Automate Your Service Contracts: How Field Service Process Automation Can Keep Your Organization Alert (Part 3)
MSI Data
Hello! And welcome back to our series: Field Service Process Automation. If you haven’t checked out our first two posts on automated mobile and scheduling, you should. They’re great resources for learning about the advantages of automating your business processes.
Part 3 is all about automating service contracts; how to set up alerts for expiring contracts, sell new contracts, and boost recurring revenue each year with alerts, escalation, and workflow features built into your field service management (FSM) software.
Why service contracts matter
Service contracts are life preservers for field service organizations because without them, companies are at the mercy of equipment breaking down in order to earn revenue. Not only is that an unstable plan for companies with regular operating costs, but you’re almost guaranteed to earn less money than companies running successful service contract programs. Service contracts are as important, if not more important, than the initial sale. So with these long-term benefits of service contracts in mind, shouldn’t you be using the best tools to manage these valuable assets?
How automation helps manage service contracts
Now that we’re on the same page about the value of service contracts, you may be asking, “How do I make the most of my service contracts once I have a system in place to manage them?” Managing contracts can be a clerical nightmare if not maintained properly, which can result in lost revenue and poor customer service. An events manager with alerts, escalation, and workflow features can help you avoid this nightmare while automating service contract information and keeping your organization knowledgeable and proactive.
Listed below are some of the ways you can use the events manager to get the most out of your service contracts and automate complicated business processes:
Automate alerts for expiring contracts
Because service contracts are so valuable, you want to treat them like gold, taking special care to ensure you don’t lost existing contracts. With an events manager, you can set up alerts to automatically email anyone in the company (or even customers) when contracts are about to expire. This way, you know well in advance when to renew contracts and with whom so that you never let existing contracts fall through the cracks.
Track inventory for service contracts
Rare or expensive parts might be required for certain preventative maintenance (PM) or regularly scheduled visits set up through contracts. With this in mind, it’s important to be aware when certain parts are needed so services can continue on schedule with all the right parts. An events manager can automate alerts to the right people, notifying them when to order the right parts for each regularly scheduled visit so they can have it ready for each job at the time for which it’s scheduled.
Set up automated email campaigns and workflows to sell contracts:
In addition to maintaining existing contracts, it’s also important to continue selling new contracts in order to expand your business and boost profits. Events manager can alert sales people and managers in your company when a customer is not under contract, but could be. Then, those workers can set up email campaigns and workflows to automatically contact customers, encouraging them to sign up for service contracts. And, in reality, service contracts aren’t a hard sell since they usually benefit both the company and the customer. The events manager allows you to get important service contract information in front of your customers without demanding a lot of extra work on your end.
Keep technicians informed:
Technicians can often function as your best sales people. With quoting automation built into mobile field service software used in the field, techs can sell contracts to customers while on the job site. In order to function in this sales role, however, techs need to stay informed with up-to-date warranty, equipment, customer, and service contract information. An events manager can act as the techs’ personal informant by automatically sending alerts with important updates about specific customers and whether they’d be good candidates to sign up for a recurring service contract.
Send alert when contracts aren’t profitable:
Events manager can detect when contracts aren’t making enough profit for a company and send an alert to the right person. For example, if the cost of a contract is too low and your company isn’t making enough profit, your events manager will automatically alert someone in the company who can then raise the cost of the contract next time around in order to ensure there’s a large enough profit to make it worth your time.
What Now?
It’s clear that an events manager with alerts and workflow capabilities will drastically help you run your service contract operation. So now it’s up to you to make the move to integrate an automated solution and set up the alerts to keep your company informed. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to optimize contract profitability by investing in alerts, escalations, and workflow software.
Guide to Understanding ROI Calculations for Field Service Automation
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Geoff Sukamer is the CEO of Service Pro by MSI Data, and focuses on strategy, execution, and leading functional teams with the goal of growing and scaling the company. He has been building and leading global teams in the software industry for nearly three decades. With a relentless passion for growing revenues, developing teams, building awesome cultures, and leading change. Geoff’s simple approach to any interaction is always based on the same principle—transparency creates trust.
As the Content Marketer for MSI Data, Leena Meyers has created compelling content in the field service space for over two years, from staying on top of industry trends to sharing insights into field service optimization.
