Analysts agree that more enterprises are relying on third-party contractors to complete work on their behalf. It’s a trend that isn’t going away. The challenge is that 3rd-party service pros can’t be managed directly, aren’t typically set to a regular schedule, and are sometimes seen as a temporary resource to fill service gaps around dedicated or salaried technicians to keep costs down.

This process of managing third-party contractors and keeping customers satisfied comes with its own challenges. The first challenge being branding. While the contractor is independent, they still represent your company and your brand, meaning that a poor customer experience on their part is perceived as a poor customer experience on the part of the enterprise.

This means that staying connected with both homeowners and service contractors is vital, and a solution that can connect the enterprise, service pro, and customer together for end-to-end transparency is the key lynchpin in this equation.

In traditional home service setups, the communication between the enterprise, service pro, and customer is limited and lacks transparency.

The Homeowner Experience

The service experience a homeowner has with the enterprise is mostly complaint based. Any and all contact with the homeowner is made to a faceless service company who tells them their problem will be handled by the service pro. The experience with the contractor is mostly passive – with any luck, the pro will be informed with top-level service information and prepared with the knowledge and tools required to resolve it.

The top pain points for a homeowner who needs service include:

• Working with a vague and long service window (Example: Noon-4pm).
• Service pros showing up late or not showing up at all (with little communication).
• Service pros not having clear information about the issue, causing them to not have the right parts required to fix it.
• • Lack of resolution from the enterprise after difficulties with a contractor.

The Service Pro Experience

The experience service pros have with the enterprise isn’t ideal as enterprises require service pros to receive and status work in the enterprise’s job portal. First off, this just adds another portal to the service pro’s plate that they time and time have again said they don’t like using. They already have a job management platform that they enjoy. Why add another to their plate?

Top pain points for service pros who need to complete the job quickly and efficiently:

• Having to status jobs in another job portal.
• Having to take the job information from the enterprise’s portal to place into theirs, causing double data entry.
• Not having the right tools to deliver a modern customer experience to the homeowner.

The Enterprise Experience

The service experience an enterprise has with the customer is mostly support based. Contact is limited to the intake of information about the homeowner and their issue. The experience with the contractor is mostly transactional – assign the task, then compensate.

The top pain points for an enterprise using contractors to fulfill home service agreements include:

• Lack of real-time, end-to-end insight into how service pros are performing
• Ineffective job assignment, tracking, and follow-up.
• Inability to enable maximum output from 3rd-party service pros
• High contractor turnover and failure to retain top technicians
• Loss of customers or clients due to unsatisfactory performance by contractors

Reimagining the Home Service Experience

Dispatch helps bridge the gap on each side of the home service engagement triangle, by connecting all parties with an intuitive desktop and mobile application.

Trusted, timely, transparent communication leads to an improved experience for all parties involved:

The homeowner makes a request or reports an issue. Their request can be immediately entered into the system and sent out to a professional contractor in the homeowner’s area. They can receive verification concerning their appointment request, and follow-up messages that confirm the appointment and alert them that the contractor is on their way.

The contractor is empowered to make contact, gather pertinent information, and schedule the appointment at the earliest mutually convenient time for the homeowner and contractor by leveraging Dispatch’s smart booking experience. Every interaction a contractor takes with a homeowner, get’s automatically statused in their portal and relayed back to the enterprise so that all parties are kept in the loop.

The enterprise has access to a performance dashboard and can verify that the job has been accepted and scheduled, follow the status of the job throughout the entire process, and optimize their 3rd-party network to maximize their potential. The quality of customer experience can also be tracked in real-time, allowing the enterprise to step in and immediately remedy every negative experience as they occur.

Empowering your 3rd-party contractors doesn’t need to be complicated. Leveraging a revolutionary platform to help connect the enterprise, 3rd-party technician, and homeowner together leads to a maximum output of your service professionals.