When I joined Salesforce.com in 2002 as part of their training team, all training was created equal (for those platform junkies, 2002 dates before record types and multi select pick lists were part of the program). All customers received the same training topics, exercises, etc. This cookie cutter training approach and content worked because the application posed very little customization options, and the customer goals were relatively similar. Salesforce.com’s biggest competitors were Excel and Goldmine and the primary goal of a company was moving employees to a shared platform.
Why is this important? Because business has changed and training needs to change with it. We don’t operate in a one-size-fits-all training format any longer.
Fast-forward 12 years and business is different. Most organizations live in an integrated world and transparency is part of the program. So how do you successfully train people in a fluid environment and still achieve your business goals?
The idea is to train by the numbers: Metrics to be exact!
While ServiceMax is a highly customizable application, you want to look at your business goals as a primary means of gauging success, which will be your map to targeted user training.
Step One
Take a snapshot of your business and what metrics are critical to each role. For example, if technicians are currently being measured by:
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Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
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First Time Fix (FTF)
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Customer Satisfaction or Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Create a baseline of the current state of your organization so you have a plan on which to measure when you deploy a new solution. Spend the time to effectively execute the application to align behind your metrics and create a design that promotes measurable, attainable, and repeatable goals every time.
Step Two
Work with your education team or education consultant as well as your application administrators.
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Review training materials for each role to confirm your identified key metrics for each role is clearly delivered through training materials and exercises.
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Create dashboards and reports to track your business metrics. Create metrics that are easily viewed from the top down, as well as the bottom up. This allows everyone to see what users/groups are effectively using ServiceMax as intended and which users/groups may benefit from additional training and coaching. This allows for swift action as the information is real-time.
Step Three
Lead your meetings with ServiceMax reports and dashboards. Most meetings between executives, managers, and employees have three elements in common:
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1/3 of the meeting:
Management asks for a recap of what happened since the last meeting -
1/3 of the meeting:
Both parties discuss how the recap and impact business -
1/3 of the meeting:
Strategy discussion and next steps
Leading your meetings using ServiceMax reports and Dashboards allows you to cut your meetings in half and increase the amount of time used for strategy and forward moving business. It also ensures everyone is clear about the organizations objective goals and how each group measures up to this standard; It encourages everyone to align behind common goals.
While this seems a bit deeper than most trainings go, think about how metrics rule your everyday world. We all want to know which sports team is in first place in a division, which movie was #1 at the box office, and who is Mom’s favorite. While two of the three examples can be tracked through objective data, there is always some level of subjectiveness that businesses should exercise. Our job is to help make the objective goals as clear as possible for everyone.
For more information about training your organization on ServiceMax, contact and read more about our Certified Administrator Training program.
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