management training – jimbaston.com

Preventative Maintenance for Business Promotion – Step 4

Jim — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:29:19 +0000

An important step in any maintenance activity is to ensure that the moving parts are properly lubricated and that there is a regular lubricating schedule that is consistent with manufacturers’ specifications. Lubricating moving parts is critical. Proper lubrication will reduce noise, heat and extend asset life. Failure to lubricate will result in premature failure.

Management Support is the Lubricant

Our initiative to engage our field team in business development needs regular lubrication too. Lubrication is vital to prevent premature failure of our efforts. Management support is the lubricant of the initiative. Consistent and engaged management support will contribute to the efficiency and longevity of the efforts of our field service team. Initiatives that are poorly supported by management will never achieve the planned performance levels and will lose whatever momentum they have quickly.

As you assess management support as part of your PM program, consider the following:

How often do you speak of the initiative? Is it part of most conversations?
Do you speak of service promotion by field professionals as part of the overall strategy to serve the customer? Are the proactive efforts of the field team referred to as a service to the customer?
Do you regularly provide training for your team to enable them to perform capably and comfortably?
Do you offer reminders and refreshers to keep the initiative fresh? Do you provide an opportunity such as role-playing to let your field service professionals practice their customer conversations in a safe environment?
Do you make time to regularly coach the team on the desired behaviours?

Providing the coaching and support needed to maintain momentum and achieve desired results is difficult. Because coaching and support is not “urgent” (like responding to an emergency breakdown for example), and the results of the efforts tend not to be immediately visible, it often takes a back seat to other opportunities. Management must be disciplined. The effort is worth it, however. Research shows that the most important component of any initiative requiring behaviour change is how management introduces and supports the initiative, not the quality of the initiative itself.[1]

Next time we will consider the importance of spare parts and how providing the security of this backup will help keep the processes running smoothly.

Let’s Connect

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.”
– W. Edwards Deming

[1] This series of blogs is based on an article published for Field Service News – https://www.fieldservicenews.com

[2] James Kirkpatrick, Transferring Learning to Behaviour

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SMART Meeting Requests

Jim — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 13:00:46 +0000

As managers and field service professionals, we are often in a position to arrange meetings with customers and co-workers. Using meeting requests are an excellent way to get the meeting synchronized in everyone’s calendar. However, meeting requests often lack key information and this can cause extra work for all participants.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can borrow from the SMART Email concept and write meeting requests that save time and add value.

SMART Emails

Several months ago, I wrote a blog on SMART emails. You may recall that SMART is an acronym intended to help us to write emails that stand out and that communicate professionalism and value.

S = Subject Line
M = Message
A = Action
R = Response
T = Timeline

You Can Use the SMART approach for Meeting Requests

We can use the same approach to create meeting requests that communicate relevant meeting information and help attendees come prepared. This will also reflect positively on our professionalism and competence.

Sample Scenario

Let’s assume that we have arranged to have a conference call with a customer next month to review an upcoming project. Specifically, the call is to discuss the site preparations needed to employ a large crane to lift a piece of equipment (let’s call it a “widget”) onto the roof of the customer’s building. There are to be three participants in the meeting, namely the customer (Mary Smith), the representative from the crane rental company (John Doe) and ourselves. A conference number and password has been arranged.

In a situation like this, it is not unusual to receive a meeting request like the one below:

When Mary and John accept the invitation, their calendars are populated with the above information. Five weeks from now when they see that they have a conference call on their calendar, there is very little information that will assist them. As a result, they may have to spend time and energy just to understand the exact purpose of the meeting. Chances are they will likely not attend the meeting fully prepared and valuable time will be wasted.

Applying the SMART Approach

Now let’s consider what we can do to apply the SMART email approach to this meeting request.

S = Subject line:	In an email, the subject line is like the headline in a newspaper. It should garner attention and provide the reader with an idea of what the email is about. The same can be true of a meeting request. Although our calendar invitation may not actually have a “subject line”, the headline should be included in the event description. This is where you can put a few summary words that will communicate the key purpose of the meeting and provide attendees with an understanding of what will take place before opening up the calendar event. There is also a field typically dedicated to “Location” where contact details can be included. In a face-to-face meeting it will likely be the meeting location. For conference calls or web meetings, it should include phone numbers, passwords or other connection instructions and information.
M = Message:	Most calendar invitations have a “notes” section. Here you should include important details for the meeting, including the agenda.
A = Action:	Like emails, you want to be clear of any actions that you expect participants to take in preparation for the meeting. For example, if Mary is to distribute electronic copies of the site map, or if we are to make inquiries with the city regarding a road closing permit, this should be clearly indicated in the notes section.
R = Response:	Responses that are required before the meeting should be identified, including how the response is to be provided.
T = Time Line:	The time line for the response or action requested should also be requested in the meeting request.

Revised Meeting Request Using the SMART Approach

Let’s consider rewriting the meeting that we are organizing with Mary Smith and John Doe using the SMART approach. The meeting request might look like this:

A meeting request of this nature provides all attendees with the information they need to be prepared and productive participants to the meeting. Notice some actions that can be taken to make the meeting request more valuable:

Our Events Summary makes a reference to the notes below.
We have included a reminder seven days prior to the event. This can remind us to send a confirming SMART email to the meeting participants and follow up on any actions not yet completed.
Although we did not use this feature, in most if not all calendar programs, meeting requests can also include attachments that may be referred to in the meeting. If this is the case, refer to the attachment in the notes so that they do not get overlooked.

SMART meeting requests provide us with the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and convey our professionalism and competency. It may take a little more time to set up, but it will save everyone time in the end.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“When you go to meetings or auditions and you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

– Paula Abdul

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6 Steps to Support Your Technicians in Making Beneficial Recommendations to Customers

Jim — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 14:37:01 +0000

When I managed a service business several years ago, we introduced a new initiative where we wanted to stress the importance that we in management had in ensuring the success of the project and we adopted the motto “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” We challenged ourselves to measure our performance through the lens of that motto and, if performance was not up to plan, ask ourselves as managers what we can personally do to get things on track. Especially in the way of supporting our technicians when it came to making beneficial recommendations to our customers.

I have the good fortune to work with businesses that have embarked on a strategy of engaging their field service teams in promoting their products and services and, through this work, I am reminded of that motto. Even though it is the proactive actions of the technicians that actually generate the opportunities, it is squarely the responsibility of those that manage them to ensure that they act as expected and that they act well.

With that in mind, here are six steps that you can take to encourage and support your team to ensure they perform at their best when identifying and presenting opportunities to help their customers.

Teach your technicians how to do what you want them to do. For some of your technicians, speaking to the customer seems to come naturally but for the majority it is uncomfortable and feels “foreign”. Conversations such as these however are a skill and, like any skill, can be learned. Our job as manager is to teach our technicians what to do so that they have a studied approach they can apply when the next opportunity arises.
Let them practice. If you learned to drive on a manual transmission vehicle, you may recall how uncomfortable and perhaps terrifying it was when you first started. Everything seemed so complicated, particularly since you had to do so many things at once while still keeping your attention on what was going on around you. With practice, you soon became more comfortable – to the point that now, you probably don’t even think about the individual steps you are taking to drive smoothly through traffic. This is the same for engaging in customer conversations about recommended products and services. Practice allows your technicians to learn the skills more quickly and in a “safe” environment. More practice leads to higher comfort with the approach and when they do find an opportunity to help a customer, they will be much more likely to take the initiative to make beneficial recommendations.
Recognize efforts from the customers’ perspective. Technician recommendations that can help your customers operate more effectively are a valuable service – as important a service as fixing or maintaining the equipment itself. Instead of recognizing the technicians efforts solely from your bottom line, acknowledge how their efforts have contributed to the overall success of the customer.
Share customer satisfaction results. If you solicit customer feedback about your services, I encourage you to add a question or two to measure the customer satisfaction about the technicians’ proactive efforts. For example, you could ask something like, “How satisfied were you with our technician’s ability to make recommendations that can help you run your business more effectively?” As these scores trend upward, it will reinforce the value of your technicians’ efforts and help them realize that the customer really does see value in their proactive recommendations.
Seek and act on feedback from your technicians. Ask your technicians how they feel about their efforts in executing the strategy and what they feel would be helpful to keep them focused and on-track. Through an open channel you will get great insight into what is working and what is potentially holding your team back. Whenever possible, act on their feedback quickly to demonstrate the value of their insight and the importance that you place on their initiative.
Join your technicians in the field. If practical, set aside some time to ride along with your techs to meet key customers and observe them in action. This provides a wonderful opportunity to provide on-site coaching for the technician about their proactive efforts in real time. It also allows you to meet the customer and reinforce why your technicians are asked to make recommendations and the added value it provides for your customers.

Technicians who make proactive recommendations of products and services that will help the customer be better off are providing an exceptional service. As managers, our role is to take the steps that will help them execute this plan as effectively as possible.

Jim Baston

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”

– William H. Johnsen

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