their job inspiring.
As a service leader, it is your duty to communicate the purpose of their job to them, and then inspire them to take up this purpose as their career goal till they are working in your organization.
According to professor Andrew Wharton, while the employees want to have a perfect timeline in their jobs, they do not want the same for the purpose. He says that purpose must be communicated as a loft idea, such as instead of saying making a customer happy, putting the smile on the customers? face is more effective.
2. Empower your service teams
The next step is to empower your field service teams to act on that purpose. For instance, you can provide them with a field service management app to effectively track their schedule and report back to the office executives, as and when needed using the app. This use would reduce the turnaround and help them manage their jobs more effectively.
Before you look for field service management solutions, you need to discuss the challenges with all the stakeholders, including the field service teams.
Often it is the service teams whose actual needs get neglected, as they are not included in the discussion. Such decision-making behaviour acts as an impediment to selecting the best field service management software for the company. Not only should leadership teams bring them on the discussion table, but also keep their needs at priority while selecting the right tools for them.
3. Get Data Insight for Decision Support
How would you know whether the technique is working for your business or not? You need to know that your field service teams are adhering to the new requirements and that they are complying with the internal regulations. While most companies claim to use a field service management system for their business, often it has been found that those systems are not backed by data analytics capabilities.
Lack of the data analytics capabilities in the tools means no insight for decision support. Using a powerful tool with data analytics capabilities could help you generate insight that would let you identify patterns and sport anomalies in your business before they turn into a problem.
The Move Forward
Service landscape is getting competitive with new entrants and increased use of technology in the service sector. However, one thing that can help hold your ground strong is the service team that is determined to make your customers happy.
