Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group
Recent research applying the results from a benchmark review has shown that the strategy adopted by the service operation impacts significantly upon the revenue and margin performance of the business as a whole.
In addition the research confirms that success comes from constructing a successful strategy and delivering it into an effective operation, creating loyal, satisfied customers, while strongly growing revenue and profit. However the benchmark aspect of the research also confirms that establishing an operation that best delivers the business strategy is a major challenge, but when successfully accomplished is shown to deliver a handsome financial reward. Finally, the research highlighted that in the current economic climate, there is a great need to optimise existing solutions and generate as much value as possible from what is already in place.
As part of this research, a number of Service Directors identified the type and level of information they required to manage their operations; they agreed that in many instances, prior to the use of a Benchmark review, they had struggled to capture the necessary level of detailed information to effectively manage their operation. It is important to recognise that information deemed necessary today is very different from only 5 years ago, and a large number of service operations seem to owe their success to individuals - managers and directors - who have worked their way up through the ranks, and are able to closely manage simpler operations in a hands-on mode, achieving success through close relationships with engineers and customers.
Front-line staff can be utilised to develop a people-driven operation affording success through long-term personal relationships that will provide the ability to understand and address specific customer needs and co-create solutions that will generate customer centricity and intimacy. In many companies this does not always exist at the more senior positions and at the service business information interface - in part due to a significant increase in the complexity of business operations, and the unrelenting increase of demands placed on the operation by the customer. Many more service managers and directors have come in from other parts of the business and expect to have the necessary information at their fingertips to run a business operation and are quite often taken aback at how little data is available for reference in the “typical” service operation of even quite large businesses.
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