We have saved our clients a lot of money over the last three years. One client recently told me that they have saved 50% almost overnight on Field Service Engineer costs, simply by switching to a per service event model, rather than paying full whack for an engineer, van, NI, etc. for 40 hours per week, they now only pay for an engineer when there is work to be done.
OrderWork started out as a ‘Services Marketplace’, in this early incarnation clients would place work orders that were automatically matched out to Service Partners who met certain technology skill and geographic filters. These Service Partners would then ‘bid on’ work. Our buyers would often choose their Service Partner based upon the lowest price. The results were not good – clients were happy with the price, but unhappy with the quality.
After about 6 months in this ‘cost – driven’ model, we flipped the switch in early 2007 to Plan B - a ‘Managed Service’ model. This enabled our clients to have ‘one neck to choke’ if something went wrong, and enabled us to directly manage our Service Partner network. The logic went that OrderWork’s Service Delivery team knew:
· Who the best engineers are, because they had better insight into their performance ratings, and…
· Critically we gained insights into the most customer friendly engineers in our network, and it has been this skill that has driven up our customer satisfaction scores.
My point is that our first incarnation was too cost focused. We have now twisted this in the new world to blend a competitive price with truly great customer service. This enabled us create a high performance culture amongst our base of Service Partner engineers - on average they have been rated more than 60 times. The better they perform, the more work they receive. Job 1 everyday is to delight our customers with great service - our Service Partners live and breathe this.
We are not perfect, and we still use new Service Partners and new installers as we expand into every nook and cranny in the UK. As we do so our shared focus on Service and Quality has enabled us to serve our clients well, and most importantly – allowed our clients to uphold their reputations for service quality. After all, OrderWork is always representing someone else’s brand – and it is this responsibility that drives us forward in our Service led approach.
In a tough economy, everyone knows that cash is king – but to gain true customer loyalty and repeat business – companies need to provide more service value to keep customers coming back. Firms that sacrifice quality and provide a 'service for the masses' approach will lose existing customers as a result.