Tardy technicians turn off customers

It won’t come as a surprise that customers are annoyed by technicians that don’t turn up at the appointed time, but the effect that tardiness has on consumer behaviour might. A recent study conducted by Software Advice, a comparison resource for potential software purchasers, indicates that 67% of customers will not rehire a company if a technician is just one hour late. On the other hand, 73% of customers would be willing to rehire if the tech is late, as long as they receive updates on arrival times. It’s a compelling case for the implementation of GPS-enabled field service software. We spoke with Justin Guinn, market researcher at Software Advice, to gain further insight into the results.

Field Service Business: What inspired you to dive into this topic and conduct this study?

Justin Guinn: We’ve all had those experiences with the cable guy or maybe the pest control guy. They give you a four-hour window and then show up late to that time frame. That’s really where the inspiration to do this piece came from because there’s technology out there to fix this common consumer painpoint.

FSB: In terms of customer satisfaction, what did you discover to be most important point from your research?

JG: Regarding customer satisfaction, the report shows that once a technician is just an hour late to an appointment, 67% of consumers won’t do business with that company again. So, punctuality reigns supreme for field service businesses. It’s important to note, though, that we also found 73% of consumers are more likely to rehire a late business as long as they receive updated arrival-time notifications. Given there are so many variables in the field that can cause a technician to run behind schedule, it’s important that companies have these automated alerts put in place to ping customers if there’s a change in the schedule.

67% of customers won't tolerate lateness beyond one hour.

FSB: For service providers, the bottom line is of paramount importance. In what ways did you find that GPS-enabled technology impacted this?

JG: Going in line with what we just discussed about technician arrival times, our data first and foremost shows that 95% of providers who implemented GPS-enabled field service software saw an improvement in technician punctuality. Aside from the customer-facing benefits awarded by GPS tracking, there are many other benefits positively impacting the bottom line. We found 95% of service business owners saw an increase in the average number of jobs being complete per day after adopting this technology. More jobs equals more money. GPS tracking also positively impacts fuel costs, as 89% of businesses saw an improvement in the average fuel cost after GPS adoption.

Punctuality rates improve when GPS-enabled field service software is implemented.

FSB: How do these GPS systems bolster mobile communication with technicians?

JG: Another field service painpoint that GPS tracking heals is technician visibility. Without some sort of GPS tracking in place, back offices have no way of knowing where exactly their technicians are. GPS tracking takes dispatchers or managers ‘out of the dark’ and indicates where technicians are as they travel throughout the day from job to job. This allows dispatchers to reroute technicians if the schedule needs to be adjusted for a job that’s taking longer to complete than originally thought. It’s also necessary to more properly handle emergency jobs.

A full copy of the report is available at the Software Advice website.

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