How to Effectively Respond to Customer KPIs in Field Management

2018-01-19

Are you famous for the correct reasons?
We all know word of mouth is the best kind of marketing. But do people speak of your service providing in a beneficial way? You want them to mention your accuracy, speed and skill.
The challenge with customer service is you have to manage someone’s subjective view. You may know your field workers are the best in the business. But if the client had unrealistic expectations your team will never perform well enough.
This is simply one tricky situation you have to manage as a field manager. There are many others.
For service providers customers equate to marketing teams. They will pass on information regarding your business.
This means customer relations require constant attention. KPIs help you keep track of what to do next.
But how do you do this? Field managers already have so much to keep in place.

How Managing Customer Perceptions Becomes a Valuable Tool

When you realise this challenge can turn into a benefit, you’ll quickly put everything into place to optimize it.
Customer satisfaction KPIs can be:

• Measured
• Tracked
• Responded to

But you’re not doing this simply to keep customers happy. Here’s what you get out of it:

• Determine how well your business as a whole functions. Customers require so much you can measure different departments’ efficacy via customers.
• Each step you take to improve KPIs is an enhanced marketing tool. So no time you spend on this will ever be wasted.

Now you know why correct responses to KPIs are necessary, let’s discuss how.

KPIs and Applicable Responses

Are you measuring the correct KPIs?
Perhaps this is the first aspect you must confirm. It’s about progression. The departments, employees and services must improve—or maintain certain levels—consistently. KPIs tell you how they’re performing and whether growth is needed or taking place.
KPIs work when they’re aligned with your overall goal. Does what you measure determine whether you reach your business goals?
When you can answer yes, continue discovering how to do it better when it comes to customer service.

1. Do You Retain Customers?

Here’s why data is so important.
Client information allows you to track a range of details:

• Complaints
• Recalls
• Satisfaction

With effective administration you’ll know how many recurring customers you get.
Warning: You don’t want to return to sites because your field workers’ previous work resulted in problems.
But you do want clients to call you for similar or new work.
Why is this so important? You can simply get new clients right?
Do you realize generating new clients can cost up to 25 times the price of keeping one? It’s one of the most costly and difficult tasks to coax customers into becoming loyal supporters. They may visit your website but that doesn’t mean they’ll automatically employ you. That takes hard work.
Don’t risk this kind of unnecessary expenses. It’s wiser to work with the clients you have.
This KPI shows whether your clients trust you. And if they don’t you must make adjustments.

Find the Problem
Simple questionnaires can be sent to your client list:

• Email clients and ask for feedback via your website or email
• Use Smartphone applications to obtain feedback
• Ask for written feedback each time a job is finished

It’s best to ask for ratings so clients don’t have to spend much time writing a long report. Simply ask clients to rate:

• Level of service
• Punctuality
• Quality of work
• Communication

Fix the Problem
Now you see where the problem lies you can take active steps:

• Do you have to train workers better?
• Do workers require more empowerment through equipment?
• Do you need to plan routes better to improve punctuality?

As a manager you must implement an action plan.

Communicate the Change
You can build on your current client base or try regaining old clients:

• Offer specials to old clients as motivation to employ you. When they see your improved service they may ask you back for future work.
• Ask clients who are impressed by your service to offer testimonies. Posting these on your website or social media profiles can renew trust in your business.

Measure it Again
Never accept a problem is gone.
By continually asking for feedback from clients you’ll know when an old habit returns.
This is simply one way a KPI can help you transform your business and reach your profit goals.

2. Are You Picked Above Competitors?

Never ignore your competitors.
In a competitive market one of your goals must be to out perform other service providers. But how do you know what to improve if you’re not measuring your performance?
This calls for data regarding your own business and competitors’. And you need specifics:

• Do consumers contact competitors before they call you?
• Do customers prefer a competitor’s quality of communication?
• Do other service providers deliver higher quality work than your field workers?

The information can be obtained with:

• Online questionnaires
• Comparing your SEO rating to other service providers’
• Comparing social media engagement on competitors’ profiles
• Reading online reviews of competitors

What do You do?
Don’t feel hopeless. Your KPI may show you’re lagging behind your competitors. But it also gives you information to improve your performance:

• When you know customers find competitors online, improve your presence. You can improve your SEO performance or become more active on social media.
• What people discuss on competitors’ social media profiles show you their needs. Use this in marketing for improved engagement.
• Are your competitors known for their quality work or punctuality? If your reviews don’t state the same you know what to work on.

When KPIs are used effectively you know exactly what part of your business to improve.

3. Do Your Customers Think You’re Fast?

An important part of establishing KPIs is gauging what your goals must be. Your KPI should show whether you’re reaching this goal or not.
When it comes to clients’ time you should ask their opinions first:

• What is the minimum time they want to wait before your phones are answered?
• How fast do you give feedback on queries?
• Emergency call outs may require immediate attention. But what is an acceptable amount of time to wait for field workers to tend to a problem?
• When must the work be finished? For long projects you must discuss timelines with clients. For general repairs and maintenance work you should communicate timelines to the customers.

This empowers you because you can measure whether you keep to these goals. You can:

• Measure telephone ringing times
• Calculate how fast queries are resolved
• See how fast you allocate new job requests to a day schedule
• Compare if field workers keep to allotted timelines

And if these aren’t in line with expectations?

What You can do
Many time aspects relate to training:

• Make sure employees understand how to use telephone equipment.
• Train employees about equipment and procedures to help give fast feedback.
• Give training to field workers so work is done in the shortest amount of time.

KPIs help you take the right kind of action.

4. Do Customers Love You?

This is the measure we’re all used to. Most businesses ask feedback the moment they’re done serving you:

• Restaurants ask ratings with the bills
• Hotels leave feedback forms in the rooms
• Businesses send rating forms with invoices via email

And you should be doing the same.
Your CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Scale) rating tells you what customers feel about you. It’s the best way emotions can be quantified:

• Most people love giving their opinion. This means they’ll give this feedback more often than not—as long as you make it easy for them.
• By stating the correct questions you can get ratings about different features of your business.

It’s important you include detail—such as punctuality—so you know exactly what your clients mean. What you think customers find important may not be accurate. Have you done enough market research?
Don’t simply ask whether they like you. Ask whether they loved your service, your workers’ friendliness or your punctuality.

Your Reaction
With detailed and specific data you’re empowered to bring changes. You know which parts of your field work your clients have less trust in. Invest time and energy to improve it.
Confirm you’re making the correct changes before you start implementing them. You don’t want to waste time or resources. This is why KPIs are essential for any field manager.

5. Do Customers Talk About You?

Are there any word of mouth marketing concerning you? It’s easy to find out:

• Measure how many new clients contact you because of referrals.
• How often do you get spontaneous positive feedback?
• Ask clients to rate how likely they are to refer you. You can use feedback forms, Smartphone applications or emails.

And yes people want to be motivated to refer you. Consumers want to share positive experiences with each other. When I was treated well at a hotel I wanted others to go there too. Is this happening regarding your service provision?
If this isn’t happening you’re not reaching your goals yet:

• Giving quality work
• Increasing profits by increasing customer base

How do You Approach this?
Artificial Movement
The ideal is that word of mouth marketing happens automatically. But you can get momentum going by yourself too.
Offer clients—or their friends—special rates for every job request based on a referral:

• Clients will talk about you to obtain discounts you offer.
• Clients will talk about you so their friends can benefit from special offers.

Chase the Movement
A variety of aspects can keep your clients from speaking about you:

• Products
• Quality
• Punctuality
• Customer service

These can all be improved upon. For clients to trust you enough to recommend you to friends you should excel in all these departments. Are you prepared to take an honest look at your company?
Use questionnaires to determine specifics regarding the problem. But you won’t know to ask questions if you don’t have data to begin with.
That’s why KPIs make sense to have.

6. Do Customers and Workers Get Along?

Field workers play many roles while attending to jobs. Do you realise they’re the most dynamic showcase of your company you have?
But only if they give a positive view of your business.
A simple KPI can be measuring how many clients give positive feedback about your field workers. If these opinions are more negative than positive your business is in trouble.
Clients associate their experience with a worker to the entire business.

How do You Improve this Rating?
Ask yourself—and your workers—a few questions. If you reach the correct answers your client-worker relationships will start improving.
Here are a few to get you started:

• Do workers know their value? Workers are prepared to do more—and speak positive—for their employers if they know they’re valued.
• Do workers know their impact? Not all people have naturally good people skills. Your workers may not realize what their shy behaviour communicates to clients. Help workers develop skills and become exceptional representatives.
• Do workers fight on site? Clients take it as an insult if their premises are abused. Even verbal conflict should not be tolerated on site. Teach workers communication skills and empower team leaders to handle difficult situations.

Once again you must ask clients the correct questions. This will show you where the problem is rooted.
But it can be remedied. Are you ready to see some positive change?

Your customers can become your greatest asset. When they start talking about you—in a positive sense—they become an automatic marketing tool. But how well do your clients currently rate you? You can only work on fixing this relationship if you know where the problem lies. Let a KPI guide you in bringing about optimum changes.