I recently read Daniel Pink’s book, Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and found that the conclusions from the book are directly relevant for those managers who are looking for ways to encourage their technicians to proactively promote their products and services.  These conclusions made me question, “Is it time to stop paying technicians for leads?”

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Rewards

In Drive, Pink presents compelling evidence that extrinsic rewards for completing certain tasks – for example, external rewards such as commissions, lump sum payments, etc. – do not always work and can even cause harm.  According to Pink, this is particularly true where the task is not routine and when it entails thinking and creativity.

The evidence suggests that creative tasks, such as evaluating and presenting the best solution for addressing a particular need, provide their own rewards in the doing.  These are called intrinsic rewards because the reward comes from performing the task rather than from an external source.  In situations like these, it is the reward of actually completing the task itself that largely motivates the employee to continue.

This last point is consistent with what I have experienced in my work with technicians.  There are many field service professionals who naturally bring ideas to the customer without any prompting or incentives.  They do this because they see it as part of the service they provide.  They get satisfaction and take pride from the fact that they are truly helping the customer.  They don’t need extrinsic rewards to get them to act; their reward comes from the act itself.

The Problem with Extrinsic Rewards

The problem with extrinsic rewards is that they can diminish intrinsic motivation for doing a task and turn that task from an interesting part of the job, into a menial chore.  But that is not all that Pink found to be problematic about extrinsic rewards.  Diminishing intrinsic motivation is just the first of the “Seven Deadly Flaws”[1] as described by the author.  The other six flaws of extrinsic rewards are:

2. They can diminish performance.
3. They can crush creativity.
4. They can crowd out good behaviour.
5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behaviour.
6. They can become addictive.
7. They can foster short-term thinking.

What Can Be Done?

So, what can we do if we want to encourage this proactive behaviour on the part of our technicians?  Here are some ideas:

• Ensure that the baseline compensation is fair and adequate.
• Constantly reinforce the fact that the act of identifying opportunities to help and speaking to the customer about them is an integral part of the service provided. As part of this, showcase examples of where technicians have acted in this way and how it specifically has helped the customer.
• Openly praise and provide feedback to reinforce desired behaviours.
• Offer rewards that are not contingent on the individual act of promoting services, but which recognize group-wide achievement. Pink calls these types of rewards “now that” rewards – as in, “now that you have achieved this, here is a reward to recognize that achievement.”  These are rewards that are not typically communicated in advance.  Pink cautions that this approach can lose its effectiveness if the “now that” rewards become expected (or contingent) rewards.

In the end, I think it all comes down to how we think about the task of making recommendations to customers.  If we see this task as part of the service, then we should treat and support it like we do all other services.  If we don’t provide extrinsic rewards for completing routine repairs for example, does it really make sense to do so for making recommendations?  The evidence suggests that offering extrinsic rewards may have the opposite effect to what we intend.

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

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what
you want them to do because they want to do it.”

 – Dwight D. Eisenhower

[1] Daniel H. Pink, Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York:  Riverhead Books, 2009), p. 59.

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For me, the end of December is a time for review of the year past and planning for the year ahead. The welcome change of pace I typically experience during the holidays naturally leads to this type of reflection. If it is the same for you, here are 7 indicators to help you take the pulse of the extent to which the Proactive Service® approach is embedded as part of your culture within your service team.

The Miriam-Webster On-Line Dictionary defines culture as, “a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization.”¹ It is the mindset of why we act the way we do. Instilling a Proactive Service culture has proven successful for service companies for this very reason. The culture underlying Proactive Service is based on using our proximity, knowledge and expertise to identify and recommend products and services that will ultimately help the customer to be better off. Although this approach results in more sales and other great benefits such as higher levels of customer trust, satisfaction and retention, the why we do it is because it allows us to enhance the level and quality of service that we provide.

So, how are you progressing at embedding a Proactive Service® culture within your team? Although financial results are an important indicator of success, here we want to consider how we act that contributes that success.

1. The Talk Around the Water Cooler. The words that your managers and technicians use about proactive business development are a big indicator of how people look upon the initiative. Does their language sound more like sales talk rather than service talk? Are solutions described in how they benefit the customer or how they benefit your company?

2. Observable Coaching and Support. Do your service/safety meetings include a coaching and development segment? Does management appear genuinely engaged in helping their team be better at some of the “softer” interpersonal skills and do they allow time for practice? Do their actions reinforce their words?

3. Ongoing Product and Service Knowledge. Does your field service team take pride in the overall extent of the services your company can provide? Do they recognize that their knowledge and understanding of your services and capabilities which are outside their areas of expertise allows them to add greater value to their relationships because they will be in a better position to recognize ways in which you can help? Does your management team update the technicians on new products and services and refresh them on existing ones? Do your technicians take the initiative to expand their product and service knowledge on their own?

4. Ownership of Processes and Systems. Do your processes and systems accurately capture and track opportunities from the field. Does your team take “ownership” of the process? If a “crack” in the process is discovered, does your team get concerned and are steps immediately taken to address and correct the problem?

5. Sales vs. Service. Is there a positive and respectful relationship between your sales and service teams? Do they speak positively of one another? Do both groups support the other when things don’t go as planned? Do they share common goals?

6. Proactive Service Promotion. Do you promote your Proactive Service® approach to your customers? Does your sales team use your approach to differentiate your company to win more service contracts?

7. Customer feedback. Do your customers share your enthusiasm for the benefits of the Proactive Service approach? Do they recognize they are better off? Are they telling others about the great work that you do for them?

All of these are indicators that point to the extent to which the Proactive Service® approach is becoming embedded in your service culture. We have also created a self-evaluation checklist that will allow you to evaluate your progress against Proactive Service® best practices. Please take a few moments to complete this form.

By taking the time during the holidays to reflect on these areas, you can identify opportunities for improvement and begin to plan the steps necessary to further encourage and enhance the enthusiasm of your team. By the first week of January you can be well on your way to making 2016 the best year yet.

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

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

– Peter Drucker

¹http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture

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When service firms think of business development as a tactic they to tend focus on short-term activities that may achieve immediate gain at the expense of long-term growth. A tactical approach focuses on the question: “How can I get my service technicians to be more assertive in promoting our products and services to our customers?” The downside of the tactical focus is that short term tactical thinking can sometimes lead us to think of how the customer can serve our needs rather than how we can serve the needs of our customer. We may look at the opportunity in terms of “… let’s leverage our customer relationships to win more business.” In addition, a short term, tactical approach may obscure much larger opportunities to truly build a differentiated service offering.

Firms that look at business development by technicians as a differentiating business strategy, look at their relationships with their customers differently. They tend to focus their efforts in ways that better serve the customers’ needs rather than their own. Their thinking changes to “… how can we capitalize on our knowledge and experience to help our customers be better off for having known us? How can we use this approach to serve our customers so well and so uniquely that they would never think of going anywhere else?” This builds more credibility with the customer and leads the service firm to look for strategies that formalize the day-to-day opportunity identification efforts of the technician into an integral component of their service rather than an add-on to it.

This difference in perspective can mean a subtle difference in approach – and a big difference to long-term results. Which perspective guides your firm? Here are four questions you can ask yourself to find out.

1. Is opportunity identification part of our service deliverable?

Let’s go back to the question, “How can we help our customers be better off for having worked with us?” When we take this perspective, we view the act of finding new opportunities not as an “add-on” activity for techs to do “while they are there”, but an integral part of the technician’s expected service deliverable. Their ability to recognize and recommend actions that their customers can take becomes as important as their ability to keep the equipment running in tip-top condition. With this focus on business development as a strategy rather than a tactic, we can start to implement specific tools and processes that formalize this “opportunity identification” role.

2. Do your technicians recognize the valuable service they provide by making recommendations to help their customers be more successful?

Many of the technicians that I have met do not see their role as a salesperson. They tend to leave sales activities to the people with the expense accounts and fancy cars. What these technicians fail to see is that we are not asking them to sell at all. We are asking them to serve. By identifying and speaking with the customer about the actions that the customer can take that will help them improve operational performance, reduce costs, improve tenant satisfaction, etc. is a valuable part of the service.

3. Do your processes support your business development strategy?

There are implications from this approach on the processes used to support business development activities by technicians in the field. Because lead handling becomes just as important as lead generation, the successful firm will have to ensure that they have a failsafe process for handling leads from the field and following up on them in a timely manner.

4. Do you and your technicians have the skills to deliver on the strategy?

Skills development is also an integral part of the strategy. Service technicians will have to become as good at interpersonal skills as they are with their technical ones. Service management will need to be skilled at coaching and in opportunity management. Training on these interpersonal and communication skills will be seen as critical to performance, which in itself will drive improved learning and skills adoption.

These questions and many others are answered in our technician training program called The Proactive Service® Workshop. It has proven to be of great value to organizations of all sizes. Please click here for more information about this program. Let us help you transform your customer’s service experience.

When business development becomes part of the strategy rather than a tactic, our approach focuses on the needs of the customer and how we can profitably satisfy them. And that is what service is all about.

I welcome your feedback. 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

“All … can see these tactics whereby I conquer,
but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

– Sun Tzu

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“Actually John”, I replied, “they pay you for both – fixing things and looking good.”  John was not convinced.

I asked John if he had been to a wedding recently and it turns out he was just the month before.

“What did you wear?” I asked.

“Sports Jacket and dress shirt – no tie.”

“What day of the week was it?”

“Saturday.  Why?”

“Is that what you usually wear on a Saturday?”

“You’re kidding, right?”  John responded.  “It’s usually torn jeans and a stained T-shirt”.  John smiled broadly and looked around the room at his peers.

“Really?” I asked in mock astonishment.  “Why didn’t you wear those to the wedding?”

“Because you just don’t that’s why.  You dress up for a wedding.  It shows respect.”

“But surely John, you weren’t invited to look good, you were invited to share the joy of the bride and groom’s big day.”  I stated, paraphrasing what he had said earlier.

“This is different!  I was talking about work and the need to get something fixed.  My customers wouldn’t care if I came in boxer shorts so long as I fixed the problem before I left!”

“Okay John.  How about this?  Have you seen your doctor in the last 12 months?”

“I just had my check up.  Why?

“What was he wearing?”

“Nice pants and a dress shirt – white I think.  He also had a phone on his belt and a stethoscope around his neck.”

“Any bloodstains on the shirt?”

“What????  No!!!”

“What if there were?  What if your doctor was wearing clothes with bloodstains and that looked like they had been slept in, wore a two-day beard and had unkempt hair?  How would you feel about that?”

I went on to explain to John that the service that our customers’ experience is derived from two distinct yet inseparable components.  One is the actual service performed – the troubleshooting and repair, the maintenance activities, the installation, etc.  This component is the service outcome.  It is the reason that the customer called us in the first place.  It was what John was thinking about when he spoke about the fact that customers don’t pay him to look good.

The second component that makes up our customers’ service experience is how the service is conducted – the smile on the tech’s face, the cleanliness of the work area, the quality of the repair description and even how the technicians chooses to present him or herself.  This is called the service delivery.

Because in most cases the customer can’t truly assess the quality of the actual service outcome, they look to how the service is delivered to determine the quality of the service provided.  In effect, they use the service delivery as the lens through which to view and assess the service outcome.  Both service delivery and service outcome are important and cannot be separated.  Together they add up to the total service experience.

Therefore, since customers are paying for the total service experience, it is fair to say that customers do pay us to look good AND fix things.  It is up to us as managers to ensure that they are getting what they are paying for when purchasing services from us.

I’d love your feedback! 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

“Your appearance, attitude, and confidence define you as a person.  A professional, well-dressed golfer, like a businessperson, gives the impression that he thinks that the golf course and/or workplace and the people there are important.”

– Lorii Myers, Targeting Success, Develop the Right Business Attitude to be Successful in the Workplace

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