Speaking about Service Management, one can find a myriad of approaches, some more successful than others. But what do the successful approaches have in common?
To elaborate on this, we must perhaps start by identifying the differences between products and requirements within the customer environment. What are we looking at? Is it Storage, Backup, Server, Clients and Networking components, or are we looking at objectives outside of IT, such as air conditioners, cars, airplanes, production plants or lawnmowers?
Maybe one way of looking at it is by sharing my experience and how I have designed my way of delivering as a Service Account Manager to my customers.
I have spent many years working with customers on various levels, starting from Administrators to CxO levels. Experience has taught me one of the most fundamental requirements in Service Management is your relationship with the customer:
- As a service professional, how close can you get to your customer?
- How well do you understand their business and their transformation plans?
- How close is the collaboration during challenges or improvement plans?
Looking at the fundamentals, we start to see relatively soon that the service objective does not matter as much as the service subjective – collaboration, trust, open business relationship and respect.
Experience has taught me one of the most fundamental requirements in Service Management is your relationship with the customer
All these aspects are equally important in any given business where you take care of your customer’s environment. This will open the path to meaningful conversations about the Service Management topics.
Let me explain this from my business point of view; We, in IT, have multiple items to consider which are essential in the Service Management discussion with the customer.
Age of the asset
When were they installed, how long were they considered to be in duty, and are they still compliant within current standards?
Transitioning to the next IT infrastructural level
It may be relevant for the customer to wait for a newer technology rather than implementing the latest and greatest switches, blades, or servers every year.
Status of the asset
What code level are the assets at currently, how many fixes are in the newest available codes, what are the benefits of the upgrades?
We need to understand that there are scenarios where a customer will not be able to go to the latest OS code or Firmware release due to restrictions of budget, policy or infrastructure.
However, and this is important, a code must not be in a state where the risks are greater than the benefits – sometimes the phrase “never touch a running system” can be fatal.
Security notifications
Have there been recent notifications such as security or technical advisories, and have they been communicated with the customer?
This is one of the topics which is very close to me, because this is the angle that I take to bring new technologies, hardware, software, and patches to the customer’s attention. Given the generally very good feedback from customers for the service that I provide as a SAM, I feel that I exemplify one of the core values as their “Trusted Advisor”.
Don´t be afraid of breaking bad news if it is not avoidable, you will get more often a positive response than you might expect.
But there is more to Service Management than just the customer facing duties. There is also a great amount of proactive and reactive admin work. Monthly and Quarterly Business Reviews close the collaboration with the sales side of my business and with peers from Support, Product Management, DevOPS and primarily, my SAM colleagues
So, what falls under the admin work which exists mostly unseen in terms of Service Management? Status reports about the customer environment.
Are all contracts correct and up to date?
Contract Management is key essential as a valid contract will keep the resolution time as low as possible.
Are there new OS- FW releases?
Where is the customer at now, what are their intentions in terms of IT transformation, is there a release out which will support my customer?
Is there a requirement to initiate a proactive health check?
I periodically have health checks performed on my customer environment to ensure that everything is operating the way it should and that there are no hidden Gremlins.
Do we have current pending tasks on the customer environment?
Has the customer had questions or concerns? Has there been a physical or administrative move of assets, new installations, or decommissions? I will always try to keep my customers Install Base report as clean as possible.
Are all the documents I regularly use up to date?
Speaking of Install Base and Contract reporting, if a customer has a question, there is no better reliable source than your standard database report, or is there? I personally keep a detailed report about the critical components of my customer’s infrastructure, the contracts, and the asset status.
While this requires some manual updating, it’s a beneficial addition to the automated reports. I prefer to interact with my customer´s current environment regularly to gain a deeper understanding of it.
Do I see a re-occurrence of issues on certain assets?
Proactive failure analysis – is there a device that has a more than regular occurrence of issues? (ex. Drive failures). Can I have a health check run against that asset? Can I pull in other resources to help me, and subsequently the customer, to find the issue which leads to this failure pattern?
Is there new HW / SW technology out that I need to educate myself about?
Where could my customer go next? What is the latest development? We all know we are steering towards the Everything as a Service model. How will this influence my work relationship with the customer? What can I do to keep up with the customer and the ever-developing IT?
If we look at all the above points, this reflects what I personally do and how I work. There is not just one correct way of achieving great customer relationships and Service Management – this is just one of an endless number of options.
I will just call this out again. What all the successful Service Management methodologies throughout all different industrial sectors share is, customer relationship, customer care, customer retention and first and foremost, customer satisfaction.
Out of my personal experience, open and honest conversations with the customer are quintessential for a good and trustworthy relationship based on mutual respect. Don´t be afraid of breaking bad news if it is not avoidable, you will get more often a positive response than you might expect.
From my experience, the key to successful Service Management is based on honesty and open conversation. So, what would I call out to any customer who has the benefit of Service Account Manager service on their account, or is thinking about getting one?
If in doubt, reach out!
Talk to your SAM if you have any questions around your service. If you are not sure you should reach out, well then you should reach out! Our job is to help you.