4 Ways to Earn and Build Real Customer Loyalty in 2022

Do you have a customer loyalty process in place to build customer loyalty 2022? If not, it could be costing you. Research commissioned by American Express says that 33% of consumers consider switching brands after just one instance of poor customer service.

To boost customer loyalty, it makes sense to start at the end: Customers often judge your brand by the last interaction they have with you—and since that final interaction is usually with your third-party service providers, these partners can make or break your customer loyalty scores.

If you have constant turnover in your service provider network, your customers are the ones who feel the pinch. Miscommunication, missed appointments, service professionals with little knowledge of your brand, and other problems pop up, sinking the customer experience you spent so long building up.

Because service provider loyalty can have a huge impact on customer loyalty, you want to make working with you as easy for them as possible.

So how do you keep both of these groups happy?

How Can I Build Customer Loyalty 2022?

Consider your service providers and customers as a two-sided market and your field service management software as the intermediary to build loyalty among both parties.

• Offer multiple ways to connect. Keep important information—like job status, contact information, and customer photos—flowing between your brand, your customers, and your service providers to keep all parties on the same page.
• Make sharing job details easy, fast & clear. Use an app that shares customer and job details with your service providers—so the customer doesn’t have to explain the issue multiple times, and the service provider has easy access to the information they need to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
• Increase service provider loyalty with the right tools. A field service management tool that doesn’t integrate with your providers’ in-house software is just another app for them juggle—which can affect your service provider loyalty.
• Let customers have their say. Customers want to be heard, so make it easy for them to share their kudos and critiques.

Now let’s get all the details on the table.

Offer Multiple Ways to Connect

Nothing frustrates a customer faster than communication issues with their order. Whether it’s a missed tracking number or a multi-layered phone tree to reach a customer service rep, every stumbling block put in your customer’s way reduces the chance that they’ll buy from you again.

Your service provider network needs easy communication with both you and your end customers to keep appointments on time and customer information up to date.

In both cases, offering multiple channels of communication can help keep information flowing where it needs to go. For example, you might offer a web portal where customers can upload details about their work orders, including photographs. With access to this information, along with a centralized database of customer information, your service providers can do their jobs more efficiently. An app can come into play for service and appointment updates, reducing the number of customer no-shows.

Make Sharing Job Details Easy, Fast & Clear

Forbes says that 77% of consumers consider convenience a key factor in choosing service providers, that’s a big number to build customer loyalty 2022. If your order or service process is confusing or requires customers to jump through too many hoops, they’re going to start looking for a clearer experience elsewhere.

One sticking point for customers is in getting the details of their service order to the provider. If you’re making your customers explain their situation to two or three different people, they’re going to be frustrated before your service partner ever arrives at their home.

You can eliminate that problem, and increase customer loyalty, with a field service management app that allows your providers to easily view the customer’s history and information. They’ll arrive at your customer’s home with the right tools and parts, and your customer won’t have to repeat the whole conversation they just had with your customer care team.

Your field service management software makes the process more convenient for your service partners, too. You can give them access to product information, knowledge bases, and customer data that they need to find answers to any customer questions and get the job done quickly.

An FSM tool also helps improve service providers’ first-time fix rate (since they’ll have a better understanding of the job before they arrive at the customer’s home), which will further improve customer experience.

Increase Service Provider Loyalty with The Right Tools

The service management tool you choose needs to enhance your service provider’s workflow. Otherwise, it becomes just one more app taking up space on their phone or tablet—hardly the way to increase service provider loyalty.

The right platform gives you visibility into how your service partners are doing, while also helping them do their jobs. Give them an easy way to assign and track jobs, see customer notes and photos, and accept payments in the field, and your providers will be much happier to use the tool.

If your platform can integrate with tools your service providers are already using, like QuickBooks, ServiceMax, and Zapier, it’ll improve compliance even further. No one likes having to enter the same information into three different web portals, or having to juggle payment processors.

But if you can bring all of these pieces of their business together into one field service management tool, they’ll be much happier to use it.

Let Customers Have Their Say

Customer feedback is essential to understanding what you’re doing right, and where you need to improve. Tweaking your business operations based on common feedback is a great way to improve your customer retention rates.

But your customers don’t want to have to type in a URL or call a phone number on their invoice. If you make it difficult for your customers to give you feedback, you’ll probably only hear from the really motivated ones (both furious and thrilled). This can give you a skewed sense of how your customers feel about your field service business.

Instead, give your customers a way to leave feedback instantly. Asking them to rate you and/or your service provider immediately after the job’s done means that the job is fresh in the customer’s mind. And with the right customer feedback tool, you and your service providers can spot trends and opportunities for improvement.

Customer loyalty and service provider loyalty are both critical to your brand’s success. By employing tactics and tools to keep both of these groups happy, you can cut down on customer service-related expenses—and keep your business growing.

Struggling with ways to help your third-party service providers delight your customers?

With robust communication, scheduling, and feedback tools, Dispatch can improve your customer experience from purchase to service delivery. Schedule a demo to see all it can do for you to build customer loyalty 2022.