Running a service-based business means that you might have more balls in your court than some other business models. Whether you have hired contractors to help you or you have full-time employees going out and performing work, you need to be able to stay in touch in order to know that the job is being done properly.
Here are four ways you can increase communication between your team members while also increasing satisfaction among your customers.
1. Provide mobile communication
When your workers are out on a job, you need to be able to have a way to let them know if something comes up. Some companies choose to do this through a service dispatch software, while others do it solely through providing cell phones to their workers. However you choose to make sure that you can get a hold of clients, you want to make sure that it is a simple solution and that it can be learned quickly.
2. Have support for staff
Depending on the size of your business, you might need to have support available for those out in the field. This might mean having someone who can answer the phone and answer any questions, or using a third party to help organize jobs. You might also want to make sure that is available during certain hours depending when your employees are completing their work. This extra support can go a long way toward making things run smoothly and can save you time when your workers have a designated person to call.
3. Include reports
Once a job is done, you should make sure that there is some way to gauge whether or not it was completed successfully and to the customer’s satisfaction. This might mean having reports that can be filled out so you can see what type of job your employee had to complete, how long it took, and what supplies were needed. Not only can this help you determine whether or not the job was worthwhile, but it can also help you see if there were any communication errors between you and your employees or between that of the customers. You might also want clients to fill out a survey so you can see where your business needs improvement.
4. Offer customers a way to contact you
Just as there should be clear communication between you and your employees, you should also make sure that your customers are able to contact you with any concerns they might have. Whether you choose to make it an option to get a hold of you directly or you want them to go through a third-party, it’s important to have someone that can serve as a go-beween and can offer help to your customers if they need it.
In summary
Communication should be at the heart of every business, but it should be a priority if you have a service. By putting that infrastructure in place, you can save yourself confusion and unhappy clients and workers.
