Innovation is not an Option for Service Contractors

My kids have a Chick-fil-A habit, and I don’t mind because I also enjoy the comfort food they offer (particularly an Arnold Palmer with half lemonade and half unsweet iced tea).  On my latest Chick-fil-A run, I was bombarded in the restaurant with banners and promotions for Chick-fil-A One – the new Chick-fil-A mobile application […]

Be as Sexy and Savvy as Tesla to Grow and to Change Your Cash Flow Model

How great would it be if you could have customers pay you now for services you plan to deliver in the future because you gave them an online presentation promising great outcomes? Show them photos and specs for the equipment you will be maintaining and indicate how your services will keep assets in top working […]

Here Comes the Amazon of Services

Drones probably won’t impact your field service company, but Amazon’s other accomplishments in online customer engagement most definitely will. Have you noticed that it is impossible to purchase anything from Amazon without first seeing a picture of what you are buying? On every page that references your items, there are pictures of those items. Here are some other […]

The Google Lesson for Service Contractors

About two weeks ago, Google (or Alphabet, if you want to be strictly correct) briefly eclipsed Apple as the most valuable company in the world.  Apple is back on top today, but Google is much more valuable as a multiple of their sales to the stock value of the company.  Google’s stock value is trading […]

Rise of the Machines in Service Industries

A few months back, I wrote a blog post about the Tesla lesson for service contractors.  Tesla has a direct-to-customer model for sales and service, and they support this model with a high tech connection to the car that allows them to deliver certain over-the-air updates while also monitoring the vehicle for proper performance.  Every […]

Looking for Great Customer Service? Try the Cable Company?

Everyone either cringes or laughs when they consider the track record of the cable companies in delivering customer service.  Comedians have named their movies or even their whole persona (Larry the Cable Guy) in salute to the ridiculous nature of cable company customer service.  But a funny thing happened to me this past weekend.  The […]

Online Customer Engagement is Bad Yelp Review Kryptonite

I found this story on “Yelp Terrorism” amusing.  It seems that the owner of a Massachusetts jewelry store, George Pelz, was “terrorized” by an anonymous Yelp reviewer that claimed all manner of poor customer service, fraud, and malfeasance.  George swears the customer experience is a “complete fabrication” by a “Yelp Terrorist” that is out to […]

Beware of “All in One” Software – The “All” will be “Small”

The demand for “all in one” software in the service contracting space must be high, because I see lots of vendors claiming to be such.  These vendors proclaim to prospective customers that a single integrated system from a single vendor that performs every software function (customer service, accounting, time sheets, fleet management, e-commerce and so […]

Google Wants Your Service Business, Too

If you are a service contractor, get ready for a tough fight to hold your customers and your service margins.  Google is crashing the party.  The same technology formula that wrecked your parts business is coming after your service business.  Google bought Homejoy, an Internet technology company dedicated to the cleaning services market, this week […]

The Rocky Road to Crazy Customer Loyalty – Practical Tips to Brand Freedom

No one can serve two masters, and sometimes the road to serving only one can be rocky and painful. This difficult transition was illustrated to me in colorful detail recently by a shrewd and successful service contractor in the kitchen equipment service industry. During the course of an entertaining conversation, I proclaimed that the role […]