In the unpredictable, post-pandemic world, improving customer retention rate can be a challenge. Having said that, it’s even tougher to look for new customers. Your best bet is to provide your existing customers with such a great experience, that they forget about going elsewhere.
Let’s take a look at how customer retention rate is calculated, what is a good customer retention rate and finally how to improve customer retention rates for your Field Service Business.
What is Customer Retention?
7 Ways to Improve Customer Retention Rate
1. Make self-servicing simpler
Today, customers want quick solutions to their problems and what else could be better than a self-servicing customer portal.
This is a place for customers where they can find the best suppliers in their location and place their request?
i4Tradies is one such find-a-tradesman app, that empowers property owners and occupants to be in control of their jobs. This increases customer satisfaction and hence customer retention rate for a field service provider.
2. Quote right away
A delay in quoting your customers can be the sole reason why someone goes elsewhere looking for the same service.
While for most jobs you will have to visit the site to give a precise quote, quoting your customers does not have to be a lengthy process. You can still lock the customer by instantly providing them with an estimate based on the details they have provided when placing their service request.
i4T Business, Field Service Management platform allows you to instantly quote your customers with an estimated time and date of starting the job, along with the labour, material and other costs. This ensures that you get back to your customers in the shortest possible time, without having to put on hold the work you are already doing, thereby increasing your customer retention rate.
3. Work on your KPIs
Some of the most important KPIs for field service management, can help you determine whether your customers decide to stick with you in the long term or not.
Important KPIs to improve customer retention rate include, first-time fix rate and mean-time to service and repair.
First-time fix rates are directly proportional to customer satisfaction and hence customer retention.
According to Aberdeen, Field service organisations that have a 70% first-time fix rate, enjoy an impressive 86% customer retention rate. With a field service management platform, you can assign the job, based on the employee skill level so every job is done right, the first time.
Another important KPI to look at is mean-time to service and repair.
This is the average time from creating a service request to reaching the job site. This is especially important for emergency jobs. The shorter it is, the higher the customer satisfaction and the higher will be your chances to improve customer retention rate.
4. Ensure to provide compliant service
Today’s customers are aware of their health and safety needs and ignoring this fact might cost you the loss of your customers who had been trusting your service for a long time.
More than ever, customers want to know if the field service company they are hiring has valid licence and insurance, is COVID-19 certified, has police clearance and experience of working with children.
Allowing customers to check the company’s credentials, reinforces their trust in your service and keeps them coming back.
5. Invoice your customer on job site
As mentioned before, customers do not like to be kept waiting. Be it for the service they have requested or the invoice they need to pay for that service.
Not only are late invoices bad for the health of your business cashflows but they can cause inconvenience for the customers. With today’s cloud-based technology, the processes of creating and dispatching invoices is now a matter of minutes.
Field Service Management app like i4T Business, allows you to pull all the job details in a click and create an invoice based on accurate data for clients to approve within seconds.
More convenience for the clients means, a higher customer retention rate.
6. Empower your teams in the field with the right tools
Customers expect technicians to have all the answers regarding their job requests. They want to know who will show up at their doorstep and when. They also like to keep tabs on which stage of work-in-progress is the job in.
How efficiently and proficiently the technicians perform, directly translates into company image.
Empowering your teams on the move also means equipping them with all the information they need. This can include customers’ current SLAs, the repair history of a given piece of equipment, before and after photos and many more insights.
7. Communicate well from start to finish
Customers feel anxious when they are left in the dark. They need answers so they can feel more in control of what is happening. Customers want to know why a job was not started when promised or why it was put on-hold midway.
In-app notifications and sms when you use i4T Business, Field Service Management app, not only saves precious time otherwise spent on bouncing emails to and fro, but also keeps the customers in the loop on every stage of the job.
Customers that feel in control are more likely to do business with you again, thereby increasing your customer retention rate.
Wrapping up
Customer retention is an on-going challenge for businesses, as they expand their operations and try to meet increasing customer needs.
Customer retention rate is an important metric that every field service management company should be measuring and working towards improving.
Some proven ways to improve customer retention rate include:
- Providing customers with self-service portals.
- Having a system in place that allows you to quote and invoice promptly.
- Making communication between teams and with customers streamlined.
- Ensure to provide compliant service.
i4T Business Field Service Management app is built to help you achieve just that! If higher customer retention rate is part of your New Year resolution in 2023, there is no better time to register for the app and get started today!
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With our cutting-edge technology and in-depth knowledge of how the Field Service Management sector operates, the i4T Global Team loves to share industry insights to help streamline your business processes and generate new leads. We are driven by innovation and are passionate about delivering solutions that are transparent, compliant, efficient and safe for all stakeholders and across all touch points.
