Tag Archive for: improving customer service experience

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Is Your Field Service Team Missing Opportunities to Help Your Customers?

Here is a simple test for you.  Count the number of “F”s in the sentence below.

Don’t read any further until you have decided your number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you said six “F”s, then congratulations!  If you said anything else, don’t feel bad.  Most people see three.  Look at the sentence again.  Did you miss the “F”s in “OF”?  Now that you see the “F”s, it’s pretty obvious right?  It makes us wonder why we missed it in the first place.

Now, think of your service business.  Opportunities to help your customers should be obvious too.  Or are they as obvious as we might think?  Is your service team missing opportunities to help your customers?

Even with a Process in Place, Is Your Customer Seeing All the “F’s”?

Perhaps you have encouraged your field team to look for ways that you could help your customers achieve their business goals.  You’ve set up processes and systems to capture any opportunities identified.  You may have even told your customers your intentions and why your field team’s actions are not only unique but of great value for the them.  Even with all of this in place, how confident are you that they are seeing all of the “F”s – that is, how confident are you that they are not missing any opportunities to help the customer to be better off.

Four Actions to Ensure Your Field Service Team Does Not Miss Important Opportunities

Here are four actions that you can take to help ensure that your field service team does not miss opportunities that are important.

1. Establish a customer visit routine

Whenever your field service professional calls on a customer, ensure that each one of them follows a specific process which may include steps like:

    • Stopping by the customer’s office to explain the nature of the visit upon arrival and asking if anything has changed since their last visit.
    • Stopping by the customer’s office after the work is completed to go over what was done and asking if there is anything else they would like them to address while they are there.

2. Have your field team follow up on previous recommendations

Your customers are busy and, even with the best of intentions, some of your recommendations will get forgotten.  It’s a valuable service that you provide when your follow up reminds the customer to address something that had completely slipped their minds.  This is particularly important if the recommendation would prevent something that could seriously and negatively impact the customer if it is not addressed.

3. If appropriate, have your field team ask the customer to take them on a tour of their facilities

While on the tour, the field professional can point out ideas where you may be able to help and even some issues that may not be related to your business at all but will help the customer see that there are improvements that can be made.

4. Share best practices between team members

Whenever a field service member makes a recommendation that benefits a customer in a significant way, share it with the rest of the team.  What was the issue at hand?  How did the recommendation help the customer?  How many other customers might benefit from a similar recommendation?  What do these customers look like?  What questions might the field professional ask to uncover whether they could benefit from a similar recommendation?

Every time we make a proactive recommendation to a customer, we have an opportunity to help them toward achieving their business goals.  But, recognizing opportunities is not always as easy as we may first assume.  Andmissed opportunities might result in a problem for the customer.  Help your field team establish a process that will minimize lost opportunities and further enhance the value that you offer to your customers.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one”

– Mark Twain

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4 Components of a Better Technician Work Order Resolution Description

service tech training expertFrustrated by the poor quality of the information provided by your technicians on work orders? The importance of the quality of the work order resolution description is often overlooked. The fact is the quality of this information is very important! Below are 4 easily remembered components that your technicians can include to better communicate the value of the work they have performed. The four components are captured using the acronym CARE.

Whether we like it or not, what is written on the work order to describe the service that has been performed, is an important indicator to the customer of the quality of the work completed. This is because, under most circumstances, the customer cannot actually know the quality of the work itself. For example, how do they know if the hour it took the technician to troubleshoot the problem displayed brilliant detective work that would have taken any other person several hours to figure out, or if the hour demonstrated a poor grasp of the technology that another technician could have completed in only 5 minutes? The fact is the customer doesn’t know. They therefore look for evidence of the quality of the service and one of the most important factors that they rely on is how the work performed is described in the work order description. Read more

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When the Customer Service person says “I Can’t Help”

improving customer serviceWe’ve all experienced it. You need to get something done and the customer service person you are relying on says, “I can’t help”.  The solution requires a little bit of empathy, perhaps some creativity and a lot of common sense.  Although the clerk may be smart, efficient and good at their job, they fail to show any of the three requirements.  There is no empathy, little creatively and certainly no evidence of common sense.

It happened to me recently on a flight from San Diego to Toronto.  I was running late for my 11:30 am flight – the only one of the day by that airline.  I ran up to the ticket counter.  I had checked in on-line and all I needed to do was drop my bag.  As I jogged up to the counter, I was relieved to see that there was only one person in front of me – a family checking in bags presumably for the same flight.

As I stood at the front of the line puffing, but otherwise quietly waiting my turn, the ticket agent looked up from her work and asked over the shoulders of the family she was serving, “Going to Toronto?”  “Yes, thanks,” I replied.  “If you’re checking that bag, you will have to go without it.  You’re six minutes past the cut-off time.” Read more

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Step 5 of a Proactive Service® Culture – Follow Up on Opportunities

Jim Baston service tech trainingThe 5th step in creating a Proactive Service® culture within your service team is to follow-up on opportunities.  Following up on opportunities may seem like a self-evident step, but it is often not accomplished.

During our Proactive Service® workshops, we ask technicians if they have ever proposed an idea to a customer where the customer has never gotten back to them and where they do not know what the customer has decided to do.  Almost everyone’s hand goes up.  We then ask, “Why do you think that is the case?”  Responses range from, “They decided not to do it” to “They got someone else to do it.”  Occasionally someone will say something like, “Maybe they forgot about it” and if they don’t, then we suggest it.  We then relate the story that I told in my last blog about the technician that passed on a lead from the field that was never followed up by the salesperson.  In that situation, the recommended action was to prevent a failure and a few months later, the failure indeed occurred.  Of course, the customer was angry and the technician was put in an uncomfortable position because of inaction on the part of the salesperson, but the problem would have been avoided altogether if the technician just took a moment to inquire with the customer whether they had given any more thought to the matter. Read more

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Step 4 of a Proactive Service® Culture – A Clear Opportunity Process

Jim Baston service manager trainingThe fourth step in creating a Proactive Service® culture for your field service team is to ensure that there is a clear and consistent process for handling opportunities from the field.  Without a clear process, we leave the follow-up largely to chance and create the potential for frustration and resentment on the part of our technicians and customers.

Nothing will stop a technician from making recommendations to a customer more quickly than poor or inconsistent follow-up by the rest of the company’s staff.  A technician that makes a recommendation that requires follow-up by others (salesperson or manager for example) and which is not followed up, is unlikely to continue to do so.  But worse than that, lack of follow-up can have serious consequences.

I worked with one service firm that did not have a formal process for handling opportunities from the field.  I interviewed one of their technicians and he related a story that highlights the problems that can occur.  The technician had found a problem with a key piece of equipment and recommended to the customer that it be replaced as soon as possible.  The customer asked the technician to have someone get in touch with him with pricing and installation information for the replacement.  The technician reported the opportunity on the work order along with the request for a follow-up call by the salesperson responsible for the account.  Unknown to the service tech, the information did not get to the salesperson and no one followed up.  About a month later, the customer called in a panic because the equipment failed, just as foretold.  Rather than praising the technician for his ability to predict the failure, the customer was furious that there was no follow-up on the part of the firm.  The service technician took the brunt of the customer’s anger and felt let down by his colleagues.  Needless to say, by the time we spoke to the technician, he was reluctant to identify opportunities in the future.

Even when a process for opportunity management is in place, it may not include an important step.  One of the most common complaints we hear from technicians is that, even when there is follow-up, the technician is not kept in the loop.  The lack of a communication loop to keep the technician informed causes more than hard feelings.  It also can cause a customer service failure.  Let’s assume that the technician has spoken to the customer and they are interested in pursuing an idea that she brought forward that may reduce energy consumption.  The salesperson or manager is duly informed and goes out to visit the customer.  If there is no communication back to the technician, the salesperson may develop a solution that is beyond what the technician had in mind and far exceeds the customer’s expectations.  A simple discussion with the technician would have prevented this from happening and the technician would have an opportunity to share her ideas with the salesperson that could be incorporated into the ultimate solution.  In addition, by keeping the technician in the loop, the technician will have an informed response if the customer asks about the progress on the opportunity development the next time she is in their facility.

A key step therefore, to ensure that you create a successful and lasting Proactive Service® culture is to ensure that you have a clear, concise and consistent process for identifying and following-up on recommendations from the field.  Not only will this improve your service delivery, but it will let your technicians (and customers) know that these recommendations are important and that they play a key role in your firm’s the overall service delivery.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

– Peter Drucker

 

 

 

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Step 2 in Creating Proactive Service® – Knowing Customers’ Business Goals

Jim Baston improve customer serviceIn the first blog in this series, we talked about the first step to create a Proactive Service® focus for your field service team. The second step involves encouraging them to get to know your customers’ business goals.  At first glance this may seem a bit off of the beaten path of the technical nature of their job, but it is critical in providing a higher level of service.  A technician who understands the business goals and challenges faced by the customer will be attuned to opportunities to help their customers achieve them.

Without knowing the goals of the customer, how can our technicians make valuable recommendations?  A solution that works for one company might be contrary to the needs of another.  There is a wonderful story circulating around the Internet that illustrates the danger of solving problems without understanding the business goals.  Perhaps you have read it.  It goes something like this. Read more

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1st Step in Creating Proactive Service® – Focus on Service, Not Selling

Jim Baston service expertIf you are interested in creating a proactive service® focus for your field service technicians, the first step is to focus on the service, not the sale.  This is more than just semantics, it is a mindset that deals with the very heart of what we want our technicians to do.

Technicians who seem naturally gifted at selling their company’s products or services do not see their efforts as selling at all – they recognize their recommendations as the valuable service that they are.  To them it is a service activity. Read more

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Creating a Proactive Service Culture Throughout Your Service Team

Jim Baston Service Tech trainingCreating a Proactive Service® culture throughout your service team is one of the most effective ways that a service company can grow their business and create a distinctive competitive advantage.  By Proactive Service®, we mean a technical service team that is engaged not only in maintaining and fixing equipment to the highest levels, but in actively looking for ways that their firms can help their customer meet their own business goals.  It is proactive because the technician takes the initiative to identify opportunities to help and proactively addresses these with the customer. Read more

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Are Your Employees Empowered to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service?

customer service expert CanadaThink that your employees are empowered to deliver an exceptional customer experience?  Don’t bank on it.  Your policies may be letting you down. I learned this lesson recently during a trip to a bank. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was off to the UK on business on an early morning flight on Monday.  To my dismay, I realized that I did not have any British currency.  No problem, I reasoned, I just need to go to the bank.

As it turned out, my branch was closed by the time I arrived.  Fortunately, another bank on the other side of the plaza was open.  By coincidence, I used to have all of my accounts with the open bank until about three years ago and I still had a Visa card with their name on it.

I waited my turn for the lone teller.  When I got to the wicket, I explained that I would like to purchase some pounds sterling.

“Certainly sir, how much would you like?” came the very pleasant reply.

“£200 should do it, thanks.”

“No problem, just put your bank card in the slot.” she directed.

Read more

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Transform the Service Experience through Responsiveness

customer service expertIn this blog, we will consider what we can do to transform the service experience by demonstrating our responsiveness.  Responsiveness shows our competence and this creates Assurance. Responsiveness shows that we are Reliable and demonstrates that we have Empathy for our customers.

Recall that the name RATER[1] is an acronym with each letter representing the first letter of one of the five key dimensions of service quality.  They are:

R eliability: Our ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately

A ssurance: Our knowledge and courtesy, and our ability to convey trust and confidence

T angibles:  Our physical facilities and equipment, and our appearance

E mpathy:    The degree of caring and individual attention we provide to customers

Responsiveness:  Our willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

To demonstrate responsiveness, consider what your team can do to demonstrate responsiveness through every customer touch point.  For example, does everyone on your team know that responsiveness means being accessible?  Do they understand the importance of getting back to the customer in a reasonable amount of time?  Are they aware of what accounts for “reasonable” when getting back to customers, colleagues and suppliers?

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