What is a “Be-Back”?

Some time ago, I was on a routine sales call with the PS director of a global product company.  Once we were finished with the opening chit-chat, I asked the customary-and-generally-accepted-ice-breaker question:  ‘So, what keeps you up at night?”

And, without hesitation, he said:  “Be-Backs.”

Then, I sat there quietly for what seemed like eternity (but was probably only 6 seconds).  I wasn’t sure what he meant by Be-Backs.  I had never heard the term Be-Back nor was I even sure if I heard him correctly. 

Maybe, I thought, this was a technical term that I wasn’t familiar with.  Maybe this was a new product they had just launched.  I didn’t want to seem uninformed, unaware or uneducated.

Finally, I risked it all and bit the bait: “So, what is a Be-Back?”

And he eagerly explained: “A customer buys our storage hardware and software solution and, with it, they purchase the professional services to have us configure and install the products.  When the products have shipped and the customer is ready for installation, we send out a consultant to install and configure the products. 

“Then, sometime later, the consultant shows up, performs the services and completes the engagement.  When the services are complete, right before the consultant leaves the customer site, the consultant pulls out an engagement sign-off sheet, reviews the engagement and has the customer sign off that the work was performed as expected. The customer signs it.

“Next (remarkably!), the consultant then pulls out a customer experience rating sheet and asks the customer to rate him (on a scale of 1-7 with 7 being the best) on the customer’s experience with service he just provided, as he stands there over the customer’s shoulder.

(Not surprisingly, I find out later, every consultant scores 7’s across the board. But that’s another subject all together.)

“The consultant then gathers his paperwork and his tools, says goodbye and heads off to his next assignment.

“Sometime later - it could be the next day or a few days later - the customer calls our technical support line and says something like this: “Hey, you guys came out to install our storage platform, but it doesn’t work.  I need you to Be-Back here tomorrow to fix it.”

“That’s what I mean by Be-Back.”

The High Costs of Be-Backs

Over the past 5 years, we’ve seen this same scenario played out time and time again within the PS organizations of product companies.  The truth is, though, Be-Backs are just a symptom of a broader set of operational issues. 

Be-Backs are rarely caused by technical problems with the hardware or software products.  They are usually caused by the lack of well-orchestrated operational systems that connect the customer with the sales organization and the sales organization to the PS organization. 

Moreover, Be-Backs cause substantial damage to the customer relationship.  And this leads to lost future revenues of a customer who is no longer satisfied and defects to a more capable competitor. (See The Economic Impact of Superior Customer Experiences).

These issues are especially difficult to fix when the product company’s PS organization lacks the budget, manpower or the internal DNA to make changes.  Yet it’s these issues that eat up the time and energy of any good PS organization and cause the most heartache.

The Root Causes of Be-Backs

Over the years, we’ve found that the root causes of Be-Backs (and other problems) stem from one or more of the following issues:

• PS lacks visibility into the sales pipeline. Result: The PS organization can’t adequately plan for demand and effectively manage utilization leading to margin erosion.
• No standard SOWs. Result: Every customer engagement is treated like a custom engagement and this costs too much time and money and the customer experience suffers.
• Poorly defined standard delivery processes. Result: Unpredictable outcomes on engagements leading to poor customer experiences.  Plus you can’t scale the business.
• Poorly executed tools. Results: Many PS organizations have PSA tools yet the underlying processes are broken resulting in poorly orchestrated PS delivery.
• Non-dedicated PS resources. Results:  Non-dedicated PS resources can never take advantage of the experience curve which increases costs and poor customer experiences.

Over time, once these issues are identified and resolved, the PS organization can now focus on the more strategic objectives like accelerating PS revenue, improving utilization and increasing margins.

As a result, the PS organization is now in a powerful position to drive superior customer experiences.  And it’s these superior customer experiences that lead to greater customer loyalty which means more repeat customers buying your products and services.

In other words, there’s an opportunity for the PS organization to now impact the broader company mission: drive product sales.

No Be-Backs!

Going back to our scenario above, our client certainly had a Be-Back problem but he couldn’t identify the root causes of his problems. And, compounding the issues, he lacked the time, manpower and experience to fix them.

In this case, our client had a problem with complex, short-term product deployment engagements sold on a fixed-fee basis.  In these types of engagements, there is no wiggle room for error.  If you’re off one day on a five-day, fixed-fee packaged service, for example, you’ve just killed most of your margin. 

So, here’s how we approached his problems. 

First, we collected as much data as we could about how and why these Be-Back issues were occurring.  Not surprisingly, a vast majority of his issues were not technical in nature but rather systemic, operational issues such as:

• No standard Statements of Work
• No packaged or fixed scope transactional service offerings
• Lack of standardized processes or systems for how to deal with issues
• No engagement methodology
• Scope creep
• Poor hand-offs between sales and PS
• Poor knowledge transfer between PS and the customer

Once we identified these root causes, we applied a Six-Sigma -like approach to orchestrating detailed engagement methodologies and process scripts connecting the entire PS process from quote-to-cash, linking the sales teams and PS organizations together in one unified voice to the customer.

Think of it like writing a movie script for the entire process. Only in this movie, the hero always wins and the customer is always very satisfied. 

We then hired talented and experienced consultants that were not only technically proficient but also had the customer experience skills we were looking for.  These were the kind of people that could think on their feet, not get flustered, and could resolve almost any operational issue that was encountered. 

Then we went to work, delivering PS engagements for this customer.  During the early phases of delivering engagements, we too were running into the same problems.  Only now, we had detailed processes and scripts for how to handle them. 

Early on, and this is really important, we built a culture of customer experience excellence with our new team.  We knew we were going to encounter problems - the same problems our client was experiencing.  But our intention and focus made all the difference.

Our goal was to create superior customer experiences on every engagement, no matter what problems we encountered along the way and regardless of the circumstances.

In fact, the team came up with their own rally cry:  “No Be-Backs!”

As time went on, we tracked and measured our progress and made constant improvements to the delivery model.  When things came up that we had never seen before, we documented that problem and wrote it into our process documentation. 

As a result, what was once a significant Be-Back problem and a drain on services margin (not to mention the customer experience) became a significant product revenue generator and substantial margin contributor.

The Results
Over a 3 year period, our client’s packaged or transactional PS revenue grew by 9X and margins went from the low teens to over 50%.  Delivery time went from an average of three weeks to just under 5 days. 

More importantly, Be-Backs were cut to less than 1% and, as a result, customer experience went from 82% Very-Satisfied to a sustainable 96% Very-Satisfied.

Now this PS organization is a net contributor to product revenue.  Over this same period of time, this client grew its product market share by 17%.  And while all of this growth can’t be credited to a well-orchestrating PS organization, there’s no doubt in my mind that it was a significant contributor.

Conclusion

While some of these problems were easy to identify, they were difficult to solve by the client when dealing with time, headcount or budget constraints or just simple know-how.  For this client, creating a well-orchestrated PS model helped to not only solve their Be-Back problems, but put them on a path to effectively compete in their marketplace