Leveraging Technology to Build a Proactive, Amazing Customer Experience: A Customer Interview Highlighting a Strategic Service Vision

 "Our ultimate goal is a future where we knock on the customers door 15 minutes before the machine fails, with that part in hand. We're here to fix it before they know it needs to be fixed. That's our true north, to use tools like technology and IoT to support those goals."

I LOVED my recent discussion with Todd Bigger, a service leader at Eastman Kodak Company with excellent vision for service, sales and marketing team. His strategic initiative around service will absolutely transform their business. 

Watch Todd's interview now!

Customer Interviews

Customer interviews are a great tool to highlight the best customer advocates a technology company has. Ideally, before implementing technology, a lot fo work and strategic thinking has gone into the investment, the deployment, the phases and the business goals the business has in mind. What are their success metrics? Why now? What did the status quo look like? 

Eastman Kodak has an excellent vision for their service team and beyond. Their project has wide reaching implementation and goals that will touch their service, sales, marketing, and back office teams. It all plays into their broader 'One Kodak' CEO-driven project.

It was a pleasure to interview Todd and help highlight the important work they've already done as they built their business case and started the digital transformation journey. 

Key Take Aways

Here are some of the key take aways I heard in this interview:

 Eastman Kodak Goals: 

• Enhancing the way they are delivering print service activities with ServiceMax and Salesforce. 
• Advance back-office activities, create a more customer centric working environment? 
• Make it easier for customers to do business with us.  
• Connect sales, service, marketing, back-office functions (customer service and support) in a seamless way.  
• One Kodak - helping our customers connect with us, all the processes are the same

What did you need? 

• Integration is key: Connected out of the box functionality. 
• Salesforce integration is key: ServiceMax's partnership with SFDC was crucial to their decision. 
• We need a system that provides actionable data and proactive data for daily decision making, identifying areas of concern, getting to a proactive maintenance state, improving costs, driving a culture of continuous improvement. 

 

What are your goals for your service organization down the line? 

•  Appropriately level our inventories - reduction in inventory levels through efficiencies 
• Efficiencies and improvements in field techs. Tools so they can recommend upgrades, sales tools. 
• Dispatching improvements - engaging remote support more effectively. 35 - 40% of calls are resolved in remote. We want that up to 60-65%. Technology to get eyes on site faster than boots on site.  

Advice for Others: 

• Partnership is key, rely on technology experts like ServiceMax and Salesforce for continuous support and their experiences with other companies with business-critical field service organizations. 
• Look at total ROI, not just what this is going to cost you, but what benefits are your customers  

 

IoT 

1. 5-year plan, our business will be run holistically by our machines, identifying where there are errors or concerns. Ultimate goal is a future where we knock on the customers door 15 minutes before the machine fails, with that part in hand. We're here to fix it before they know it needs to be fixed. That's our true north, to use tools like technology and IoT to support those goals. 

Accelerated Transformation during the Pandemic 

• The Pandemic has accelerated the need for improvements in remote technologies and capabilities. We started using virtual and mixed reality environments during the pandemic to do installs when we couldn't be on site. We successfully installed very large press equipment, with our expert sitting in a room in the UK while it was installed in Malaysia over a virtual reality connection, with our team member remotely leading the people through that.  

 

Depot Repair 

• We are deploying 'track and trace' ServiceMax and Salesforce give us capabilities in the system to enter data through our Nexpress system.  They aren't purchasing these, that's part of the service component. In a nutshell - as they use it, we replace it. This helps us maintain the local inventory levels to support them when they need it and make their experience seamless. We're also looking at using ServiceMax to offer 'uptime kits'. So, when an FE goes on site, we don't have to rely on a next day air shipment, it’s already on site. That will improve inventory levels and help accelerate resolutions for our customers.  

 

Why Asset 360 instead of competitors? 

• SFDC has a connected environment with Asset 360, which we saw could fix some of the key issues we wanted to solve with data collection and inventory management. SFDC showed us how it connected in with the SFDC environment and showed us how that would help accelerate our deployment. The out of the box connectivity is already built with the solution here. 

 

Diversity Equity & Inclusion Trainings: Starting with Trailhead, exploring more

As a part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group, I'm working on cultivating excellent trainings that focus on building those three things in our workplace. But there is some debate about the effectiveness of diversity trainings, and there are LOTS out there. Where to start? And is this the right place to start?

Where To Start

When you think about DE&I, there are a lot of different ways to improve the environment and experience in a workplace (or a life). Providing education is just one way that you can start. You can examine who you are - go straight to the data on diversity. You can think about who you hire, who you advance, what those processes look like. Also what message are you putting out in the world? Which images, which faces, what representation? And you can start taking a pulse across your people: how do they feel about their share of belonging, fairness, opportunities, decision-making, and voice? 

Diversity Training Challenges

If you are looking at changing the culture, you need to include education as a part of the mix. There's a lot of debate about the effectiveness of diversity trainings and trainings on unconscious bias. Harvard Business Review has pointed to a disappointing lack of behavioral change in the wake of diversity trainings in the workplace: https://hbr.org/2019/07/does-diversity-training-work-the-way-its-supposed-to  

I've attended webinars on DE&I initiatives in which presenters discussed one of the biggest challenges in these trainings: How to present actually-safe spaces where people are not defensive and are comfortable enough to be honest, say what they think, they are open to new ideas and highly vulnerable. Fast Company shared more on how diversity training can make people resistant, confused, and angry: https://www.fastcompany.com/90535289/5-reasons-diversity-training-are-not-successful-as-anticipated 

What are the best ways to deliver diversity training in a way that has a chance to drive cultural changes in an organization?

Right now I've started my training search with excellent content from Salesforce Trailhead.

Trailhead for DE&I

Salesforce offers Trailhead as a way to teach you how to use their products and learn about other topics. 

Their standout differentiator, aside from being high quality and free (what a great combination) is their content format. They have organized their learning in bite-size soundbite pieces - allowing you to devote full attention to the topic for 10-20 minutes, and then complete that section and get back to work. Later you'll complete another small, contained module, and another, and get to a deeper, broader understanding. This is very helpful when you don't have the time, patience, interest or flexibility to dedicate a few hours straight to your learning.

I'd definitely recommend the Equality trailmix they offer as an easy starting point for a 30,000 foot view of DE&I principles. 

The trailmix is called: Cultivate Equality at Work

Reflect on the value of diversity and inclusion at work and what you can do to promote equality.

And the modules cover:

• Business Value of Equality
• Understand the Importance of Diversity and Inclusion at Work
• Impact of Unconscious Bias
• Recognize unconscious bias and its impact on employee performance.
• Equality Ally Strategies
• Learn practical ways you can become an ally and promote Equality for all.
• Inclusive Leadership Practices  
• Use the five principles of inclusive leadership to create a culture of Equality at work.
• Inclusive Marketing Practices
• Use the six principles of inclusive marketing to create a culture of Equality.

What other trainings are great for DE&I initiatives?

Wage gap that is so much wider for Latina, Black and Native Women: Equal Pay Days 2021

On March 24, 2021 in the United States, we recognize Equal Pay Day – to acknowledge that all U.S. based women make $0.82 cents for every dollar that U.S. based men make*. The date changes each year, showing us how far into the year a woman has to work in order to earn what the average man earned the previous year. This is regardless of experience or job type. 

It's important that conversations about the wage gap call out the much wider gap and deeper inequality for Women of Color (except Asian women), and how an examination of a wage gap by race highlights how, over the years, Black men in the US often earn less than White women.

Some History

This shifting observation day brings awareness to pay discrepancies between women and men for the same work. The Equal Pay Act was signed by President John F Kennedy on June 10 1963. It ‘prohibited discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers.’ This was a year before the Civil Rights Act. At the time of the Equal Pay Act, women made 59 cents for every dollar men made. 

2020 Backslide for Women

While there has been some advancement over the years, that gap persists. There have also been setbacks, especially recently. 2020 was a challenging and difficult year for everyone; and it saw significant setbacks for working women. Four times as many women as men dropped out of the US labor force in September 2020, indicative of a broader trend emerging as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

So Much Worse for Latina, Native and Black Women

Equal Pay Day is also observed in a number of other countries. Employers continue to fail to pay equally skilled women the same amount of pay they give to their male counterparts. And while all US-based women see only 82 cents for every dollar a US-based man earns, most women of color see an even larger gap, seeing pay that is significantly less than White, non-Hispanic men. 

In 2021, it’s so important to focus on the Equal Pay Days across different demographics, to understand the wage gap faced by so many women.  

• Asian Women’s Equal Pay Day – 85 cents – March 9th 

• Black Women’s Equal Pay Day – 63 cents – Aug 3rd 

• Native women’s Equal Pay Day – 60 cents – Sept 8th 

• Latina Equal Pay Day – 55 cents – Oct 21st 

Just listing the dates out doesn't do justice to the HUGE discrepancy when we take off our 'feminist' hat and focus on women of color. Asian women make out better than women as a broader group. We have more privilege in this area. 

But when we look at Black, Native and Latina women, we see a gap that leads to immense human suffering. Latina women are paid less than women were in 1963 when the Equal Pay Act was signed into law. This pay gap has barely moved in the past 30 years. There hasn't been progress for this group. They are paid 30% less than white women. 

Leanin.org has some good resources and visualizations to help bring this point home.

Naming and acknowledging Equal Pay Day on March 24th fails to take into account the groups of women who suffer so much more, who are so much further from equity. Women of Color, excepting Asian women, are so much further from equity. When we talk about Equal Pay Day, we need to also say, this isn't Equal Pay Day for all women. Silence on these other equal pay days marginalizes these groups. We need to raise up their experiences for the good of everyone. Tamela Gordon put it well in her post about why she, personally, is giving up on intersectional feminism:

"We can’t all be black feminists. It’s something you’re born into, it isn’t acquired. However, we can all and we should all adopt a black feminist agenda. When black women win, mankind wins."

Read More on Equal Pay Days 2021

*All Equal Pay Day dates are based on 2019 US Census Data. Equal Pay Days compare wages of different groups of women to White non-Hispanic men in the same roles, with the same experience. These numbers reflect how much they earn for every $1 earned, and the dates are how far into the year they have to work, in order to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns.

Learning Chinese the easy way (oxymoronic concept)

 I recently decided that I wanted to pick up the ambition I laid down when I couldn't get into Mandarin courses at the University of York - trying to learn Chinese.

Last time, I was disappointed, but so busy with other classes that I just shrugged, signed up for German, and moved on. This time, my interest is piqued and my capacity is low. I need it to be easy. I know it is famously complex and challenging. And so we go, down the google rabbit hole. 

What are the best easy ways to learn Chinese?

There are a plethora of tools and paid and free options. Learning is defined in so many different ways, and a person can make use of many formats to gain and nurture language development. From flash cards to elearning modules to books to episodic videos, so many options are instructor-led, and others are completely asynchronous. And the market for this is vast - like my time at York, when I tried for 2 years to make the cut / class list - and failed. Sometimes it feels like everyone wants to learn Chinese.

Options and Tools:

r/chineselanguage

As a regular reddit user, this is a wildly fast and easy way to keep up with others who are on the journey. They have a series of links that are interesting, if you are looking for another list. Strengths include: The ability to ask questions of other learners. Keeping the Chinese language journey top of mind. Scrolling by memes and images and discussions reminds me to keep going. The content I see posted is fun, light, not terribly deep.

Lists of Chinese courses for $$

My list will not be the longest or most comprehensive. 

Those exist! Go get them. Here are a few I read:

https://www.mezzoguild.com/online-chinese-courses/ 

https://www.digmandarin.com/the-most-recommended-online-chinese-courses.html 

Personally I found them a little intimidating. LOTS of options. But really good if you are the kind of researcher who wants to make sure you've seen it all.

Chrome ZhongWen

Oh my gosh, so amazing! Pop up translation help for your online chinese experience. Smooth and easy, like many things on Chrome. Translation is pretty good.

As I went through the lists and recommendations, I realized I had really specific needs. I don't want to look at paper, I'm not interested in watching videos. I have a lot of time when I have no spare hands and no ability to look at screens, but I have a lot of my brain capacity free. Walking the dog, cleaning the kitchen, cooking, watching little Liadan bounce or grab or roll. Which led me to my main investment in this project:

The Verdict

After looking at the many courses with many tools and options, I decided that developing my ear was the best way to go. And practicing speaking was the most fun and enriching way to proceed. I decided that my best option was all about speaking and hearing, and leveraged audiobook format, exclusively.

Pimsleur: Mandarin
 

I bought via audible, using a number of my credits. So far, I'm impressed with my little pile of vocabulary words, I'm speaking Chinese out loud every day that I do a lesson. I like working on the tricky tonal parts of the language repeatedly. I like getting used to deciphering the words. God, I really enjoy all of this repetition. 

The lessons are 30 minutes long, they come back again and again to the same terms. They emphasize the enunciation. I'm approaching the language tortoise like. We'll see if I can keep it up!

Are you on a language journey? 

Which tools have been the most helpful? 

Which would work for different capacities?