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Profit Fix #1: How much money is sitting in the pile of overdue service requests?
In a previous article, we listed the biggest and most common profit leaks that we’re finding when talking to executives at mid-market companies.
Today, we’re going to unpack the first issue. And it’s a BIG one.
A growing pile of overdue Service Requests.
Time and again we see it happening because one of three reasons:
A) An incoming service call can’t even come through because all the lines are busy. Fingers crossed, they left a message.
B) The call comes through, but it’s the receptionist who takes it—because the dispatcher is busy with another call. So, she writes herself a Post-It note as a “reminder” and moves on with her day. But still forgets it one in five times.
C) An email, SMS, or portal request comes through automatically, but it’s sitting at the bottom with dozens of other unprocessed requests in the inbox. And some requests will still be there tomorrow morning. And the day after.
The result?
Despite team members doing their best, wearing many hats, and having all the right software in place...
Service requests are still falling out of the bucket.
There’s an ever-growing backlog composed of Post-It notes and inbox notifications, sprinkled with overwhelm for good measure…
But not every request in that pile will turn into a work order.
Some clients already moved on with a competitor. Some stayed only because they are under contract—and fewer dollars show up on the bottom line at the end of the month.
Now, industry leaders and executives with a global vision think differently.
Pioneers like Rodger Smelcer (VP & Co-Founder of United Service Technologies) have embraced a paradigm shift that enables them to flip this profit leak on its head and turn it into a competitive advantage!
This allows them to dominate existing markets and grab market share in new ones fast. Now, if you’re wondering what this competitive advantage looks like...
It looks like this:
100% of service requests are processed in REAL TIME, translating to more work orders and winning over accounts from the competition.
There is ZERO backlog carried over from one day to the next.
There’s a healthy segregation of duties among their team and everyone is focused on doing their job right.
Their clients are served much faster so they become the preeminent choice in every city they set foot in.
Many more dollars show up in their bank account.
If you’re facing this leak, you’re probably doing your best to plug it. And while most Field Service companies try to plug it with more headcount, or more tech, or more training, they’re still missing a proper process.
So there’s more headcount, but they're still wearing different hats around the office.
There are more technicians, but they keep going out on multiple truck rolls and they’re weeks behind on closing all the “open calls”.
There’s some training, but little to no documentation on how to process service requests across all the different accounts consistently and without errors.
There’s the right software, but only one team member really knows how to use it efficiently for those Walmart service requests. When she’s sick, chaos ensues until she’s back.
In other words, without a proper process, all of those things (more staff, tech, and training) just add insult to injury.
But executives can skip all of that!
That’s precisely why industry leaders like United Service Technologies turn to us.
Here’s a quick snippet from an interview with Rodger Smelcer sharing his insights into the process:
As you can see, not only is Rodger able to recruit new “A-Player” team members across the globe in a matter of a few weeks, but this staff are Field Service Specialists and are already trained on the tech stack that companies are using like IFS, Corrigo, Service Channel, SalesForce, etc. And this is why they can hit the ground running and start processing service requests in three or four DAYS after they’re hired—not weeks or months.
Now, if you heard Rodger well, the “secret” to making this work is that these service requests are not processed in the U.S. They are processed by a specialized offshore team with an incredible work ethic, working two shifts to cover all necessary time zones.
Easy to say how amazing this offshore team is, but we’ll let you hear it from Rodger as well…
This is one of the paradigm shifts that we’re bringing to the industry and which I believe will become the new standard for mid-market companies.
You, too, can join global entrepreneurs like Rodger and also have a dedicated offshore team processing a hundred percent of service requests in real time, no matter what time of the day they come in.
And you don’t need to hire anyone, do background checks, add them to payroll, onboard them, or do any of that.
But it’s not just the added headcount without the payroll that makes the difference. You can find cheap labor that gets the job wrong everywhere. It’s the deep industry knowledge that we bring to help mid-market companies put the right process, documentation, training, and people in place.
Pretty cool, if you ask the partners we work with, like Smart Care Equipment Solutions, United Services Technologies, and Windy City Equipment.
Now…
So far we’ve touched only one leak, and how to plug it, but there are plenty more, with more articles to follow!
And—after processing around ONE MILLION work orders over the last three years—we have cold hard DATA to be able to quickly assess where Field Service businesses have profit leaks.
We’ve identified nine leaking areas to be more specific.
And today, we’d like to offer you a run through our “Profit Score” Quiz.
Take the Profit Score Quiz here
This deceivingly simple quiz can point to areas in your business that are potentially leaking hundreds of thousands of dollars (and sometimes millions) every year. It also gives you a score that helps you benchmark your profitability compared to other mid-market companies.
We could be asking for a decent fee just to let companies take it.
But if you’re reading this, you can take it free of charge.
Just comment below or send us a message if you’re open, and we’ll make it happen.
Looking forward to chatting with industry pioneers like you!
Yassin Shaar
Chief Growth Officer
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