Keeping Technicians and Employees Engaged in the Field Service Industry

A positive workplace culture means happy, productive field service technicians who go above and beyond to provide the best service possible to customers. That, in turn, means more satisfied and loyal customers who increase revenues and drive profits up. If you think decent pay, benefits, and a few perks are all your employees need, your field service business may have some room to improve.  

A major component of your field service business success relates to how fully engaged your field service technicians are in their work. Disengaged technicians have 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects. Field service businesses with low employee engagement scores experience 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and almost 50% more voluntary employee turnover. Disengaged employees have a poor attitude that comes across to your customers, and the quality of the work they do out in the field suffers. You may have many new customers who use your service once and never call back.  

Conversely, a field service technician that remains engaged in their work is more productive, more enthusiastic, becomes a positive influence on other employees, and provides better customer service. Engaged employees represent a major factor for all customer-centric field service businesses. Engaged employees take ownership of their work. They take pride in how their work is perceived by customers, coworkers, and supervisors. They go the extra mile to solve problems and put extra polish on making the job look and perform its best. Engaged field service technicians make up the foundation of an Engagement-Profit Chain that drives your field service business down the road to success:

"Engaged Employees lead to…

   higher service, quality, and productivity, which leads to…

       higher customer satisfaction, which leads to…

           increased sales [...], which leads to…

               higher levels of profit."

The definition of employee engagement is the strength of the mental and emotional connection employees feel toward their place of work. The degree to which your field service technicians are engaged in their work cannot be stressed enough. According to Campbell’s Soup CEO Doug Conant, "To win in the marketplace…you must first win in the workplace. I’m obsessed with keeping employee engagement front and center." Employee engagement is a powerful, fundamental driving force for business success through:

• Increased employee safety
• Better employee health
• Happier employees
• Greater employee satisfaction
• Better employee home life
• Lower employee absenteeism
• Higher employee retention
• Greater employee loyalty
• Better work quality
• Better customer service
• Greater work productivity
• Higher sales
• Higher business profitability

A positive workplace culture with engaged employees is contagious and self-propagating. Field service business owners and managers who practice and promote a positive workplace culture will discover that good attitudes and good work ethics reinforce themselves and spread from management to employees and from employee to employee.  

What can field service business owners and managers do to encourage engaged employees?

• Be open, honest, and transparent with your field service technicians. Admit your mistakes and be reasonable when they admit theirs.
• Be open, honest, and transparent with your customers, and expect your technicians to do the same. Demonstrate that honesty and transparency are a cornerstone of your company culture. Honest, straightforward relationships are the foundation of respect and a positive workplace culture.
• Assure your field service technicians have clearly defined goals and expectations about how to interact with your customers and perform quality work. This will make it easy for your field service technicians to know when they have met company standards, and they will have a sense of confidence about their work.
• Empower your technicians to do the job they are trained to do and have experience doing. This means trusting them to do a good job and not micromanaging every minute detail.
• Be patient with your service technicians. Typically, putting forth extra effort and meticulous attention to detail requires more time, and that is the essence of quality field service work. For many trades, mastery that produces high quality can require years of experience to achieve.
• Frequently acknowledge when your service technicians do a good job. Regular, positive feedback and communications are essential to a positive workplace culture.
• Mentor your technicians one-on-one when possible. Show them you are a team working together to hone their technical skills and provide better services to your customers.
• Don't reschedule or postpone one-on-ones lightly. Show your technicians that you value and respect their time as well as their opinions.
• Value your service technician's feedback. Often, the best and most practical ideas come from people working in the trenches. If the feedback is negative, this is likely a sign something needs fixed and the tech is trying to work with you to make things better and more productive for other employees as well as themselves.
• The workplace needs laughter. Tolerate and promote some levity when appropriate. Laughter is great medicine for field service businesses and provides a host of productivity improvements. As Dale Carnegie said, “People rarely succeed unless they are having fun in what they are doing.”
• Be sure your technicians know that you are approachable and that you will pause what you are doing and listen to them when they have problems they need to discuss.  
• Be flexible and understanding with your technicians. Life comes with unavoidable potholes and curveballs. Do your best to recognize when difficult circumstances arise for your technicians and make reasonable adjustments to help them get over these hurdles. Their loyalty will increase exponentially when they know you are on their side and have their back.

Summing It All Up

As a field service business owner/manager, one of the most important factors of business success is ensuring that you have a positive workplace culture with field service technicians fully engaged in their work. You can have great marketing and a great product, but if you have a high degree of unhappy, disengaged employees, your business will suffer. Recognize the value of the engagement-profit chain and give it a full measure of your efforts and attention. There is a whole list of do's and don'ts to think about, but mostly they boil down to giving your employees your attention and time, and treating them with honesty, courtesy, and respect.