ISS 2020 Vision Future of Service Management | Page 23

4. Introduction
Service Management is a critical competitive parameter for all organizations today. The
service economy already constitutes 68.5% of global GDP and close to 80% of some high
income economies – a figure that only continues to grow. 17 Despite its importance, many
organizations struggle to deliver good service consistently. Organizations need Service
Management.
Service Management helps organizations develop a service delivery system that focuses on
the user experience, creates a service culture that engages employees, and establishes a
continuous and increasing focus on service quality.
These requirements – which are already difficult for many organizations to fulfil – will only
grow more challenging towards the future. The world we live in – and the one our businesses
operate in – is becoming more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA see figure
2) driven by increasing global interconnectedness and industry convergence. End-users and
the people who serve them are better educated, better travelled and more technologically
savvy. 18
At the same time, organizations and the role of the workplace are changing as CIFS and ISS
noted in 2013 in ISS 2020 Vision: New Ways of Working – The Workplace of the Future. So
is the way that they will need to be serviced in the future.
The organization has become independent of geography and operates across time zones.
As a result, organizations have multiplying touch points with customers and employees. The
touch points range from static to dynamic and from virtual to physical. The organization and
its brand are the sum of all touch points. The challenge is that one weak link or touch point
in the entire user journey can have implications for users’ perception of the entire service
experience. A marketing campaign that excels can be sabotaged by one phone call, email
exchange or bad employee-end-user interaction. The end-user, as a result, will choose other
brands, especially when it comes to services that are more commoditized.
The workplace and its components are just one of these critical touch points. The workplace
is becoming a place of shared experiences as much as it is a place where work is performed.
In this experience space, end-users – employees and customers – should be transformed by
being imbued with the organization’s values and ambitions. It needs to be managed as such.
The future Facility Manager will be a manager of user experiences and transformations. A
director on Broadway needs to ensure that her actors perform with consistent enthusiasm
and quality day in and day out, ensuring that the audience has a great experience that feels
like it was tailored for them. The future Facility Manager will need to direct her employees
as a director guides the actors in a stage play to ensure that users’ needs and service
expectations are not only fulfilled but exceeded. This will require mastering an increasingly
complex backstage consisting of internal and external service partners and systems.
17 The World Bank, Services, etc. value added (% of GDP) 2014, 2016.
18 CIFS, How to be Resilient in the 21st Century, Members’ Report 1, 2016.
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