Service Strategies
Strategic Consulting to Improve Service Excellence

As service organizations across the world are trying to do more with less, the sustenance of their growth depends squarely on improving service efficiency and effectiveness. “We help improve the employee skill sets and capabilities to equip them better to understand and address these challenges. Our focus is on the service part of a business, where we contribute to the top line of the company, by way of increased revenues and reduced costs,” says John Hamilton, President, Service Strategies. The San Diego-based Service Strategies provides consulting, training, certification, and standards programs to help leading companies the world over to deliver consistent, high-quality service and support.

As a service improvement company, Service Strategies’ con¬sulting practice helps in addressing the client’s specific problems related to technology and process and execute strategies to better run their service business. “We work with our clients to select the right technology for their requirements and actively partici¬pates in the implementation to increase their efficiency of op¬eration,” adds Hamilton. As part of an organization’s developmental approach, Service Strategies’ training practice, up skills service per¬sonnel across the different layers in an organization to deliver service efficiently. “Over 5000 service professionals worldwide have been certified by our indus¬try leading training and cer¬tification programs,” says Greg Coleman, Vice Presi¬dent, Strategic Programs.

Organizations realize that in order to make a difference in the market, there has to be definite improvements toward the goal of achieving increased customer satisfaction. The Service Capability and Performance (SCP) Standards provide the roadmap for clients to quantify service effectiveness. It offers the framework for companies to drive the level of consistency in over 112 business factors that should be focused on delivering top quality service and support. “Businesses can perform a gap analysis to ascertain their performance in a particular area versus what is defined in the standards and work towards addressing those gaps,” says Hamilton. Adherence to one common set of standards assures customers of a consistent service experience every time.

Fresenius Kabi, a global healthcare company, is an example of one such thriving organization where the strong role of the SCP Standards helped in transforming the organization to a world-class service operation. After adopting Service Strategies’ SCP Standards, its overall customer satisfaction has risen from 83 to 94 percent. Changes in service processes have also helped the organization to increase efficiency. Over the last four years, there has been a 12 percent average improvement in the cost of service for every supported device. In addition, resolution rates have improved with an average of 18 percent fewer calls reopened.

Over the years, by working with many clients all over the world, the experts at Service Strategies have created a database of best practices and intellectual property from service standards and benchmarked data. Drawing from these, the experts help clients to improvise on their products making them easier to service. “Incorporating serviceability, diagnostic, and remote access features will enable the service personnel to achieve a quicker response time in terms of service and also do more predictive services,” says Hamilton.

Businesses can perform a gap analysis to ascertain their performance in a particular area versus what isdefined in the standards and work towards addressing those gaps

For the road ahead, Service Strategies is focusing on international partnerships that will replicate and deliver the same level and quality of service. Hamilton says, “Being vendor agnostic, we are working with technology vendors to help them successfully implement their solutions. We also ensure that companies adopt technologies that will make their products less expensive and easier to service.”