Tips to Managing a Remote Field Service Organization

What is the biggest challenge you face in driving continuous improvement in your field service fleet? Do you struggle with customer experience, scheduling, or possibly you’re experiencing too much waste time. The truth is there are many moving parts to operating an efficient fleet and the reality is, without automation you are losing in productivity, efficiency and increasing in waste.

Based off my experience the most challenging thing I’ve encountered was finding the time to engage with my remote work force as often as I would like. You learn very quickly to make every encounter on purpose and meaningful.

5 Steps to Engaging With Your Remote Service Team

The ride along

Ride with your team member for the day. The ride along puts you in a position to notice and to provide in the moment coaching. Not only do you get a chance to see what your team member does day in and day out, you can inspect things like vehicle cleanliness, tools and parts, time management, customer interactions, processes, system performance, etc.

The job shadow

Similar to the ride along but done with your team members who support the field team such as Admins and Dispatchers. Sit side by side with them for the day. Watch the entire process they follow, ask questions and look for steps things that aren’t adding value and consider removing them.

Goal setting 

Partner with your finance team on goal setting, it is important that goals are set to attain the company’s expected financial outcome. Set goals for each team member and regularly provide feedback on where they are performing compared to those goals.

Effective communication

Establish a meeting rhythm – build them into your calendar. Know the meeting content, formulate a point of view and practice the delivery. Not everyone will hear the same message, be sure to circle back individually.

Development

During one on ones and performance reviews you should always have discussion about development and understand what your employees need and desire. Make yourself available and follow up.

Team KPIs to Monitor Performance

Winners keep score. It is very important to identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) and to set goals that will ensure the company’s expected financial outcome. I have always found that if team members understand KPIs, know the goals and understand how they impact them they do their best to improve.

Below are some common KPIs in Field Service.

• Scheduled calls per day
• Productivity
• 1st time completes
• Redo
• Net promoter score
• Next day availability
• Turn time

Customer Experience KPIs to Consider

It is no secret that if you are in any service business, the customer experience is extremely important.

As a leader, it is up to you to understand your customer’s needs and expectations. It is important that you can articulate your customer’s needs and expectations to your team. Empower your team to make in the moment decisions to take care of their customers. Be sure to regularly go over customer indicator KPIs with your team.

• Next day availability
• Turn time
• Redo
• NPS

Role play with employees closest to the customer, below are some scenarios to consider.

• Attitude and appearance
• Customer engagement
• Keeping customer informed
• Explanation of work
• Explaining next steps
• Explanation of leave behinds
• Dealing with an upset customer
• Empowerment

If you have interest in learning more about managing a field service workforce, please visit our website and download any of our free white papers.

ServicePower connects all aspects of the field service value chain through the use of innovative technology that accelerates business efficiency gains and customer satisfaction while reducing costs. ServicePower is uniquely positioned to offer connected field services solutions on one underlying and consistent platform.