Customer experience in field service

A customer books a repair, takes time off work and waits for a technician. If the appointment changes, they need to know. If the repair needs another visit, they need an explanation and a date. Those moments shape their view of the service as much as the repair itself.

PwC's 2018 consumer research found that 73% of respondents considered experience important in purchasing decisions. The research covered several industries, so it is useful context rather than a benchmark for field service.

This guide looks at the operational decisions behind the experience: appointment availability, worker preparation, communication, follow-up and billing.

Field service customer experience covers the customer's interactions with a provider before, during and after work at their home or business. It includes arranging the appointment, receiving the service and resolving anything left outstanding.

A returning customer should not have to explain the same fault again. A technician should be able to see the earlier visit notes, the equipment involved and any access requirements before arriving.

That requires usable records and clear responsibility for maintaining them. Start with:

Service teams, dispatchers, customer support and billing all contribute to the experience. Agree which system holds each record and who deals with a missed appointment, unresolved fault or disputed invoice.

Technicians often meet customers when something has gone wrong. Access to the fault history, the correct tools and a realistic appointment duration gives them a better chance of resolving it without another visit.

Repeated visits cost time and travel. They can also delay payment or put a renewal at risk. Track those effects separately so the cost of poor service is visible.

PwC's 2018 research found that consumers would pay up to 16% more for a better experience in some categories. That does not establish a price premium for your service; compare renewal, referral and purchasing behavior in your own customer records.

Complaints and reviews can point to specific failures: long waits, unexplained delays, incomplete work or difficulty contacting the provider. Categorize the reasons and check whether the same issues recur after a process change.

73% of respondents in PwC's 2018 research considered experience important in purchasing decisions.

Up to 16% price premium in some categories studied by PwC in 2018, not a field service revenue forecast.

For field service, measure the commercial effect through repeat visits, complaints, renewals and referrals.

The details differ by service. A resident waiting for a plumber, a patient expecting a home visit and a facilities manager coordinating maintenance have different timing, access and communication needs.

The following examples show what teams need to account for.

Define the service promise for each type of work, including response times, arrival windows and how updates will be sent. Check that the schedule and staffing plan can support it before making the promise to customers.

Start with a recurring customer problem that the operation can address. For missed arrival windows, examine travel allowances, job duration and dispatch changes. For repeat repairs, examine diagnosis, skills, parts and the information available before the visit.

Use customer feedback alongside operational records. A satisfaction score alone rarely explains whether the problem began with booking, dispatch, the visit or follow-up.

The measures below help locate the problem and assess whether a change worked.

Track both the customer's experience and the process that produced it. Compare complaints with appointment, travel, job and communication records for the same period.

Useful measures include on-time arrival, first-time resolution, repeat visits, missed appointments, response time and customer satisfaction. Define how each is calculated and compare similar services rather than combining unlike jobs.

Review a real service request from booking through payment. Include calls, messages, rescheduled visits, approvals and any information the customer had to provide more than once.

Identify where staff re-enter data, customers wait without an update or records fail to reach the team responsible. These are specific candidates for integration or workflow changes.

Each stage needs its own checks.

Check how quickly requests receive a response and whether the offered appointment accounts for skills, duration, travel and site access. Self-service booking should use genuine service availability. For assisted booking, staff need the same scheduling information. Track abandoned requests and rescheduling alongside time to first contact.

Before the visit, technicians need the reported issue, relevant history, access details and required equipment. During the visit, they need a way to record findings and request support. Measure arrival against the promised window and distinguish a planned follow-up from a return visit caused by incomplete work.

Check whether completed work, approved extras and supporting records reach the billing system without re-entry. Measure invoice errors, disputes and the time between completion and invoicing. Define which records and approvals are required before an invoice can be issued.

Review how customers receive invoices, question a charge and make payment. Payment belongs in an appropriate billing or payment system, with the relevant status connected to the service record. Track days sales outstanding alongside disputed and overdue invoices; a late payment may have a different cause from a billing error.

Choose changes that address the problems found in the review. The most useful combination may include customer-facing experiences, scheduling, mobile tools and integrations.

Skedulo connects scheduling, mobile work and the records around each visit on our Pulse Platform. Customer-facing experiences can support service requests and appointment visibility, while integrations connect the operation to existing CRM, HR and ERP systems.

For dispatchers, that means allocating work with the job and workforce context available. For technicians, it means accessing visit details, recording progress and communicating from Skedulo Mobile.

Mastermind supports scheduling and route optimization against the objectives and constraints you define. Forms and workflows can extend the service process to cover inspections, approvals and follow-up.

Connexin describes the effect on its customer and team experience:

“We can now deliver a better customer and team experience. Our software team integrates via API so customers can book jobs around their availability. Without Skedulo, we couldn’t maintain our customer care standards or meet our business and investor targets.”

Connexin

Read the Connexin customer story for its account of API-connected booking, customer care and supporting a larger workforce.

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