Retaining customers is important for businesses engaging in facilities and allied field services. However, managing customer relationships efficiently amidst the myriad of tasks involved in maintenance scheduling, preventive maintenance, and work order management can be daunting.
One has to ensure facility uptime via maintenance activities to ensure smooth operations. Manual operations and ways to deal with customers may not serve the purpose of focusing on operational efficiency. For this reason, when choosing field service management software to digitize facility management, you must check for the inclusion of CRM tools.
How does having CRM tools help with facilities maintenance activities?
Facilities management involves multifaceted interactions with customers – and these could include signing contracts, managing service requests or complaints, or performing sales. One can go so far with paperwork-based forms or spreadsheets.
On top of that, today’s customers expect personalized experiences tailored to their unique needs. Whether it’s a commercial building, a residential complex, or an industrial facility, occupants expect prompt and personalized responses to their maintenance needs. The larger your facility, the more is the need to have specialized CRM tools that help you manage customer relationships.
How to use FSM software with CRM to ensure customer success in facility management?
To effectively adopt FSM software with CRM tools, consider below six workflows related to customer management in a facility:
1. Provide instant communication channels
When you’re promptly communicating with customers and keeping them on the same page about service delivery, you receive fewer customer support tickets. CRM tools provide centralized platforms for communication, allowing facility managers to engage with customers through various channels such as email, phone, and even social media.
2. Help document customer interactions
CRM tools facilitate compliance by centralizing documentation, contracts, and service agreements. When everything is digitally documented, your facility ensures that all stakeholders are aligned and informed. By maintaining comprehensive records of customer interactions and service history, CRM tools also mitigate legal risks and disputes.
3. Targeted sales and marketing
Using CRM tools, you can centralize your sales and marketing efforts to get new customers. You can bring your conversations across emails, messages, or direct networks to improve response time and follow-up efforts. You can also run personalized campaigns to upsell more services to existing or new customers.
4. Share service delivery reports
Flexible reporting capabilities allow facility managers to generate customized reports on service performance. You can share automated reports periodically to keep your customers informed about job progress. This helps provide necessary proof of work and also upsell maintenance services as a recommendation when required.
5. Maintenance scheduling and appointments
CRM tools will include integrated calendar and scheduling tools. They enable efficient appointment booking and provide flexibility to the customers to reschedule. Advanced algorithms will consider your maintenance scheduling parameters like worker’s proximity to job location, skills, and customer’s availability to provide available slots while booking.
6. Allow access to a customer portal
CRM includes features like dashboard creation which can become an effective tool to communicate with customers. For example, if a customer has scheduled an appointment, they can log into the portal to register any rescheduled requests, ask for technician replacement, add more services, or cancel a booking. This eliminates any need for customers to raise service requests for these tasks.
5 FSM software CRM features useful for facility management
While choosing an FSM software with CRM capabilities, check for below five key features:
- Mobile app: access to a mobile application helps your customers check job progress and other details on the go. It helps them become more responsive to real-time notifications.
- Integration options: if not in-built, your FSM software should at least provide the option to integrate with external applications via API to use your own choice of CRM.
- Track service history: the ability to maintain a comprehensive record of past service activities helps technicians anticipate customer needs and deliver personalized solutions.
- Feedback systems: Built-in feedback mechanisms allow customers to provide ratings and comments on service quality to help you run the facility better.
Zuper’s field service management software includes both CRM and integration capabilities to help you deliver an exceptional customer experience – book a demo to learn more.