Several years ago I removed this page from my website becuase my focus had narrowed. Now I see that there are a number of
in bound links out there that are still active, so I decided to put it back.
I see the need for customer satisfaction monitoring as clearly today as I did in 1997 when I wrote the article below.
I, Pete have been involved with the "Product field Service" business since I was 21 and I am now 58 (and have just taken early retirement from 3M Company). I have been a field technician, I have managed production departments, and my own company. I have managed a service department, laboratory engineers and software analysts. But the most interesting part of my career has been centered on developing and implementing continuous improvement processes, based upon constant, statistically significant customer satisfaction data. Since I spent most of my career with 3M Company, a manufacturer of a wide range of goods, my work often took me to the field and the field support operations.
I differentiate "Product" or "Product Field Service" from "Service" or "Services". It's the manufacturer of goods and its field technicians versus a bank and the job of bank teller. There are many similarities in the way the two organizations deal with the public but there is a wide enough range of difference to make the separation worthwhile.
Here I'm focusing on the field operations that support the manufacturer. I have seen many companies where the upper management still thinks that their field service operation is only a necessary evil. They tend to fund the field operation that way, too. Usually this kind of company pays little formal attention to the voice of the customer, by the way.
Upper management must learn the true value of its field support operations if it is to fully exploit the resource. Many companies use the marketing department to "survey the customer", but often these surveys are focused only on product preference investigations. This approach misses the mark. At least one initial survey should be taken in which customers can respond to EVERY issue which might effect their future buying decisions AND THE WAY THEY CHARACTERIZE YOUR COMPANY IN FRONT OF OTHERS!
I would be glad to talk to interested parties about these ideas. E-Mail me or contact the National Association of Service Managers for more information. You also might consider visiting the index of interesting field service sites identified below.