The Ideal Customer Journey Map

The Ideal Customer Journey Map

The customer journey is ingrained at the core of every field service management business. Ensuring that you provide a touch point for every part of the customer journey, from learning about your service to paying the bill, will not only delight your customers but also give your business a plethora of data about how customers view and use your business.

Knowing your customer journey is an essential part of field service management. The more you know about your customers, the easier it will be to provide services and solutions that meet their needs. 

 Take a look at the services you offer and the relationships your business has with its current clientele. If you find yourself noticing gaps or needing inspiration for a way to strengthen the relationship, then creating a customer journey map may be exactly what you need. 

Creating a customer journey map is easier said than done, so if you find yourself struggling to create your own map,  here are some tips to get started.

How to Create a Customer Journey Map

Like any good business, the customer should always be at the forefront of your mind. Nowadays, there are so many different options and ways to access field service work. This means you must be providing an easy and positive service from start to finish. Having a positive emotional experience with a company means that customers are six times more likely to buy, twelve times more likely to recommend the company and five times more likely to forgive a mistake. That is a lot of money in your pocket contingent on meeting customers' emotional needs alone. 

Here are tools that will provide you with the ideal customer journey that will make certain that your customers are supported throughout their entire field management process.

Customer Engagement

You cannot get customers engaged if you do not have a form of communication with them. Leveraging a consumer portal helps deliver an exceptional customer experience while empowering customers. Customers feel supported through their ability to have two way communication with a technician and receive real time notifications. In the United States 88% of customers expect brands to have an online self-service customer portal. By not providing a tool for your customer’s to engage, you are creating a bad experience from the get-go. A reliable customer portal should be the first tool on your list to assure a positive and successful customer journey.

Work Order Scheduling

You may not think that service scheduling is part of the customer journey but it is. A schedule optimization software allows for route optimization, meaning the right parts and information are given to the technician and they are dispatched for the job quickly. Once a customer puts an order in, they are going to want service quickly. The last thing they want is the wrong technician showing up with the wrong tools. Not to mention, schedule optimization can help improve your first-time fix rate. Getting the job right on time, the first time, should be a priority. 

Contractor Onboarding 

Now that the gig economy has taken over the Field Service Industry, you are going to want to make sure that you have the best contractors available to cater to your customers’ needs. No contractors available? That means the end of the customer journey.  Having an efficient contractor management and onboarding process streamlines dispatching and can help you optimize service workflows. Using contractors can also increase coverage, allowing you to reach more people in a wider geographical area. Having diverse contractors onboard allows for no customer to feel left behind when a unique service problem arrives.

Third-Party Dispatch

With all of the contractor’s you have on board to help with customer needs, you are going to need a software that is able to streamline your service workflow and assign jobs to all field workers in your company, whether employed or third party. Onboarding contractors is great, but if you do not have the capabilities to deploy them properly, then you will be leaving your customer in the dark on when a service technician is able to get to them. 

Mobility and Parts Management

There are going to be many different appliances that clients are going to need help with. Different appliances require different parts. Having access to an efficient mobility and inventory management system means field technicians have real-time access to tools and information to complete their service jobs the first try. And if you do not have a proper part available, the service tech will be able to order the appropriate part and notify the customer when to expect service. Not every experience can be perfect, but showing the customer that you are quickly looking for a solution to their problems will make them feel as if they are being taken care of every step of the way.

Claims Management

The last thing a business or a customer wants to deal with is fraud. And in the event that a customer has to file a claim, they are going to want to make sure that the problem is resolved quickly. An important part of the customer journey is making sure that you are there for them even when a situation goes wrong. Warrant management software not only increases consumer confidence, it can build brand loyalty. The end-to-end claims system also improves visibility and reduces the turnaround time on claim status and payment processing. At the same time, it aims to eliminate fraud by ensuring only valid claims are eligible for payment. 

On top of these tools, it is also beneficial to use data as a reason to drive important decisions. Being able to identify trends can help with adjusting strategy in real-time and for future tasks.  

It is also nice to be ahead of the curve when it comes to new trends within the industry. Internet of Things (IoT) has continued to grow within the field service industry. IoT solutions could help with clients requesting predictive maintenance for a faster turnaround time.

Keeping up with these trends not only satisfies your customers but your employees as well.  When employees feel like they have the tools and support to succeed, they are less likely to explore other options, leaving your company with skilled and trustworthy talent.

This may sound like a lot to balance at once but there are real benefits to taking the time to create an ideal customer journey map for your business. Take the time to review each year and adjust as needed. Remember, you are in the field service industry, and that service is keeping the customer happy.  

Learn more about how ServicePower can help fuel your business and improve customer experience.