By David CraryWhen I think of customer loyalty, I think of Apple. The joke I always make is Apple could slap an Apple logo on a turd, sell it for $200, and their fans would buy three of them. They have legions of extremely loyal consumers.
You’d like those same loyal customers for your field service business, too, right? Well, one simple way to generate legions of loyal customers is to install work order software. You’re probably thinking “How does work order software generate loyal customers?” Lucky for you, here are five ways work order software can improve customer loyalty:
- Record every work order detail so you can deliver great service. Apple is well-known for paying close attention to every little detail. In one story, Google’s Vic Gondotra talks about how Jobs called him on a Sunday because he thought the shade of yellow used in Google’s logo just didn’t look right on the iPhone. So he wanted Gundotra to work with his team to fix it.
Work order software helps you be a little like Apple because it helps you store every little detail about a work order, meaning everyone involved in the process knows what’s going on and can deliver the service the customer expects.
Let’s face it – nothing kills loyalty like poor service. For example, let’s say you own a snow removal business. You’re contractually obligated to remove snow from a customer’s property if 2” fall. Let’s say 1” falls, and you still go out there and clear the snow because your guys didn’t have the contract details in front of them. The next thing you know, the customer is disputing the bill and complaining about your lack of attention to detail.
Work order software solves this problem by storing all of your contractual information and then delivering it electronically to your team in the field. Or, if you want to manage it in the office, you can, and then send your guys in the field their route to only include those locations where you are contractually obligated to plow snow.
Work order software you can keep track of all the little things so you can deliver a great experience to your customers. - Create repeatable processes for better quality. Apple is well-known for their advanced manufacturing processes, leveraging the power of robots and precise machining tools to deliver high-quality products.
Work order software can help you do the same. Let’s look at an example: Say you own an irrigation business and you have 7 service technicians servicing irrigation systems. Without work order software, odds are those 7 service technicians are doing paperwork and delivering information back to the office in 7 different ways.
But if you have work order software and you’re arming your technicians with mobile field service software, you can turn those 7 disparate processes into a single, repeatable process. With a field service device, all of the information you collect in the field – from parts used to property information – is uniformly collected. The end result is better customer service because your processes become repeatable and your technicians become interchangeable.
- Know your customers so you can build a relationship – Apple goes to great pains to know who their customers are. From the music you like to the apps you use, Apple knows at a very basic level who their customers are. And they leverage that information to sell them more music and apps.
Work order software helps you store whatever information you want about your customers – their dog’s name, their birthday, their favorite wine. It’s all information you can use to improve your relationship with your customer and turn them into loyal fans of your business.
- First impressions matter. When you look at an Apple product, your first impression is usually “Wow, that’s a high-end device.”
You want your customers to think the same thing when they first meet you. How does software help you do that? Easy, especially if your sales process involves a face-to-face visit. Essentially, work order software helps you meet with a potential customer, then go back to your truck and immediately enter the details of the meeting and schedule a follow-up appointment. When you follow-up, you’ll have all the details of that initial meeting right there in front of you. It helps you make a great first impression. And great first impressions typically lead to loyal customers.
- Keep a complete property history so you can proactively recommend upgrades. If you’ve been to the Apple App store, you know that Apple recommends apps you should use based on your previous purchases. Not only do you get app suggestions tailored to your tastes, but Apple gets you to buy more apps – and makes more money.
Work order software can help you do the same thing. Let’s say you perform commercial property maintenance and you know that in a specific area of the property the grass just keeps dying year after year. With work order software, you’d note that each time you visit the property and can suggest fixes – maybe you need to install a new smart irrigation system to ensure that area is getting enough water – that will beautify the property and make you more money. Without work order software, you may not recognize that this is an annual issue because you’re sending different crews to the site and aren’t electronically tracking the work that was done.
Though it may cost your customer a bit more, they’ll likely be loyal to you because you’re proactively helping them improve the look of their property.
Work order software probably won’t get you 140 billion dollars in cash reserves like Apple, but it certainly can help you turn your formerly lukewarm customers into your biggest fans.
Want more tips on how to improve your business? Check out our free eBook, 10 Tips to Improve Your Business This Offseason.
