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Research conducted by US based technology consultancy Software Advice has revealed that many field service companies—especially small to midsize residential service providers, such as cleaning services, pest control and plumbers are falling behind other business when it comes to the technology they deploy to run their operations on a day to day basis.

The research, which had well over 8,000 responses from random adults who have used residential services within the United States, identified that despite a wide range of software solutions designed specifically for field service being available, many companies have yet to adopt such modern systems.

Indeed a 2014 Software Advice field service BuyerView report indicated that 54 per cent of field service companies, that could be potential software buyers, are still using manual methods for managing their business. Similarly a Field Service News research report identified 48 per cent of companies were using manual tools.

The benefits of moving towards a digital workflow for field service companies are well documented (not least amongst these pages) however, the benefits for the customers of field service are also great and it is in this area that the Software Advice research focussed.

Here we explore some of the key findings of the research...

1. Customers are more likely to select a provider that can track their field service technicians.

The first area the survey addressed was how much more likely customers were to select a field service company based on the types of technology they use. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between the technology being implemented and the likelihood of gaining new business.

Well over half (58 per cent) of the respondents stated the use of technician tracking technology would “somewhat increase likelihood” to hire a field service company whilst over a quarter (28 per cent) stated it would “greatly increase likelihood” to hire that company.

Of course one of the main benefits of implementing this type of technology is that field service companies are able to provide far more accurate timeframes for the arrival of their field service operatives. In today’s busy world the difference between an accurate time slot or the traditional ‘some point between 8am and 6pm’ can be a huge benefit for customers.

According to Sam Pillar, CEO and co-founder at Jobber, one beneficial technician-tracking capability field service software may offer is geofencing. This technology acts quite literally like a digital “fence,” enabling businesses to set boundaries for service, create alerts upon entry and exit to and from these boundaries and automatically notify customers when their technician is nearby.

As Pillar explains, “If you're scheduled to do a job at 2 p.m., but at five minutes to 2 p.m., you’re still 10 miles away, you’d be able to automatically send a text message to a customer saying you’re going to be a little late."

In addition to improving customer experience and satisfaction, there are organizational benefits of integrating this tracking technology. “If [the technician says] that they were at a job and the customer says they weren’t, you can verify this; or, if they get in an accident, you can see exactly where they were,” Pillar explains.

2. Customer portals in field service are something we must get right

One of the most polarising sections of the research was the responses around customer portals.

Whilst access to an online portal for self-service tasks such as scheduling and bill paying had the second-strongest positive impact on respondents’ likelihood to hire a field service company the data also indicated that an online portal could have the most negative impact in customers eyes.

In fact 5 per cent of respondents indicated that having a customer portal function would "somewhat decrease" the likelihood of them selecting a company, whilst 12 per cent stated it would or "greatly decrease" the likelihood of hiring that company. Such mixed responses would suggest that when implemented properly online portals can enrich the customer experience—but when implemented poorly, they can severely detract from it.

 

Of those respondents who indicated a preference for customer portals, 55 per cent stated that they would use “online bill pay” more than any of the other functions listed. Another popular function was ‘online scheduling’ which exactly half of respondents indicated they would use.

3. Customer perception of technology in field service

The next section of the research focussed on consumers’ perception of how well field service companies were deploying technology and how this impacted on the customer experience.

41 per cent of respondents indicated that the companies they have hired previously had done an “average” job of using technology to improve the customer experience they deliver. 39 per cent stated their provider uses technology to improve their service offering either “somewhat” or “very well”. Leaving a minority who say in their experience field service providers leverages technology “poorly” to some degree.

It's clear that more customers have a positive experience with a field service provider's software than a negative one. Pillar elaborates on what a positive experience with field service software should look like.

“If we [software developers] are doing our job well in building great technology for these businesses [to use] in serving their customers, then we’re doing it in such a way that it stays out of the way,” he says. “The end consumer shouldn’t really notice. There shouldn’t be a situation where a field service technician is fumbling with an iPad or an Smart phone to try and get a bit of information recorded, or to pluck information about a job. It should be very quick and easy.”

 

If the proper use of software is invisible, it’s probably very apparent when a provider is not using software properly: Processes tend to be slower and more inconvenient for customers. As Pillar says, the right software offers real, operational improvements that benefit the business owner. And the end result of these improvements is better customer service.

“The end consumer sees the benefits in more efficient work; an industry that is, overall, faster and more competitive; and, ultimately, they should start seeing greater price competitiveness as a result, because [providers] are able to do more with less,” he adds.

You can read the full report from Software Advice for free by clicking here. 

 

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Sunrise Software survey reveals Gamification could need a makeover despite increases in productivity and customer satisfaction...

It's a business strategy that has created both a buzz and a backlash but the findings of a new survey indicate that gamification is a growing trend delivering the right results.

The findings of the Sunrise Software Gamification Survey, show that 13% of respondents, from a range of commercial and public sector organisations that use Service Desk management software, are using gamified applications and a further 71% plan to introduce them in the future. All the managers who responded to the Sunrise Software survey felt that the introduction of gamification had resulted in more engaged staff. 86% of managers said gamification had benefited their organisation with increased productivity and 43% cited an increase in customer satisfaction.

 

End Game for Gamification? 

However there has been something of a backlash against the term gamification with some staff complaining that the "fun" element of the software actually trivialises important tasks. The survey showed that only 25% of workers felt more engaged, motivated and productive since gamification was introduced. The results also highlight that most employees favour tangible rewards for their hard work although they did acknowledge that recognition of a job well done increased their motivation.

 

The findings also show some interesting differences in attitude towards gamification between the age groups. Of the three age groups questioned 18 to 32-year-olds in organisations not using gamification were the least keen on the technology. Even so 85% of that age group said they were motivated by competition at work and once the gamified application had been installed they were actually the most likely to be more engaged. Of the three age groups they were also more convinced that gamification was just a passing fad, with ages 33 to 45 being most positive that it is here to stay, followed closely by the 46 to 65 year olds.

 

Can gamification evolve?

The future of gamification has been questioned by many industry leaders with some suggesting that the technology is overhyped and the terminology needs to change. Neil Penny, Product Director at Sunrise Software which has deployed gamification within its own Service Desk operation, commented: “The survey highlighted that anything that increases motivation and reduces employee turnover will improve productivity, leading to the twin benefits of raising customer service and cutting the cost of recruitment.”

He added: "We have seen from our own experience that by introducing gamification successfully, companies can look forward to increased employee motivation that boosts productivity and impacts positively on customer service, and ultimately the organisation’s bottom line."

A copy of the Sunrise Software Gamification Survey Findings can be downloaded at

https://www.sunrisesoftware.com/2014/12/white-paper-gamification-survey-results-2014/

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The Cloud. Can you really avoid it? The cloud market is expected to grow to $121 billion dollars in 2015, a 26% compound annual growth rate from 2010’s $37 billion[1].

Such growth is set to continue, with research showing that 81% of organisations forecast a move to the cloud for 50% of their future transactions.

Indeed field service news research at the beginning of this year identified that whilst the shift to cloud based computing for service management software solutions hasn’t been as prevalent as say CRM systems there is a growing ground swell as companies establish an appetite for the cloud when it comes to the next generation of their service management software.

So what are the drivers for the growth in the cloud market?

With 60% of CIOs stating that their number one priority is cloud computing[2], a major driver has been the adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) technology.

By 2017, SaaS is set to generate almost 60% of cloud revenues[3]. The move to SaaS is primarily driven by its ability to offer greater scalability, higher efficiencies with no loss of functionality, and reduced application costs, with a move to the cloud offering annual savings of over 20%.

However, there are of course additional benefits to the cloud as well as the SaaS model which whilst in the short term can make software more affordable in the long term can sometimes become the more costly option across a period of 3 years or more.

One significant benefit that the Cloud brings is that by it’s very nature it comes with disaster recovery essentially built in. Unlike an on premise system, should any significant problems hit your office such as fire, flooding or theft, if your core operating systems are Cloud based there will be no direct impact on your ability to continue work the next day.

Also we are now finally seeing fears around Cloud security being put to bed. Whilst amongst the general populace and in consumer computing the risk remains somewhat and the perception of this risk is amplified by security breaches of high profile consumer systems such as Apple’s iCloud, in the world of enterprise Cloud security is far more protected.

It is no coincidence that companies such as Axeda and Amazon Web Services have become dominant within the enterprise cloud sector and that both have an excellent reputation for understanding and delivering complex security solutions that meet the demands of their marketplace.

How are these trends reflected in the Service Management market?

IDC Research sponsored by Axios highlighted that every second company that now uses on-premise IT Service Management software plans to launch a cloud-based version within the next two years[4]. For many organizations, cloud has already become mainstream and their ITSM solution may be the 3rd or 4th major application that they have moved to the cloud.

The uptake of Microsoft’s Exchange365 in particular has increased businesses faith in cloud provision and allowed them to concentrate on their core business while cloud providers look after the infrastructure. Similarly, whilst some 15 years ago the likes of SAP and IBM were openly questioning and even mocking the likes of Salesforce.com and their cloud based infrastructure now there is something of a race amongst the slumbering IT giants to try and catch the tail of the wave and make out they were their all along.

Commenting on the research Scott Leckie, CTO at Axios Systems, said

“We’re seeing a shift in the market, with SaaS gaining substantial traction over the past year. Why is Service Management so suitable for cloud? For us, the move has been driven by a significant increase in user mobility and range of devices from which users require access to technology, anywhere and at any time. SaaS technologies fully support this, and provide compliance without sacrificing on functionality or standards for data security or speed.”

Tasos Symeonides, CEO at Axios Systems, went further adding

“Here at Axios, we’re seeing a 25% compound annual growth rate in the uptake of SaaS, which reflects the current trends in the cloud industry as a whole. IT leaders are seeing the benefits of moving to the cloud, allowing them to be more agile and responsive to business needs. Ultimately this drives greater efficiencies.

Our IT Service Management solution, assyst, provides the technology you need over the web, without any of the application management overheads. All you require is a browser-enabled desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. That means no new infrastructure, no server application, no desktop installs, no upgrade projects. No hassle.”

<em><strong>[1]</strong></em><em> Cloud Computing Market: Global Forecast (2010 – 2015), October 2010: </em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-computing-234.html"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;"><em>http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-computing-234.html</em></span></a></span></span>

<em><strong>[2]</strong></em><em> CloudTweaks ‘Demystifying the Cloud’ Infographic, January 2014: </em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://cloudtweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/demystifying-the-cloud.jpg"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><em>http://cloudtweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/demystifying-the-cloud.jpg</em></span></a></span></span>

<em><strong>[3]</strong></em><em> Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2013–2017 Forecast, August 2013: </em><span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=242464"><span style="color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;"><em>http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=242464</em></span></a></span><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span> </em></span>

[4] IT Service Management in Deutschland 2014, ITSM im Spannungsfeld von Cloud Computing und Enterprise Mobility, Mark Alexander Schulte for IDC, February 2014:: http://idc.de/de/research/multi-client-projekte/it-service-management-in-deutschland-2014

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December.  That last few weeks before we flip to a clean page, create those New Year’s Resolutions, and generally begin again in pursuit of personal and professional excellence. Patrice Eberline is Vice President, Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax gives guidance on how to take stock and get set for success in the year ahead....

The end of the year is also a terrific time to take stock of your Field Service organisation and offerings.  We typically review performance against standard industry metrics- MTTR, Utilisation, SLA’s, etc. This year, take a look at performance against potential- what your field service organisation could be.

Use the holiday time to step away from the tactical and look at the bigger picture.  How can you disrupt the day to day and be transformative?  What are you seeing at a strategic level that will give you the edge and generate breakthrough profitability in 2015?

1. How “fit” are your service offerings to face the New Year? We often look at our own fitness levels in prep for our personal New Year’s Resolutions.  Our business should be no different and frequently service programs are the last to get a facelift.  Are they ready for the New Year?  Keeping service offerings evergreen and current is key in keeping customers happy and creating service excellence.  Let’s look at an example.

   In the world of medical device repair, service is complex and much of that complexity can come from compliance.  Compliance reporting can be onerous for your customers, and can offer an opportunity to update a simple PM service event with a high value, no cost add on. At a CSO event I recently attended, one of the field leaders shared a success story where he offered to capture a full equipment inventory (both his equipment and his competitors) as a way to help his customer with their “as installed” end of year reporting.  This was a simple matter of scanning like equipment bar codes using a mobile device. The result was a great way to generate additional customer sat while getting additional information for future sales opps.Taking a look at your service programs with fresh eyes can offer unexpected opportunities to disrupt the competition!

2. How well are you capitalizing on sales opportunities from within your Field Service team? 

   As we move further and further into the online, self-serve service world, every touch point with your customer becomes of paramount importance.  …and the unit that touches the customer most frequently?  You guessed it- your service team!

   Your field techs are the face of your brand.  They spend the most time in front of your customer and develop long-standing positive relationships with them.  More importantly, your field team has their unwavering trust, and that is the key to unlocking additional sales.  Are you using them to their fullest?

   I spoke with a Service Director a few months ago who is doing just that.  He was quick to point out that his aim was not to turn his techs into sales reps, as that would defeat their trusted advisor status.  He was however, able to identify techs with an aptitude for observation, rapport-building, and sales and offer them additional training to make them highly effective techs who could capitalize on sales opportunities seen in the field.  The process was then automated by using technology to automatically dispatch these “closers” to service appointments where equipment was coming out of warranty and there was no long-term contract in place.

   A field service engineer with high technical skills as well as sales ability can truly move the needle on your bottom line!

3. Are you leveraging technology to the fullest?

   The pace of technology innovation continues to increase dramatically year over year.  The benefits are no longer “nice to have’s” but are “must haves” in order to get and maintain competitive advantage and best in class service status. As the year winds down, it’s a great time to take a look at the tools you are using and leverage those that will give you the edge against the competition.

   One of the most popular ways to do this is around hand held devices.  Today everyone has a cell phone and most of us have a tablet of one kind or another.  Further, both are on just about every Top 10 list for holiday gift giving.  By making the most of these “always on” devices, you can separate yourself from the crowd in a variety of ways:

    

   • Increase customer sat with real-time notifications of technician ETA.
   • Increase First Time Fix on complex work orders by enabling the field with real-time escalation to home office source expertise via face-time or similar
   • Turn invoices around quickly and decrease invoice questions by empowering technicians to get written approval on paperwork before leaving customer site
   • ave time on traditional laptop boot times by providing technicians with an efficient “always on” tool to log and complete work orders

With a little planning, technology will help you empower your field techs, increase operating efficiencies, and delight your customers.

These are just some examples and food for thought as you prepare for the New Year. I wish you all the very best of holidays and here’s to a breakthrough 2015!

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Service MAnagement software providers and scheduling experts IFS have looked at the numbers donr the calculations and identified that Santa’s sleigh travels at 25 times the speed of sound to deliver 120 million presents worldwide...

Every year Father Christmas sets off from his HQ in Lapland tasked with delivering presents to children the world over. As Santa is receiving more orders than ever before and client expectations are continually rising, IFS thought Santa could use an Elf Resource Planning system to help do things more efficiently.

Using Mobile Workforce Management software with dynamic scheduling, the Elf Resource Planning system calculated that Santa would need to travel at 19,210* mph from bedtime to sunrise in in order to travel the 144,000 miles required to deliver presents!

It turns out that Rudolph and team will need 3,660 tonnes of carrots to fuel them through the night. The reindeer, in turn, will pull over 180,000 tonnes of toys (and packaging) in the magic sleigh.

IFS Mobile Workforce Management with dynamic scheduling can be optimized by a number of criteria in order to increase profit, reduce cost and ensure service level agreement (SLA) compliance. Success stories with IFS Mobile Workforce Management include 15 percent reductions in travel and overtime costs, 40 percent improvement in technician productivity, and more than 20 percent improvements in SLA compliance and on-time delivery.

At the heart of IFS Mobile Workforce Management lies the IFS Dynamic Scheduling Engine(DSE), which is deployed around the world by more than 6,000 users to optimize the scheduling of all kinds of field resources from technicians to assets alike. It uses powerful algorithms to automate and optimize scheduling decisions based on configurable and reconfigurable business constraints, transforming a service operation into a more efficient profit center, all while delighting customers.

Calculating Santa’s optimal route using our scheduling engine required a number of assumptions to be made in order to arrive at the total of 120 million presents to be delivered:

• About one third of the world’s population are culturally Christian and thus celebrate Christmas
• Kids under three have no idea who Santa is and over eight they no longer believe in him. (Fact.)
• Assuming U.S. demographics hold true, about 10 percent of the population is this age range: so that’s 200 million potential believers worldwide
• Assuming 10 percent of kids work out the “Santa” situation sooner, 10 percent have parents that don’t uphold the Santa myth for ideological reasons, 10 percent who don’t uphold gift-giving for financial reasons and 10 percent who have different beliefs on Christmas – that leaves an estimated number of potential believers at 120 million.  Assuming two kids per family, that’s 60 million chimneys to squeeze down.

The route allows one minute per 10 million population, to unload at each country. Thus not all of Christmas Eve will be spent travelling: a lot of time is spent loading and unloading the magical sleigh. The actual distance travelled will be 144,000 miles assuming he needs to visit every country.

To see how IFS helped Santa this year, view the video or check out the route above. Follow the conversation on Twitter – search #IFS4Santa.

Many thanks for IFS for taking the time to improve CHristmas and share the findings with us all.

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We continue our series looking at the extracts from The Service Management Handbook 2014 published by Advanced Field Service and this time take a look at how utilising modern business intelligence tools can further improve our efficiency.

You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

Working smarter. Faster.

Given today’s challenging environment there is little margin for error, that’s why service managers need an even greater and in-depth understanding of their business to improve business planning, make more informed decisions, keep ahead of the competition and retain and attract customers.

With increasing demands for information, best-in-class field service companies are turning to the latest business intelligence (BI) tools to gain instant access to critical data ‘on-the-move’.

The benefits of management reporting for any business are well documented…

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• A clear, rounded, instant view of the whole business
• Intelligence to recognise emerging trends
• Potential to seek and respond to new opportunities or threats
• Power to understand key areas delivering profit (and loss)
• Make fast, informed decisions based on accurate and live information

[/unordered_list]

However not all field service businesses have the time or resources to pull together and analyse reams of reports.

That’s why successful, growing businesses have long since replaced stacks of hand-crafted reports and isolated spreadsheets with more interactive and intuitive BI tools, transforming the way they automate, view and manage their business performance.

Unleashing BI

Your back-end service management solution should be able to do all the work of collating real-time information automatically across your jobs.

[quote float ="left"]Your data should be regularly analysed in a multitude of ways and in varying degrees of complexity[/quote] It should also make easy work out of presenting it in the formats you have defined as being most useful to your business, giving your management team full visibility of your contract profitability and equipping your decision-makers with instant access to vital information on your business, including your profit forecasts.

As a matter of course, your data should be regularly analysed in a multitude of ways and in varying degrees of complexity, from viewing a daily high-level graphical KPI dashboard, down to examining monthly detailed reports.

By setting up quick, simple, configurable management reports, you could gain unprecedented insight into the most, and least, profitable areas of your business. Standard reports include: analysis of calls by equipment, site and efficiency; costing of jobs and engineers; performance and productivity of engineers; and KPI reporting.

Mobile reporting

Operating in a fast moving environment doesn’t allow time for your engineers to wait until they’re back at the office to give you an update on their status. So having the ability to reportonsite directly from their mobile device of choice, whether tablet, mobile phone or PDA, can be invaluable.

Mobile software that works seamlessly hand-in-hand with your back-end service management software will give you the added benefit of instantly analysing the performance and productivity of your workers and react immediately to any potential issues.

This means that you are no longer reliant on being in the office to run your reports – as it can all be done, at the touch of a button, whatever your location.

Dashboards

Employing BI tools that give you the insight to drive your business forward and avoid areas of failure could be your life line by transforming the way your KPIs are delivered and providing a new level of management analysis.

[quote float="right"]With the acceleration of technical advancements continuing to take speed, BI is becoming increasingly accessible on the cloud.[/quote] With the acceleration of technical advancements continuing to take speed, BI is becoming increasingly accessible on the cloud and the latest analytic dashboards are now fast becoming the service manager’s reporting tool of choice, offering true anytime/anywhere reporting, via a browser or mobile device, in easy-to understand formats.

You may think this functionality has been around for some time, and in some cases it has.

However many of the leading software providers are now incorporating dashboard facilities intotheir service management solutions, so you can drill-down to the original data source to analyse, at both a detailed or top-level business view, all your core data including customer status, call response, financials, hours worked, engineer visits, stock and supplier KPIs. 

Want to know more? You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

 
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We take a look at some of the advice of our good friends at TheSmartVan.com on how to start seeing clear revenue streams from service techs.

To begin, Sean Lydon, begins by outlining three top tips for gathering refferals from your field service engineers.

Service techs, writes Sean can be a company’s biggest referral booster — or loser.

On the front lines, they are best-positioned to garner new business. But while they undergo rigorous technical education, they often aren’t given sufficient training in the softer “people skills” that earn referrals.

So what are Sean’s three top tips for earning more revenue from service?

PREPARE THE CUSTOMER FOR A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE — BEFORE THE CALL

Keith Lowe, co-founder of Conditioned Air Solutions, a 28-person heating and air conditioning company in Huntsville, Alabama has a pre-service call tradition that he says gives customers a feeling of transparency and prepares them for a great experience: He e-mails a picture and bio of the technician to the customer before the call.

It adds a personal touch and lays the ground for a great service call, he says — and that’s the first step to generating repeat and referral business.

TRAIN YOUR FIELD SERVICE TECHS TO COMMUNICATE

When customers feel at ease with a service tech — an experience they don’t usually expect from technicians — they are more inclined to share that positive news about your company with friends. How to create that comfortable environment?

“When you first arrive, introduce yourself in a professional manner, smile, and announce that you’re there to fix the problem,” says Sally Mounts, PhD, president of  Auctus Consulting Group, a management consulting firm near Pittsburgh,

“Explain how long service calls usually take, since no one really likes having strangers in their homes.  Ask if they would like you to leave your shoes at the door to avoid tracking on their floors. While you are working, be friendly and open. Ask if they would like you to explain what you’re doing and why.”

 

Adds Mounts: “People are not used to empathic technicians who are adept at communicating. If you are [that technician], you’ll be seen as extraordinary.”

 

ASK FOR REFERRALS

Even the most enthusiastic customers may not send referrals. Why? Nobody’s asked them.

Lowe, of Conditioned Air Solutions, says he holds technicians accountable for asking for feedback and referrals. His company uses ReviewBuzz, an online reputation management application, which he says makes it easy for his customers to post feedback on multiple review and social media sites, such as Google Places, Yelp, and Facebook, in a single entry.

“Before they leave the house, our technicians are to hand the customer our ReviewBuzz card with the technician’s name on it, and say something like,

'Would you mind going onto this website to give me a review and let me know how I did? I’d really appreciate it,’ ” Lowe says.

For those who don’t have a system like ReviewBuzz, Mounts offers this advice for techs:

 

“After completing the project, explain what the customer can do to prevent [the issue] from happening again. Give them your business card and tell them to call you personally if they have any problems in the future.

Then explain that referrals are the lifeblood of any successful business, and ask if they know anyone who could also use your services. Ask if you can use their name in your referral call.”

Of course referrals are one thing but what about putting your field service engineers in a position where they can also directly sell. Whether it be upgrading SLA’s or supplementary items leveraging a field service engineer’s trusted advisor status to secure further sales is a solid strategy but not many service techs have a background in sales; they may not even be big people people to begin with.

So how can you train your repairmen, installers, and supervisors — these product people — on the soft skills of up-selling?

In this second feature Ian Stewart came up with a few simple tips you can start using (or reinforcing) right away to boost both your field engineers confidence, and their sales numbers.

KNOWLEDGE IS YOUR BEST TOOL

Whether they know it or not, field techs have a powerful tool on their side that even some very good salesman don’t: intimate product knowledge. And that gives them credibility — something a salesman very seldom has.

“Once the customer gets that you know what you’re talking about, they’ll think everyone in the company knows what they’re talking about,” says Brendan Cooke, an installer-turned-customer service rep for All-Guard Alarm Systems 

“If you can educate the customer, they’re usually going to be satisfied with the product. And being an installer is the greatest education you can get in this industry. Learning all the functions of the product, walking people through it; that’s probably the greatest tool I have.”

SELL THE OPPOSITE

How often do you run into a customer who says they’re already satisfied with the service they’re getting from one of your competitors? Well Earl King, the founder of King Productions International, a HVAC sales consulting firm in Texas, says that shouldn’t nip your sales pitch in the bud.

“First, I’ll ask [a customer] if they’re satisfied,” King says. “And if they say there are, then I ask if we can do a maintenance audit — no charge, no obligation. I want to look at all their service tickets over the past 12 months or so, review how much has been spent on materials.”

Typically, King says, it’s not much. Having that knowledge in your hands creates an opportunity to sell away from what the customer’s already getting in a full-coverage agreement with someone else. If you can show a customer they’re paying more in a yearly service agreement than they’re getting back, you may be able to pick off a new customer by offering a “programmed maintenance,” labor-only agreement, which is always a lot cheaper.

FIRST, LISTEN

Great salespeople are said to have a silver tongue, right? Actually, it’s the ears that count.

By listening closely to what the customer is — and sometimes isn’t — saying, you can pick up on what their problem is, and how your product or service can solve that for them. Joe Crisara, a sales educator for ContractorSelling.com, talks about the “turn-around” technique, where you as a seller get the customer talking about why he’s interested in your service.

 

Get them, essentially, to sell you on your own service — that helps them reinforce the fact that they want and need it, and it gives you information about exactly what they’re looking for.

“Many times buyers provide a false reason so they don’t reveal too much about their situation, thinking that you may use it against them to close the deal,” Crisara writes on his blog.

“The turn-around helps your buyers ‘think it over’ before you start making prices and solutions so they are certain that the service or product they are requesting information [about] is something they definitely will purchase.”

DON’T ASSUME

Part of listening is keeping an open mind, says Mike Moore, who runs HVAC Learning Solutions. And that means don’t assume anything. You don’t necessarily know what a customer’s budget is, or what they can and can’t afford.

People may surprise you — but if you don’t offer your best, you’ll never sell your best. So start by offering customers the service or product that best fits their needs — not what you think fits in their price range.

“The customer will pay for what he or she can afford, and it is never your job to decide what one can financially invest in,”

NO EXCUSES

Andy Halpein, the owner of Laser Printer Resource in Walnut Creek, Calif., puts it bluntly: “If they want a job, they’ve gotta sell.”

That’s kind of a sink-or-swim directive, but the point is valid: Sales is simply part of the job now. In some cases, that means pitching customers out in the field.

Or, as Halperin says, it can be as simple as just be performing a great repair, gaining the customer’s trust, and making sure to mention ongoing service agreements and handing them the company business card. Either way, it’s now a must. “Hopefully [the tech] is great — and usually they are,” he says. “I only hire great, awesome ones.”

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It’s a given that the customer is your number one priority, however, to satisfy and retain your clients, field service companies need to repeatedly provide a professional service. Here we take another look at a section from the Service Management Handbook published by advanced field service to see how. 

You can also download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

Typically, customer service is impacted by a combination of factors that result in the customer not getting what they want, when they want it.

Organisations generally fail to deliver successful customer service if they are impacted by the following:

• Lack of integrated, real-time communication between the field engineer and the customer service representative
• Poor visibility of current stock levels across multiple systems and manual entry
• Manual processes hindered by unnecessary paperwork

This can, in turn, cause problems with accuracy and delays, or just a simple lack of flexibility, when it comes to dealing with customer issues, for example:

• Not able to notify customers if the engineer or part delivery is delayed
• Not able to order and replace spare parts quickly, particularly if an incorrect part is ordered initially
• Inefficient use of engineers’ time and resources
• Not able to respond quickly and flexibly to customer requests

Delivering a winning customer service is what sets field service businesses apart.

6 steps to service success

Given these common challenges, what can service businesses do to really ensure that what you are delivering is adding genuine value to your clients? And what can you do to ensure your value-add is fully recognised by the client?

Here’s our winning formula…

1. Provide a professional response

Whether you operate in the B2B or consumer/domestic markets, you’ll need to consistently meet basic criteria, such as responding within a set timeframe or appointment window.

A field service solution helps you to deploy your engineers with maximum efficiency and equip them with everything they need to know to do a proficient job, from the customer’s contact details to inspection sheets.

Technology gives you the option to send the engineer’s estimated time of arrival, by SMS or email, to the customer. If the engineer is running late, you can keep the customer posted on developments. In many cases, customers will find a delay more acceptable if they are informed of the reasons for any hold-up, along with the new ETA.

2. Live capture of onsite data

The information your engineers enter remotely through their PDAs should automatically feedback to your call control centre and back-office reporting and billing systems.

Customers can be sent up-to-date compliance certification within minutes after the job is completed. Sending an invoice promptly while the job is still fresh in the customer’s mind will also avoid queries and delays further down the line.

While not strictly speaking a customer service issue, having fast efficient billing processes reinforces your image as a professional service provider and helps speed up payments and improve cash flow.

3. Collect customer feedback

Rating product suppliers and service providers has become a way of life.

Customers are accustomed to completing online surveys and logging their opinions on review sites.

Without bombarding customers with survey requests, you can collect their feedback using standard forms on the engineer’s PDA or schedule a survey to be emailed to them after the job is complete.

Not only does this foster confidence that their views are valued, you can angle the questions to gain valuable insight into your customers’ thinking and identify possible opportunities to upsell the contract and services, where appropriate.

4. Sophisticated customer intelligence

Intelligence on your clients will enable you to offer a greater level of customer service and provide your teams with organisational knowledge, information and the expertise to make complementary sales.

The provision of powerful, accurate information equips your teams to better meet the needs of your clients. A CRM solution, integrated with your service management software, will share information across your whole business, helping to facilitate access to critical information at all times whilst managing your sales pipeline and opportunities.

5. Deliver on time

Accurate and consistent service delivery is essential to keep the business running to its optimum. Capturing data on the spot and time-stamping photos will protect you from becoming open to penalties and demands for refunds. Always putting the customer first and meeting their demands and expectations will put you ahead of the competition.

6. Customer web-portals

Many service organisations now approach many of their major clients as strategic partners, rather than just mere end-users, working in collaboration to ensure long-standing relationships and increased profitability.

A customer web-portal offers your clients, staff and contractors, the ability to create jobs, view history, access contract agreements and run interactive reports on their KPIs. This type of self-service access will ensure your clients are kept firmly in the loop, cementing your status as a preferred service partner – without adding to the workload of your service administrators.

Want to know more? You can download a copy of the full 45 page Service Management Handbook by clicking this link

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mplsystems, the UK multi-channel contact technology specialist, believes that 2015 will be the year that truly configurable, mash-up powered Customer Engagement Centres start to set the customer contact technology agenda.

“For 2015 we’re expecting an increased focus on those solutions that allow service providers to model exactly the customer engagement approach they require, without having to force their business processes around needlessly complex, one-size-fits-all CRM models. Technologies that support this next generation model, particularly when it comes to taking advantage of digital channels, will play a key role in 2015’s best practice contact technology deployments,” commented Paul White, CEO, mplsystems.

mplsystems' five key Customer Engagement Centre Technology Indicators for 2015 are:

 

• Agent Desktops enable true Customer Engagement Centres – while 2014 saw greater integration between contact centre and CRM systems, organisations still need to go much further if they are to provide agents with truly intelligent Agent Desktops. 2015’s biggest challenge will involve organisations getting much closer to customers, leveraging more meaningful and context-sensitive information through smart Big Data mash-ups to provide agents with relevant insight into all of a customer’s interactions with a business –ensuring that agents no longer need to hand off interactions to other departments
• Embedding customer care into mobile apps – we’re already seeing dedicated mobile apps assume greater importance in service providers’ omnichannel strategies, however for 2015 customer service organisations will build on this by embedding direct contact capabilities such as webchat, callback and instant messaging – effectively offering a Virtual IVR capability for those digital customers frustrated with traditional contact channels
• Web chat on track to become the dominant channel – our recent webinar with BT’s Head of Customer Insight and Futures, Nicola Millard, referenced how webchat is set to become the dominant customer contact channel of the future. 2015 will see chat continue to grow in terms of channel representation, as it transitions from browser-based web chat as we know it, to live messaging via customer mobile apps
• Text Analytics ready to handle increased volume of incoming text messages – whether it’s messages from mobile apps, social media, web chat, email or Visual IVR channels, many contact centres are seriously concerned about how to manage dramatically escalating text-based messaging volumes as customers increasingly engage via digital channels. Some businesses are still seeing major backlogs – sometimes of up to 48 hours – particularly at busy times such as the countdown to Christmas. The latest multi-channel textual analytics solutions are poised to address this during 2015, enabling up to 60% of messages to be handled automatically and freeing significant amounts of agent time and allowing them to focus on more complex customer engagement issues
• Broadening out the Customer Engagement Centre – while refining the customer experience within the contact centre and digitally has undoubtedly helped to reduce customer effort, there are still significant gaps in the provision of integrated service. For 2015 we expect to see more organisations build out their joined-up customer service propositions to embrace other key touch-points including field service, logistics and delivery capabilities as well as in-store engagement in the retail sector particularly and showroom engagement

“2014 has again shown that traditional CRM and contact centre vendors struggle to deploy in months, or even years, what more flexible, cloud-enabled solutions providers such as mplsystems can deliver in days and weeks,” concluded mplsystems’ CEO Paul White.

“It’s this kind of disruptive technology – powered by the five innovations listed above – that will continue to shake up the traditional contact centre infrastructure market in 2015.”

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