Three Key Considerations Towards An Effective Customer Service Strategy

No business can survive without satisfying customers. Annoyed customers may still complete a transaction, but they rarely come back. Worse, they spread negative reviews. It costs anywhere between 5x and 25x to get a new customer, compared to retaining a customer. Field service businesses who understand these facts go all out to delight customers. Central to the effort is a customer service strategy.

A good customer service strategy delivers a consistent experience to the customer at all stages and across all touchpoints. Here are three key considerations towards such a plan. 

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1. Make customer delight the focal point of the business

Successful companies strive to delight customers in everything they do. They make customer satisfaction the focal point of their effort and ingrain such a mindset in their culture.

• Look beyond transactional efficiencies, and consider the big picture. For instance, cutting down on a specific service may improve cost-per-customer. But it may also cause customers to go away, decreasing revenues.
• Cultivate a customer-first mindset across the board. For instance, make customer satisfaction rather than employee convenience the primary goal when changing a process. 
• Facilitate customer convenience. For instance, integrate CRM with the field service app. This allows field agents to know everything about the customer before making a service visit. 72% of consumers dislike repeating explaining their problem. They regard having to repeat things as poor customer service.

ReachOut Suite offers APIs and integrations that ease information flow across enterprise databases. Field agents and support teams may quickly access information through their smartphone app and do their jobs better. Customers do not have to repeat information at each touchpoint.

2. Deliver services with speed and accuracy

The best customer service strategy is to do the job well, leaving no room for the customer to contact support. In today’s fast-paced world, doing the job well means delivering services with speed and accuracy.

• Offer automated, dynamic quotes. Customers loathe getting in touch with an agent and waiting for a reply, which may take a while. A self-service option through the browser or a customer-facing app improves the experience. The automated quote generator gathers information from various databases and generates quotes when customers enter variables. Consider a dynamic quote system for a cleaning service company, the estimate changes depending on the number and type of rooms to clean. The customer may add bedrooms, kitchens, toilets, and gardens and specify the area. The dynamic quote generator adds pre-set rates for each room and considers the dates on which service is needed. The total cost fluctuates in real-time as the customer adds or deletes rooms and changes other specifications.
• Ensure speedy dispatches. The best customer service is fast and accurate delivery of service. Consider a repair service. The customer remains happy when the repair technician shows up at the promised time with the right tools. They become delighted if they can track the progress and ETA of the technician in real-time through an app.
• Facilitate instant invoicing. Have a system in place to generate invoices as soon as work is over. Pull in variables from different sources. For instance, pull in rates from the quote. Calculate the number of hours by looking at field agent check-in and check-out times. Likewise, capture any promotions or discounts made to the customer from the work order. Not honoring promises, even by mistake, is poor customer service. Making amends later rarely mitigate the loss of reputation.

ReachOut field management suite enables enterprises to deliver top-notch service. Intelligent algorithms link with maps and ensure field agents reach their worksite through the best routes. Field agents may check in and check out worksites and generate automated invoices on work completion. In-built integration with payment collection portals makes payment collection seamless. Likewise, in-built integration with accounting suites such as Quickbooks streamlines accounting and payroll. Simple, neat dashboards integrate information from various sources for timely reminders and notifications to keep everyone in the loop.

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3. Streamline workflows

The best customer service strategy is to promote internal efficiencies. Streamlining workflows is the key to such ends. Streamlined workflows enable efficiencies and cut costs. Businesses may pass a part of such benefits to the customer and retain their favor.

• Set specific goals instead of vague aspirations. Make sure goals are practical and achievable. For instance, if a field service enterprise has only two service vans, it might not be realistic to promise same day service. Promising to attend to a client in 30 minutes may force the service van to drive at high speed and increase the risk of accidents. Instead, have a system in place to track the progress of the service vans. Deploy intelligent tools that guide the van through the best route.
• Structure workflows and set quality standards. Assign specific responsibilities to each worker in the team. 
• Apply analytics to analyze performance and identify issues. For instance, if many customers complain of delayed service, it means problems related to scheduling or dispatching. Address the issue proactively.
• Tweak strategies and service standards based on historical performance. Define KPIs that make a difference. Common KPIs include customer satisfaction score, first-time fix rates, average resolution time, and several open issues. There is a single set of “best metrics” The ideal metrics depend on the business and the specific set of circumstances of the business.

ReachOut allows streamlining workflows and managing work teams efficiently. Checklists help field agents perform tasks as per instructions. Electronic forms make data entry easy and accurate. Users may download intuitive ready-made forms or upload and digitize custom forms. Attaching images and videos makes the output more insightful. The suite also enables generating custom reports and auto-dispatching them to stakeholders. All these promote efficiency in a big way.

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Most customers who are unhappy with a business will leave rather than complain. However, a successful customer service strategy, powered by ReachOut field service suite, keeps customers happy. Happy customers remain loyal and bring repeat business. They also become brand advocates, spreading positive reviews and recommending products and services offered by the business.

Talk to our experts to explore more about the ReachOut suite and its exclusive features.