Field Service and

Customer Care:

Transforming the
customer experience

Table of Contents
03 Introduction

04 Self-Service and the Changing Customer Landscape

05 M2M, Technician Enablement and the New Service Model
06 Tuning in to Customer Needs
07 Implementing Mobile Workforce Management

Introduction
Within the field service industry, the customer
service function is traditionally viewed as a cost
center. Its necessary to maintain customer-facing
operations in order to deliver, install or maintain
products. Customer service is an essential part
of doing business, particularly in the businessto-business (B2B) space or within maintenance
organizations.
Field service technicians or call center reps are
typically the only personal contact customers have
with vendors. Making the most of these touch
points and building solid customer relationships
is an essential part of customer retention, brand
differentiation and a healthy bottom line.
Additional challenges include reduced margins,
increased product- and service-based competition
and regional, national or global expansion of
products and services. Its time to consider the
customer service organization as a potential profit
center, rather than a cost center.

To truly transform a customer service operation,

organizations need to understand how their
customers are changing, how their service model
needs to change, how to anticipate customers
needs and how to strategically address those
needs. Finally, learn how to accomplish all of this by
leveraging a sophisticated cloud-based field service
engine to close the loop for end-to-end customer
service delivery.

The customer experience will

reign as the primary investment
target in 2014 as 68% of
businesses plan to increase their
customer management spend.
2014 Call Center Executive Priorities Report

Self-Service and the Changing

Customer Landscape
Best-in-class field service organizations understand
that customer dynamics have changed and will
continue to evolve. As the number of tech-native
consumers grows, organizations will be expected
to keep pace by offering products and services that
fit customers lifestyles. Often, this means an online
portal or a mobile app that allows customers to
look up account information, pay bills and schedule
appointments 24/7. Increasingly, traditional business
hours do not govern customer communications.
Self-service empowers customers to be in contact
with service providers at their own convenience.
As consumers become more accustomed to
up-to-the-minute information about daily tasks and
events tracking a flight from a smartphone, for
example they expect to have insight and a degree
of control over more types of experiences, including
service in their home or business. People want to
know where their technician is, what time the tech
will arrive and how long it will take to complete
the job. If they need to cancel or reschedule an
appointment, they prefer to do it with a minimum
of inconvenience, preferably through an
automated system.

Not only is this a matter of convenience, it also

reassures customers that they can trust your
service organization as well as individual techs and
contractors. By sending customers a text or email
that includes the name and picture of the technician
who will arrive at their home or business, you can
build trust and loyalty, resulting in fewer cancelled
appointments, customer no-shows or dissatisfied
call center contacts.

According to consulting firm

Bain & Company, ...deriving
strategic advantage from loyal
customer relationships requires
true differentiation. One way to
claim a distinction in the market
is to provide an outstanding
customer experience through
the field force.

M2M, Technician Enablement and

the New Service Model
In the traditional service model, customer service
was mostly transactional a customer needs
something and a vendor provides it. For instance, if
a copier at a large accounting firm required routine
maintenance, someone at the firm would call or email
the copy machine vendor and request a service
appointment. A tech would show up to the office,
perform the service, and leave. The whole scenario
would be repeated again the next time the machine
indicated routine service was required. Meeting SLAs
was a singular goal, and the largest measure of how
well the service model was working.
The new model is focused on customer success.
SLAs are still an important measure of service quality,
but in this scenario, the copy machine vendor monitors
the firms copier remotely via machine-to-machine
(M2M) communication. Using a mobile workforce
management solution, the vendor interprets this
actionable data to anticipate a repair or routine
maintenance and proactively schedule an appointment.
While onsite, the tech not only performs the service,
but also provides a quick training session to new
employees, shows how to use an underutilized feature
that will save the company money, and suggests
additional products or services that will help the
company achieve its goals.

A customer is four times more

likely to defect to a competitor
if the problem is service-related
than price- or product-related.

Successful field service operations also deploy

technicians that have access to up-to-date work
instructions in the field, meaning appointments are
completed more quickly and more first-time fixes are
achieved. Service organizations that cant provide these
advantages will lose business to competitors that can.
Just as with business-to-consumer (B2C) companies,
B2B organizations are discovering that their customers
face the same pressures and tight margins as the
vendors they use, and have little tolerance for issues
and problems. A missed service appointment or SLA
failure will result in losses for the vendor, the customer
and their customer a real domino effect. To prevent
this, B2B companies must also increase visibility over
field activities, anticipate potential issues and offer
customers the option of self-service.
A customer success-oriented model also benefits the
vendor by providing a built-in opportunity to upsell
to existing customers. This provides customers
with services they need and allows the vendor to
mine existing customers for additional revenue. The
probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%, but
the probability of selling to an existing customer is
60-70%.
Enabling field technicians to function as sales
representatives offer additional products and
services, renew contracts, collect signatures and
more is possible with integrated field service
management technology. Field reps can eliminate
paperwork and save time by getting customer
signatures right on their mobile devices.

Bain & Company

In the customer success model, the vendor is

actively engaged in its customers success, and
works hard to help the customer reach its goals.
Research by Gartner indicates that factors like
vendor interaction and personalized offers based on
real needs are important in growing and maintaining

relationships with customers. While its important to

meet SLAs, its also increasingly important to delight
the customer rather that just serve them. In the new
model, its the vendor, rather than the customer, who
bears the responsibility for making it work. Result?
An increased number of first-time fixes.

Tuning in to Customer Needs

At one time it was enough to simply keep
customer records and be able to look back at
what customers needed over time. Now, best
practices include anticipating future needs based
on what can be learned about customers and
what theyre saying to technicians or salespeople
face-to-face, or just through their behavior. In
the new customer care model, deep customer
knowledge is necessary so vendors can focus on
insights, which provide actionable data, rather
than just facts which only say what happened
in the past.
Its still important to keep detailed customer
records, but now consider what might be learned
from such records. Does the customer replace
equipment every two years like clockwork, or wait
until the equipment breaks down or becomes
obsolete? Do they prefer to be contacted by
phone or to have a rep visit the office? Do they
hire seasonal employees or not? Based on these
records, vendors can learn to anticipate needs
and set customers up for success. These pieces
of information are important because it is no
longer enough to simply offer the lowest price.
In fact, as many as 27% of US consumers would
be willing to pay more for better communications
about their service delivery appointment.
Challenges in this space include an aging labor
force, with many experienced technicians retiring
or transitioning to back office positions. As these

people leave the field, their product and customer

knowledge often leaves with them, unless it has
been collected and codified for easy retrieval in
the future. The aging workforce also means that
companies must leverage talent over a broader
range of customers, which can lead to inefficiencies
or customers waiting longer for service.
If information about customers, equipment and
other events are collected and stored in the cloud,
it will always be easily retrievable through a field
technicians mobile device. With the power of mobility,
it will no longer matter which individual tech arrives
to complete the service appointment. As long as
the tech arrives on time and is enabled to solve the
problem at hand, customer satisfaction will follow.
Best-in-class field service organizations know
they must shift the perception of value from
individual techs to the company. Continuously
improving information collection and storage
ensures that customer records and product
information are accurate and easily accessed by
all technicians, underscoring that the vendor is
trustworthy and customer-oriented.

62% of organizations view

customer experience provided
through contact centers as a
competitive differentiator.
Deloitte Contact Center Survey

Implementing Mobile Workforce Management

To transform the customer service model, its important
to manage field activities as the front line of winning
and keeping customers. Maintaining complete visibility
over field activities is not only valuable, but vital.
Managing customer information, product changes,
service manuals and other important information
by paper or through legacy back office systems is
impractical and risky, almost certainly resulting in
customer dissatisfaction.
This kind of visibility requires a field service
management solution that wraps around field
activities, from techs to trucks. Mobility is
essential in gaining insight into the field, as well
as connectivity between the field, back office and
customers. Employees at work on jobs can contact
experts back at the office or other nearby techs,
or access a knowledge base to search for answers
to questions or product information needed to
complete a task.
Technology can also provide employees with
more of one very valuable asset: Time. Employees
with more time in their day can give more time to
customers. Of course, the employee doesnt really
get more time hes not working longer hours
hes just using that time more efficiently.
When field service technology is deployed in the
right way, the benefits extend to everyone, from the
call center rep who schedules an appointment to
the customer who receives the service. Efficiency is
ramped up while costs are controlled, and success
yours and your customers is the ultimate goal.

Customer Experience Case Study

A major telecommunications firm that wanted

to transform its business from bureaucracyriddled utility to world-class competitor made
the decision to refocus the entire organization
on the customer experience. Managers lowered
costs, reduced complexity and increased
operational efficiency and the companys
field force improved its quality of service while
increasing productivity by 70 percent. The key
to this improvement was equipping field service
technicians with better tools, better training
and improved scheduling and routing. Prompt
customer feedback was provided to techs so
they could understand strengths and areas with
room for improvement.

How Field Service Management

Technology Benefits
The call center:
Provides visibility into the field, arming reps
with accurate real-time information
Allows reps to respond to both customer
preferences and workforce capacity
Empowers call center to support your
organizations focus on the customer
workforces to new heights of productivity
The customer:
Gives peace of mind with extra safety and
security measures
Emphasizes convenience with self-service and
24/7 access to appointment details
Focuses on customer success

Learn more at toatech.com

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