From integration to mobility to social media and more, manufacturers have much to consider when building a post-sales service operation

By Ron Wegmann, Sr.

Every industry has its unique challenges and opportunities, but all organizations operate under a common truth: Delivering excellent post-sales service and support can build customer loyalty and ensure repeat sales. Manufacturers have driven increased business performance by deploying advanced solutions such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The next challenge is to focus the same attention on post-sales service.

Manufacturers face dual challenges in delivering support as they must manage both inbound contact centers and mobile, onsite field teams. Contact centers must efficiently manage high volumes of calls while capturing customer data on trends that can impact product design. Moreover, they must be able to track and manage detailed information on vendor warranty programs to ensure entitlement eligibility.

Field-based service teams need a solution that seamlessly links to corporate financial and warehouse/ logistics systems in addition to automating business processes and workflows to improve response and repair times to comply with service-level agreements (SLAs). Mobile support is vital for communications between the field and the home office. And the solution must capture customer information for use in future product design changes and enhancements.

Traditional service management solutions required on-premise installation in order to benefit from the full set of features and functionality, and to integrate with important back-office systems and data. But advances in cloud-computing technologies now enable manufacturers to build dynamic field-service and contact-center support operations, all while integrating seamlessly with corporate applications, databases, and partners.

The following outlines the elements that are important to consider when building a world-class post-sales service operation.

Why Cloud?
Cloud computing has become a viable strategy for manufacturers for a number of reasons, not the least of which is cost. Simply put, cloud-based solutions save money the software developer houses the application on its servers and is responsible for investing in the infrastructure and technical expertise to support them. Software upgrades are automatic and immediately accessible, and require no additional investment or downtime for deploying. And manufacturers can pay as they go on a subscription basis versus purchasing on-premise licenses—an attractive proposition for growing companies.

Companies that work in heavily regulated environments or that have very complex service needs with a lot of integration touch points may need to consider solutions that run on a “private” cloud. Solutions that can run both on-premise and in the cloud offer companies the right balance of cost-savings, flexibility, and data control.

Integration Points
The goal of a post-sales support solution is to run the business better while improving customer service. This means building a closed loop where information gathered from all customer-facing techs and agents gets into the right back-office systems, that appropriate information gets to the service professionals, and that engineering is apprised of equipment performance trends and recurring issues.

Manufacturers need to consider what systems to integrate including ERP, accounting, HR, and sales. The best way to make that decision is to think about how the company would like to use its data. For example, many manufacturers miss out on revenue by not tracking warranty management, or would like to better use service management data to improve product design and development.

Many companies have loosely integrated their data with ERP, but tighter integration can increase productivity and profitability. Tighter integration takes full advantage of features such as on-site signature capture, which speeds the invoicing cycle by enabling field engineers to get immediate client approval for work done and transmit it to the back office. Companies can shorten the billing cycle from several weeks down to one or two days—a big boost to both cash flow and productivity.

Mobile
Mobility is an enormous issue for post-sales support. Real-time connectivity between the field and the back office greatly enhances the two-way flow of information. Mobile devices have become so robust and so inexpensive that companies are rapidly transitioning from specialized devices to consumer-grade devices including iPads, Androids, and iPhones.

Recent improvements in web-based technologies—particularly HTML5— have enabled software developers to create one version of an application and deploy it across multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows. HTML5 eases enterprise deployments for organizations with multiple device platforms because they don’t have to coordinate rollouts of multiple releases. It also enables companies to be device-independent and avoid being locked into one device for their entire field force, or one that may not be available in six months.

However, technicians will find themselves in environments where wireless service isn’t available. Some institutions forbid technicians from using connected devices in their workplace. Others require service in areas—such as factory floors or shielded rooms—that just don’t support online connectivity. While any field service solution needs a robust mobile solution, it must also be usable even when the tech is offline. Look for solutions that offer online, offline, and hybrid capabilities.

Social Collaboration
Social media has made a huge impact on post-sales support because it enables more proactive relationships with customers and helps to disseminate knowledge across the enterprise. Companies can gather intelligence in real time, stay on top of trending situations, and arm field techs and contact center agents with information to resolve support issues better and quicker.

While most companies use public channels such as Facebook and Twitter to monitor customer feedback, some of the most innovative organizations use private “internal” social tools, allowing field and headquarters teams to exchange information in a closed, corporate channel. These applications link agents, field techs, managers, and other company representatives to any piece of information in real time. Managers can “follow” service trends on a particular product line; sales reps can subscribe to information about their customers including billing issues and service requests; and field techs and contact center agents can “follow” service issues on specific products. This kind of private social ecosystem streamlines information sharing throughout the organization.

Multichannel for the Service Center
Today’s customers want to connect with manufacturers by more than just the phone for post-sales service—they want chat, email, self-help options, forums, and social networking venues. In order to effectively capture customer feedback and deliver it to the appropriate groups within a company, a post-sales solution needs a multichannel approach.

Robust Field Service Features
Manufacturers have complex field service needs, including SLAs, warranty management, inventory and reverse-logistics management, RMA/ depot, dispatch, and multi-tiered scheduling, to name a few. These functions often need to be integrated with external partners, such as for inventory management, and they need to integrate with back-office systems such as ERP to streamline billing. Manufacturers that want to drive profitability and improve service management need a robust system that can manage these functions and integrate seamlessly with important solutions and partners.

Business Process Management
Manufacturers can improve business performance and enhance customer service using a cloud-based post-sales solution, but in order to be successful, they must have strong business processes. Companies need to regularly evaluate processes to ensure that they support business objectives—and their technology solution must enforce them. The solution must enable the business to create new processes and modify existing ones when needed to adapt to changing market conditions or corporate targets. Look for a solution that enables the business users to manage this task without depending on developers.

Post-sales service and support can be a powerful business driver for manufacturing organizations, yet it is an untapped area for many. Today’s cloud-based solutions offer the rich functionality and integration of installed software solutions, at lower costs and increased performance.

About Author

Ron Wegmann is the CEO/ President and Founder of Vertical Solutions, Inc. He has more than 35 years of experience in building businesses around systems consulting and software technologies, focused on service and mobile platforms. Ron received his B.S. and MBA from Xavier University, and is an active member of multiple philanthropic and professional organizations. Vertical Solutions is a NetSuite SDN Partner.

The statements and opinions contained herein are those of Vertical Solutions and not of NetSuite. NetSuite has not verified any statements or claims herein and assumes no responsibility for such statements or claims.