One theme that continues to pop up in the field service industry is the desire to expand and improve the customer experience. It’s a challenge for field service organizations, even with a wide range of different field service software options readily available.
The issue created with all the new technology that field service software brings is that, it doesn’t create a direct path for a field service organization to map out a successful customer experience. And it can be overwhelming for service managers to sort through the options made available to them, while keeping a customer first mindset. Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality, and automation, are all things that can help provide a better customer experience, however, a service manager has to know how to utilize them and implement them for the betterment of their customers and their technicians.
Sometimes, the easiest way to provide exception service is to just make your own operation better. A leaner, faster, more efficient technician, who has all the tools they need to get to and from their job site quickly, will mean a happier technician in front of the customer. Putting technology in their hands, like a mobile field service app, may not seem like a customer service tool, but when you take into consideration that your technicians and subcontractors are the face of your organization in the field, investing money to make them happier and their job easier is going to improve the customer experience indirectly.
In fact, anything that improves your own operation should improve the customer experience. Even scheduling and dispatching tools that narrow down the time window your technicians will arrive, or helping to find the nearest one for a quick repair, is going to make customers call you next time, because they feel that you value their time, and don’t want to keep them waiting all day.
Maximize field service software to enhance customer experience
If you are looking for ways to improve the customer experience directly with the customer, you will want to open the lines of communication with them any way you can. Making it easier for the customer to get you to the job site is critical. If they have to wait on hold when they call, those are seconds they could be thinking of calling someone else.
One solution is to automate the process and let the customer control the process from the start. Do away with call centers and phone calls and replace with an email system that allows customers to email their requests to a specific email and immediately have the work order created, pulling information from the email and putting it in the work order. Or, give you customers QR codes they can scan for different types of service. These little square codes can be generated for any kind of service, making it easy for them to schedule a call. Have the customer scan the code, and the process of automatically creating the work order begins. With QR codes or emails, the possibilities are endless, because you can make as many of each as you wish, narrowing down service to very specifics.
Or take over the process by offering IoT solutions. With sensor technology, monitor your customer’s equipment and rather than show up for prevent downtimes, avoid them all together with a predictive maintenance plan that gets you to the job site before a problem occurs.
Either option automates the work order process in your field service software and more importantly, improves your relationship with your customer. With the field service space expanding, technology offers many ways to improve the experience customers have. It may be a challenge to select what you’ll need from your field service software, but it won’t be just your technicians having a great experience in the end—your customers will as well and that will be a winning route to a greater bottom line.