Customers expect more, challenging companies to move from reactive customer service to elevating the entire customer experience. And with in-person service now seen as a competitive differentiator, companies who provide field service are seizing the opportunity to elevate their business and customer engagements through their mobile workforce.
As a result, today’s field service workforce must be more than skilled technicians. They need to be intuitive, with a talent and personality to provide top-notch, proactive customer service — allowing them to be consultants, advisors, and even salespeople. For some, this comes naturally; whereas others benefit from ongoing soft skills training.
With the right tools and support, your mobile workforce can be predictive and more effective, resolving customers’ issues more quickly.
Here are three ways to prepare your business for field service success and ensure a great customer experience:
1. Connect technology and people
In today’s data-rich world, your employees need to know all the relevant customer information during a service call and even before the mobile worker is dispatched.
For example, if a mobile worker has visited a customer on three different occasions to repair a piece of equipment, the experience should be seamless for both the customer and the field technicians. Imagine the frustration of explaining the situation to the newest technician to arrive.
In the world of field service, connecting information across people, process, and technology is everything. With an integrated field service solution, the inventory warehouse, the dispatcher, and the mobile worker are all in sync to best help the customer.
Dispatchers receive real-time updates of customer service requests, parts availability, and worker location and skill set. This ensures the correct mobile worker arrives with the right parts and tools to provide an elevated customer experience.
Here’s an example of how Stratasys, a 3D printer manufacturer, provides effortless service to their customers:
89% say the experience a customer has with a mobile worker is a reflection of their brand.” Salesforce | State of Service, 2019
2. Elevate the mobile worker experience
Mobile workers are often the face of your brand, so it’s vital to equip them with the right tools to be successful the first time and every time.
Provide mobile workers with real-time data, and the ability to receive help with easy access to knowledge articles and experts to help the customer. This provides field service workers with the power to elevate customer engagement.
3. Provide a full service experience
With a connected system, customers can easily handle items on their own, like requesting service appointments via a chatbot, SMS, or an app. Real-time location information of the mobile worker is shared with both the dispatcher and the customer — improving everyone’s day!
Personalized service is always welcome. Make it easier to achieve reliable service for customers with integrated and intelligent system data.
Here’s an example of how this functionality helps Toast, Inc., the fastest-growing restaurant management platform in the United States, provide a connected experience for their customers.
Take the experience to the next level
To truly take field service management and customer experiences to the next level, consider these three things:
- Connect business systems to provide predictive, intelligent data on the go
- Empower your mobile workforce to improve customer experiences
- Create opportunities for personalization, ease of use, and multiple communication channels for your customers
These strategies meet customers where they are, whether it’s providing an avenue to independently reschedule a service appointment or notifying clients of a field tech’s arrival time.
Service personnel often spend the majority of the relationship lifecycle with the customer, which gives them the opportunity to cross-sell and deepen customer loyalty. Provide field service teams with the best tools, and it’s easy to elevate the customer experience.
Catch up with the Future of Field Service in our Dreamforce 2019 keynote.
