Service Experts builds customer base with wireless technology from Sprint
Release date: 3/25/2008
Service Experts launched Project F.A.S.T. (Field Automation for Service Technicians) to help with their mobile computing needs. With F.A.S.T., Service Experts dispatchers can communicate and transfer data from the office with their Sprint handsets to get accurate, timely communication to their field technicians. Additionally, with a handheld device, technicians can make the most of their time by using the integrated Sprint GPS navigation fro driving directions and can accept electronic credit card payments right at the sight of the call, eliminating the need for extensive paperwork processing. Now that they can process payments electronically, less strain is placed on the accounting department to rout billing information.
Challenge
Service Experts Inc. (SEI) specializes in quality home comfort solutions for customers throughout both the United States and Canada. They provide their signature 100% Satisfaction Guarantee at each service location, but even with their strong customer service standards – offering a breath of fresh air to many customers – they were encountering significant productivity challenges.
Field service technicians were losing a large amount of time filling out paperwork. They would make an average of four calls daily, but documenting service information by hand would waste nearly an hour and a half of time. Not only were they losing valuable time, paper shuffling caused increased administration costs to sort through and process the paperwork. Manual bill transactions were putting a strain on the accounting department as well. Nearly 50 percent of their transactions were processed manually, causing back-ups in routing bills and ultimately slowing down payments to the company.
Poor communication between the service technicians and dispatchers was also causing SEI to take a big hit. They were going back and forth on phone calls to schedule customer service visits and were sometimes making errors processing their service requests. Even more significantly, field technicians were missing out on opportunities to provide value-added services while on customer visits. Even their documents looked unprofessional to customers, and the time it took them to complete paperwork kept them from maximizing their sales potential through maintaining and sustaining customer relationships. As a result, the productivity challenges often limited the service technician’s ability to exceed their customer expectations while maximizing revenue opportunities for the company. They also struggled to efficiently manage their field inventory. What they needed was a solution that could help improve service visits with less paperwork, freeing up more time to service customers and better manage business needs.
Solution
SEI asked Sprint – already their wireless provider – to address their business concerns. Now with a Sprint Advanced Wireless Solution, SEI is starting to see a significant increase in business efficiency amongst their technicians by automating many of their daily job processes.
SEI launched Project F.A.S.T. (Field Automation for Service Technicians) to help with their mobile computing needs. With F.A.S.T., SEI dispatchers can communicate and transfer data from the office with their Sprint handsets to get accurate, timely communication to their field technicians. Additionally, with a handheld device, technicians can make the most of their time by using the integrated Sprint GPS navigation for driving directions and can accept electronic credit card payments right at the sight of the call, eliminating the need for extensive paperwork processing. Now that they can process payments electronically, less strain is placed on the accounting department to route billing information. This greatly reduces the administration costs and time involved with billing.
Additional solutions from Sprint included an eSWO (electronic Service Work Order). The eSWO helps service technicians manage service visits by knowing exactly what service the customer needs, and even includes Signature Capture for Proof of Service that allows technicians to electronically send service information back to the office. They can now concentrate on addressing the customer’s needs by identifying the products and services they could offer to maintain the customer relationship – and provide more of their quality services.
Bottom Line
Project F.A.S.T. provided by Sprint gave SEI the immediate solution they needed. Field technicians are now completing more service visits each day, gaining back the time they lost from shuffling bulky paperwork. Accepting credit cards payments on their handheld device during customer visits has also helped SEI increase their revenue. SEI has expanded its customer base by using the extra time saved to determine opportunities to offer additional services to their customers.
Service Experts Inc., headquartered in Richardson, Texas provides heating, cooling, and indoor air quality sales and service. In addition, they oversee installation, maintenance, and repair services for both new and existing residential and commercial customers. With company-owned service centers throughout the United States and Canada, Service Experts Inc.’s 8,000 employees are committed to providing indoor comfort solutions that make homes and workplaces comfortable, healthy and safe.