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just enough service details


The bane of many technicians existence is completing their paperwork. It goes without saying that if we are going to charge a customer "x" we should at least tell them what we did in some comprehensible manner. What does the customer really want… a summarization which wraps up what has occurred; if the call was related to troubleshooting, what can be done to avoid this incident in the future.  Certainly an explanation as suggested requires more than just pure documentation of the events which have occurred during a service call (scheduled or unscheduled). Drawing conclusions, leaning on intuition, and having the ability to articulate  passed, current, and future scenarios, is where the challenge exists for many field workers.



Remember for a moment the last time that you were composing a correspondence that contained technical information. You probably wrote a little more than you should have, reviewed it, moved some things around and hopefully removed some of the extraneous content, and ended up with a clean crisp summarization. Could it be that the challenge we have with getting field workers to adequately complete their paperwork is related to:

  • complete understanding of field conditions | let's consider for a moment that your field worker is really a parts swapper. Their understanding of systems is basic enough to guide them towards logical conclusions on what major component has failed and through a process of trial and error have replaced components until the system appears to be running correctly. If this describes your field worker how do we expect to articulate what the actual issue is if they themselves are not clear?
  • bury the meaning in words | we have all had those field workers who write a short story on every service call. For years I have written documents and created recommendations and I can tell you personally that writing a two page document is much easier than writing one paragraph. In order to titrate information down to a digestible block of words you must fully understand not only the field conditions but also understand your client.
  • writing skills | over the years attempts have been made to obviate the content related to writing out service tickets. Based on problem codes, nature's of call, we can insert fixed lines of words that describe what the likely issue is for the field worker when using digital devices. However, the root problem still exists with the technician and their ability to quickly articulate issues to our clients. Forget about writing skills for a moment, if the field worker has a challenge describing issues found in the field to the client than the client's confidence in your organization will diminish.



One of the keys to having a financially successful service organization is managing your AR and your days sales outstanding (DSO). As we know from experience high DSO numbers can be an indicator of how the client perceives your organization and levels of service delivered. One of the contributing factors is the confidence level that the client has with you and your field workers. Providing the right information prepared in a manner that is both insightful and actionable will contribute positively to your DSO reduction efforts.



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Next post:  does empathy play a role in service delivery?

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