Field Service Management Best Practises

Looking to learn more about field service management best practices? We hear you! With 80% of customers willing to pay more for better service experiences, enhancing operations is vital these days. This is especially true if you want to stay ahead of the competition.

However, learning field service best practices and applying them are two very different things. In this blog, I will demystify three best practices you should consider when enhancing and levelling up your service operations. Take a deep breath, we’re diving deep.

What is Field Service Management?

Field service management is a system enabling you to coordinate all aspects of field service operations. At its most basic level, field service management involves:

Scheduling service requests

Dispatching customer service teams to tasks

Tracking the status of work

Planning employee hours and shift patterns

Billing and invoicing

Customer and engineer communications

Data access and sharing

Field service management software enables this to go much further. In the modern world, cloud-driven field service management software facilitates all aspects of service delivery. Mobile apps can manage the field workers and the processes that make your field service business possible from end to end.

Field Service Customer Experience

From the perspective of your customers, the field services they experience make up the face of your organisation. In their world, those one-on-one interactions are often the only experience they may have with your company. Whether it is completing an installation, routine inspection, or fixing a problem, the services received directly influence how they view your organisation.

In this context, the job must be done quickly and to a high standard to meet your customers’ needs and respect their time. This can be difficult to do under the best of circumstances, and it is nearly impossible to accomplish unless you are prepared. So, what field service management best practices should you adopt to make your operations more resilient and efficient?

Best Practice: Improving The First-Time Fix Rate (FTFR)

We all want things to run smoothly. But when hiccups happen, you, just like your customers, want a quick, seamless fix. They desire control over scheduling and a transparent view of the upcoming field service visit. They dislike wasted time. Above all, they anticipate technicians arriving equipped and ready to resolve the issue in one go.

Solution: First-Time Fix-Rate

Ensuring the job is done right the first time hinges on field service teams perfectly matched to the task. Here’s how you can nail this:

Holistic Task Overview

Maintain an unobstructed view of all open tasks and the intricate details of every technician. This helps in steering work orders with precision, assigning the best-fit technician based on a mix of factors like proximity, availability, skillset, and the parts they have ready.

Dynamic Dispatch Dashboards

Empower dispatchers with live dashboards, offering real-time insights into a technician's journey. This ensures they're always in the loop about status, location, and adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Smart Scheduling

Lean on automation to allocate tasks to the most suitable technician. Automated scheduling and dispatching liberate dispatchers to tackle pressing matters and outliers. When a technician's pace seems off or job status slows, reschedule on the fly to keep SLAs in the green.

Unified Customer Data

Bridge the gap between field service and customer service for a comprehensive 360° customer perspective. The entire service journey—from the first call to the job site and subsequent follow-ups—is rendered seamless by acquainting your field technicians with a customer's history.

Crafting this impeccable service journey requires a blend of comprehensive data, responsive tools, and a keen understanding of both technician capabilities and customer expectations.

Read Also: What Is Demand Planning And Why Is It Important

Best Practice: Anticipate and Address Issues Before They Surface

The hallmark of exceptional customer service is preventing problems before the client realises them. Regularly scheduled preventive maintenance is a proven strategy for assuring consistent system uptime. Leveraging the power of IoT and advanced technologies allows you to monitor customer systems diligently.

This proactive approach lets you dispatch a field service engineer immediately upon spotting a potential hiccup. And on rare occasions where prevention isn’t possible, early alerts to customers avoid unexpected setbacks and solidify their trust in your service.

Solution: Master the art of pre-empting issues

Schedule Maintenance

Harness automatic scheduling, tuned to the asset's time or usage patterns, to negate downtimes. This not only boosts the product or service's performance but also enhances its overall lifespan.

Asset Visibility

Gain complete insight into asset specifications and its historical data. This guarantees thorough service visits and curtails unnecessary technician dispatches, reducing costs and enhancing efficiency.

Real-Time Reporting

Employ analytical tools adept at pinpointing issues and deciphering trends. With this intel, devise strategies to minimise customer disruption and streamline technician work, ensuring they're always at their productive best.

Proactive Communication

Stay a step ahead with integrated communication tools that alert customers about potential hitches. Timely notifications serve as the first line of defence in preserving customer satisfaction and trust.

Crafting a customer experience where issues are nipped in the bud requires a combination of technology, foresight, and proactive communication.

Best Practice: Boost Technician Efficiency to Honor Service-Level Agreements

Adhering to service level agreements (SLAs) isn’t just a formality—it’s pivotal to building customer trust and avoiding service sanctions. As the industry gravitates towards outcome-driven service models, the onus to optimise technician performance and efficiency is gaining importance. Achieving this ensures a smooth delivery of all service commitments.

Solution: Supercharge technician productivity.

Mobile Apps

Equip technicians with a comprehensive mobile tool that keeps them connected, even off the grid. This app should offer them a bird's-eye view of work orders, real-time maps, informative articles, inventory status, safety guidelines, and a deep dive into asset histories.

Smart Scheduling and Routing

Streamline day-to-day operations by minimising unnecessary travel and idle time. A bird's-eye view of their day's requirements can deter redundant trips for parts, ensuring they're always on the move with purpose.

Safety-First Culture

Foster a culture of safety and continuous learning. Regularly updated instructions, informative articles, and methodical checklists ensure technicians are always in the know. By amalgamating feedback with work order summaries, you ascertain the sanctity of the procedures, driving consistent quality.

Improved Data Quality

By ensuring compliance with processes and capturing all required information in real time, data quality and accuracy are significantly enhanced.

Offline Access

ven in areas of no connectivity, access to crucial information ensures uninterrupted service delivery.

Why this solution?

You can learn more about Employee Safety here.

By integrating these capabilities, you set your technicians—and by extension, your organisation—up for success, ensuring that SLAs are met, and customer relationships continue to thrive.

Conclusion

The transition from traditional phone calls to digitally enhanced interactions has been a game-changer in the field service industry. As you’ve seen throughout this deep dive, proactive steps in field service work not only increase customer engagement but also deliver superior service quality. The power to enhance operations, foresee challenges, and swiftly address them speaks volumes about your organisation’s commitment to excellence.

Data is the new oil. Using it effectively ensures that every touchpoint not only serves a purpose but also improves customer satisfaction. In an industry that thrives on trust, any strategy that enhances customer satisfaction isn’t just a best practice—it’s the backbone of future success. Read to learn more? Check out our full suite of field service management blogs.