Okay I have to be honest. That title is a little bit of a fib. Your service scheduling software should have multiple things, otherwise it is no better than the paper processes you most likely started out with. But as far as I am concerned, there is the one thing you will want to absolutely ensure your software has.
Contact History.
Contact history is a crucial feature you will want your field service software to have for a few reasons:
Eliminating Paper – How many files do you or would you have stacked up on one individual customer? Think of every note made, both in the field and in the office, containing details about just one customer. Not to mention the work orders and billing that tie to each customer. Plus, if they are a loyal customer, that paperwork can be building up for years.
With customer history, everything is stored in a system. Not on paper, not written in chicken scratch, and not nearly as fragile as paper. Customer history helps to eliminate the paper and that eliminates the double entry. Double entry is where a lot of information is lost or “slips through the cracks.”
Marketing - A lot of field service businesses struggle with marketing. They get in to the industry because they have the skills required to do the work and they enjoy it. Marketing is usually an afterthought when businesses reach a plateau and need to be in contact with more prospective customers.
With customer history, marketing is made much easier. You are able to see what work was done at a customer’s property and therefore which services they may benefit from in the future. The field techs are also able to mark down any notes pertaining to a part that will need to be a replaced or a service they can tell the customer will need in the future.
With this information, you can better focus your marketing tactics to things customers would actually be interested in, instead of just sending out mass mailers to every John, Dick, and Harry.
Knowledgeable Staff - You would be surprised what a knowledgeable staff can do for a company. Knowledge is power. Just having the information readily available for your staff so they can answer questions quickly is a huge help.
Customers appreciate speaking with someone who knows what they are talking about. Having to call a customer back is not an efficient process and could potentially lose you the customer. Your staff will also appreciate having the information about a customer at their fingertips. Overall the knowledge makes everyone happy, producing a good company culture.
Better Customer Service – Every once in a while, and hopefully not too often, you will receive that upset call from a customer. Either the tech did not show up to the property, or they did not do one of the services in the agreement. Whatever the call may be, an upset customer is not something you want.
Customer history is good for two reasons in this scenario. One, the office is able to find an answer quickly and easily. This helps to not draw out the customer’s frustrations. The second reason customer history is good in the face of an upset customer is for the information. Notes can be made such as a different person on the property called to cancel the work order and that is why no one showed up to their property. Or the tech may have left without completing the job because he needed to order a different part then was originally thought. All of this information can be stored and found in the customer history, answering a customer’s questions in a timely and reasonable manner.
It may not be the most obvious feature when you are looking for a service scheduling software, but contact history is a crucial piece you will want to have. The benefits of the feature go on longer than we have time to explain but the main benefit is information. Having the information is usually half the battle when running a business and contact history makes it simpler to attain.
Looking for more ways to make your business exceptional? Check out our 6 Rules for an Awesome Service Department.