Customer satisfaction is the lifeblood of any business. It’s what keeps them coming back for more, and it’s what makes them recommend you to their friends or business contacts. But – at a time when the UK Customer Satisfaction Index shows that customer satisfaction has flatlined – how do you improve customer satisfaction so that your business reaps the benefits that come from having happy customers? In this article, we’re going to look at the various ways in which your business can get customer service right, from the ground up. Keep reading for our handy guide for easy ways to improve customer satisfaction.
1. Hire the right staff
Providing a great service to your customers starts with hiring the right people, and then training them properly. Even the best people need to be given the right resources and tools to ensure they can do their job in a timely and efficient manner, so ensuring that they receive the right training from the moment they start working with you will get things off to the right start.
It’s not just about making sure your staff are friendly and courteous towards customers at all times. Investing in professional staff development not only boosts customer satisfaction instantly, but it gives your employees the morale boost of being able to complete tasks to the best of their abilities. This maximises their efficiency and productivity while giving the best possible impression to your customers.
2. Listen to your customers
Want to know whether your customers are happy or not? Then talk to them. Listen to the good and the bad, and ask them for clarity over whether there’s anything you can do to offer them a better service. And if you want the benefits of good customer service, don’t just ask for feedback without actioning the points that arise from it; make sure you’re actively listening, responding with empathy and keeping a note of what your customers have told you so that you can work out how to address the points they’ve raised.
If you haven’t thought about how you store customer notes, it’s a good idea to have an efficient system such as a Customer Management Module. This makes for good customer service and easier data management for both you and your customer, allowing you to provide a better service every time. This is particularly true for the field service industry, which relies on being able to meet and exceed customer expectations every time.
3. Improve cross-departmental communications
Good customer service isn’t just about improving communications with your customers; it’s about improving communications internally. Cross-departmental communication is especially important in field service management, where it’s essential for improving visibility and optimising business results. RedZebra’s service engineer software is a great example of how software can facilitate better internal communications. It helps all departments to see customer data, ensuring no valuable information is lost and that field service engineers have all the information they need before starting a job. The result: better customer satisfaction.
4. Solve problems before they arise
Your customers should be able to communicate with you, their service provider, quickly and easily, especially in the field service industry. There are so many potential issues that could arise when they need to contact you: they don’t have easy access to the phone number of your engineer, for instance, or they’ve lost your business cards. It might even be an emergency situation that happens after your engineer has left towards the end of the day.
The solution is a good call management system, like RedZebra’s call management software. This software allows you to respond quickly to your customers at all times, even helping you dispatch the nearest available engineer using GPS tracking. Particularly in more urgent situations, customers will appreciate a prompt service – especially if it involves broken equipment that might cost them thousands of pounds.
5. Improve service delivery speed
An obvious way of improving your customer service is to carry out each and every job in an efficient manner, and that means making sure that your business runs smoothly at all times. Using RedZebra’s field service management software allows engineers to complete jobs with maximum efficiency, enabling them to access all the information they need remotely from a handheld device. They’re then able to leave clear notes on the work they’ve carried out, and obtain customer sign-off electronically. They’ll even have access to stock management systems, allowing them to order spare parts when needed. All these features help to improve the speed of delivery for field jobs, leaving your customers with a great impression.
6. Quicker Invoicing
Invoicing for work is one of the most important tasks in running a field service organisation, and getting it right the first time is crucial both for you and your customers. Using field invoicing software is a sure-fire way to get rid of the headache of paper invoices, which can be prone to error as well as being difficult to keep track of. Invoicing software also means a quicker interaction between engineer and customer, saving valuable processing time on both sides. By saving hours of work, this can also lead to cost savings for both you and your customers.
If you’d like to find out more about how RedZebra’s field service management software can help you achieve greater customer satisfaction, call us today on 01296 350350 or email [email protected].
