Google Wants Your Service Business, Too

If you are a service contractor, get ready for a tough fight to hold your customers and your service margins.  Google is crashing the party.  The same technology formula that wrecked your parts business is coming after your service business.…
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The Rocky Road to Crazy Customer Loyalty – Practical Tips to Brand Freedom

No one can serve two masters, and sometimes the road to serving only one can be rocky and painful. This difficult transition was illustrated to me in colorful detail recently by a shrewd and successful service contractor in the kitchen equipment…
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Smartphone Buying Guide for Service Contractors, Part 1: Rugged vs. Consumer Devices

So-called “rugged" smartphones are appealing to service contractors because field technicians work in environments that aren’t always electronics-friendly.  As we've found in our own testing and heard from our customers, that durability…
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Software Advice from Wall Street

There is a saying on Wall Street regarding investment decisions - cut your losses, dump your losers, double down on a winner. The basic philosophy comes from the concept of discounted cash flow analysis. It does not matter how much money you…

Customer Service is a Marketing Strategy

We’ve been talking about the connections between customer service and its impact on the growth of service contracting businesses. We’re not the only ones who see this critical connection. Read this excellent blog post titled “Customer…

Time-Saving Tips for Managing Social Media

Let’s assume that you’re active in social media because you know that service contractors need to be visible beyond the times when you’re at a customer’s facility. Let’s assume that you know how important it is for a service company…

Don’t Get Gigged by Software – Measure the GIG

Lots of companies get “stuck" (or gigged) with bad software because they do not know how to measure the quality of the vendor during the sales cycle. One of the best ways to measure a software company prior to buying the application (aside…
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Stop Texting. Start Messaging!

On several occasions, I've walked into a meeting with dispatchers, schedulers, and service managers who were glued to their phone texting with their technicians in the field.  Why should the office staff use a tiny keyboard on a phone to update…