2021-01-11

Aftersales & Service trends - Which ones do you see?🔎

What are the most important trends in Aftersales & service?

In order to maximize your results in the best way possible in Aftersales & Service, you need to understand the latest trend to ensure that your company is able to ‘play the game’ and not just a spectator. This means listening to your customers, see what technology trends you recognize, and look also at your competition - and learn.

From my perspective there still is - already for some time - a strong trend towards digitalization in Aftersales & Service.
Digitalization of workflows, 24/7 data and information availability, predictive methods for operative excellence, remote services, establishing local/regional-independence support models, and even the use of a ‘digital twin’ are just a few examples showing that digitalization is a huge trend.
A digital twin provides you with the ability to digitally mirror a complete installation or technical product that you need to support. This technology can provide you with the ability to understand the effects of your repair process for instance, or it can help you understand quickly where certain issues can be expected and it can predict effects on your productivity after an upgrade. It is also a great tool for education and onboarding of new personnel.
The topic of new personnel also points towards another trend in Aftersales & Service and that is the difficulty to find competent resources. The ability to work and manage all these new developments, also reveals that your experienced and valued technician (who’s on board for already more than a decade) has to transform into someone with completely new skills. This in itself is a challenge and at the same time a trend within Aftersales & Service business. The good news is that building up the skills needed at a speed desired is possible these days using the mentioned overarching trend - digitalization.

Another important trend you can recognize is customer-centricity in general. A lot of companies, in the past, could offer customers Aftersales & Service on the terms the company had articulated by themselves - these times are over. Nowadays customers know what they want and can (and thus will) expect this. Customers weigh the quality of offered Aftersales & Service in their investment decisions far more today than they used to do. This to me is a great opportunity and not just the customer ‘interrupting’ the company’s processes. You should use this change in the customer’s attitude and expectation into a business value and create a situation where both can profit. In doing this you will appreciate the fact that digitalization (again) can help you to be effective and efficient at the same time. Granting qualitative 24-hour access for your demanding international customers is something that can be executed using a digital hub-structure, a knowledge-based expert system, and a customer-self- management module. The experience you provide to that customer suddenly changes from your company only being available during restricted hours and also has a hard time finding answers into a continuously available partner that provides swift and appropriate answers, no matter where that customer is.

Stay safe,

Peter van Altena