Sometimes we take for granted what is in front of us. It is amazing that businesses do not utilise members of staff who show great skill to develop others. In this article Steve gives us some insights into how this is being achieved by some high performing companies.
Over the last few years many service managers and directors have faced the challenge of improving their overall contribution to the business, and service is seen as a key operation that can contribute more to company success, keeping customers who are enthusiastic about using the company’s equipment and services, and buying more product(s).
Expecting to achieve such aims by the simplistic concept of using engineers to “generate” business has either produced a miserable failure, or temporary and limited results, before sliding back to where they were before. The usual reason for unsatisfactory results was because to “generate” business has often been a euphemism for some form of badly disguised selling mechanism. It has been difficult to determine which incentives (rewards) used to encourage engineers have been effective or justified, when it is clear that none really work well as only a few engineers ever take part in these types of schemes. Well-intentioned managers treating the engineers as substitute sales staff or simple “lead generators” are doing these experts a disservice – they are customer focused service engineers. These same companies never make the mistake of sending their sales persons out to fix equipment or customers, so they should understand the role of engineer and utilise such skills to the best advantage.
© Downton service management consultants 2009
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