How Communication Increases Customer Satisfaction in Field Service Organizations

Delivering field services takes a great deal of effort. You have salespeople talking to customers, you have administrators scheduling jobs, placing work orders, and ordering inventory, you have technicians visiting customer locations, installing assets, servicing assets, and providing maintenance. And yet, you can get all that right and still have customers dissatisfied if your customer service is lacking.

High-quality customer service is critical in any industry, but especially in highly-competitive field services. You need to ensure customers love working with you because the reality is there are competitors out there already setting a high bar. If your customers are not getting the level of service they expect from you, they have the option to go elsewhere. Following some proven best practices can prevent that from happening.

This article is the first in a series of seven about the best ways field service operations can provide superior customer support. The first way: better communication.

Communication is key

Communicating and updating customers can be time-consuming, but it is essential. In field services, half the battle in retaining customers is providing efficient, effective, timely communication. Three of the most important best practices you can follow are:

• Communicate service updates early and often.
• Utilize multiple communication channels.
• And allow customers to self-schedule appointments.

Communicate service updates early and often

One of the most effective things you can do to enhance customer service is to provide updates early and often. Whatever the job is—an install, maintenance, or repairs —your organization needs to reach out and let the customer know when it is scheduled and when your technician is on the way. Let the customer know if your technician hits traffic or if you need to adjust your ETA for any other reason.

In field services, it is impossible to over-communicate. Customers need your help to keep equipment running. Their livelihood often depends on it. So, they are not going to get mad when you send them updates.

Maintaining good communication is easier said than done

That is not to say that maintaining elevated levels of communication is easy. It is not. If your technician is stuck in traffic, it is not convenient for them to pull over and send a manual update delaying them further when they try to merge back in. That is inefficient and not scalable. So, you need to automate as much communication as you can. Ideally, automated notifications should trigger any time there is an ETA update on a job.

Utilize multiple communication channels (Phone, email, chat, SMS)

Every customer has different communication preferences. Give them the option of using their preferred service, whether by phone, email, chat, or SMS text messaging. Not just for contacting your company either, give them the choice of how your personnel will contact them.

There is a strong generational component to these communication preferences. Only some people want to pick up a phone and report an issue. Some people prefer to go through chat while they multitask instead. Other customers in other situations might prefer to pick up a phone. For example, if they have a more complicated issue they want to ensure is understood correctly. Giving your customers this choice of communication mode goes a long way to ensuring they are happy with your service.

Allow customers to self-schedule appointments through an online portal

Giving customers choices can extend even further, including how they schedule appointments. Let them self-schedule through an online portal.

Web portals can be an effective intake method for all types of requests. They do not necessarily need to be for low-priority service needs. If all requests feed into the same field service platform, you can triage and assign work orders for customer requests through all communication channels you have made available.

Velosio can help you communicate with every customer

Field service software, like Dynamics 365 from Velosio, can help you communicate how your customers want 24/7. Choose the best methods for your organization and customers and have all information available on one unifying platform.