Survey from Workiz on online trends show customer preference for digital booking and payments when booking home service visits.

To attract and retain customers field service firms should have an intuitive online scheduling system complimented by digital payment options, a study into people's technology preferences has revealed.

Perfect Service Management

The effect of instant, on-demand products such as Uber, Deliveroo and Amazon has meant customers now expect the same standards in other services which, according to the study, includes the process of hiring a technician to carry out maintenance or appliance repair.

The survey, carried out jointly by Google Consumer Surveys and Workiz, sought to analyse the e-commerce preferences of more than 1,050 people in the US, aged between 18 and 65.

The results reflected the growing digital influence of Millennial and Generation Z who are more comfortable carrying out customer interactions online rather than face-to-face or over the phone, and prefer to use digital wallets rather than physical cash.

The findings showed 44 per cent of respondents would prefer to book a field service appointment online and 35 per cent would pay for that home service online. Furthermore, if the scheduling and check-out process was an intuitive one, then 38 per cent would leave a positive online review.

In order to leave a positive review, respondents cited the importance of real-time communication from field service businesses with 63 per cent saying they would leave positive feedback if firms were transparent in their communication, specifically if real-time communication was utilised.

Commenting on the report, Workiz CEO Adi Azaria said customers now expect a perfect service experience. "Whether it's ease of scheduling or digital payment options, we're seeing that consumers today prefer a seamless interaction with field service businesses," he explained. "The appliance being repaired correctly isn't enough anymore. Customers want the experience to be frictionless every step of the way."

Bill Pollock extrapolates some of the key findings from a survey focused on remote expertise. 

Participants required for Inaugural benchmark survey. 

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Pegasystems study shows huge disconnect between business decision makers and customers when it comes to customer service perceptions.

Businesses are out of touch with their customers and overestimate the quality of the customer service they provide, according to new research from Pegasystems Inc. the software company empowering digital transformation at the world’s leading enterprises.

Research firm Savanta surveyed 12,500 global customers, businesses executives, and customer-facing employees for a one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional perspective on the state of customer service today. The research identified key customer service frustrations and revealed that many businesses don’t know their customers well enough to provide the level of service their customers want.

It also found that many organizations aren’t fully committed to providing the level of service they aspire to and run the risk of losing customers to competitors as a result. The good news? Customers, employees, and business leaders all agree on what matters most, so a clear roadmap exists.

Key findings of the study include:
• Business decision makers are out of touch:
Four times the percentage business leaders (40 percent) as customers (10 percent) rate the current standard of customer service as ‘excellent,’ while only 23 percent of customer-facing staff rate their organization’s service the same way. Similarly, an overwhelming 89 percent of decision makers and 73 percent of employees feel their organization provides an overall positive level of customer service, but only 54 percent of customers feel the same way. In addition, 71 percent of business leaders think they provide better customer service than their competitors – a number that is mathematically impossible to achieve.

• Are businesses really committed to providing good customer service?
While 81 percent of business decision makers consider customer service as either their main or key competitive differentiator, 33 percent of customer-facing employees say they face no consequences for providing bad customer service. Meanwhile, 48 percent of customer-facing employees say they face barriers to providing good service.

• Poor service is driving customers mad:
88 percent of customer-facing employees say that customer service is a priority within their business, but the customers tell a different story. Only 11 percent of consumers say contacting customer service is an enjoyable experience. Of those who are dissatisfied, 63 percent would rather clean the toilet than contact a customer service team. Only 10 percent say their typical customer service experience is ‘excellent.’

• Customers feel like organizations don’t know them well enough:
Despite 87 percent of business decision makers believing they know their customers well, the vast majority of consumers feel differently. Just 23 percent of consumers say businesses understand them as a person and their customer service preferences ‘extremely well,’ while 63 percent think organizations should make getting to know them better their top priority.

• Poor customer service can cost businesses customers:
Seventy-seven percent of customers agree the standard of customer service they receive is a major determining factor in their brand loyalty. In addition, 89 percent say receiving poor customer service from a business damages their impression of the brand. Significantly, 75 percent also say they have previously stopped doing business with an organization because of poor customer service. Forty-four percent report that if they receive a negative customer service experience, they immediately stop the purchase and move to another vendor. Despite this, only 35 percent of business decision makers say they lose customers ‘all the time’ or ‘fairly regularly’ as a result of providing poor customer service.

• Customers know what they want:
Consumers highlighted specific areas of frustration within customer service -- providing businesses with a clear roadmap for improvement. Their top three frustrations include taking too long to receive service (82 percent), having to repeat themselves when switching between channels or agents (76 percent), and not knowing the status of the query (64 percent). When asked what made for a positive customer service experience, 59 percent agree that a quick resolution of their issue or question mattered most, followed by a need for knowledgeable service agents (48 percent) and a fast response (47 percent).

“Good customer service can be the difference between success and failure. This study tells us that organizations still have a long way to go before they are able to fully meet the expectations of their customers,” said Tom Libretto, chief marketing officer, Pegasystems. “The good news is that there is overall agreement on what matters most. Solutions are available to help businesses understand and proactively address customer issues, while also arming customer-facing staff with the tools they need to provide more contextual, relevant, and knowledgeable service. Customers win, employees win, and positive business outcomes are delivered as a result.

Copperberg’s Thomas Igou reflects on some of their most recent research that outlines how although most companies within the field service sector on a program of digitalisation to leverage emerging technologies to improve the efficiency of their service operations both in the office and out in the field, almost half of companies cite adapting current IT infrastructure for Future Digital Strategy as one of their biggest challenges...









Field Service Organisations today would like to move into predictive maintenance, connect the back office to the front and augment knowledge virtually to field technicians through digital devices to boost productivity, increase profitability and stay ahead of the competition.

However, according to the Copperberg Research’s Annual Field Service Report conducted with over 120 FIeld Service DIrectors in 2019, 42% of the respondents listed adapting current IT infrastructure for Future Digital Strategy as one of their biggest problems. There are so many technologies to implement yet having a unified IT infrastructure for these systems and platforms is no easy task, and can make or break a Digital Strategy if the data between systems cannot speak to each other.

With the advent of numerous sensors, faster data capturing and transmission, sorting, processing and making use of all the data can be a big challenge requiring a massive investment in upgrading IT departments. Most companies in the field service domain are just getting started on the digital journey where going fast could be useful, but the important question to ask is if it is worth going faster than your customers? Or, is the best approach to take is one of step by step collaboration with partners, suppliers and customers. According to the survey, the next big challenges according to 30% of the field service directors is deciding on the digital transformation tools along with workforce planning and scheduling (32%). However, the important observation from the survey is one about change management.

To be able to implement the digital tools and keep pace with the industry, change management is crucial, which has to trickle down from the company strategy through the top management to the field service engineers. Michael Porter famously said, ‘’Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different’’.

Industrial organisations are fighting their own internal struggles of moving away from the traditional transactional business model they have been running on since their p77 inception towards a different one more adapted to today’s Experience Economy based on partnerships, value creation, subscriptions, outcomes and productivity. 53% of respondents in the survey claimed that only top management makes the decisions which could be a double-edged sword in today’s dynamic industry.

Strategies have been imperatively flowing top-down in organisations but might offer a challenge to adoption at the bottom level as they will be the ones using the deployed technology. Most leaders today are discussion preventive maintenance and some about building machines that will not break down avoiding maintenance operations and associated costs. 31% of the industry is still stuck in reactive maintenance which is concerning given the plethora of tools, case studies and resources available to move into proactive maintenance are available and have been publicised over years now.

Having the field service workforce motivated to pitch into the companies strategies will lead to motivated technicians. Top management has to involve the technicians when deciding on new digital tools, continuously train them and have the technicians help each other to understand the new technology.

This will help the younger technicians learn from experienced ones and also make the older technicians easily ask the young workforce on adapting to the new technology, bridging the competence gap. In the Survey, 80% of leaders rate their field service workforces adaptation to new tech, helping each other and providing feedback as average with only a very small number rating it as high. Competence Development of Field Workforce tops the list of priorities for field service leaders in the next 5 years.
Jim Baston, of BBA Consulting Group Inc. has a different take: ‘‘It is interesting to note the growing place that technology plays in field service. With remote diagnostics, artificial intelligence and visual reality, as well as embedded intelligence in the serviced equipment, the technical competence of the service person, will become less important. As they rely more on their tools to troubleshoot and repair and less on their experience, it opens up the door for less qualified individuals who will be able to give comparable levels of technical service.’’
In conclusion, to connect all three aspects of digitalisation, strategy and competence management, Adam Neale of Arqiva group states, ’’We will see a significant reduction in the number of highly skilled Field Engineers. We will be more low-skilled with 3rd line support assisting with technology such as Augmented Reality. Without great employee engagement, you will not succeed. Your employees build your customer reputation which can be positive or negative. If they were engaged with what your company does each and every day, then they will deliver high standards.’’
The quantitative survey conducted by Copperberg Research had over 125 respondents reflecting the state of the current field service industry. Field Service Organisations are trying to balance the growing customer expectations and associated challenges that implementing new digital tools are bringing along. The survey brings to light the major challenges the industry faces, the tools that will be important to implement in the next 5 years along with addressing the needs for Field Service Engineers.
The survey is divided into three chapters: Digital, Workforce and Strategy to streamline the needs in these three spheres complimented by insights from industry experts. 
You can download the report here.