Blog / Solutions · FLS MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS
MAXIMISE FIRST-TIME FIX RATES WITH BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DATA
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3 min. reading time
10. May 2024
James Alex Waldron
F
ield service companies generate significant data, simply through their own trading activity. Moving this data into Business Intelligence (BI) tools creates useable information: Performance indicators for customer experience, employee satisfaction, and cost savings. This supports holistic decisions and mitigates risk at operational, tactical, and future strategic levels so that processes and procedures remain in line with your objectives.
Ultimately, transparency is built with facts and the most recent data. This becomes knowledge and prompts appropriate action. Within service-oriented organisations, real-time information and appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential to make immediate decisions. For realistic analyses and predictions, it is essential to ensure data is consistent over a longer period of time. Field service operators use Business Intelligence tools to design a competitive advantage.
With these analyses you can adjust your processes and procedures and confirm which activities add value and which do not, and which processes and procedures remain in line with the stated objectives. Business Intelligence is a continual process.
Ultimately, transparency is built with facts and the most recent data. This becomes knowledge and prompts appropriate action. Within service-oriented organisations, real-time information and appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential to make immediate decisions. For realistic analyses and predictions, it is essential to ensure data is consistent over a longer period of time. Field service operators use Business Intelligence tools to design a competitive advantage.
With these analyses you can adjust your processes and procedures and confirm which activities add value and which do not, and which processes and procedures remain in line with the stated objectives. Business Intelligence is a continual process.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: A HOLISTIC APPROACH
In field service, the most common key performance indicators include first-time fix, productivity rates per operative and per team, response/arrival times, resolution times, arrival time as agreed, waiting time at making an appointment, user-friendliness for the customer to make and/or reschedule an appointment, the quality of customer notifications, amount of overtime, and planned standard duration of an assignment versus the actual duration of an assignment.FLS partners with customers to systematically determine which performance indicators will keep operational activities efficient and effective, to support their unique tactical and strategic goals.
The first-time fix indicator has a direct relationship with the customer experience. It is an early reflection of dissatisfied customers, customer churn, and reduction in service turnover. First-time fix means resolving an order during the first field appointment. Any further customer contact or second appointment for the same service call is no longer a first-time fix. In addition to the customer perspective, this indicator is also important from an organisational perspective because it has a direct impact on margins, turnover, and operating costs.
Many organisations use first-time fix as the steering instrument for field service efficiency. This is because of the many similarities with other field service performance results, but also with regard to customer satisfaction and key financial figures. For organisations with high first-time fix ratios, balancing both an increase in customer satisfaction rates with maintaining profit margins remains an most important focus.
IMPROVE YOUR FIRST-TIME FIX WITH BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
How can you use BI to improve your first-time fix rate? The first step is to determine your rate, with accuracy. For example, a field service organisation with a first-time fix rate of 75% must schedule 25% of their appointments as follow-ups.Research for the FLS e-book Designing Value: The Case for Real-Time Field Service Optimisation highlights the average cost for a follow-up appointment is £48.24.
This calculation used Business Intelligence factors to drill down:
View table on mobile
| Industry averages across technical services / 1 Field Operative | Count | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Average employment cost (average order window) | 71 mins | £29.88 |
| Average travel miles | 15.49 miles | £2.60 (fuel) |
| Average travel minutes | 34 mins | £12.85 |
| Manual Customer Service rebooking | 10 mins | £2.91 |
| Average cost per repeat visit | £48.24 |
What are the Management Insights generated when you use your scheduling and field service outcomes data within Business Intelligence?
FLS MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS is the analytics tool for your field service. With valuable insights into your processes, it enables fact-based management and continuous optimisation of your field service operations.
- 1 Operative with x94 follow-ups (2x week / 47 weeks) = £4,534.56
- Missed SLA and KPI
- Wasted time, fuel, CO2
FLS MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS is the analytics tool for your field service. With valuable insights into your processes, it enables fact-based management and continuous optimisation of your field service operations.
It is clear that the extra follow-up visits are an additional burden for field service organisations. What should also be taken into account is the fact that all this extra work and unnecessary repeat visits consumes capacity. This is capacity that cannot be used for new maintenance, service and installation orders.
Fewer appointments for new assignments also have an impact on the generated turnover of the relevant service team. Turnover growth is an important objective for field service organisations and if field service employees do not visit new customers, they will not have the opportunity to realise new turnover.
Read more: Cost Control: Reactive Maintenance with Field Service Management Software
Fewer appointments for new assignments also have an impact on the generated turnover of the relevant service team. Turnover growth is an important objective for field service organisations and if field service employees do not visit new customers, they will not have the opportunity to realise new turnover.
Read more: Cost Control: Reactive Maintenance with Field Service Management Software
ILLUSTRATED: IMPROVE FIRST-TIME FIX BY 10%
Organisations that take steps to improve their first-time fix rate see a marked improvement in customer satisfaction and customer retention. This has a direct relationship with the margin on service activities.In this illustration we take the £48.24 average and show the difference in daily cost between unplanned follow-up appointments at a FTF rate of 75%, versus 85%:
View table on mobile
| Planned assignments | Follow-ups @ 75% | Follow-ups @ 85% | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 10 = £482.40 | 6 = £289.44 | £192.96 |
| 100 | 25 = £1,206.00 | 15 = £723.60 | £482.40 |
| 500 | 125 = £6,030.00 | 75 = £3,618.00 | £2,412.00 |
This highlights one aspect of the FLS VISITOUR dynamic scheduling solution. When coupled with the FLS MOBILE application and a follow-up order is unavoidable, giving the field operative the ability to offer the customer a choice of already cost-optimised future appointments at the customer location removes the intervention of a planner/scheduling team.
Removing the requirement for assignment leads the planner's focus towards monitoring follow-up assignments (and troubleshooting).
FLS' PowerOpt algorithm software ensures that the best field professional with the required skills and required materials is always linked to the job. Plan with the best routes and additional success factors such as the integration with CRM/ERP and service history, and the percentage of first-time fix rates has an improved opportunity to increase.
What are the actions that can improve a first-time fix rate?
Removing the requirement for assignment leads the planner's focus towards monitoring follow-up assignments (and troubleshooting).
FLS' PowerOpt algorithm software ensures that the best field professional with the required skills and required materials is always linked to the job. Plan with the best routes and additional success factors such as the integration with CRM/ERP and service history, and the percentage of first-time fix rates has an improved opportunity to increase.
What are the actions that can improve a first-time fix rate?
- Improving order intake data/diagnosis
- Planning with skills and materials rules
- Improved route planning, including fewer depot visits
- Optimised customer experiences: Self-service, automated messaging, and ETA
- Replacing assisted re-scheduling with automated optimisation for unforeseeable in-day situations
- Use of the automated alerts in FLS MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS
- Extracting data to other Business Intelligence platforms for deeper dives into failing assets
REALISE A COMPETITVE ADVANTAGE WITH FIELD SERVICE DATA TOOLS
To gain an understanding of tools to optimise the field experience for your workforce and customers book a short discussion or contact us at info@fastleansmart.com.Read more:
Data analysis and reporting tools with FLS MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS
What is Predictive Analytics in Field Service Management software?
Why smart Field Service Automation needs smart data
Route planning SaaS: Your competitive advantage
Author
JAMES ALEX WALDRON
UK Marketing Manager
+44 1183 800189
Send email
James Alex Waldron has worked in written communications for over 15 years. Since 2021, he has written for FLS and the Solvares Group on the topics of digital field service transformation and mobile workforce management, and regularly provides insight to the industry press.
JAMES ALEX WALDRON
UK Marketing Manager
+44 1183 800189
Send email
James Alex Waldron has worked in written communications for over 15 years. Since 2021, he has written for FLS and the Solvares Group on the topics of digital field service transformation and mobile workforce management, and regularly provides insight to the industry press.
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