Understanding the changing customer experience in the field service business

Learn more about how customer experiences are changing and the tools you can implement to impress your customers and stay ahead of your competitors.

Modern customers expect on-demand service. Customer expectations across all industries, whether a product or service, are higher than ever. And the field service industry is no different. 

Customers have more options than ever to choose from. This means that your field service organisation needs to stand out from the crowd and be the best option available to customers.

To do this, you need to anticipate your customers' needs to ensure you provide them with the experience they expect. In fact, 50% of customers say they will be loyal to a business if it manages to predict their needs. 

In addition, 74% are at least somewhat likely to buy based on customer experience (CX) alone. 

What does this mean for your business?

Customers want to have more control over their experience and visibility of the process from start to finish. 

As a result, you’ll need to transform your customer experience and the technology you implement within your business to offer a great customer experience.

This blog will explore how customer expectations have changed and how you can transform your business to meet them. 

What experience do field service customers expect? 

Knowing what your customers expect from your field service business is essential if you want to stand out from your competitors.

According to research, customers list the following as the most important customer service and support qualities: 

✅Expertise 

✅Speed 

✅Communication 

Not only will providing a positive customer experience keep your customers happy, it will also help you to improve your business’ bottom line. 

Unsurprisingly, businesses that focus on delivering excellent customer experience bring in 5.7 times more revenue than those that don’t focus on their clients’ needs. 

However, if you still rely on legacy systems and manual administration methods to manage your customer relationships, you risk falling behind your competitors.

So, field service providers offering these qualities throughout the customer journey are more likely to keep customers returning for more. 

1. An expert team

According to data from PwC, 46% of customers will abandon a brand if they’re not knowledgeable. Therefore, ensuring your entire team has all the information they need to hand is paramount to impressing your customers. 

Providing your team with all the knowledge they need to do an outstanding job will improve productivity as tasks take less time to complete and leave a lasting impression on customers. 

You’ll also find that clients are more likely to lean on your expertise over your competitors next time they require field services. 

⚒️How to provide your team with the knowledge they need 

Having the right technology in place can give your team the tools they need to provide your customers with the best experience.

✅Keep a detailed electronic record of all interactions with customers from the moment they book an appointment 

✅Show your team all customer requirements at a glance 

✅Allow your team to assign the right stock, equipment, and technician to the job

✅Allow technicians to access vital information through a mobile app to instantly understand customer’s issues 

2. Fast service

Field service organisations with a first-time fix rate of over 70% enjoy an 86% customer retention rate. 

With modern customers leading busy lives, ensuring that your technicians complete the job the first time is key to delivering a service that meets their expectations. But, this doesn’t need to be a challenging task.

Increasing first time fix rates will enable technicians to attend more appointments in the day and lose less time to repeat visits, which can eat into your profits. 

Additionally, your customers will be impressed at the speed and simplicity of the service and may be more inclined to recommend your business to their friends and family. 

⚒️How to provide your customers with a fast service 

Using technology, you can make improvements to the speed of the service you offer. 

👉Once your customers book a service, a CRM system can show back-office staff the nature of the issue. 

👉 Back-office staff use job scheduling software to select a technician based on location, skill set, and vehicle type. 

👉Once a technician is assigned, your team can allocate the right equipment to the job. 

As a result, technicians will always turn up with all the tools and knowledge they need to complete projects on the first visit.

Your customers will be more satisfied with your service and first-time fix rates will increase. 

3. Good communication

Only 14% of customers are happy with current business communications. 

Your customers don’t have time to sit on the phone for hours to talk to a representative, nor do they want to wait at home all day after being given a vague time slot. 

Being able to communicate effectively with your customers across a number of channels and, most importantly, on the channels they want to communicate with you through. 

⚒️How to improve customer communication 

Having the right technology in place can help you to provide better communication channels for your customers and improve their experience across their full journey. 

So, how do you do this?

✅Use live tracking to let customers know where their technician is and save back-office teams from having to field customer calls 

✅Send automated texts and emails to keep customers updated 

✅Use a CRM system to pull information in and create a personalised follow-up email once the work is done 

This is an excellent opportunity to show that you value your clients and collect feedback through a customer satisfaction survey.

With all of this data at your fingertips, you’ll be able to continue shaping your operations based on customer expectations and simultaneously grow and develop your business. 

Key takeaways 

By making the switch to updated technology and providing the experience that customers expect, you set your business far apart from your competitors. 

Takeaway #1: Providing automated updates to customers to keep them informed on the status of the service they’ve ordered prevents them from waiting around all day and saves your team from answering customer calls. 

Takeaway #2: Having the tools in place to anticipate your customers’ needs, collect feedback that improves your business, and streamline your operations at the touch of a button can help provide the best customer experience and keep customers coming back to you time and time again.

Takeaway #3: Field service management software is one of the best tools available to help you continually improve customer interactions, build brand loyalty and grow your business. 

Find out how BigChange can help your business, book a free demo today.