Why Does Support Matter in Mobile Field Service Software?

When searching for mobile field service software, you will need to think about what sort of support the particular vendors provide their customers. Software is more than just the ‘nuts and bolts’ on how to do ‘x, y and z’ it is also about the people behind the software. You don’t just buy software, you buy the team behind it and the support they provide is vital for your business. Moving to a paperless environment can take some adjustments for your company and you need a trusted partner to support you as you say goodbye to paper based methods.

Below are 3 general questions you should ask your vendor:

1. Do I get a designated a point of contact (Customer Success Manager) during implementation and beyond?

A Customer Success Manager is essentially your point of contact who will provide training and guidance from implementation onwards. Customer Success Managers are common in cloud based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies such as they rely on customers recurring subscriptions i.e. happy customers = long term subscriptions.

We at Klipboard are a SaaS provider and we give every customer access to their own designated Customer Success Manager (CSM). A CSM’s role can vary from company to company, but here at Klipboard our CSM provide on-boarding 1:1 training, planned quarterly reviews and training webinars to make sure you successfully transform to going paperless. A good CSM is also there to listen to feedback and provide ongoing consultation making sure you have everything you need to be successful with the software.

Tip: When speaking with a potential vendor, make sure you ask if they have a Customer Success team and find out what this support consists of?

2. What’s the technical support like?

No matter how well designed a product is from time to time there will be some technical hiccups that can occur. These technical issues are normal and expected, but what is important is how quickly these issues are resolved.

You should be looking for a vendor who can provide you with technical support coverage for your working week. This coverage should be widely accessible and you should be looking for a vendor who provides support via email and telephone at the minimum. At Klipboard, our UK based technical support team are available Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm via email, live chat and telephone.

Also important is understanding how responsive the vendor is to your technical queries. Response times can vary from vendor to vendor, but ideally you should be looking for response times within 30 minutes during working hours. At Klipboard we aim to respond to technical queries within 30 minutes and work to resolve queries within 24 hours.

Tip: When testing a potential vendor’s software raise some support tickets and test their response time!

3. Does the Vendor have help resources i.e. video tutorials?

Sometimes you want to find the answer to a technical query yourself without the need to speak with your vendor. A Help Center of useful support articles and video tutorials are an invaluable tool to ensure you quickly find the answers to any questions you have. At Klipboard we use Intercom platform to deliver our Help Center. We have worked hard to curate useful help content based on the needs and requests of our customers. If a vendor has a well resourced Help Center it is usually a good indication that they take support seriously as they are willing to invest in additional support tools for their customers.

Tip: Find out if your vendor have support resources and if they do, test some examples to find out whether the content is useful.

Deciding on a vendor to provide mobile field service software can be challenging as there are many to choose from. So it is really important to look into the support behind the software as it will be key to ensure you get the full benefit out of your software.  This article should hopefully get you thinking a little more about the type of questions to ask to understand the quality of the support you will get.

If you would like to find out more about the support Klipboard provides please contact us here.