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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by:  Kirona
Title: Driving Productivity in Field Service
Download: Click here to download the white paper

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Synopsis

This white paper from Kirona highlights the benefits of integrating automated scheduling with a mobile working solution.

Overview

Leveraging the power of an integrated scheduling and mobile working solution that reduces travel and idle time, streamlines processes and ultimately increases the number of jobs/deliveries/visits completed per day per field worker can deliver average productivity improvements of 20% and sometimes even higher.

Rostering vs scheduling

Rostering ensures that you have enough people to fulfil the demand at any point in time. Scheduling ensures those people are doing the right things at the right time.

Real productivity gains only come when making the step change from rostering to scheduling. Best-in-class service organisation achieve 81% performance in worker utilisation Scheduling enables you to take into account when allocating work such a location and skill set.

 

The order in which work is schedule can have a significant impacto productivity. If you have a team of 100 workers doing 5 jobs a day, there are 1 billio possible combinations of how those jobs could be allocated

Minimise travel time

Travel time can be the greatest source of productivity leakage. Reducing the travel time of field workers by just 10% per day can, on average, increase productivity by as much as one additional average job per day.

Kirona strongly recommends that journey planning needs to be fully integrated into the scheduling process and that it takes into account the actual route between jobs and incorporates traffic information.

Addressing no access

An efficient schedule drives productivity improvements, but only if customers keep appointments and field workers are able to gain access. Integrating scheduling with customer communication can increase the number of appointments kept and update customers on arrival times.

Streamlining Workflow Paperwork, rekeying data, manual workflows and not having access to key information are all factors that are detrimental to the productivity of your field workforce. The benefits of having a seamless mobile working solution far outweighs the investment required.

Access to the right information empowers a results-driven workforce. According to Aberdeen Group’s Field Service 2014 report, best-in-class service organisations achieved an 88% first time fix performance

Handling the emerging day

The daily challenge for field service organisations is how deal with the unexpected without compromising productivity or letting customers down. According to the McKinsey Improving Workforce Productivity, an average 5-10% of jobs are cancelled each day an 10-20% or tasks run shorter or longer than expected.

Managing this requires real-time visibility of your engineers and a dynamic scheduling app that allows you to move work allocation one job at a time.

 

Leveraging Actionable Insight

Comprehensive insight, acting on it and measuring the impact is the key to driving continuous productivity improvement. Benchmarking individual performance and task times, analysis of capacity vs demand and understanding geographic coverage all are key productivity drivers.

Conclusions

Field workforce automation software is key to driving productivity. The technology is proven, deployment does not have to be complex and there are significant gains to be made.

We have seen time after time that by leveraging Dynamic Resource Scheduling combined with Mobile Working, organisations on average see an uplift in productivity of 20%.

Yet the value does not stop there. These organisations also see an improvement in first time fix, a reduction in no-access, reduced administration overhead and measurable improvements in customer satisfaction. The field service activities become far more predictable and so too does performance.

Every aspect of work can be measured, analysed and lessons learned to drive continuous performance.  According to Aberdeen Group, a best in class service organisation is defined by its ability to achieve 81% or greater workforce utilisation, 88% or better first time fix and a 90% or better customer satisfaction.

 

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Find out more by clicking here to download the white paper now!

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In this the latest feature from our serialisation of the The Service Manager Handbook published by Advanced Field Service we look at the most important part of any field service operation, the field service engineers...

You are also able to download the full 40 page ebook for free by simply clicking here and completing the brief registration form

Your reputation, spread by word of mouth or increasingly through social media and online reviews, is founded on the experience your customers have of your engineers.

Unfortunately, customers seem more likely to broadcast a negative experience than a positive one, especially in the consumer or domestic service sector. Some disgruntled customers have even taken to posting video blogs of their experience of poor service. A video goes viral; word spreads like wildfire; and your reputation is permanently damaged. So how can you develop a service team committed to building your reputation?

Free engineers to do what they do best

A happy engineer more often than not results in happy customers. What motivates them best is using their time in deploying their skills rather than in endless form-filling. Consider ways to free your service team from the routine dross that saps their time and motivation, and empower them to be more productive and efficient.

Talk to your workforce

Holding regular face-to-face meetings between management and the workforce on the status of the business and sharing any development plans will all help build a team ethos, visibly improving productivity and enabling individuals to see the bigger picture. Whereas they might see the introduction of a new process or technology as a threat; you know it’s essential to the viability of the business.

Make your engineers your eyes and ears

With their close, on-the-ground contact with your customer base, even the most junior engineer can be a source of intelligence, such as feedback on how your customers regard your products and services: are they generally happy or are there murmurings about changing their supplier or service provider? Your field team is also a valuable channel for communicating your vision of quality and also for publicising forthcoming product updates or new services.

 

 

Encourage ‘self-monitoring’

Some service companies are using modern technology such as GPS tracking to weed out the worst instances of misconduct among their engineers. Others are adopting a more complementary method where their engineers choose their priorities and self-monitor their performance, an enlightened approach that can pay dividends.

Information: the vital tool in your engineers’ kit

As previously mentioned, engineers need the right tools for the job: their physical toolkit and information about the product, such as parts, diagrams, nature of the problem and known workarounds, as well as information about the customer, including their service history, plus, of course, essentials such as their contact details and location.

Be sure your engineers are fully aware of any recurring issues, such as a problem with a particular product, so that they can handle the situation with all due sensitivity. As previously mentioned, engineers need the right tools for the job: their physical toolkit and information about the product, such as parts, diagrams, nature of the problem and known workarounds, as well as information about the customer, including their service history, plus, of course, essentials such as their contact details and location.

 

Be sure your engineers are fully aware of any recurring issues, such as a problem with a particular product, so that they can handle the situation with all due sensitivity.

Mobilise your team

Information should also travel in the reverse direction: from the engineer back to base. Using their mobile device, engineers can send the customer’s sign-off back to the call control centre, along with any photographs or other supporting evidence, and details such as time to arrive on site and time to complete the job.

This information can be sent immediately to the contract manager to provide an instant report. A mobile solution is also a useful way to record exceptions to your usual high standards. In some cases, your engineer may be prevented from getting to the root of the problem. Was the equipment inaccessible due to a physical obstruction or the machine being unavailable for servicing?

A photo will provide supporting evidence should there be a query from the customer at a later date.

Room to grow

To maximise staff retention, it makes sense to create a rewarding work environment. A clear and defined development strategy and regular career mentoring are likely to encourage employees to stay. Pairing experienced engineers with new engineers will also speed up the learning curve and give individuals the opportunity to advance.

And those negative social media comments…?

Hopefully, the above tips will help to secure your reputation but if you do receive negative feedback online, you need to address it. If you respond courteously to comments – without being a pushover for compensation – you’ll be seen as a responsive, market-aware company.

Move the debate out of the public arena and offline as quickly as possible. You need to be vigilant but you can’t watch all social media channels all of the time. There are social media monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite, that will trawl the web for mentions of your company.

But once again, encourage your staff to report back on any negative social media they come across. Conversely, thanking customers for sharing a positive experience of your service is also well worth doing if you have the resources.

 

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Download the full 40 page ebook for free by simply clicking here and completing the brief registration form

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As we continue our exclusive serialisation of Advanced Field Service’s excellent Service Manager Handbook 2015/16 edition we turn our attention to agile resource scheduling…

You are also able to download the full 40 page ebook for free by simply clicking here and completing the brief registration form

It’s simple to manage a relatively small team of engineers with a limited number of jobs. But as your business grows, so do the scale and complexity of your resources.

However, the challenge of getting the properly skilled technician to the job with the minimum of fuss and overheads is not insurmountable. So when scheduling your field resources, how can you get it right?

Optimise travel times

Typically, around half of engineers’ time is spent (i.e. lost) in travelling to the customer’s site. Escalating fuel costs mean that long journeys also eat into your profit margins.

Clearly, optimising travel times has never been more important.

When new calls come in, you need to know your engineers’ present and future locations. Modern GPS navigation, route planning software and mapping tools have changed the rules for engineer allocation, helping your engineers reach customers via the quickest and/or shortest route. Don’t assume the usual route is the best one. Stay alert to incidents and planned roadworks that are causing hold-ups.

Your scheduling system should reduce planning time by suggesting and prioritising slots in the vicinity of the engineer’s base location and/or existing call locations, as well as finding the best slot for the job in line with SLA commitments.

Track your field team

Can you see at a glance which engineers are in the area and who is best placed to answer a new call or respond to an emergency? If, for any reason, an engineer cannot gain access to a customer’s site, is there another call locally that they can be redirected to?

Knowing your engineers’ whereabouts will help you react with agility and re-plan rapidly. You’ll also be able to monitor how long they’re spending on any particular job and check whether other work needs to be urgently re-planned.

Over time, having this data will help build a record of engineers’ actual and reported locations, highlighting any anomalies that need addressing.

Combine breakdown service with planned maintenance

Do you know which customers have routine service checks falling due? Is an engineer already scheduled to attend the customer or working with another customer nearby?

Being proactive in scheduling routine maintenance jobs will free your team to handle unexpected events.

Your systems should give you the flexibility to generate service jobs when you want to and to prompt operators with information about these jobs at the appropriate time.

Hit the ground running and increase first-time fix rates

You should have the systems in place to quickly identify who has the skills and availability to take a call. Provide them with everything they need to know to get in quickly, do the job, close down and exit, including call history and technical information. Enable them to do this via their mobile device, rather than having to carry around boxes of manuals.

Needless to say, your engineers require ready access to spares and parts. Can you track your inventory so that parts can be sourced quickly – from another engineer in the vicinity, the depot or a supplier? Give your engineers the power to search for and order spares via their mobile device.

This can also assist in reducing the costs of carrying inventory on the van ‘just in case’, which ties up your capital unnecessarily.

Plan non-billable activities

Time has to be allowed, planned and incorporated into the overall scheduling process for non-job related activities such as holidays and training. You need to be able to see at a glance any potential clashes: will approving a particular holiday request make it impossible to deliver certain jobs on time? Or can delivery be achieved only by the over-utilisation of the engineer prior to or immediately after their holiday?

And what contingency plans do you have for unplanned absence or adverse weather that may prevent engineers coming into work?

Review demand against resources

Integrated planning can help manage the tricky juggling act of satisfying the customer by responding within a reasonable timeframe and keeping engineers’ and back-office staff’s workloads within acceptable limits.

Your scheduling systems should prove invaluable in managing the complexity of resourcing across all jobs and provide a holistic view over the resourcing commitments across the business, so you can see at a glance the forecasted demand on your staff and their availability to take on new work.

By being able to visualise the impact of resourcing staff into new jobs and contracts, you can assign priorities and create realistic schedules. If necessary, reschedule or reassign existing work to another engineer with the skills to complete the job. Your system should hold details of engineers’ skills and certifications.

Download the full 40 page ebook for free by simply clicking here and completing the brief registration form

 

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In this the second instalment of our on going series looking at some of the key insight delivered in Advanced Field Service’s Management Handbook 2016 we take a look at one of the most important areas of any field service operation… scheduling.  

You are also able to download the full 40 page ebook for free by simply clicking here and completing the brief registration form

Scheduling your field engineers is undoubtedly one of a service managers core key performance indicators (KPIs), central to business profitability, and a key target on which you and your staff are measured.

Get it right and you increase the chances of business success. Get it wrong and the consequences can be disastrous, with resources overstretched or your engineers and technicians ‘sitting on the bench’ waiting for the call. There are multiple factors to consider when getting the right scheduling solution for your organisation, such as...

What type of call are you doing?

Is your engineer being sent out as an urgent response to fix a breakdown in an emergency or are they preforming routine planned maintenance? And what type of service do your engineers deliver when they are on site? Is it your strategy to just fix the immediate problem before moving swiftly onto the next customer, trying to get as many jobs in per day as possible?

Or does your company take the viewpoint that a more sensible approach is to have your engineers go above and beyond when on site, so your engineer will take their time to make sure all potential problems are addressed in order to reduce the chances of another call-out in the near future? Finally what about your business model? Do you work on a pay per call basis or does the customer have a warranty, a service contract or a rental agreement?

What is your routing allocation model?

How can you ensure engineer days are utilised with maximum efficiency? Do you split your engineers into specific geographic regions? What about routing and tracking tools to help your engineers get from one job to the next? And what type of scheduling tools are you using – dynamic, assisted, none at all? Is this right for your business or should you be exploring scheduling options in greater detail?

Can you categorise the calls you do to plan the day effectively?

How do you optimise the number of calls per day your team is able to handle effectively? Also how do you balance the workload amongst your engineers? What considerations do you put in place to ensure you are getting this balance right? How should you be dividing your teams into large site service jobs? Is it better to concentrate on multi-location quick fixes or is a mix and match approach a better fit with your company and your team?

What about where in the week you try to place your planned maintenance work? Is it better to show a bias towards the latter half of the week to free up capacity for a start of week breakdown rush or is it more sensible to have an even spread across the week so you don’t face the possibility of preventative maintenance being continuously pushed back to accommodate emergency calls?

What is your skills/parts allocation model?

Of course it’s not just a case of getting an engineer to the job, we need to be getting the right engineer to the job. How easy is it for your team to dispatch jobs based on the engineers skill-set and knowledge base? Of course this is a two way street – do you know what skills each job requires and do you know what engineers have what skills?

How easy is it to access that information? Do you have systems in place to manage this or does your call centre team have to know all about your products and your engineers’ individual capabilities? What about building your engineers skill sets up - can you train all your engineers to do everything, and then keep them up to date? Is it plausible to do so? Or would it be more sensible to have area experts, specialists in certain maintenance and repairs? Is there a risk of over-utilising sought after individuals if you take this approach?

Do you understand the site access profile?

Finally what about the access your field service engineers will have to your customer’s site? Are the customers’ premises  open on a 24/7 basis, 9 to 5 or appointment only? Again are you relying on staff knowledge to ensure you don’t dispatch a field service engineer out to the job when he can’t get access or do you have automated systems in place to help avoid this?

All of these questions are key to helping you build up an understanding both of how your business is currently approaching scheduling and what changes you can make to get things running ever smoother…

Download the full 40 page ebook The Service Management Handbook 2016 no by clicking this link and completing the brief form.

 

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The field service industry never stands still: new technology, new market conditions, new entrants, new customer requirements…they all make it essential to keep a watching brief on the changing business and technology landscape...

To help field service professionals keep up to date with these ever shifting sands Advanced Field Service have produced their Service Manager Handbook, and Field Service News will be bringing you a selection of features from this excellent resource for Service Managers working in all verticals, for companies big and small, across the next few months.

You can also download the complete edition of The Service Manager Handbook by clicking here and completing the brief registration form.

It’s an interesting time to be in field service. We are on the cusp of exciting new technology becoming an integral part of the way business is conducted.

At the same time, field service companies still face pressures to achieve more, at less cost, on a day-to-day basis. Advanced Field Service believe that when we reflect on 2015/2016, we will see that it is a time of consolidation, in which managers concentrate on improving efficiency and productivity levels using their existing processes and optimising their existing technology, rather than rushing to adopt leading-edge solutions. In the second edition of the Service Manager Handbook from Advanced Field Service, is therefore focused on optimising your processes and making your systems work harder for your business.

 

It shows how gaining insight into every corner of your business equips you to identify and understand those areas that are under-performing and to uncover and model best practice within your organisation.

Having the power to access critical data across all areas of your service business, make informed instant decisions and manage your operation – from the time the customer logs a call to a satisfactory conclusion – will keep you at the front of a highly competitive field. In this the first part of this new series we take a look at the most important part of any service business… the customer. We’ve all heard the old adage that the customer is always right, but that only holds true if they are the right customer. 

Modelling your ideal customers

In an effort to maintain business viability – and keep your engineers working out in the field – it can be tempting to take on low-margin clients. If business is thin on the ground, this is understandable. However, to build a sustainable business, you need to focus your resources on the jobs, contracts and clients that have most potential for profit, rather than trying to be all things to all clients.

Furthermore, all the following whittle away at your profit margins, and you can probably think of other time and resource wasters:

• Scope creep, where the job is bigger than first appeared
• Doing favours for clients (“While you’re here, can you just look at this…”)
• Providing free credit to late payers who go beyond your payment terms
• Providing an ‘archiving’ service, whereby customers call you to find out when a service or repair was last done[unordered_list] 

It’s worth stepping back and analysing your client base to identify: Clients who are already profitable: 

• How can you quantify for them the work that you do, so that it is recognised and suitably remunerated?
• How can you keep these clients ‘locked in’ by delivering service beyond the agreed service level agreement (SLA) but without draining your resources and revenues?

Clients who could become more profitable:

• How could you better manage the time you spend on their projects?
• Can you identify where you are providing more than you agreed within the contract and budget?
• Do you have an evidence base that will support you in negotiating with clients to pay more or expect less?
• Can you let them self-serve on their documentation through a customer portal to reduce calls on administration matters?

Clients who are unlikely to ever become sustainably profitable: 

• How could you readdress the balance and bring these clients back within acceptable parameters?
• If the evidence shows these clients are always going to be an excessive drain on resources, do you need to make the difficult decision to agree to go your separate ways in order to free up your engineers’ valuable time for more profitable jobs?

 

By gaining a better understanding of every client’s worth to the business, you’ll be well placed to decide where to invest your resources for optimum return, both in retaining clients and pursuing new business.  

Want to know more? To download the full 40 page eBook edition of The Service Managers Handbook 2015 instantly click here and completing the brief registration form.

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Welcome to the latest edition of the Field Service News podcast. This month Field Service News Editor Kris Oldland and Paul Sparkes of Advanced Field Service discuss the findings of the latest Field Service News research which assessed the mobility tools being used by field service companies today.

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Missed the research report being discussed in this podcast? Click here to download

 

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Find out more about Advanced Field Service in the Field Service directory by clicking here.

 

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Resource Type: White Paper
Published by: Click Software
Title: The Cloud: Up where customer service for the field belongs
Download: Click here to download the white paper
By downloading you agree to the T&Cs listed available here

Synopsis:

The Harris Interactive Customer Experience Impact report revealed that 86% of consumers have quit doing business with a company because of a poor customer experience—up 59% in four years. Other research has revealed it takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience, whilst 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with the same organization again. This white paper discusses how leveraging cloud solutions to optimise mobile workforces can improve the experiences of customers while lowering operational and IT costs. More field service management software is now available in the Cloud making it more accessible for SMEs and an alternative to heavy IT investments for large service organisations

Overview:

Customer complaints: What you hear is only the tip of the Iceberg. Many service companies don’t realize it when service levels are running low. In an increasingly savvy and connected market where information is readily available and easily accessible, customer service is often the only discerning difference between competing businesses. Investing in customer satisfaction is not only important but imperative for the long term survival of businesses especially where commoditisation has taken place

• Process improvement – to ensure prompt customer service and correct resource assignments
• Workforce development – to give the staff the opportunity to learn new skills
• Automation – rather than relying on error-prone and time-consuming manual processes
• Cultural changes – creating a working environment that stimulates the entire staff

Field personnel: you most valuable players

Only with real-time data can everyone shine. Providing real-time data across the entire organization is key to enhancing the customer experience. All levels of the service organization need actionable information to enhance how efficiently the field-service team operates and to improve experiences delivered to customers.

Silver linings within the Cloud

Cloud-based solutions open new doors for field service companies of all sizes by allowing for the quick, flexible adoption of new technologies that previously proved to be too expensive, risky and time-consuming to deploy.

Delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, cloud solutions provide several advantages over traditional on-premise solutions: inlcluding PAYG, rapid deployment, immediate ROI and free upgrades. In field workforce management, cloud-based solutions typically allow companies to achieve productivity gains of up to 20% and return on their investment within 12 months. The cloud approach gives businesses the opportunity to replace high, up-front capital infrastructure expenses with low, predictable costs, while also delivering other key benefits:

The service delivery chain

Cloud-based mobile workforce management solutions cover every step of the service chain—from planning and forecasting, to real-time intelligent scheduling, shift management, mobility and execution—underpinned by extensive user-defined analytics and dashboards to provide clear and intuitive reports. Optimised scheduling: Advanced resource scheduling and optimisation tools provide the main interface for dispatchers, supervisors and managers. Service companies can increase the efficiency of their workforce with by combining a powerful cloud-based scheduling and optimisation engine with strong decision support tools.

• Multiple scheduling options and policies
• Real-time optimisation immediately responsive to changes
• Optimised scheduling using multiple factors, people, crews, contractors, assets and complexities
• Street-level route optimisation
• Intelligent and flexible appointment booking
• Workflow dispatch and progress updates

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Mobility that connects entire teams. 

Mobile enterprise field execution software should allow both field workers and dispatchers the convenience of real-time communications and full end-to-end visibility. By using real-time mobility, field workers can update dispatchers; they can update customers, thereby benefiting everyone with true connectivity and better productivityReal-time information, when and where you need it. View jobs, service histories, customer information.[unordered_list style="bullet"]

• Mobile solutions should be compatible leading devices and operating systems, through all service workflows, and with 24/7 availability
• Mobility is driven by apps. Don’t reinvent the wheel – build your business process using ready-made apps without having to code or go through a lengthy upgrade process
• The enterprise mobility solution must offer a robust and scalable infrastructure that can adapt to the needs of the business and its users.
• Cutting-edge capabilities include artificial intelligence and automation that anticipate and act proactively upon user’s needs

Real-time and historic service performance

Look at the entire service delivery chain - before, during and after the moment of service - and the collected business metrics that result from each moment. Make key performance metrics delivers strategic value to service organizations by placing graphical, easy-to-understand key performance metrics directly into the hands of executives and service managers. Each user chooses which actionable data to report based on their role and business challenges, from the C-suite to front line supervisors.

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Click here to find out more about Click Software in the Field Service Directory

 

 

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A next generation cloud version of the field service management solution Siclops has been announced by Advanced Field Service. Siclops LIVE provides SMEs and large, multi-site companies with real-time visibility of their clients, jobs and engineers to increase efficiency and profitability levels.

The cloud-based functionality means it is a scalable and more affordable option for businesses operating across multiple sites, saving investment in expensive IT infrastructures. The solution is compatible with desktop, tablet and smartphone devices and seamlessly integrates with finance, CRM and telephony systems offering secure access to comprehensive information to improve productivity.

The system enables service management firms to easily manage all aspects of their business anytime, anywhere. Users can quickly access accurate mobile data relating to field workers, customers and suppliers from a single solution to speed up response times and enhance customer service levels by eliminating manual paper-based processes.

The user-friendly interface includes interactive business intelligence dashboards that display the current status of calls, jobs and contracts, along with extensive search facilities to assist with project management and scheduling requirements.

 

Greg Ford, managing director of Advanced Field Service, comments, “Siclops LIVE has been built on world class and reliable cloud technology which underlines our commitment to the field service industry. The solution has been specifically developed to address the challenges that growing service organisations face by providing unprecedented visibility into their field staff to drive efficiencies and operational control.

“By providing customers and suppliers with instant access to real-time information, they can gain unprecedented insight into the most, and least, profitable areas of their business, in order to deliver exceptional customer service.”

Ffor organisations employing that repair, service or install equipment in the field the system includes built-in specific data forms ensuring full compliance on the move with leading industry regulations, such as NICEIC, SIA, NSI, HSE and F-Gas.

 

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With customer satisfaction now the top metric in defining field service success,  the future of service and service revenue generation is in preparing the service organisation to have the right conversations with customers before, during, and after a service visit,  says Aly Pinder, senior research analyst analyst, Service Management, Aberdeen Group.

Field service has long been a task oriented function of the organisation. Receive a customer call, schedule a technician, dispatch the tech, route the tech to the customer site, fix the problem, and then move on to the next job. Granted this is rudimentary recap of what happens, but I hope the picture is clear. A customer with a failed asset or piece of equipment, would then need the service organisation to reactively send a technician out to solve the problem with the goal of having technicians complete as many jobs as possible in a given day.
This model has been effective for quite a while, but a shift is occurring in field service. Aberdeen’s State of Service Management 2015: Connect to Your Customers (March 2015) research highlighted that the top metric defining success in service is customer satisfaction, not operational efficiency or cost containment. Furthermore, increased competition in service and heightened customer expectations demand the field service organisation enhance customer value. Unfortunately, too many organisations still view service and field technicians as reactive, fix it resources as opposed to agents building customer value and revenue opportunities. Top performers ensure they equip technicians with the support and tools to do both.[quote float="left"]Service revenue opportunities cannot come at the cost of quality service.

Aberdeen’s recent Service Revenue: Unearth an Untapped Stream of Dollars report (May 2015), highlighted top performers are 56% more likely than peers to have met their service revenue growth goals in the previous 12 months. But does this mean organisations should turn technicians into field sales people? Do technicians have the acumen to be motivated by commission? I think these are the wrong questions. The future of service and service revenue generation is in preparing the service organisation to have the right conversations with customers before, during, and after a service visit.

 

• Before the service call, provide the dispatch team with insight in regard to in-warranty or under service contract customer issues. The back office should have access to customer history, equipment information, and contract and warranty insight. The dispatch team must review warranty entitlements and service contracts before scheduling a service job. Before a work order has been issued is the best time to discuss with a customer the work that needs to be done, what is covered, and how additional services can be added if desired. This proactive conversation will not only avoid sending a technician out who must complete uncovered service, but also provides an opportunity to renew a service contract.[quote float="right"]Technicians are heroes, they want to solve problems and make customers happy.

   

• During the service call, make sure techs know if service is  being given away for free. There are times when a service organisation is OK with giving service away for free. There will be errors made or opportunities to take a short-term loss in lieu of cementing a longer term profitable customer partnership. The problem is when technicians have zero visibility into the contract or warranty status of equipment during every service call. Technicians do not want to be the bad guy / lady who denies service because a service contract has expired. Technicians are heroes, they want to solve problems and make customers happy. For this reason, it is imperative that technicians have real-time access to customer information (i.e., warranty status, repair history). This insight doesn’t only help avoid delivering “free service”, it empowers technicians to have better conversations with customers while on site.
• After the service call, help move from resolution to a sales engagement. Mobile technology empowers the field service team to not only document and close a work order, but also to create future sales opportunities. Leading organisations have incentivised technicians to be the eyes and ears of the sales function to unearth future prospects for cross- and up-sell opportunities. The key is to ensure technicians prioritise solving the customer issue and not future sales. Technicians have to remain trusted customer partners; once they are viewed as sales people they will lose the trust of the customer.

Service revenue opportunities cannot come at the cost of quality service. These two goals must be complimentary. Top performing organisations equip the entire service team with the insight to make revenue generating decisions in real-time. But these companies understand the viability of the organisation demands that customers continue to value the service being provided.

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