Being a Trusted Adviser is Not the Same as Providing a Great Customer Experience

In a recent whitepaper Beyond Remote Service: Is now the time to redefine service delivery? Author Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief of Field Service News, presents several compelling arguments that support the notion that Augmented Reality will change Field Service delivery. Still, the long-term outcome will be good for customers and service organizations.

However, neither Kris nor other current authors discuss what will happen to the Field Service Engineer’s role as the customer’s trusted adviser.

What is a trusted adviser?

There is a significant difference between customer experience and a trusted adviser. Customer experience deals with how customers interact with the company, its products, advertising, people, and processes. A trusted adviser is someone in the company whom customers reach out to when they want honest, unbiased opinions about aspects of the company’s products, processes, or people.

In most B2B companies, people generally accept that field service engineers are customers’ trusted advisers. I believe that every FSE with more than a few years of experience in their company has been asked at least once:

• “Is the new XXX worth buying to replace my old one?”
• “Should I install the latest version of the XXX software?”

They want to ensure the FSE trusts the customer and expects to be able to trust the FSE’s recommendations. And the customer expects and usually receives an honest answer with supporting reasons. Also, the first thing that a person who becomes a service customer learns is “don’t give your FSE a tough time or complain to their boss unless it is a significant issue!”

How will remote support change the FSE’s role?

Remote support is the enabler of self-service. The customer with the proper skills and tools can work with the remote technical support person and perform many FSE tasks as long as spare parts are available. The FSE role changes to concentrate on big projects like installation, significant upgrades, infrequent troubleshooting of complex issues, or uninstalling equipment. This new process reduces the need for the FSE to visit the customer’s site to fix problems. 

Therefore, the key questions are:

• “If self-service becomes the accepted business model, will using merged reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), or virtual reality (VR) systems remove the FSE as a trusted adviser?”
• “Will our B2B technical support professionals fill the trusted adviser role?”

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Why is the FSE a trusted adviser and not the technical support engineer?

The pre-COVID interaction between FSE and the customer differs from that between technical support and the customer. To help understand these differences, it is helpful to look at the following table that compares how customers view our FSEs and technical support engineers with and without using MR/AR/VR.

However, if the FSE role changes to a few face-to-face infrequent interactions spread over several years, the earned trust will not continue.

Who will replace the FSE as the customer’s trusted adviser?

From the perspective of the service organization, the preferred choice is the technical support professional. But will technical support replace the FSE? Probably not. There are two reasons for this conclusion:

1. There is no continuity between technical support and customer. Tech support customers require a rapid response, and as a result, calls are usually handled on a first-come-first-served basis by the first available operator.
2. There is no chance to create a lasting relationship because of (1.) above, and trust is usually earned from multiple face-to-face interactions.

And if not technical support, then who will take on this role? Possibly either sales or customer success.

Sales have a significant obstacle to overcome. Historically salespeople were seen as being “coin-operated.”  The perception was that their recommendations were designed to increase their income. Today, many salespeople place the customer’s best interest above their own; it will take a long time for the earlier image to be removed from people’s minds. And with customer success teams replacing sales with aftermarket upselling and cross-selling, the salespeople may never get the opportunity to reset expectations.

Customer Success has a real opportunity for a few reasons:

1. They are relatively new, so they do not carry any baggage
2. They are trained to work as consultants
3. They collect and use customer data to help increase the value derived from the product and demonstrate the advantages of using what CS recommends.
4. They are assigned to accounts and charged with building lasting relationships.
5. Some under-utilized FSEs are likely to transition into customer success roles. They will bring their consultative skills and existing relationships along with them.

Therefore, I believe the new customer trusted adviser will be someone from the Customer Success organization.

Key Takeaways 

1. Field service will no longer remain the customer’s trusted advisor with self-service.
2. For B2B technical support, the people who call them are trained and know the limits of their competency.
3. Sales will unlikely replace field service as the customer’s trusted adviser.
4. Customer Success will probably succeed in field service as a trusted adviser.
5. The career path for many FSEs will be in Customer Success.

This article first appeared on Field Service News on May 24, 2021.

About Middlesex Consulting

At Middlesex Consulting, we partner with the field service teams of B2B capital equipment companies challenged to grow their top and bottom lines. We use value creation, services marketing, and customer experience techniques to identify and create service offers that achieve customers’ desired business outcomes. To discuss how we can grow your business write to Sam here.