Field Service Organizations have a direct impact on customer satisfaction and retention, and can help generate higher margin revenues from the loyal customer base.
Our field service experts have identified five things customer-centric field service organizations do differently to be more effective in delivering a differentiated customer experience.
- Effective service teams focus on digitizing and simplifying customer interactions from outside-in customer journey perspective. These organizations are more likely to have customer self-service portals to empower customers on how they access services in addition to field service management solutions that enable the service delivery teams to be efficient.
- The customer-centric FSOs put in place the metrics and incentives that are aligned with and drive customer satisfaction. The standard field service metrics such as resolution times, first-time-fix rates, and technician utilization drive efficiency but not necessarily customer satisfaction. The customer-centric FSOs have Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs to measure Customer Satisfaction Index, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and Customer loyalty.
- Customer-centric FSOs provide a seamless customer experience across departmental silos, geographic regions, and all organizations involved in service supply chain. The cross-functional teams from warranty, service contracts, parts, field service, contact centers, and service operations collaborate to deliver friction-less customer service.
- Enable field service teams to have access to knowledge and information, and the ability to offer services and products based on deeper understanding of customer needs. The field service technicians have access to tools, parts, and help to deliver the outcomes such as product up-time that customers value.
- Customer centric leaders ask for customer-satisfaction results before they look at any financial or productivity measures. But they also realize that customer experience initiatives can only be sustained if improvement in customer experience can be linked to quantifiable business value. Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) becomes a key represents a way to show higher revenues and profitability from loyal customers who are willing to pay premium and make repeat purchases from the company.
How effective is your field service organization in driving customer satisfaction and loyalty?