The rising cost of the service delivery can deplete the overall value of the service provided and therefore it is necessary that companies take effective measures to reduce the cost of service management by using field service software.
The value of service management is subjective and so is the cost. The perceived benefit of any service delivery regardless of the industry type depends on the value that the company and the stakeholders want to create and the consumers want to receive. For say, a maintenance service provider may seek value in increasing customer-base, whereas the customers may find the value of the service in quality, convenience, or affordability. And since it is the value that often determines the cost of service management, the strategies for cost reduction must align with that value.
If we try to take a look at the challenges faced by service management companies, we will be encountered with rising customer expectations, service delivery optimization, and real-time communication. These challenges not only impede companies to achieve the value they want to deliver to the clients but increase the cost of service delivery or cause profit leakages as well.
When planning to reduce the cost of service management, it is essential that companies keep their focus on overcoming these challenges, and at the same time, ensure to deliver excellent consumer experience.
Here are the top 5 ways service management organizations can reduce meanwhile overcoming the challenges to deliver the value of service to their customers.
- Increase Self-Service Management
Regardless of the service industry type, companies must work on improving self-service management to reduce the cost of service delivery. It could be done by increasing reliance on ChatBot technology that reduces the burden on service management teams by replying to the frequently asked questions of the customers. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning have made it possible for the service management companies to use highly sophisticated chatbots to intelligently analyze the service query, gauge sentiments, and respond accordingly in real-time.
The bots can access the knowledge base system and reply to low-level user queries. This way service management teams can focus on the complicated queries and work more efficiently. Besides, companies can reduce the staff, as most of the repetitive tasks will be handled by chatbots.
- Knowledge Management
Many companies fail to acknowledge the importance of knowledge management in multiple aspects of services. The result is increased cost. Strategic knowledge base enables service teams, including field service representatives to access the crucial information instantly and resolve the query.
For example, if a field service representative is facing a problem in resolving the issue at the client location, he can directly refer to the knowledge base instead of wasting time in calling other technician or manager or scheduling someone else for the resolution. Anytime, anywhere accessibility of knowledge base not only helps in reducing the turnaround time but also increase the first-visit effectiveness.
Service management companies can directly integrate their CRM to the knowledge base to provide client-specific information to users. However, it is necessary for the process leaders to check the CRM on different criteria, as not all CRM solutions providers offer integration facility.
- Streamline Service Delivery Process
Streamlining service delivery from the client perspective is important. Service providers must ensure that no gap in the process is causing profit leakages. In order to do so, they need to remove the redundant tasks, automate repetitive processes, and increase collaboration and communication among service teams.
Use of digital tools is predominant to streamline the processes, however, the new tools should be introduced only after careful consideration of the business requirements. Streamlining the service delivery process makes a huge impact on the cost, as it increases the efficiency of service teams, enabling them to achieve more with less.
- Track and Measure Efficiency
Modern-day service delivery process requires companies to implement automation not just to automate a few tasks but for tracking and monitoring purposes as well. By gaining the ability to track and monitor the service activities in real-time, companies can take corrective actions and improve the quality of service delivery right at the moment. Systematic monitoring of the events enables service teams to sight the unusual patterns and identify the red flags.
Service teams can add the right context to the patterns to detect the cause of the incident. Such capabilities reduce the errors from the process while enabling the team to prevent mishaps before they occur. Besides, they can measure the work put down by each member of the team and compare the average to provide training, rewards, and recognitions.
- Reduce Financial Expenditures
It is not something unknown, although companies face difficulties in bringing it to the practice. Often due to the lack of visibility, companies fail to control the financial expenditures or plug the leakages.
It is essential to curb the cost at the very beginning of the process and then further control it. Service management companies must from time to time revise their debts, perform a cost-benefit analysis, and engage in future forecasting to find the gaps.
Final Words
The rising cost of the service delivery can deplete the overall value of the service provided and therefore it is necessary that companies take effective measures to reduce the cost of service management by using field service software. Although many times, companies are familiar with the best practices, the execution of the strategies is difficult. In this context, it is imperative for them to seek refuge in digital technologies.
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