From customer service to customer care

Top companies are fast moving away from a simple ‘break/fix’ approach to customer service to one in which they are in an ongoing conversation and relationship with their clients.

It’s a powerful shift and importantly, they are using new tools to make this transition, leveraging the insights technology can generate to improve the way they engage with and provide service to their customer base. Machinery and equipment are supporting service companies in successfully transitioning their focus from a ‘Customer Service’ to a ‘Customer Care’ model.

This shift in paradigm was a major discussion point at the ‘Field Service USA Conference’ in California last year, which highlighted how analytics, better collaboration in the field and access to high-quality customer data will help business in the sector achieve better customer outcomes. Businesses need to embrace this new model so their staff have more access to real-time service information, ensuring customers are fully informed.

Interestingly, Accenture forecasts that technology will be a primary driver of profitability and market differentiation in every industry this year. Additionally, 89% of business leaders surveyed by Gartner believe that customer experience will be their primary basis for competition by 2016. The Gartner Top 10 Strategic Predictions for 2015 and Beyond: Digital Business Is Driving ‘Big Change’ report also emphasises that renewing the customer experience is a digital priority.

Customer experience may be the most impactful area of innovation available to businesses today, according to Gartner. With the rapid rise of personal digital technology, customers have become savvier and more demanding about how they want to interact through technology. The report also notes that the practical business acknowledges customer experience innovation as the next frontier, and half of all consumer goods product investments are likely to be directed towards improving the customer experience.

In order for field service businesses to offer superior customer service, smooth business processes need to be front of mind. A company that has a software system in place that reduces laborious processes, increases productivity and assists in the execution of business management is going to generate extra time for staff members to focus on the key business ingredient, the customer.

There is also the well-known belief that satisfied customers will attract new business. Customer care is crucial not only for current customers, but also provides an opportunity to grow business customer satisfaction, loyalty and inevitably, company turnover.

Let’s take a look at three key dynamics the field service sector needs to be across to generate exceptional customer interactions.

Communication comes first

Underpinning all exceptional customer service interactions is an outstanding approach to communication. This means businesses need to think about how they can use technology to open up better lines of two-way communication with their client base.

Every field service business should be aiming to achieve a situation in which they are using technology to be able to elicit instant feedback from customers. They can then immediately respond to or resolve any issues, and improve service levels as well as overall business performance.

Having an analytics-based technology solution in place to deliver better insights, resolutions, features and applications will not only allow staff members to perform a better service, but will positively impact the business as a whole.

Business-to-business customers: the right approach

For business-to-business organisations, the level of service they offer clients determines long-term success. Business customers demand high service levels, so every organisation must be exploring ways to ensure they are continually exceeding their customers’ expectations.

Again, technology is key and one of the major ways they will deal with this in the future is by offering customers access to online web portals. Web portals are ideal as customers can log calls, keep track of expected arrival times and gain an understanding of what type of service will be involved. As the expectation is set up front, this reduces confusion and ensures your customers are fully informed.

Moving to this way of engaging with customers helps to ensure there is a shared understanding between the business and its clients about the level of service they can expect. Moreover, it ensures customers are fully informed about the way they engage with their service providers, leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Business to consumer: elevated expectations

In the past, consumers accepted a situation in which a service provider would promise to send a technician between certain hours, say 9 am and noon. But this is becoming increasingly unacceptable, as consumers demand more certainty about service visits and service levels generally.

Today, customers expect real-time information about delivery times­ — even real-time tracking — and expect to be informed if there are delays in service delivery. Businesses need to be leveraging technology to be able to meet these expectations.

The real game changer for businesses when it comes to delivering an enhanced level of services is the emergence of The Internet of Things. This involves connecting machines to the internet and will allow seamless communication in the supply chain between warehouses, transport providers, technology facilitators and businesses. According to research firm Gartner, we can look forward to 26 billion connected devices by 2020.

Wireless connectivity allows businesses to remotely monitor the condition of connected machines and predict faults as they occur. It means systems are able to self-optimise, self-configure and self-diagnose, ultimately reducing unplanned maintenance activities and leading to more accurate fault diagnosis.

An integrated technology system that talks to each aspect of your business should harmoniously and instantly deliver improved organisational performance and better customer outcomes. The adoption of technology to drive customer care will provide staff personnel and customers with real-time insights, leading to a more engaged customer base, higher levels of customer retention and more referrals to new customers from existing ones.

The businesses that really get this right will cement a genuine partnership with their customers, who will ultimately become brand advocates for the businesses they prefer, delivering a return on investment far above mere financial gains.

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