Delivering a Five-Star Service Experience:
The Future of Field Service
The Customer Perspective: A Shift in Expectations
Research conducted by TechSee reveals a startling statistic: 73% of field service customers are willing to switch vendors if they encounter service-related issues. This sentiment resonates with our analysis of over two thousand customer reviews of repair and maintenance companies. Customers today are more vocal than ever about their service experiences, sharing both praises and grievances.
Interestingly, our research indicates that many customer reviews are not solely focused on the quality of service, but also what happens before and after the technician’s visit. Customers already expect their equipment to be fixed when they pay for services, considering it a standard part of the package.
Standing Out in a Crowded Market
In an era of heightened competition and soaring customer expectations, how can your field service business shine amidst the crowd? Simple: give them a five-star Service Experience.
Research by Deloitte demonstrates that satisfied customers are not just content customers; they are your most valuable advocates. They are likely to share their positive experiences with at least nine people, increase their spending by 140%, remain loyal customers for over five years, and significantly reduce your cost of service.
In an industry with ramping M&A activity, those who ignore the importance of Service Experience risk losing market share and becoming attractive targets for acquisition by private equity firms.
Consider this your wake-up call to enhance your business, reduce costs, and dazzle your customers.
Defining Service Experience
But what is Service Experience? You must have heard of Customer Experience (CX), which has been a buzzword in industries like retail, hospitality, and banking for decades. Surprisingly, very few have adapted CX principles to the Field Service business—until now.
Our mission in this series is to bridge the gap by transferring CX knowledge from other industries and applying it to the service sector. Service Experience encompasses a series of customer interactions with your company, from the initial service call to invoicing and payment collection.
This experience is built on three essential pillars:
- Operational Excellence (OPEX): This involves the continuous refinement of internal processes and workflows to minimize errors, reduce costs, and optimize capacity. It may include faster job scheduling, fewer onsite visits, higher first-time fix rates, fewer part returns, streamlined billing, and prompt receivables collection.
- Experience Design: Experience Design encompasses all customer touchpoints, both online and offline. It influences how customers navigate your website, interact with your service agents, and engage with your technicians. Great Experience Design extends from website navigation to on-site interactions and post-service inquiries.
- Service Innovation: In a rapidly evolving landscape, Service Innovation leverages modern technologies like AI and machine learning to introduce novel services and offerings. For instance, predictive maintenance can anticipate equipment failures, preventing downtime and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Embrace the Future of Service
Think about it: which would you prefer? Waiting for days to have your equipment repaired, or receiving a proactive call from your service provider warning you about potential issues and preventing equipment downtime? The latter, of course! By embracing technology like AI and machine learning, you can innovate your services and offer predictive maintenance, making your company the top choice for all service needs.
Because of this, delivering a five-star Service Experience is critical in today’s competitive landscape.
What's Next?
In the upcoming episodes, we will take a deep dive into each of these pillars to help you apply them to your service business. Joining me will be Mario Simons, our Vice President of Transformation, and other industry experts who will share their invaluable insights.
But we also want you to be part of this conversation. By sharing your insights on this topic, we can build a playbook for Field Service Excellence by tapping into the collective wisdom of our community.
Stay tuned for more insights from our Service Experience research, where we analyzed thousands of reviews across hundreds of service and maintenance companies.
Are you ready to join the journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I will see you in the next episode of the Five-Star Service Experience series!
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