Given that the industry has “communications” in its name, one would expect telecommunications companies to be proficient at talking to customers. But the reality is that many telecom organizations, like other field service outfits, have gained a bad rap for not communicating to customers as early and often as they should. As a customer, how many times has a provider given you a six-hour window for the arrival of a repairman or installer, only for the person to show up within the last hour or not at all? It’s a common gripe — and a legitimate one.
One way companies can show respect for their customers’ time and improve their overall experience is by going paperless. Migrating to field service management software. Here are three ways EnSight+’s field service management solution (FSM) can improve your telecom customers’ experiences and your operations:
Put yourself in a customer’s shoes for a moment. You’ve just tried to make an appointment for a much-needed repair, but the next opening is on Wednesday. To accommodate that date, you have to take time off from work. You wanted to try to work a half-day, but the scheduler you spoke with couldn’t guarantee that the technician would be there — only that it should be between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. So much for working that day. This scenario is not an uncommon one for telecom companies that rely on antiquated paper-based workflow processes, scheduling, and dispatching.
Telecom companies that use FSM software can harness the power of automation. Using technology to provide a more accurate arrival time. Not only that, but field service management can also reduce techs’ driving time from job to job by utilizing visualized location data and real-time route guidance. When techs are en route, they can alert customers via text message, or a phone call. Letting them know they’ll be there in a matter of minutes. To read more about the benefits of fleet telematics, read here.
Any type of service outage deserves prompt attention. No doubt that a problem affecting thousands of customers should receive an escalated response. However, if your telecom company is relying on paper-based methods, how would you know who to dispatch? When there’s a cell tower malfunction, you’ll need a technician who is skilled in that type of work. Also, someone who’s nearby to get there quickly.
The EnSight+ solution allows you to catalog the qualifications, certifications, and availability of each one of your technicians. Each mobile device also includes a GPS tracking functionality, so you’ll know exactly which qualified tech can arrive at the tower the fastest. Worried about the rest of that tech’s appointments for the day? Don’t be. Our easy-to-use platform empowers schedulers to seamlessly reassign and reorder jobs. They can instantly change the information and push it to each tech’s mobile device for real-time updates. Having the right techs assigned to the right assignments at the right time makes customers happier and helps you deliver higher first-time fix rates.
Telecom infrastructure can be incredibly complex and brittle. The fragility of parts like receivers and connectors, as well as their exposure to the elements, preventative maintenance is crucial. Ensuring this equipment remains in good condition, consistently. With equipment that costly and delicate, why would you ever trust a piece of paper with serial numbers or historical maintenance data?
EnSight+ makes preventative maintenance a breeze with the ability to schedule tasks for your techs to take care of responsibilities. Like pest and weed control, lightning protection, and painting. For telecom companies in northern states that withstand bitter cold and freezing temperatures, you can use our field service management solution to standardize processes related to network hardening. Plus, the best part of using a cloud-based system is that the platform will store all of your updates in one centralized database. You can even set up reminders to ping you when it’s time for the next round of maintenance.
Telecommunications companies need to start living up to the “communications” part of the industry. Thanks to the help of FSM software, telecom companies can enhance their communication to provide top-notch, timely customer service. Promptly respond to outages, and maintain equipment so it’s always performing at its best.
To learn more about how your enterprise can become more efficient, stave off emergency repairs, and increase customer satisfaction, visit EnSight+.
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