5 tips to retain your field service technicians

In a highly competitive labor market where it is increasingly difficult to recruit field service technicians, retaining them is more important than ever. Field service companies need to put strategies in place to show technicians they are valued, offer them perks, and develop their sense of loyalty and belonging within the company.

Benefits of Retaining Your Field Service Technicians

Keeping your field service technicians is increasingly vital due to the stiff competition in today’s service industry. By supporting the longevity of your employees, you can guarantee the quality of services, minimize expenses, and increase the efficiency of the workers. Below are five reasons why your field service technicians should be retained.

Reduced Training and Onboarding Costs

Recruiting and training new field service technicians can be costly and time-consuming. When you retain your existing technicians, you cut down on these costs to a considerable extent. Skilled technicians also do not need much training as they will be ready to serve your company from the word go.

For newly recruited employees, field service technician training involves reviewing the organization’s norms and guidelines for adoption and introducing them to the field service technician tool bags, safety measures, and customer requirements.

Long-term employees are more familiar with your company’s FSM software and mobile apps. The processes run smoother and faster when it comes to the adaptation to new app features or updates. They also use field service technician management software to ensure they are well-scheduled when undertaking their tasks. This minimizes the chances of making mistakes or causing a service delay, cutting your business’s losses.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Field service technicians with prior experience will likely perform better when handling the various services. They already know your customers’ wants, demands, and experiences with your services, making them excellent at efficiently meeting their needs. Such closeness creates a bond with the consumers, making them happier and more likely to revisit and do business with you.

Customers are glad to meet the same friendly and competent technician whenever they need assistance. Customer satisfaction is also improved when technicians have a good working knowledge of field service technician apps that ease their work.

These apps enable the technicians to have customers’ data, job information, and inventory on their mobile devices to ensure they are well-equipped for every job. With proper experience, long-term technicians can notice and solve problems quickly, improving the customer’s overall experience.

Increased Productivity

Skilled field service technicians are beneficial as they enhance productivity. They do not take as much time to complete their work and are less likely to make mistakes than a less experienced technician. They have also shown proficiency in using field technician mobile apps to ease their workload and improve efficiency.

This is through real-time access to jobs, direction, and communication with the office, among other things. In addition, having expert technicians on board can result in more effective solutions and quicker problem resolution. They possess the capacity to diagnose and solve challenging problems, making them take less time on each job and complete more jobs in a day. This efficiency improves the production capacity of the service operations and increases the total return on investment.

Enhanced Company Reputation

Stable human capital from well-informed and experienced field service technicians will add value to your company. Employers have also noted that customers prefer to deal with employees who are trained and dedicated to their positions.

The company will likely attract skilled field service technicians because potential employees are likely to find the company a desirable workplace. Your company’s reputation is further enhanced when your technicians obtain field service technician certification.

Certified technicians are perceived as more professional, which can go a long way in building customers’ confidence. Having certified and experienced technicians in the company makes it more reliable and more likely to secure long-term contracts and sustainable partnerships.

Higher Employee Morale and Engagement

Whenever organizations make efforts to retain their field service technicians, morale and engagement levels rise. This motivates and commits technicians to their work because they feel valued and recognized.

Providing ways and means for field service technicians to get certified and advance in their careers can also help boost their morale and commitment. When engaged, employees are more likely to take pride in the work done, improving service delivery outcomes.

They are also more likely to engage in further improvement activities and develop new ideas. In this way, your field service technicians are offered the constant support and tools they need to be effective in their positions, including training and the latest in field service technician software, which will continue to drive the success of your service operations well into the future.

The problem is not new

For several years now, field service companies have been struggling with a shortage of field service technicians. Competition for available technicians is high and many positions remain unfilled. Technicians can often choose from multiple field service technician jobs.
 
As far back as 2007, industry publications were highlighting the challenges of recruiting technicians in the field service industry. In the last decade, the situation has become even more challenging. As a result, it’s more important than ever for field service companies to keep their current technicians happy, in order to retain them.
 
Reducing employee turnover is an issue among service companies. But why do technicians leave in the first place?

Why technicians leave for another employer

According to Mckinsey’s 2022 Great attrition, Great attraction 2.0 global survey, the top reason for leaving a company for another is lack of advancement opportunities.

Today’s competitive field service technician job market gives technicians the upper hand in their negotiations with employers. Here are five tips to help you make sure technicians don’t leave your organization for another that is ready to meet their requirements.

1. Pay your technicians properly

Attractive compensation is a major incentive for technicians to stay with your company. You don’t have to overpay, however, you do have to ensure that your compensation packages are aligned with market rates in your industry and geographic region.

Underpaying technicians is short-sighted and detrimental to business. Companies with rates that are below current market wages experience higher turnover. The best field service technicians will quickly abandon an organization for more attractive offers, leaving behind only the least qualified and least productive employees.

2. Offer training

When you choose to invest in field service technician training, you’re securing your company’s long-term success.

Most field technicians want to evolve to take on more advanced roles and responsibilities. If they begin to feel like they can’t expand their knowledge and grow, they’ll move to a competitor that offers better advancement opportunities. The best strategy is to establish training plans that keep your teams informed on the latest best practices in your industry.

With the right field service training, your teams will feel more empowered and confident. They will have the skills and expertise needed to take on more complex and profitable jobs. In the end, you will improve first-time fix rates and increase customer satisfaction.

3. Offer career development opportunities

While field technician training is an extremely important way to retain technicians, you need to go one step further and give technicians the ability to advance in their careers.

In recent years, waves of retiring baby boomers have been gradually replaced by younger technicians with different expectations. Along with competitive compensation, this new generation is looking for roles that offer ideal work/life balance, more flexibility, and autonomy.

4. Provide tech tools that make their jobs easier

The newer generation of field technicians is much more comfortable with field service technology than their predecessors. They hardly use paper at all. They grew up utilizing mobile devices, apps, and other technologies in school that enable faster and more efficient communications.

Your workforce wants to adopt a modern, rewarding, and more effective approach when it comes to their job. Providing them with a field technician mobile app to capture field data and access important information in real-time helps them work more efficiently and productively, whether they’re involved in maintenance, troubleshooting, or emergency service roles.

Cloud-based, paperless field service management tools enable your teams to update work order reports electronically, access schedules in real-time, take more efficient routes, and carry all of the information needed to complete service tasks with them at all times.

With the Praxedo field service management app, technicians can access everything they need on their smartphones or tablet. Moving to technology-driven operations will appeal to the technicians of the newer generation. And, it will help improve field service management to increase service quality and customer experiences.

5. Make team spirit part of your corporate culture

Implementing certain measures that help field service technicians develop an attachment to your company is key to keeping them.

These days, if an employee isn’t happy, it isn’t that hard for them to find something else, and they are well-aware of this. The loss is even greater for the service company, when an experienced technician leaves.

For the most part, mobile employees lead a solitary existence, spending the vast majority of their time alone in the field. To help them feel part of a team, it’s important to develop a corporate culture that fosters engagement and team spirit. This is how it can be achieved:

• Maintain regular communications with the field and ensure there are times when they can have in-person exchanges and contact with other teammates
• Always take into account their feedback on how their service calls went
• Ask them periodically, what they like and do not like about their jobs
• Encourage them to be themselves