Strategies and Tactics

The strategy for a manufacturer's service is one of using service  to improve customer relationships through customer satisfaction. Service business is all about people. The service headcount is the biggest within the company, and a far as customers are concerned, there are those who have bought equipment over a number of years and are  known to Service. 

In an organisation that sells capital equipment, service has the role of supporting sales and the company image. Its performance is measured partly by the sales,  although it has to be ran as a business handling the large costs of manpower and parts inventories necessary for keeping customers running. 

In a way, service acts as the intermediary between the customer and the company. To the company, it provides vital information to departments such as R&D, Operations, marketing and sales, as well as to general management and to Quality Assurance. To the customers it is seen as a friend providing training and useful advice as well as being accessible to help maintain uptime to make profitable use of their purchased equipment. Its people have to be approachable and available to others while keeping their problems to  themselves. Customers may not always be right but they have to be approached with patience and humility.  A balance has to be struck  between looking after them, and looking after the costs of the business.  

 Naturally,  not all customers  can expect the same level of service. Those  who enjoy  low overheads by having their business in remote places cannot expect the same response times as those in metropolitan areas. There are those who think that they economize by extending the use of consumables past their recommended  dates  and run the risk of low performance.   They blame you when their results do not come up to expectations. Others may have staff problems with high turn-over  so there is little knowhow left at any one time, putting the onus on you to continue visiting and retraining.  Then there are those that hardly ever  call because they are organized to look after their equipment .  Customers range from the near expert to those who no matter what you may do will run into problems and for whom a service contract can be an expensive business  for you. No matter which type of customer,  you have to placate  and hand hold them because in the end they are all potential buyers of your company's equipment.

You have to be a diplomat and a good  listener  letting customers speak and get their problems off their chest. You have to be sure not to  miss either what they say and how they say  it. In short you have to adopt a low profile and be helpful.

Take the case of a customer  who complains that he is not getting the results expected from his system. You know from the  field  reports that the problems are due to  lack of proper customer maintenance. You cannot immediately blame his staff  so you have to be diplomatic and   offer a face saving  solution, one that will get the maintenance done and save both sides from conflict.  To  fix the  real problem  you  agree to taking the system out and replacing it temporarily with a loan standard so as to give his machine a thorough check up away from his premises.  This satisfies him  and in return you ask that  for a period of time his people must send a daily  report so as to follow up until such time as you are satisfied that all is working well.  The customer now has to maintain an updated daily log which means that maintenance will not be neglected.  

In the end  you make the customer feel that he is right  but you solve the problem  to your satisfaction. There’s never a boring day with such a variety of customers  and problems.  A good service can be profitable  and  at the same time you get to help your companies image that can lead to further sales.