How to improve your first-time fix rate

With strong links to customer satisfaction and retention, achieving first-time fix is now the top business priority for field service organisations, according to a 2014 Insight Report (Transforming Service Delivery).

Despite this increased importance in the boardroom, failure to fix a problem first time continues to be the most common customer complaint.

Research conducted by the Aberdeen Group in 2013 revealed that 57% of incoming service requests require a visit by a technician with a startling 26% of those visits failing to resolve the issue first time.

This inability to achieve first-time fix is proving detrimental to a service business’s bottom line. Companies that don’t achieve a 50% first-time fix rate and then require return visits report revenue declines of nearly 3%.

Fortunately, advancements in workforce management technologies are driving improvements in a business’s ability to complete a job, first time, every time.

Intelligent scheduling is one such technology. It incorporates technician knowledge, parts availability and capacity into a business’s scheduling process to ensure that the technician arriving on-site is the person who can resolve the customer’s issue the first time around.

Self-learner tools also help with intelligent scheduling. The tools support the assignment of work orders to field technicians by remembering who has the right skills and their usual work areas. This advanced capability ultimately helps field service managers ensure they get the right person with the right skills and assets to the job within a set time.

First-time case resolution can be further enhanced by leveraging performance management analytics (PMA) technology. PMA provides managers with the ability to analyse the productivity of their entire field operations by collecting data about the type of jobs that overrun, the number of commitments met and the performance of workers. Using this data, managers are able to identify what type of jobs require follow-up visits as well as key trends in individual worker follow-up rates.

For any business operating a field-based workforce, having intelligent scheduling and PMA capabilities in place will significantly help to transform the way work is performed. With this technology onboard, multiple return visits will soon be a thing of the past.

*As the Business Area Director, Australia and New Zealand, for Trimble Navigation’s Field Service Management (FSM) and Transport and Logistics (T&L) divisions, Tom Scahill is responsible for steering the strategic direction and development of these two businesses nationally. His mandate is to assist field service fleet organisations and road transport fleet operators to improve productivity, increase road safety, lower operational costs and improve customer service by introducing Trimble’s industry-leading consulting expertise and technology.