Stephen Wilson, CMO, eBecs looks at why understanding customer expectations is perhaps the biggest challenge and requirement for field service companies in 2017...
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Jan 12, 2017 • Features • Management • management • Microsoft 365 • eBECS
Stephen Wilson, CMO, eBecs looks at why understanding customer expectations is perhaps the biggest challenge and requirement for field service companies in 2017...
How do you ensure that your field service technicians are completing their jobs effectively and fulfilling customers’ expectations? First, you’re going to have to identify what your customers’ expectations really are. Many businesses assume that because they know the product or service, they know best what customers need. This assumption is incredibly risky. It can lead customers to feel like they’re not valued, that their needs aren’t going to be met, and in the end selecting another company to do business with.
What can you do to better understand and meet your customers’ expectations in order to keep customers satisfied and loyal to your business?
Customer Information
Part of being able to meet your customers’ expectations is ensuring that your technicians are provided with all relevant information before they leave for a service call.
Technicians can easily view past call notes, identifying any challenges that may not have been anticipated, thus saving everyone time.
Keeping customer information all in one place improves future service calls as well. Technicians can easily view past call notes, identifying any challenges that may not have been anticipated, thus saving everyone time.
Touch Points
Where do your customers interact with your company? What is their experience along all touch points? Your customers’ experience, from everything from your website, to the emails from your team, to the technician they interact with, matter. Even more importantly they all need to align with your brand and business image.
One of the biggest disconnects for a customer can be going to your website, expecting a certain level of professionalism, only to receive communications and experiences that don’t align. Regardless of the size of your company, holding your business to a professional standard at all touch points will ensure that customers’ expectations are being met. Adopting technology such as Microsoft Dynamic 365 for Field Service can help your business maintain a professional standard.
Time Management
When a customer has a problem, they want it resolved in a timely fashion. While they understand that they’re not your only customer, what expectations are you setting in regards to their service call? Are you even setting an expectation? One of the biggest disservices to a company is customers having low or no expectations at all. When customers’ expectations are met it builds trust in the relationship with the business.
When it comes to service calls, customers feel more comfortable when provided with a time frame, even before they submit their request.
Using a resource scheduling tool will help you to better calculate, with accuracy, when technicians will be able to complete work orders, and allow you to fit more work orders into each day. Setting those time expectations with your customers can provide huge benefits to your company, because the reality is, the competition likely isn’t making them or holding to them.
Customer Feedback
One of the most important aspects of understanding customer expectations is in getting direct feedback from them. Customer needs are continually evolving and changing, and to stay on top of it you must actively engage with customers.
Using an integrated system that automatically sends out a survey once a service call is completed is a quick and effective way to get immediate feedback. It will help you change and adapt your business to what your customer needs are.
Customer satisfaction is ranked as the highest metric in defining service success. It ranks higher than first-time fix rates and service cost.
Customer satisfaction is ranked as the highest metric in defining service success. It ranks higher than first-time fix rates and service cost. When customer expectations are met customers have more trust in the business and are more likely to use your services again in the future. Using an integrated Field Service solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 to help understanding customer expectations will be a game changer for any business.
To learn more on how to understand your customer’s changing expectations and still deliver high customer satisfaction, sign up for the January 31 live webinar here
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Dec 13, 2016 • Features • microsoft365 • eBECS • scheduling • Software and Apps
Stephen Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer, eBECS, provides an outline for optimising field service operations in the new digital age...
Stephen Wilson, Chief Marketing Officer, eBECS, provides an outline for optimising field service operations in the new digital age...
In any business, increasing efficiency while minimising costs is absolutely critical, and failing to recognise new opportunities can result in declining profits. This is especially true when existing systems do not accurately track resources and information. So how do you tell if your Field Service processes are doing the job, and when to re-evaluate to see if they can be optimised?
There is a great underutilisation of technology in Field Service that can be solved with an integrated Field Service solution. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service, properly implemented, can have considerable positive impacts on the bottom line, reducing pain points for the field service technicians, customers, and the business overall.
To help businesses understand the value of an integrated solution they first need to recognise the pain points of the three parties involved, and how those pain points are costing them money.
Optimisation of Route Management
When a field service technician is sent out to a location, their fuel costs and driving time are taken into consideration in the overall expense.
A report by Forrester Research, Inc. noted that customers felt the most important thing a business could do to provide good service was to value the customer’s time.
This also reduces the time a customer must wait. A report by Forrester Research, Inc. noted that customers felt the most important thing a business could do to provide good service was to value the customer’s time. The less time a customer has to wait, the better experience they will have with the business. Increasing customer loyalty has high impact on the business’s overall profitability.
Improving Resource Utilisation
Each time a field service technician is sent out for a job it costs the business over £800. If that field service agent does not have the right equipment or skills to complete the job, another technician is sent. An integrated Field Service solution ensures that all the information required to complete the job is stored in the system. This enables the business to send the right technician to the location, with the right equipment, reducing the need for a second visit by over 26%.
Real-time visibility and scheduling
Do you know where and at what stage in the service call your technicians are at any given time? And why is this important?
Proper scheduling helps regulate workloads for technicians, as only service calls that can be handled within a technician’s regular work day are scheduled
Overall, proper scheduling helps regulate workloads for technicians, as only service calls that can be handled within a technician’s regular work day are scheduled. This not only reduces overtime, but reduces the number of technicians who find themselves with excessive amounts of downtime and wasted hours between service calls.
Connecting business resources
Poor resource management is one of the biggest leaks in profits. By connecting service requests to work orders and right-parts-monitoring, inventory management improves. The business then has accurate data on all inventory and the specific parts required for each service call. This ties back to the overall goal of reducing second service calls as it ensures that parts are in-stock before a technician is sent.
Business reporting
How does a business forecast with no visibility?
Accurate reporting is essential to understanding both profits and expenses. With an integrated Field Service solution, detailed reports can be generated and used to make key business decisions, including required expansions. These reports include service call time reporting, analytics on hours used for provisioning and other tasks not allocated to a service call, and parts used for service calls.
Employee engagement
Employee job satisfaction is a key component in a business’s profitability. It can be directly linked to a customer’s experience, increasing efficiency, and reducing errors.
When employees are provided the proper tools and resources to complete their jobs by way of an integrated solution, user adoption is high
Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service can have a significant positive effect on your overall business, from providing customers with better service, increasing job satisfaction for employees, providing analytics that can be linked to business decisions, to reducing wasted resources. To learn more on how to optimise your Field Service business, visit https://ebecs.wistia.com/projects/f0me5yp2eq
Field Service News is published by 1927 Media Ltd, an independent publisher whose sole focus is on the field service sector. As such our entire resources are focused on helping drive the field service sector forwards and aiming to best serve our industry through honest, incisive and innovative media coverage of the global field service sector.
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