ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘field-service’ CATEGORY

There are three key considerations that field service organisations must take into account when building a modern workforce, including the changing demographics from Baby Boomer to Millennial, the impact of technology on field service operations, and the growth of the ‘gig’ economy. In the first article in this series, run in partnership with FieldNation, we looked at why the field service landscape is changing, and in part two we discussed how you should approach building a modern field service workforce. We then turned our attention to the technology that underpins such transformation and now in the final article in this series we hear from two experts on the blended workforce to hear their insights...

Field Service in the early decades of the twenty-first century has become an increasingly tricky beast to tame. Customer expectations are hurtling forward at breakneck speed to what some companies view as almost impossible standards to reach. The customer of today is not only better informed than ever before, but via the widespread amplification of social media, more powerful also.

In this series, run in partnership with Localz, we look at precisely what these new challenges of modern field service are and how your organisation can adapt and thrive in this brave new world. Part one in the series explored the concept of Customer Expectations 4.0 and in part two we discussed a new approach to FSM systems. Here in part three we will take a look at three examples of companies embracing 'Uberization.'

There are three key considerations that field service organisations must take into account when building a modern workforce, including the changing demographics from Baby Boomer to Millennial, the impact of technology on field service operations, and the growth of the ‘gig’ economy. In the first article in this series, run in partnership with FieldNation, we looked at why the field service landscape is changing, and in part two we discussed how you should approach building a modern field service workforce. Now we turn our attention to the technology that underpins such transformation... 

Field Service in the early decades of the twenty-first century has become an increasingly tricky beast to tame. Customer expectations are hurtling forward at breakneck speed to what some companies view as almost impossible standards to reach. The customer of today is not only better informed than ever before, but via the widespread amplification of social media, more powerful also.

In this series, run in partnership with Localz, we look at precisely what these new challenges of modern field service are and how your organisation can adapt and thrive in this brave new world. Part one in the series explored the concept of Customer Expectations 4.0 and now we discuss a new approach to FSM systems...

There are three key considerations that field service organisations must take into account when building a modern workforce, including the changing demographics from Baby Boomer to Millennial, the impact of technology on field service operations, and the growth of the ‘gig’ economy. In the first article in this series, run in partnership with FieldNation, we looked at why the field service landscape is changing, now in part two we discuss how you should approach building a modern field service workforce...

Field Service in the early decades of the twenty-first century has become an increasingly tricky beast to tame. Customer expectations are hurtling forward at breakneck speed to what some companies view as almost impossible standards to reach. The customer of today is not only better informed than ever before, but via the widespread amplification of social media, more powerful also.

In this series, run in partnership with Localz, we look at precisely what these new challenges of modern field service are and how your organisation can adapt and thrive in this brave new world...

There are three key considerations that field service organizations must take into account when building a modern workforce, including the changing demographics from Baby Boomer to Millennial, the impact of technology on field service operations, and the growth of the ‘gig’ economy. In a new series run in partnership with FieldNation, we explore all three...

Paul Whitelam, VP Product Marketing, ClickSoftware, outlines why turning to look at how effective our customers’ are at dealing with issues can shine a light on your own performance and productivity...

Whether trying to get more jobs done in a day, more jobs per technician per year, or more fixes achieved on the first try, there are plenty of time-tested ways to show improved field service performance through metrics.

But if you’re still not sure that your field service is delivering peak performance, it might be time to look in a surprising place for a new set of KPIs: your customers. How hard are they working? At a time when every business is obsessed with delighting their customers, many underestimate the role customer effort plays in determining the quality of the experience.

The Customer Effort Score is a new KPI that measures how much effort your customers put into getting an issue resolved. If retaining loyal customers is a priority for your business, read on.

When your customer goes to work

Today, you can order something online in a matter of seconds and get it the same day. You can even hail a ride in minutes at the click of a button. Companies like Amazon and Uber are making it effortless for customers to receive great service. These on-demand businesses have set a high standard for all service organizations.

Great customer experience can begin as soon as an issue arises. Great customer experience can begin as soon as an issue arisesIt can start with their first phone call, their visit to your appointment booking portal, or how they are notified of the technician’s ETA.

The same is true for bad experiences. To uncover all the ways you could ease your customer’s pain even before you fix their problem, consider every potential interaction with your business. Here are three ways field service organizations can reduce customer effort.

1. Enable true self-service

To some, self-service means troubleshooting and problem solving done by the customer. For others, the definition includes providing ongoing access to important information that helps the customer not only treat issues but continually get the most value from their product or service.

This also should be extended to include how easy it is for the customer to request help or information, book an appointment, or speak directly to a representative. Much of this can be accomplished with a well-designed and easy-to-navigate website, connected to a knowledge management system that shares information consistent with what your employees see.

2. Empower everyone involved

For every step of the service journey, you want customers to feel in control of the process and that you’re treating their time with respect. Dispensing confusing or incomplete information does not help.

Your front-line employees should also be empowered to do the best job they can. Will they have prior access to the customer’s case so they can arrive prepared? Will they be routed to a job site with the correct parts and equipment already in their vehicle? Can your call center and mobile employees make decisions based on flexible or well-defined policies to reach to a satisfying resolution faster?

Imagine a customer who needs to explain a problem to the newly-arrived technician after already doing so over the phone or online, and then is unable to get the problem fixed due to a missing part or lack of skills. Now they have to restart the process to make a new appointment. How would they rate their effort on a 1-5 scale?

3. Integrate, integrate, integrate

To enable the control, transparency, and empowerment customers want, tight cross-channel and cross-team integration is critical. While customers might prefer phone agents over automated chat bots or SMS, ultimately, they want the option that gets them the help they need as quickly as possible.

However many channels you offer for communication, ensure customers are easily transferred and that information is shared seamlesslyHowever many channels you offer for communication, ensure customers are easily transferred and that information is shared seamlessly. You want to minimize the times your customer is sent to another department. But if it’s unavoidable, you can send them along with all the relevant information so they don’t have to start over with the next person on the phone.

Similarly, the way your field service professional interacts with your customer should be standardized and consistent with your brand. Integrate your communication channels, your CRM, as well as your processes and policies, to consistently deliver service that minimizes customer effort.

High effort is inversely related to good experience

User experience designers who work on everything from smartphone apps to retail spaces understand that minimizing friction and effort is good for customer experience, retention, and repeat business. Research by Gartner and Forrester encourages businesses to focus on how they can lower customer effort to win hearts and minds. Making your customers feel that their time is valued and auditing for areas of improvement is a great starting point.

Besides boosting your workforce efficiency and productivity, examine where your organization can minimize customer effort. This creates seamless experiences from the moment the need for service arises. Your customers will thank you with their loyalty.

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In his previous article for Field Service News, Mark Brewer, Global Industry Director, Service Management, IFS introduced the concept of the experience economy, now he outlines why digital transformation is the key to driving it forwards...

Here's a scary statistic. The average person clicks, taps or swipes a mobile device 2,617 times a day.  It shows just how much time we now spend interacting with the online world. Banking, booking holidays, shopping, socialising and so on, we increasingly live our lives through a screen. And with every interaction, we expect a particular level of service in return.

With digital technologies continuing to advance rapidly, along with consumers' understanding of the possibilities they enable, people demand an immediate and seamless experience whenever and however they make contact. These expectations, which are already prevalent in the home, have now evolved in the workplace. This has major implications for the planning and delivery of service, and specifically how companies look to drive customer loyalty (and ultimately retention) via a superior experience.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have a significant role to play here. AI isn't strictly new of course. But what is new is the way it influences today's experience economy by affecting outcomes, driving engagement and in many cases scaling the human.

 

Superior engagement

A comprehensive customer contact strategy is essential for any service organisation. Traditionally, this has focused on voice or email; now it includes an entire omnichannel capability with multiple media touchpoints. As you'd expect, this evolution is being driven by younger age groups. 26 per cent of millennials use social media and 29 per cent use texts and messaging apps to reach out for service, while three-quarters of all people over 44 years of age prefer using more traditional means such as emails or phone calls.

For example, if you want to book an appointment for someone to come and service your boiler, you can organise it without having to speak to anyone, online. A chatbot replaces the 'real' person. This is more convenient for you, more cost-effective and efficient for the organisation you're talking to - but it also raises your expectations.

This means responses must be faster, and there's no room for error. There's no time for long calls with operators or the patience to be passed from department to department. And gratification must be swift and successful, however you interact - whether via a web portal, email, virtual assistant, or even an instant messaging service like WhatsApp.

74 per cent of companies offer some form of self-service for customers - and the majority have implemented it specifically to improve customer experienceThis has implications for businesses looking to maintain positive customer relationships. An operation which has traditionally focused on contact centres, predominantly powered by phones (i.e. voice), must now deploy a comprehensive, omnichannel communications suite capable of serving a wide range of contact media, anytime and anywhere.

This can be problematic. Many companies can't afford to extend their contact centre facilities to multiple locations, or cater specifically to every market they're working in.

However, help is at hand with virtual contact centres which can make efficient use of distributed and varied workforces, automatically matching agents with requests and customers.  This also drives a more responsive, agile, and scalable workforce where agents can engage in multiple simultaneous conversations using multiple chat sessions and providing consistently high service levels.

The B2C world already does this pretty well. 74 per cent of companies offer some form of self-service for customers - and the majority have implemented it specifically to improve customer experience. B2B organisations need to follow suit. The rewards are big for those who do it well. Companies with effective omnichannel communications enjoy 28 positive customer experiences for every one negative experience, while companies without this experience just two positive experiences for every one negative*.

It's a no-brainer. Doing omnichannel well can create up to 14 times more positive customer experiences. Crucially, this also influences customer loyalty. To look at it another way, your business will potentially only lose one in 29 customers, as opposed to one in three!

 

Powering the experience

The driver here is digital transformation, enabling new levels of service provision. Customer interactions differ based on age, demographics and preferences. Digital supports them all. It's no longer just your customer services department talking to these customers, it's your equipment, IoT sensors, AI, chatbots and more: predicting behaviour, recommending actions, solving issues, intuitively.  The more it does this, the smarter it gets.

This technology is transformational and can bring huge benefits to your business. However, you need the right infrastructure in place to manage it.

So, what next?

To see examples of how IFS has helped customers drive digital transformation in their operations, and understand how omnichannel customer engagement can improve your customer’s experience, visit ifsworld.com.

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*Forrester: The role of emotion in customer experience