Four Ways to Improve Revenue and Better Customer Experience in 2022

Field service is going through significant changes. The pandemic has heralded a digital-first approach. Customers prefer to engage with digital channels, forcing businesses to become tech-savvy. Side-by-side, the business environment has become more competitive. Companies seek efficiency improvements and product differentiation to overcome competition. Here are four ways for field service businesses to boost revenue and improve customer experience in 2022.

1. Optimize scheduling and dispatching

Today’s customers demand fast services. They expect competent agents who do a complete job at the first visit. Unfortunately, delivering such impeccable services requires sprucing up scheduling and dispatching.

Many businesses continue with inefficient scheduling processes, using manual whiteboards or spreadsheets. Scheduling becomes a full-time, stressful job for the scheduler. Mistakes become commonplace. The scheduler may omit to assign a technician to process a work order, leading to customer discontent. On other occasions, two teams of technicians may arrive to do the same job. Scheduling through a field service suite spares the enterprise from such embarrassments.

A field management suite automates and streamlines the process. In today’s dynamic and fast-paced world, work orders have varying levels of urgency. Some customers may have an emergency that mandates immediate attention. The following customer may have a premium plan that warrants priority attention. Yet another customer may demand service at a specific time. A fourth customer may want to reschedule the appointment. Amidst this stressful situation, a couple of field technicians may call in sick, and another technician may wish to exchange his shift to another slot.

The system opens a work order ticket when the customer accepts a quote. Intelligent algorithms enable optimal scheduling of agents to open work orders. The software:

• Prioritizes work order assignment depending on the urgency of the job and other set filters.

• Refers to skills depositories to shortlist technicians who have the credentials to do the tasks mentioned in the work order.

• Assigns the work order to a suitable technician. The algorithm considers distance from the worksite, given jobs, holidays, and other relevant factors.

• Reconcile customer preferences with technician availability and working hours.
• Integrates with maps to improve dispatching. Technicians who follow the map instructions reach their worksites through the shortest routes and improve their on-time arrival rates. They spend relatively less time on the road and more time servicing customers, improving their productivity and boosting customer satisfaction. Asset use ratios also improve.

• Integrates with inventory to ensure technicians take along the parts needed for the job. First-time fix rates improve, improving efficiency and shortening service wait periods.

ReachOut field management suite offers advanced capabilities to optimize scheduling and boost the customer experience. Easy calendar views make each technician’s workload explicit. Intuitive drag-and-drop actions make work assignments and change easy. Prompt notifications alert agents and customers of changes.

Read more: How Mobility Plus Digital Boosts Field Management Success

2. Streamline processes

Enterprises realize more revenue and better-satisfied customers by streamlining workflows. Streamlined workflows improve efficiency and deliver savings on operational expenses. Routine activities occur without a hitch, allowing executives to focus on higher-value tasks. As a result, they spend more time handling exceptions and delight customers.

A field service suite helps businesses streamline operations. It:

• Facilitates structured workflows. Forms and checklists render structure and accuracy to processes and make inspections easy. It also helps to break down and simplify complex jobs.

• Enables timely remediation. Integrated dashboards offer a straightforward visual interface of ongoing jobs, upcoming jobs, and completed jobs. Multiple views help managers stay organized and intervene promptly to address any delays.

• Generates powerful reports. Automated email capabilities allow sending emails with photos or videos to customers quickly.

• Improve supply chain efficiency. Business managers leverage end-to-end visibility and analytics to monitor the supply chain. They track ratios such as parts usage, churn rate, restocking levels, and reorder cycle time.

ReachOut forms marketplace offers hundreds of simple yet powerful, readymade forms. These forms lend structure to inspections and other workflows. ReachOut also offers stylized forms that allow easy uploading of existing paper-based forms, with white labeling options. 

3. Provide on-Time service

True customer delight comes when the business delivers on-time service. Today’s customers dislike waiting. Worse if companies do not fulfill their promise of resolution within a specified time. A field service management suite enables on-time service and boosts customer satisfaction. The suite:

• Enable real-time, live tracking of field agents. Managers may track field agent movements and intervene to resolve any lag or delays.

• Ensure quick turnarounds. The suite integrates all information about the customer in one place. Field agents refer to their smartphone app for customer information, service history, directions, and other important information. They do not have to waste time seeking instructions or clarifying things from the customer.

• Enable instant invoicing. When the field agent marks the work as complete, the suite auto-generates the invoice and allows the field agent to collect the payment for the job.

ReachOut enables real-time tracking of field agents. GPS-enabled smartphone apps reveal the location of the field agent and offer accurate ETA to the worksite. Customers who know help is on its way remain assured, even when the technician is running late. Once the work is complete, APIs and connectors pull in data from various enterprise and third-party databases to auto-generate invoice and email it to the customer. The payment collection platform, integrated with the field agent’s smartphone app, allows the agent to collect the payment before leaving the customer’s premises.

Read more: How Mobility Plus Digital Boosts Field Management Success

4. Customer-focused operations

In today’s cut-throat competition, businesses seek differentiation by catering to the customer’s needs and preferences in minute detail. Successful field service businesses make the customer their focal point of concern. They try to delight the customer in everything they do. They align their system and process to match customer preferences. A field service management suite enables the business to offer differentiated services to the customer.

A quote management suite enables the business to break down the services. It allows customers to choose the services they need. The backend software computes the time and resources for the task and generates instant quotes for the customer. On acceptance, the quotes convert into tickets, which the customer support tracks and follow-up until resolution.

Businesses may also use the quote management suite to offer:

• Multiple pricing tiers on a single quote, allowing the customer to pick the service options for different budgets.

• Related products and services for up-sell or cross-sell. For instance, a snowplowing business could offer ice melt services as an add-on service. An HVAC small business could provide furnace filter subscriptions.

ReachOut’s field service software helps field service businesses improve customer focus. APIs and connectors deliver seamless integration with quote management software and other databases. Businesses leverage ReachOut’s flexibility and resilience to launch customer-focused offerings.

ReachOut’s robust end-to-end technology solution quickly turnaround field service tasks. The suite offers visibility into operations, automates processes, and delivers insights. As a result, businesses provide their services better, increase revenue and boost customer satisfaction levels.

To know more about ReachOut services, get in touch with us.