Delivering top-notch service means more recurring jobs for a field service business. While a majority of the operational challenge lies in scheduling – many other departments have an impact on customer service. Manually operating field service businesses create multiple touchpoints of failure across workflows, eventually leading to a bad customer experience.
A way to streamline your operations is to use field service management software – read more to learn how.
Why is maintaining customer service challenging in the field service business?
5 critical roadblocks for field service teams to exceptional service delivery are:
- Inefficient scheduling: blunders like assigning the same jobs to field service technicians or mishandling rescheduled requests put up a bad impression of your brand on the customers.
- Allocating resources: in peak seasons, not having enough tools, equipment, or materials can cause delays in service delivery. Poor inventory management practices also can damage inventory materials, which won’t be appreciated by your customers.
- Late response: when a customer places an order, they expect an immediate response to the same. Similarly, it is important to have a good response time to customer service tickets raised by them.
- Field service technician performance: since many field service jobs are remote, it is difficult to track their performance on the job. Relying solely on the professionalism of workers is risky and frequent surprise checks are not viable financially.
- Communication barriers: remote job locations mean it gets difficult to update workers about any job changes. It also gets difficult for workers to raise concerns from the job site to the managers.
What is field service management software?
Field service management (FSM) software is designed to automate and manage various operational workflows involved in executing field service jobs. This includes automating scheduling, dispatching, preparing estimates, invoice management, handling customer data, etc.
For example, FSM software will automatically take inputs from the customer to receive job details. It can understand the requirement, and schedule the job by assigning it to relevant field service technicians based on their skills, proximity to job location, and availability.
With field service management software, your teams can focus on delivering exceptional service to the customers and handle more jobs.
How does field service management software improve customer experience?
Here are 5 ways in which field service management software will enhance customer experience:
Real-time updates of job progress
From receiving a job order, assigning the worker, to the location of an incoming field service technician or payment status – software makes it possible to update all of it in real time to the customer. This reduces any customer support tickets asking for job progress updates. It also maintains transparency that eventually builds customer trust.
Automated communication
No customer likes to wait for customer service to respond. Field service management software will improve DIY customer care by pulling off relevant documentation, and FAQs, or giving automated messages to reassure customers of a quick solution. This also includes instant notifications about job progress or changes to align the customer. Thus, FSM software helps improve your response time.
Maintaining consistent service delivery
A way to ensure your customer remembers you is by consistently building a brand. This means, having standardized procedures, consistent brand colors and messaging, uniforms for field service technicians, and much more. A cheaper way to do it is to have consistent digital touchpoints – like having the same procedural standards across services.
Better customer engagement
Using field service management software, you can provide a contact-free way for customers to directly interact with assigned field service technicians. A mobile FSM app also improves accessibility for the customers to avail services or raise customer support requests. CRM capabilities help manage customer data and engage them to improve order value.
Analyze customer data
FSM software collects valuable data across various service touchpoints. Your field service teams can analyze this data to identify trends, customer preferences, and areas for improvement. Informed decisions based on data lead to service enhancements that cater to customer needs more effectively.
Take the first step to improve customer experience with field service management software
Zuper is a field service management software that uses the latest technology across GPS, Generative AI, and data analysis algorithms to improve operational workflows. Standardize your service delivery – book a demo today to know how you can integrate Zuper.
