In today’s rapidly growing marketplace, with customer demand on the rise amidst a competitive labor market, companies must seek a competitive edge to provide the most effective service possible. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), retailers, third-party administrators (TPAs) and warranty organizations can stand out from the competition with qualified and effective service providers.

A skilled servicer can help companies increase satisfaction, organizational bandwidth and brand reputation by ensuring prompt administration in times of peak demand. But finding the best servicer for each instance is only the beginning. Here are a few tips to maximize contractor performance and continually manage third-party workers.

Select the Right Servicer

It can be challenging to find technicians with the right experience, technical knowledge and certifications who are also available at the specific time and in the designated area where their services are needed. Field service management software can compile accreditations and track geographic location, highlighting capacity and availability of contracted workers so that field operations teams can assign the best individual to each job.

Employing a blended workforce can help businesses improve productivity and provide exceptional customer experience. Without an independent contractor network, businesses must rely solely on the availability of their employed technicians, which can be limited due to high service demand or employee time off. 

Maintain Control 

Selecting the right servicer for the job requires more than finding and selecting a qualified local service provider to service a customer’s product. Providers must also be efficient, cost effective, reliable and communicate clearly with the customer to keep them informed. Dispatching, reimbursing and managing both contracted and employed workers is as important as sales, marketing and other business functions as third-party field service technicians are frontline representatives for a brand.

Field service management solutions offer capabilities that allow retailers and OEMs to set up evaluation criteria for successful servicer selection. During an appointment search, companies can choose contracted workers based on predetermined criteria they design like on job-type, client or key performance indicator (KPI). These functions allow managers to coalesce valuable teams with specific skill sets for each job, ensuring that work orders are executed seamlessly and customer expectations are met. 

Reward Top Performers

By digitizing the logistical processes of service visits, companies can track KPIs, customer feedback and work logs for a holistic view of business operations. Furthermore, dispatch solutions offer companies the ability to rank servicers within their system based on critical metrics to manage field performance, track top performers and continue building successful teams. By ranking contractors on turn-around time, cost, rejection rate and OEM authorization, providers can reward the best contractors with more jobs and avoid bad actors to increase efficiency. 

With the surplus of data accessible to retailers, TPAs and warranty organizations, digitizing the review, ranking, selection and dispatch of blended workforces is a cost-effective way to increase service quality, customer satisfaction and business growth and stay ahead of the competition.

Samir Gulati is chief marketing and product officer at ServicePower.