"Please stay on the line. Your call is very important to us."

Tis the season for customer service. From that turkey hotline, to downloadable instruction manuals, to that grumpy overworked support tech on the other end of the phone. More than ever we are aware of how good a company is by their ability to communicate their services and product.

Why do we need customer service? What is good and what is bad? How can we tell?

I often laugh when I am engaged with a representative who tells me their company has 24/7 customer support as a selling point for their product. The humor I feel is if the product is so good why the need for extensive support? I understand the need for a supportive subsystem that is available at all times however, I believe in a more upfront offensive strategy of communication.

Often times in our technology keeping the advantage results in a closed system of information. That can be detrimental to your clients understanding of the process and often the request for deliverables. Learning how to manage project owner expectations is crucial to building a mutually beneficial venture. In order to address owner expectations, it is important to first understand how expectations are defined.

One struggle the mobile mapping industry faces is addressing owner expectations within an industry that is not fully defined or understood. Innovative technologies often take time to mature and gain acceptance. The accuracy of the technology is still being defined by the accuracy of traditional survey control which may or may not be as accurate as the accuracy standard of the project. The Everett Rogers Diffusion of Innovations Curve explores the much-hyped tipping point of new innovation to set it apart from being a trend to acceptance.

There are five important areas of communication that serve offensive customer service:

Knowledge. The client must be aware of the technology or innovation and understand how it functions. In my industry mobile mapping is just getting through the early phases of adoption. Therefore, a multitude of expectations are being communicated, but they tend to lack context. The good news is many more of the people I speak with have at least heard about the technology. 

Persuasion. A favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the innovation needs to be addressed before the project or the sale. Change is never widely accepted and any pre-conceived ideas (good or bad) needs to be addressed up front. Typically, technology and innovations are presented in two classifications: evangelical and technical. Beware of the implication of smoke and mirrors. No technology is a complete solve all. Sometimes it is better to walk away from a bad fit project for the technology than to try and fit a square peg in a round hole. 

Decision. Deal with the person who will be engaging in the final choice to adopt or reject the technology or innovation. Emotional dissonance can create a conflict between what a decision maker actually feels and what the company is used to dealing with.

Implementation. The person who puts an innovation into use, the end user, will have expectations. There are most likely systems in place within their current workflow that are an underlying cause for concern or more importantly a process that is automatic. It is important to know when the atmosphere of the company is not acceptable to change of any kind. In this case persuasion will lead to increased bad customer support no matter how good the technology or innovation (you need to find the champion within their team). Teaching a dog new tricks comes with a steep learning curve.

Confirmation. Often times the person who evaluates the results of a technology or innovation will have many questions. It is important when you deliver the final product it comes with an evaluation by both parties. It is more productive to circumvent pre-conceived expectations to avoid conflict resolution. Once the bell is rung about ill performing technology or innovation it is difficult to un-ring the negative misinformation.

So, as we absorb the trappings of the seasons take a lesson from the folks at the Butter Ball turkey hotline… provide a good product that everyone can relate to. Make available an informed staff that can address up front issues. Accept the fact that it can be a daunting task to even the most experienced. And finally, be aware that a reputation for great product doesn’t leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth.

What Is the Cost of Inexperience?

Often times what seems like a good idea may actually add restraints to the overall goals of the company or even the profession. The intellectual property of your workforce is a guiding factor in a successful project and the most valuable asset a company can have.  First off, when considering buying a scanner a company needs to recognize whether or not there is an adequate skilled workforce within the organization in which to maximize the investment.  Secondly, if there is a champion to head up the program. Technology gets lost very quickly without a champion or driving force behind it. I have seen this happen to numerous organizations in the past. Either the skill of the workforce is not in line with the new technology or the champion transfers to another department, leaves the company or just loses interest. No doubt the selling point by manufacturers is the ease of operation for both mobile and static LiDAR collection, however, what they won’t tell you is the experience needed to collect, process and extract data in an efficient and accurate manner. Proprietary accompanying software for such tasks can often add to the confusion. I have seen over and over after the purchase of a scan system that the learning curve can almost double the initial hardware and software purchase cost.  Do not discount the value a good service provider brings both in up-front getting your feet wet in the technology and easing your team into it.

A good service provider can act as a valuable advisor because of their ACTUAL FIELD experience. In this new world of the Internet, many people believe they can do many things on their own by watching a YouTube video and thus avoid the cost of hiring a professional.  Employers that continually train their employees can serve as a competitive advantage especially in the fast moving technology of 3D data. But, it can also misdirect focus, cause burn-out or misuse skills. Nonetheless training costs need to be factored into a purchase decision. Evaluating the tenure rate within a company is a good indicator of its internal health and the external draw by the competition.  Negative entropy of information and team building within an organization often occurs when skills are misused or misdirected. It will be increasingly more competitive to draw young talent to your team without reviewing what and how you are accomplishing goals within your company.

Exhausting resources not only affects moving the company forward but also in maintaining the status quo.  The time it takes to learn how to physically operate today’s static scanners is short.  Their setup and operation can be fairly quick and easy.  This often leads people to the decision that purchasing a unit may be better than hiring a service provider.  However, there are many more things that go into scanning than just learning which buttons to push to get the head spinning.  Without knowledge of basic survey principals, proper targeting, control and how to read, work with and interpret the scan data, there is a lot that can go wrong very quickly. Lean on the experienced service providers, after all, most of the older ones have walked where you are about to walk and can help you avoid expensive missteps.

Perception - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

"It's all in the mind.”  ― George Harrison

When the Fab four stepped off that plane in 1964 Americans weren’t sure what to think of that long hair and rebellious tone but that didn’t stop their popularity. The perception was so overwhelming it became the start of what was dubbed “The British Invasion”. 

Perception is a strange animal.

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) / Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (UAV) systems are a powerful new tool for surveyors but they are guilty by association merely through the confused used name drone. DRONE is an acronym for Dynamic Remotely Operated Navigation Equipment. The military Predator, debuted in 2001, became the first weapon in history whose operators could use it to stalk and kill a single individual on the other side of the planet much the way a sniper does, and with total invulnerability.  When the technology converted to a more consumer product the name carried over and so did the impression of invasive performance. These days, the word drone is used to refer to just about any kind of remote-controlled, unmanned aircraft. That could mean a consumer-grade quadcopter or a slightly more advanced octocopter. But it has a negative connotation. It hasn’t helped any that many of these quadcopters in the hands of amateurs have caused further negative impact on a technology that has proven a valuable tool for commercial use. Regardless of size, the responsibility to fly safely applies equally to manned and unmanned aircraft operations. What has happened is legislation and the FAA’s incremental approach failed to address the issues in a timely manner so irresponsible public use has given the UAS/UAV technology a bad name. It is a similar layman's perception of a surveyor referring to his survey instrument as a gun.

Capitol Records, hindered the Beatles' releases in the United States for more than a year by initially declining to issue their music, including their first three singles because they just weren’t sure of the image. Imagine the momentum and talent we lost during that period. Need I remind you how it turned out? 213 Songs*

My point, if you want to advance this technology stop referring to it as drones. Remove the negative perception by an uninformed public. It might help advance the technology to the positive tool it can be for land surveyors and other commercial applications.

·        Source   “The Beatles Complete Scores” By Hal Leonard Corporation, Copyright 1993.