The value of service is underestimated by many companies. This is reflected in many aspects: the salary of service personnel is much lower than that of sales personnel. Most of the CEOs of major companies have sales backgrounds, but there are almost no CEOs with service backgrounds. Service in the society Jobs are discriminated against. In this world where people are judged by their appearance, salespeople who wear suits and ties every day are always mistaken for their bosses, and service personnel who wear work clothes every day are always regarded as low-level workers. Business owners also do not recognize the value of the service, and casually shout out the slogan of "free service for life", making the status of service even more difficult.
The traditional concept of service is still not valued
The English word Serve for service derives from the word Slave. Slaves serve their masters. Traditional service work is to serve people. It is hard to be respected. Many poor children study hard to change their destiny and grow up. In the future, we will get rid of the job of serving people, and we will have to be served and respected by society. Therefore, few Chinese want their children to take up service work when they grow up.
Contempt for service not only exists in China today, but also exists abroad, throughout the ages. In order to sell more products and equipment, businesses provide services to users for free, the root cause is that they underestimate the value of services.
In 2015, the service industry's contribution to the national economy exceeded 50% for the first time, becoming the pillar industry of China's economic development, and the service industry in developed countries has already accounted for more than 70%. Nevertheless, the service industry is still not taken seriously, not only because of the influence of traditional concepts, but also because the traditional service industry is a labor-intensive industry with a large number of personnel, low salaries, and generally low quality and education.
Today's service industry has undergone earth-shaking changes. Not only the cleaning aunts are engaged in the service industry. Finance, real estate, law, medical care, transportation, postal logistics, education consulting, sports and entertainment, computer and software industries are also modern. The service industry, many of which are industries where high-tech, high-paying, and innovative companies gather. It can be said that the service industry has long since changed, but people's ideas are still stuck in the past.
Traditional service is a linear growth model
In 2020, there are many exciting news from China's construction machinery industry. The sales and profits of many manufacturers have increased significantly. In the year of the epidemic, the sales of excavators hit a record high, and the annual sales of excavators by an agent even exceeded 10,000 units. ! Excited by these news, is anyone worried about the follow-up customer service? The sales of more than 300,000 excavators last year, the life cycle is calculated based on 10 years, even if the more than 200,000 excavators sold in 2010 were all scrapped , There will still be an increase of 100,000 excavators in the market. How many technicians need to be added to meet the demand for services?
The traditional service mode is to configure service personnel according to the number of equipment to meet customer needs. The manufacturer proudly calls it a "nanny" service. To this end, they require agents to allocate service personnel according to the number of excavators, from each technician serving up to 20 excavators, to now one technician can serve 35 excavators, and according to the market share and the number of service personnel And skills to evaluate the agent’s service capabilities.
The purpose of this model is to ensure that there are enough service forces to meet customer needs, but it is very dependent on people. Although the evaluation criteria are getting looser, almost all agents are still seriously inadequate. The reason is simple: The service is not profitable, the boss does not pay attention to it, and the personnel are difficult to find.
"Nanny-style" service is a linear growth model, and ultimately it is just a good wish. It simply does not work in actual operations and will inevitably end in failure. First of all, the development of the market is wave-like, with growth and decline. When it grows, it is necessary to increase service personnel, otherwise it will be difficult to meet the demand. But what should the company do when the market declines? Cut off these service personnel? That way, the company will have to bungee between hiring and layoffs, and ultimately its vitality will be severely damaged and it will be difficult to develop.
Second, if agents deploy service personnel according to the manufacturer’s requirements and the equipment inventory, the growth rate of service costs will definitely exceed the growth rate of sales profits, and one day agents will change from profit to loss. The reason is simple. On the one hand, as market competition continues to intensify, equipment prices continue to decrease, and profit margins continue to decline; on the other hand, everyone hopes that salaries will continue to increase, yearning for a better life, and personnel costs will become higher and higher. .
Third, service income is low and not respected by others, so many young people are unwilling to engage in service work. This will lead to an imbalance in the supply and demand of service resources and increase service costs faster.
The decline in equipment profits and the increase in service costs will further erode the profits of the equipment. One declining one will inevitably allow agents to enter the loss-making area. Although some companies are still implementing "free service", if the traditional service model is not changed, the future Service will become an unbearable "luxury".
The experience of the market decline in the past few years fully verified the above judgment. Some agents have closed down, and manufacturers have been forced to switch to direct operation and direct service. The service team of thousands of people is costly and still cannot meet the requirements of service timeliness. Obviously, relying on the continuous increase in the number of technicians to provide better services is half the effort. Only by subverting the original service model can companies regain the momentum for growth.
Take the agent who sold 10,000 excavators last year as an example. According to the manufacturer’s requirements, they need to add more than 200 service technicians this year. Travel, service vehicles, subsidies, etc.), this year’s service budget will increase by at least 40 million! Please note: it is an increase of 40 million! Do agents have this service budget? Many excavator agents did not make money last year. This year But to increase the service budget, where will the funds come from?
If the agent does not increase the number of technicians, each technician will have to take on more equipment service tasks. This will inevitably lead to untimely service or unmanned services for the equipment of old customers. The decline in service quality will be an inevitable result. , Which has a negative impact on the sales of new equipment, which is also an embarrassing situation faced by many agents. Users buy excavators to earn money from projects. The important responsibility of the service is to help users make money. If the service is not timely, it will be difficult for users to make money, and the reputation of the company will not improve.
The companies that can stand out in the industry in the future must be those with service innovation. Through model innovation, they will do better services, increase customer retention, and better customer reputation. Services help customers make money and help companies attract more and more customers. new customer. So, how can companies resolve the contradiction between customer needs and service costs?
Technological innovation will subvert the traditional service model
In 2019, the number of equipment in the Chinese market is about 7.97 million. By the end of 2020, the number of equipment will be far more than 8 million. Even if only 50% of the equipment is running, it will require 4 million operators! Where can I find so many operators? The same According to the traditional service model, hundreds of thousands of maintenance technicians need to be deployed in the market to engage in customer service work, and the gap of technicians will become larger and larger. This is also an important reason for the high rate of customer churn.
In the future, unmanned driving technology will not only solve the problems of insufficient operators and increased costs, but also intelligent construction will be safer and more efficient, which can increase construction efficiency by more than three times.
The traditional service model is very dependent on the personnel and requires high skills, experience and proficiency, so the cost increases rapidly. The only key to solving this contradiction is technological innovation. The application of technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence AI, machine learning, augmented reality AR, and virtual reality VR will subvert the traditional service model. The technology is developing faster and faster, and products are updated. The cycle is getting shorter and shorter, which is far beyond people's imagination. A few years ago, artificial intelligence was only a vision for the future. Today, it has been applied to various fields, and the future is here.
With the innovative service model, we can use the remote service support system to allow product experts to see the on-site situation in real time without traveling on business. This not only greatly reduces service costs and improves the efficiency of experts, but also records each service process. Compose a fault library and video big data, and then standardize and productize services according to fault cases, solutions, training videos, parts lists, special tools, etc., which greatly reduces the technical threshold of services, makes self-service possible, and improves maintenance Timeliness of service.
Imagine a future scenario. When a user encounters a device failure, they can describe the failure phenomenon through the service system. The artificial intelligence will automatically search the failure case library and find the best solution that matches it, and immediately send the troubleshooting video to On the user's mobile phone, the user can self-solve the fault according to the steps indicated by the video, and the self-service ratio may be as high as 80%. During this process, users can also call the service center at any time to seek online support from technical experts. For complex equipment failures, experts can also mobilize external experts to conduct consultations to ensure that the problems are resolved in a timely and accurate manner.
Technological innovation will subvert the traditional service model, so that service resources and capabilities will no longer depend on the number of service personnel, but on the scale of big data and cases. The more cases, the stronger the problem-solving ability. Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable service capabilities. The exponential growth has allowed a technician to serve thousands of devices, allowing companies not only to reduce the number of personnel, but also to provide more timely and professional services, because technology empowers mankind.
In the future, the industry will form a brand-new service model: the Internet + industry community, which integrates all resources on the industrial chain, midstream, and downstream, generates network effects, reduces dependence on people through technical means, and enables the network through data mining. The effect continues to expand and the marginal cost continues to decrease. Whether it is a manufacturer, agent, service provider or accessory shop, they are all part of the industry community. They must strive to become a designer and creator of customer experience, use the service resources in the community, and use the latest technological means to serve users Create surprises and make the service experience more enjoyable.
Only by satisfying and successful customers can companies win their approval and orders. Whether you are a manufacturer or an agent, if you cannot keep up with the times and create an outstanding customer experience, you will be abandoned by customers and eliminated by the times. Technological innovation is bound to subvert the traditional service model, create a new service ecosystem, and perfectly solve the contradiction between customer needs and service costs.
