What’s your MIPS (Marketing Impressions per Service) Number? Try 9.

All too often, service contractors separate marketing from service cycle operations. Aside from truck wraps and uniforms, the two are not viewed as complementary. But aligning these business efforts is one of the core tenets of building an effective Digital Wrap. In this post, I want to focus on one particular union of service delivery and digital marketing: Marketing Impressions per Service (MIPS).

What is Marketing Impressions Per Service (MIPS)?

The concept is simple. For each service delivered, there are a series of useful, electronic communications your company should send to every customer. These communications build trust, customer loyalty, sales, and brand value.

From pizza to your pantry, there are many great examples of this practice in other markets. Domino’s, for instance, is dominating the pizza-buying experience thanks to their app that provide real-time updates about your pizza’s delivery status. On the other hand, Amazon has mastered the art of MIPS with order confirmation, delivery updates, and personalized product recommendations.

Every marketing impression serves a different purpose for the customer, however, each should contain the following:

Branding: You should always include your logo and company name in every communication.

Contact information: Provide the most relevant point of contact for each type of communication.

Link to service details: Much like the notifications sent by Domino’s, your MIPS communications should contain a link to additional details about the service(s) you are providing. Domino’s links users to their real-time pizza tracker. Similarly, you should send users to a job summary updated in real time like ServiceTrade’s Service Link.

9 Essential Marketing Impressions in the Service Cycle

All of the communications below are important marketing impressions that reinforce your Digital Wrap. Each touch is an opportunity to put your brand in front of the customer and show that you’re committed to providing a great experience at every step of the service cycle.

1) Due for service reminder

A reminder that the customer is due for a service should be sent about a month before the service is actually due. This reminder is especially important when providing relatively infrequent recurring services such as preventative/planned maintenance, inspections, and cleanings that occur on a less than monthly frequency,

Between services, this reminder will help you retain your position as the vendor of choice. Without this reminder, the customer may turn to one of your competitors when they need service and your brand was not there to help. In addition to the bullets listed above, this message should include:

When the service is due.
What to expect next. For example, they will receive a call or email to schedule the service.

2) Appointment reminder

Every appointment for a service should be preceded by an appointment reminder 1-7 days in advance. Like the text reminder your dentist likely sends you before your teeth cleaning, this type of reminder is very helpful for the customer. This communication, like many others in this series, reinforces that your brand is helpful, easy to work with, and technologically savvy. Include the following in this message:

All upcoming appointment dates and times.
The technician’s name, picture, and contact information.
Information about how to change appointment dates or times.

3) Tech on the way

Much like Amazon’s out-for-delivery notification, your techs should have the capability to let your customer know that they are on the way and when to expect them. Your customers will appreciate the heads up so they can prepare for the tech’s arrival. This message should include:

Expected arrival time.
The technician’s name, picture, and contact information.

4) Appointment complete

After the work is complete, the customer should receive a brief summary that provides access to pictures, videos, and other data that the technician collected during the appointment. Visibility to the great work your company provides will build trust and customer loyalty. The following should be included in this message:

The time that the appointment was completed.
The technician’s name, picture, and contact information.
Any problems found.
Any recommendations for additional work.
A signed acknowledgment of work completed.

5) Satisfaction survey and/or review request

Checking the pulse of your customer satisfaction is critical to building a dominant brand. If your customer satisfaction is high, take advantage of it by requesting an online review that can help grow inbound lead generation. There are a couple ways to skin this particular cat.

One approach is to request a review from customers who respond positively to a dynamic survey via a platform like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. For example, if a customer indicates that they are satisfied, you could request a review on your Google My Business Page.

Another option is to use something like ServiceTrade’s Service Reviews feature to generate reviews on your website that drive local search engine optimization. Note that you will likely receive better reviews before you send an invoice to the customer, but you should always keep an eye on the impact your prices have on your overall customer satisfaction.

6) Job summary

After the job is complete and the office has a chance to review and collate all of the data gathered on every appointment, a message should be sent to the customer summarizing what happened. Like the appointment complete MIPS, this message should provide the customer with visibility to the service(s) you provided with rich media like pictures, videos, and other data in order to build trust and loyalty. Include the following:

The date and time that all appointments were completed.
The technician’s name, picture, and contact information.
Information about problems found.
Any recommendations for additional work.
A signed acknowledgment of work completed.

7) Personalized recommendations

This often takes the form of a quote for additional work or repair of issues found by the technician. When a quote is sent within 48 hours of the initial service, the likelihood that a customer will approve new work increases dramatically. This message can be sent prior to the invoice if it is ready. It should include:

Details of the new services with access to general information such as a web page or video.
A link to an electronic quote with pictures that can be approved at the click of a button. For a great example, check out ServiceTrade’s quoting feature.

8) Invoice with job summary

In order to keep the primary focus on payment, this message should be limited to the most important details, but still provide access to all of the important job information. Simplifying the payment process will further reinforce your brand as being easy to work with. This message should include:

An invoice file with details for payment or, preferably, a link to view and pay the invoice online.
Invoice due date.

9) Invoice link for credit card payments

The final marketing impression is the online payment. An invoice with a “pay now” button provides your customers a convenient way to pay by credit card or bank account. This payment option will not only improve cash flow by encouraging customers to pay their invoices quickly, but will also communicate that you are a modern company that prioritizes ease for your customers.

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Though many of these communications may not seem like marketing in the traditional sense, they represent the future of brand building via digital marketing for service contractors. They are not blatant, in-your-face promotions. Instead, they are seamlessly integrated into your service experience in a way that provides value to your customer and, therefore, builds the value of your company’s brand.

Want to see these marketing impressions in action? Request a demo.

5 shocking things you don’t know about next-gen facility managers

First off, I have to congratulate you on clicking through to read this article. You are well on your way to understanding the younger, future generation of facility managers and you didn’t even realize it. “How” you ask? The title of this article is what is commonly referred to as “Clickbait” which is generally targeted towards a younger, tech-savvier audience. I crafted the title of this blog post so that it followed a handful of rules known to increase click-through rate:

Use a list approach with an odd number of items. For example, “5 shocking types of…” or “17 amazing tips to…”
Add an element of excitement with words like “shocking” or “amazing.”
Use negative words in the title such as “no” or “not.”

I don’t want to go into any more detail about optimizing blog post articles as there are hundreds upon hundreds of articles dedicated to this subject, but I do want you to simmer on the point that your future customer, the next generation of facility managers, is right around the corner and you probably don’t understand what makes them tick. No matter what you think about us millennials, we are starting to fill important, decision-making roles. Your company and, more importantly, your brand can be prepared when you understand how our generation operates and how to apply that knowledge to the facility manager of the future.

They are always connected

I feel naked without my phone. Seriously. Unless I have mentally prepared myself for a preplanned excursion without it, like a recent trip to Yosemite, forgetting my phone on any other day leads to inexplicable anxiety. Honestly, I was relieved when I realized that I had a signal when I arrived at the base of El Capitan! Unfortunately, my boss knows that he can call at any hour and expect an answer. Admittedly, I, like my fellow millennials, really don’t mind working in off hours if work needs to get done.

Takeaway: When you send an email to a next-gen facility manager at 9pm, you can pretty much expect that they received it. When possible, give them a low friction or short-form means to respond such as a simple “yes,” “no,” or electronic quote that enables one-click approval.

They hate talking on the phone

Ironically, as much as we love our smartphones, we hate talking on the phone. We’d much rather txt or email than spend 10 minutes discussing anything over the phone. I’ve got a list of important calls that I’ve been meaning to make for the past couple weeks, but here I am catching up on emails and writing a blog post instead.

Takeaway: Don’t rely on phone calls as a primary means of communication with millennial facility managers. Instead, use electronic communication such as txt, email, electronic quotes, or Service Links.

They are impatient

Social media and instant means of communication have led to a need for immediate gratification for millennials. Instantly receiving likes and retweets for pictures and comments has resulted in a need for immediacy in the other aspects of our life. Constant access to all forms of communications our entire adult lives means that we’ve never had to wait until we “got back” to a computer to check our email.

Takeaway: Information about the services you provide must be accessible immediately. After-service summaries, deficiency reports, and quotes can’t be delayed by days. Delays in information will be unacceptable.

They prefer self-serve over customer service

I’ve never ordered anything over the phone or by mail. I’ve been spoiled by the Amazon experience and I consider any business that requires me to speak to customer service on the phone as antiquated. To my generation, great customer service happens when people don’t have to get involved because I made my purchase or achieved my goals via the company’s self-serve kiosk, mobile app, or online features.

Takeaway: As much as possible, rely on applications that enable your customers to engage with you online to retrieve the information they need, make purchases, and schedule work. This has the added benefit of reducing the amount of administrative labor in your office dedicated to traditional, phone-based customer service. A few great examples of these features include online payment platforms, ServiceTrade quotes, Service Links, and Service Portal.

They hate paper

Often, I hear stories of companies that print paperwork because it is the primary driver of internal processes and because “we just like paper.” Don’t get me wrong, I, like most millennials, think this is an environmental waste, but we are more baffled by the preference for and the inefficiencies of paper processes. Having grown up with collaborative document platforms such as Google Drive, we have a strong preference for paper-free processes and view paper as old fashioned.

Takeaway: Although paperless processes can drive internal efficiencies, it should be viewed as a means of enhancing the quality of your customer service. In the future, Facility managers will expect electronic documents and view companies that use paper as substandard.

Our CEO, Billy Marshall, has a common adage that, among other insights, succinctly describes the mindset necessary to be successful with the next generation of facility owners and managers:

“Innovation is not optional.”

Leaning on ideologies like “that’s just how we’ve always done it” or “we got this far without changing” will not work with the next generation due to their massive exposure to technology. Your old school customer service will need to be overhauled to meet the needs of millennials or they will turn to your competition. However, those brands that adopt the technology mandate have the opportunity to build valuable, sustainable brands.

6 Key Metrics That Boost Repair Revenue

Service contractors that work on complex equipment and systems all understand the importance and value of repair revenue for the overall success and profitability of their business. Most companies also recognize that the opportunity for repair work is often found while providing recurring services such as preventative maintenance work or system inspections. Unfortunately, most companies do not have formal workflows or systems in place to effectively convert deficiencies and problems reported in the field during routine visits to quotes and, ultimately, repair work. Those that do often have patchwork and minimal processes with few controls in place. Furthermore, without these systems in place, companies are unable to measure the key metrics necessary for a successful repair program. Obviously, a system is necessary to generate metrics, however, a great system can’t be developed without understanding that the ability to measure key metrics is a fundamental requirement. As the quote goes:

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Before setting off to build or fix your company’s internal processes, here are the 6 key metrics that are critical to a successful repair program:

1. Ratio of recurring service revenue to repair revenue

This ratio is generally easy to calculate and is the best overall indicator of how effective a repair program is. Simply total your company’s recurring service revenue from preventative/planned maintenance jobs, inspections, cleanings, etc and compare it to the total revenue over the same period of time for repair work. Obviously, your company should strive to constantly improve this number, but strong industry benchmarks include:

Mechanical services – $1 of PM revenue to $4 of repair revenue
Fire protection – $1 of inspection revenue to $1 of repair revenue

For example, a Fire protection company performing $5M in inspections should expect to generate an additional $5M in repair work from deficiencies found on those inspections.

The remaining metrics will all help drive this core ratio.

2. Percentage of recurring service jobs that result in new quotes

This metric takes into account a few steps in the process:

Opportunity Discovery – During recurring services, how often do your technicians discover new deficiencies, problems, or service opportunities that are worth quoting?
Lost in the shuffle – How often are these reports making their way back to the correct personnel in the office?
Office accountability – What percentage of reported opportunities can office personnel convert into quotes?

Obviously, technicians won’t discover quotable opportunities during every recurring service and this percentage will vary significantly by industry, however, all opportunities of sufficient value should result in a quote. the second and third metric above should be very close to 100% once a reasonable process and/or system is put in place. I only mention them here because many companies I’ve observed fall short on these activities due to an absence of any system whatsoever.

Ultimately, this leaves the overall percentage in the hands of your technicians and the easier it is for them to report these opportunities to the office, the higher the percentage will be. Your techs are far less likely to handwrite complex descriptions than simply snap pictures, record videos, and provide voice recordings to the office summarizing their findings. Mobile technology is a tremendous aid when working to improve this metric.

3. Average quote turnaround time

This average will vary by industry and repair complexity, but the simple takeaway here is that turning quotes around fast yields significant results for your overall quote approval rate and it should be possible for commercial service contractors to turn the vast majority of their quotes around in 24-48 hours. More transactional repair quotes that fit a templatized format should be sent to the customer no later than the day after the opportunity is discovered. Quotes that require substantial part cost lookups should be turned around within 48 hours depending on the availability of the necessary cost information.

4. Quote approval rate

This is a simple metric determined by dividing the sum of approved quotes sent to the customer in a certain period of time by the total number of quotes sent during that same period of time. For example, if 40 of the 50 quotes sent in June were approved, the approval rate would be 80%.

Note that this will be a lagging metric as quote approval can take place well after a quote is sent to the customer. Therefore, this statistic will not be accurate for a given period of time until all quotes are responded to or expired. Alternatively, if the quotes you send to customers tend to age for long periods of time, you can calculate an estimated approval rate by dividing the total number of quotes approved in a given period of time by the number of quotes sent in that same period of time. For example, 40 quotes were approved in June, and 60 quotes were sent in June, yielding a 67% approval rate. As long as you account for fluctuations in the number of quotes sent from month to month, this can be an effective, up-to-date measurement.

Many factors impact quote approval rate, but the top 3 factors that we’ve found to positively impact it are:

Quick turnaround. The faster the customer has a quote in hand from the date of last service, the more likely they are to approve the quote.
Include pictures. Showing your customers exactly what is wrong with their equipment is much more effective than describing it in text.
Send an online quote. Make it very easy for your customer to say “yes” by providing them with an online quote with 1-click approval as opposed to paper, emails, PDFs, scanners, etc.

5. Quote gross profit per administrative hour

One of the metrics that will help your company make good decisions about how much admin time should be dedicated to creating a given quote is the gross profit of all approved and unapproved quotes generated per hour of administrative time it took to create those quotes. Alternatively, this can also be calculated by totaling the gross profit of repair work and dividing by the quote approval rate. Ultimately, this will help you determine a gross profit goal per hour, day, week, and month for your office staff. This goal will help your team quickly determine how long it should take to create quotes of all sizes with any margin.

For example, if the goal for a team member dedicated to creating quotes is $32K of gross profit for all quotes generated in a month, they should aim for about $1.6k of gross profit quoted per day and $200/hr. A small quote with a gross profit of $200 shouldn’t take more than an hour to generate. A larger quote with a gross profit of $2k shouldn’t take longer than 10hrs to create.

6. Quote gross profit per technician labor hour

Let’s face it, one of the biggest challenges in your business is hiring good technicians. This causes high labor costs with a shrinking margin due to unchanging customer expectations of how much they should pay for skilled labor. Fortunately, repair work often represents a unique opportunity to generate revenue independent of labor costs thanks to the margin on the parts sold. However, high margin alone is not necessarily a great indicator of whether or not a job was worthwhile. A better measure of whether a job is good for the company is gross profit per labor hour. For example, let’s compare the following scenarios:

Job A – $12K in revenue with a margin of 40% requiring 60 hours of technician labor.
Job B – $20K in revenue with a margin of 15% requiring 10 hours of technician labor

A simple gross profit comparison suggests that job A is better for the company, however, this simple calculation ignores the fact that job B had a low labor requirement. Job A calculates to $80 of gross profit per labor hour, while job B calculates to $300 of gross profit per labor hour. With your available labor force, would you rather perform one of job A or 6 of job B?

If you are unable to track these metrics now, consider new processes and systems that will enable you to do so. Simply tracking these numbers will not improve anything for your company, however, it is the first step in understanding how to make improvements. In order to leave you with something to think about, I’ll close with a quote that is a little more extreme than the one I used in the introduction:

“If you can’t measure, it doesn’t exist”

Reminder: The free Self Starter ServiceTrade account provides you with unlimited online quoting. Learn more here.

27 Local SEO Tactics for Service Contractors

Every company wants to easily be found on Google, but search engine optimization (SEO) is a mysterious realm for most people, especially service contractors who deal with a unique set of challenges associated with local search results. Working to rank high in searches conducted by people in your nearby communities is a service company’s most important form of SEO. We are always on the hunt for good advice to pass along, and this week we found a fantastic article by UpCity that not only explains local SEO but also provides a step-by-step guide for succeeding with Google and other search engines: 27 Local SEO Tactics for Completely Dominating Your Local Market

There is only one minor change that should be made to the steps provided in this guide. Experts often recommend completing parts 2-4 of this guide BEFORE creating or updating your Google My Business page as described in the first part. Creating or updating your Google My Business page will likely trigger Google to crawl your website and external citations to determine how to rank your company in search results. If you complete this step first, there is no telling how long it will take Google to crawl the information available about your company; leaving Google with an incomplete picture.

Implementing modern search engine optimization as a part of a comprehensive Digital Wrap strategy takes a lot of work, but will yield new inbound prospects that make it well worth your while.

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Reduce Risk: The Dash Cam Lesson

Every once in a while, I like to eat my own dog food, and this time it tasted like sweet justice. Just a few weeks ago I wrote a blog post, Photo Cliches Drive Sales and Retention for Service Contractors, wherein I identify the value pictures hold in their enduring ability to accurately and infallibly tell the whole story. Writing that blog post got me to thinking about how I could integrate this lesson into my own life, so I downloaded the Nexar app, a free mobile app that turns your smartphone into a dash cam. Other than draining my battery (which is easily resolved with a $10 car charger), this app is pretty fantastic and has saved me $550 in car repairs to date. Check out this video to see how:

I am not writing this post to suggest that service contractors should immediately go out and install dash cams in their entire fleet of trucks. Instead, I want to point out that there are other opportunities to reduce risk with cool, cost-effective technology. Equipped with a smartphone, technicians in the field can easily log pictures, photos, and audio memos that not only reduce risk, but also build trust and value with customers via a concept we call the Digital Wrap. By properly reporting the state of a customer’s equipment with rich media, contractors can capture immutable artifacts of service that can be used to avoid misunderstandings and legal liability long after blurry memories fade.

On a daily basis, we hear from customers who have avoided complaints and legal issues thanks to the pictures and audio notes their technicians took with the ServiceTrade mobile app. To see how ServiceTrade can help reduce your company’s risk, give us a call at (919) 246-9900 and tell them that you saw Shawn’s Misadventure.

Mobile Device Management for Service Contractors

Smartphones, tablets, and mobile applications have finally reached both a price and a level of functionality that make them an absolute no-brainer for service contractors. Aside from the obvious risk of device breakage (read our earlier post about this), contractors that deploy mobile devices to more than a few field techs quickly discover a tangle of IT-related device management headaches.

Setting up the email account, WiFi, apps, and other general settings can take forever for one device, let alone every other device to be deployed in the field. To add to the complexity, if anything changes such as the email server or WiFi password, updating every company device can be an absolute nightmare. Once the devices are in the field, what’s to prevent them from becoming distractions (thanks Candy Crush Saga and YouTube) as opposed to the productivity enhancers they are expected to be? Furthermore, poor device management can leave your company vulnerable to security risks like data theft and cyber vandalism.

Fortunately, there are platforms that simplify mobile device management (MDM). These applications can even help you manage laptop and desktop computers, hence the use of the term “device” as opposed to “smartphone” or “tablet.” MDM solutions work best for company-supplied devices on which there should be no personal data. Mobile device management can be implemented on personal devices in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD – Learn more) workplace, but this can lead to some potentially hazardous outcomes given that administrators will have the capability to remotely erase personal data.

Common MDM Features

Features among mobile device management solutions vary to some degree, but you can expect MDM applications to manage the following:

Remote Setup and Deployment – Installing a MDM solution on a device typically follows a simple invitation process initiated from the administrative dashboard. No matter where the devices is, its user can accept the invitation and install any necessary apps or profiles. After installation, devices can be managed and updated remotely; maximizing utilization and productivity without the need for spare devices as backup.
Inventory – Office administrators will have a complete view of every device under management including the device’s location (via GPS) and which employee is responsible for said device.
Applications – Installing, updating, and blacklisting of mobile apps can be centrally organized with MDM solutions. For example, an MDM would enable mass installation of the ServiceTrade mobile app for your field technicians, and blacklisting of apps like Netflix to avoid distractions.
Security – To avoid security threats, password specifications can be set so that they are not only required, but also meet certain character requirements for maximum security. Additionally, devices can be remotely locked or wiped of all their data.
General Settings – Email accounts and WiFi profiles are a couple examples of the general settings that can be setup and managed with MDM applications.
Groups – All of the above management functions can be deployed across all company devices or to a specified group with the push of a button. Individual device setup is possible but rarely necessary.

Recommendations

Especially for small and medium service contractors, steer clear of any enterprise mobile device management applications. Solutions from companies like Cisco, IBM, and Citrix are designed for large corporate environments and require IT managers for implementation and support. Instead, look for solutions that are simple, cloud based, and cost effective. If it feels expensive and seems complex, it probably is.

One product we found that stands out against the competitors is Miradore. In addition to all of the features listed above and support across Android and iOS, it also comes in at only $2/month per device for the top-tier plan.

For more advice on how to make the best decision on any software purchase, check out our eBook “The Practical Guide to Buying Software for Service Contractors“

Photo Cliches Drive Sales and Retention for Service Contractors

We’ve all heard, and likely loathe, the plethora of bad cliches about pictures. As overused and seemingly meaningless as these cliches are, they hold a literal wealth of knowledge for field service contractors. From new sales to retention, these sayings will drive growth in your field service company:

The big picture.

Why should service contractors consider photos important for day-to-day operations? Online businesses have proven the importance of imagery for customer engagement and sales. Even though you may not be engaging customers online at the moment, technology, like ServiceTrade, makes it easy to move your service activities online with rich job summaries and quotes. With this in mind, the stats below represent a huge opportunity for every field service companies:

Online articles with images get 94% more total views than those without imagery.
In an ecommerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product.
In an online store, customers think that the quality of a product’s image is more important than product-specific information (63%), a long description (54%) and ratings and reviews (53%).
92.6% of people say that visuals are the top influential factor affecting a purchase decision online.
Offering multiple product views and other alternative images lead to 58% more web sales.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Imagine writing a description of the picture above in the space provided on the paperwork you provide your customers after every job. Did you have enough room to describe, in detail, the flying cats, splashing water, and mustachioed artist in a way that anyone could understand? Is your handwriting even legible? Would anyone reading your summary even believe you?

Every year, your company is wasting hundreds, or even thousands, of hours attempting to summarize technical details in illegible handwriting that the customer is unlikely to understand, value, or trust. Again and again, ServiceTrade users have proven that providing pictures to customers for every job, not only speak volumes about the quality of their work and the value they provide, but also builds trust with their customers because “seeing is believing”.

Take a picture. It will last longer.

Left with the wrinkly, coffee-stained paperwork as the only remnant of the work you did, are you memorable to your customers? Does your company stand out as one your customers enjoy working with, or are you replaceable?

The picture above is a time capsule for the ages. Without referencing Wikipedia, you probably knew this was taken on V-J day, the final day of WWII. This image will forever represent the end of the war for America and encapsulate a national memory. Similarly, you can turn every service for a customer into a memorable experience. Beyond the “wow” factor you can elicit by exceeding their expectations for information, months from now, when they have questions about what you did for them, pictures will remind them how valuable your services were.

Additionally, pictures can save technicians time by converting their individual memories about a job into tribal knowledge shared in the office. How often does someone in your office end a conversation with a tech using the phrase “just go back” due to lack of information collected on an initial visit? Along with audio notes and videos, pictures are one of the primary forms of rich media that will ensure that everyone in the office knows what the next steps are for every job without relying on the technician’s fading memory. Instead of wasting time calling technicians and, even worse, sending them back to collect forgotten information, have them catalogue their experience in a way that helps everyone understand not only what was done, but also what is left to be completed.

The whole picture.

As seen in the series above, one or two pictures cannot tell the whole story. Similarly, your company should provide customers with as many pictures as necessary to explain everything they need to make an informed buying decision; whether that is to make a new purchase or retain you as the long-term vendor of choice. There is no hard and fast rule about how many pictures you should provide, however, more is better in the vast majority of situations.

Get the picture?

Take a lesson from retailers. Moving online and engaging your customers with rich content (photos), will lead to favorable outcomes including increases in sales and retention via the trust you build with photographic evidence of your value.

Check Out:
The Digital Wrap

Statistics From:
Consumer Psychology and The E commerce Checkout – Stats Behind The Clicks
6 Powerful Reasons Why you Should include Images in your Marketing

Hiring the Best Field Service Technicians

Are you as frustrated as George Costanza when it comes to hiring field service technicians?

Finding and hiring the best employees is one of the most difficult challenges any business will face. With that said, service contractors have it far worse than most industries due to the declining interest many young folks have in trade labor. From HVAC to fire protection contractors, this labor shortage results in an aging workforce making it difficult for companies to modernize, maintain competitive pricing, and meet customers’ evolving expectations.

As daunting as this challenge seems, there are a couple glimmers of hope in labor market trends and new recruiting strategies. As more and more young people find the value proposition of college to be in decline, they will shift to professions that will provide a career that doesn’t leave them in debt for the rest of their lives. Additionally, by applying, what we at ServiceTrade call, a “digital wrap” to your field service company, you can attract the best and brightest technicians with a strong online presence.

The Economic State of Higher Education

All contractors are aware of the stigmas that surround skilled trade labor. These stigmas are deep-rooted in our society and founded upon the belief that career success can only be achieved through years of collegiate education. This belief was established at a time when a secondary education was a rarity and relatively difficult to obtain compared to current times. This can be seen in US Census statistics that show college enrollment is around 9X what it was in 1950 compared to a population growth that only doubled over the same period of time. Enrollment in higher education is outpacing population growth for a multitude of reasons, and many point to easy access to financial aid as the primary factor followed by an overall increase in educational capacity to meet the well-funded demand.

High demand and easy money has resulted in steady cost increases for secondary education which has, ultimately, been followed by an increase in student loan debt. The Institute for College Access and Success found that average student loan debt tripled from 1993 to 2012 to around $30K. This increase in student loan debt is beginning to to impact the cost-benefit analysis young people make when considering their career. The story I heard from my parents about paying for school by picking up an evening job is no longer a possibility, and many of my close friends already recognize that a career in the field of their educational background will never enable them to pay off their outstanding student loans.

As a result, college graduates are considering career alternatives, and high school graduates are considering educational and career paths that have superior cost-benefit outcomes such as skilled trades. Additionally, the stigma of “getting dirty and working with your hands” is eroding and being replaced with a fear of sitting in front of a computer all day. For me, the economic argument described above is best exemplified by one of my closest friends who crumpled up his undergraduate degree to take a job as an HVAC technician to get out from behind a computer monitor and increase his income.

Hiring With the Digital Wrap

This economic forecast is great news for service contractors, but these changes will be slow and they don’t address your immediate need for great technicians. You can easily find a host of blogs and articles that will teach you the ins and outs of “outbound” recruiting with Craigslist, LinkedIn, online forums, and industry associations. So, instead, I wanted to help you with your “inbound” recruiting efforts via your digital wrap and online reputation.

Aside from job boards, Google is the first place skilled laborers go when hunting for a position at a new company. Just like your potential customers, they are using a keyword combination of industry and city that looks something like this:

“HVAC company Raleigh”
“Fire inspection company Durham”
“Hood cleaning company Cary”

And, much like your potential customers, your prospective employees will find, and initially judge, your company based on its Google search ranking. Afterall, Google tends to return relevant results for our other searches, right?

Once potential employees find your website, will they be impressed by your professionalism and reputation? A well-thought-out website is critical in convincing prospects of any type that you are a good fit based on multiple factors. Here is a quick checklist you can use to determine if your website is helping or hindering your hiring efforts:

Modern – Your website is mobile-friendly and is backed by a common content management system that is easy to use and update such as WordPress.
Location – Your office location(s) and coverage area are obvious.
Offerings – There is no question about what services you provide and who your customer is.
Expertise – It is obvious that you are an expert in your domain because you have a page on your website for every service you provide that accurately explains how you perform the service.
Customer Reviews – It is obvious that you can be trusted based on your high volume of great, real customer reviews.

Finally, after making your company easy to find and putting your best foot forward with a great website, ensure that your website has an obvious section for candidates to learn more about working at your company. This section should help future employees qualify themselves and make it easy for them to provide you with their information. As a general rule of thumb, keep the webform down to a minimum to prevent dropoff. Name, phone number, and email address should be more than enough to continue the conversation.

Don’t Worry, It’s Easy

If any of this website functionality or search engine optimization is beyond your skillset, never fear! ServiceTrade is here to help you out. By applying a digital wrap and turning your every-day service activities into digital artifacts that engage your customers and prospective employees, you will set yourself apart from the competition. ServiceTrade can help you create an online presence that attracts both new customers and future employees.

Don’t Let the Back-Office Tail Wag the Company Dog

All too often, as field service companies are considering new software, they base decisions on their historical software usage patterns and let the tail wag the dog. Since accounting software is the primary, and often only, business application in use, companies search for ways to extend back-office capabilities to the front office and beyond. This line of thinking is understandable, but flawed because it ignores the needs of the majority the organization including the:

Front Office – Your schedulers/dispatchers, service managers, etc.
Service Delivery – Your employees in the field who interact directly with your customers.
Customers & Prospects – I hope you know who they are…

Click the “Start Prezi” button below for a quick visual representation of the current mode of thinking about software I am referencing. Click the right arrow button to continue the Prezi.

If this Prezi does not load for you, click here to view the summary.

Notice that little to no consideration is made for customers and prospects; the source of revenue. In addition, less functionality is desired for the considerably larger divisions of the organization that drive this revenue. I propose a slightly different, proportional perspective on technology selection wherein a stronger consideration is made for the needs of customers and prospects while the needs of the back office are met through loosely coupled integrations with existing systems to reduce double data entry.

If this Prezi does not load for you, click here to view the summary.

From this customer-centric perspective of a service contracting organization, software purchases have the potential to bring more than efficiency to the table. Unlocked from the constraints imposed by the back office, applications can be used to generate inbound leads via brand evangelism, increase customer retention, and reduce customer price sensitivity. This software approach is what we call the Digital Wrap.

Much like your physical truck wraps, the Digital Wrap is a low-cost marketing approach that requires no extra work on behalf of your company other than normal daily service activities. By thoughtfully engaging your customers on the internet in educational and informative ways, you can gain the benefits mentioned above. For example, you can:

Create brand evangelism by delighting customers and soliciting online reviews that will drive traffic to your website.
Increase customer retention through trust built upon rich information such as pictures and videos of services performed.
Reduce price sensitivity through differentiation in quality of customer engagement and education of customer service needs with rich media.

Simply put, a digital wrap will lead to more inbound leads to the front office, and an overall increase in customer lifetime value through customer retention and the amount of work performed for each customer annually. See here:

If this Prezi does not load for you, click here to view the summary.

When considering technology for your field service company, think about the needs throughout your organization, including those of your customers and prospects. Ultimately, applications that benefit your customers will help your company grow. Check out our book The Digital Wrap: Get out of the truck and go online to own your customers to learn more about the Digital Wrap.

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0

Coke – A Lesson in Branding for Service Contractors

No matter what your deep-seated opinion about what the best soda may be, Coke has a premium brand that all service contractors can both appreciate and strive to reproduce. Coca-Cola’s march to market domination was driven by forced ingenuity brought on by poor business dealings that led to the price of Coke sticking to 5¢ a bottle for nearly 70 years from 1886 to the mid 1950s. For reference, this is the ONLY known product to maintain the same price for so long. Not only that, but there were three wars, the Great Depression, prohibition, and a litany of lawsuits against Coke during this same period of time. Service contractors can learn three important lessons from this small piece of brand-building history:

Market (and sell) your differentiator
Build customer loyalty around what matters
DO NOT compete on price

Now…to douse ourselves with a brief history of Coke.

The Mistake

How did the price of Coke stay 5¢ a bottle for so long? Well it came down to one bad business deal in 1899 at the hands of Coke’s president at the time, Asa Candler. Two lawyers from Chattanooga, Tennessee approached Asa with an outlandish idea to start bottling Coke. These lawyers proposed that Coke enter an agreement to give them perpetual and exclusive bottling rights for the soda indefinitely and lock in pricing for the syrup at 90¢ per gallon.

Asa Candler didn’t believe that bottling was going anywhere, so he signed the contract to get the lawyers off his back. In hindsight, this deal seems absolutely crazy, but, at the time, bottle drinks were not popular and soda was sold primarily as a fountain drink. As we all know, bottle drinks exploded in popularity which presented Coke with an interesting dilemma.

The Response

No matter what the demand or price for a bottle was, Coke was going to make the same amount on each bottle sold, and the bottlers could sell each one at whatever price they wanted. Coke quickly realized that a lower price per bottle was more profitable because it lead to more sales volume. With this in mind, Coke set off on a loss-leader marketing campaign that would both haunt them for years and lead them to market domination.

Coca-Cola plastered the airways, magazines, billboards, paraphernalia, and even buildings with advertising that included the 5¢ price. While other sodas sold at upwards of 10¢, Coke clearly defined itself as an affordable option. This brilliant marketing strategy not only set Coca-Cola apart from its competitors, it also indirectly set bottle price for distributors. Remember, the price didn’t matter for Coke, only the volume. Over time, this campaign was extremely effective for Coke and helped them grow to be the brand we know today.

The Result

At the time, however, inflation was practically nonexistent because the nation was on the gold standard. After the abolition of the gold standard, the value of the dollar steadily decreased with regular inflation which put Coke between a rock and a hard place. The world was plastered with advertising promoting the 5¢ price so any shift in pricing strategy would require tremendous investment that wouldn’t result in any additional profit for Coca-Cola due to the contractual price lock on syrup for bottlers. On the other hand, if bottlers couldn’t sell Coke at more than 5¢, they would lose money and stop selling Coke all together.

Ultimately, Coke cut a deal with the bottlers to end the long-standing contract for syrup pricing and regained pricing control of their product in the 1950s. End-consumers were not excited about the ensuing price hike, and Coke had to cough up plenty of cash to cover up their past marketing efforts related to the nickel Coke. Though their brand was temporarily tarnished, Coke managed to see their way through this difficult and expensive transition due to the crazy customer loyalty accumulated through the same past marketing strategy.

The 70 year stint of broadcasting the nickel Coke message played right into their successful and ongoing strategy to associate Coca-Cola with traditionalism. Consumers trust Coke for its long-standing roots in Americana. For example, how would you answer the question “What’s the most American soda (or soft drink or pop or fizzy drink)?”

The Lessons

What can service contractors learn from this brief study? Well, let me expand on the three points mentioned earlier:

Market (and sell) your differentiator
Coke uniquely set themselves apart as the affordable brand. In a world of “one truck Chucks” competing on price, instead, set yourself apart with an amazing customer experience. Read more in our blog post Highway to Success: The Power of Customer Satisfaction.

Build customer loyalty around what matters
Coke leaned on affordability and traditionalism to build customer and brand loyalty. The most successful service contractors I’ve met build loyalty (and insanely high customer retention) upon amazing customer service driven by technology. They WOW customers with useful, educational, frequent, and rich information about the services they provide.

DO NOT compete on price
Is loss leadership a strategy to recreate? NO! Coke marketed around affordability which worked to their advantage, but ultimately cost them severely. Avoid this pitfall as it makes future price increases extremely difficult

If you want to learn more about this period in Coca-Cola’s history, I highly recommend you listen to Episode 416: Why The Price Of Coke Didn’t Change For 70 Years, a Podcast by Planet Money.

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0