Back to all Blogs8 signs your field service business isn’t growing fast enough
Here are 8 signs that your field Service business isn’t growing fast enough and what to do to address it.
Feel free to read through or jump to topics that are relevant to your business by choosing from the list below:
- Your pipeline for work is dry
- Website traffic isn’t growing
- Your not getting a return on your advertising
- It’s taking too long to make big decisions
- You’re sweating the small stuff
- You’ve stopped investing in your business
- Not enough of your tasks are automated
- Your jobs are less-profitable
1. Your Pipeline for work is dry
Let’s get the most obvious sign covered first and it’s a big one.
A slow or completely dry pipeline for new customers or new jobs should be a warning signal that your business isn’t growing. In fact, a dry pipeline means, not only is it not growing but you could be moving backwards.
Before you start to worry there are some things you can do about that immediately and the best part is you have control over this and your efforts will be rewarded.
Start with your sales or business development team. Review their closing ratio against the same time a month or so ago and see what’s changed.
If they are closing at about the same rate as before, then you simply need more leads coming in (we will get to that!) if the leads are pretty steady but the business isn’t being won, are you investigating why?
- Is a competitor beating you on price?
- Is there a service you don’t offer that’s been a deal breaker for several customers?
- Is your team struggling to build rapport with customers?
- Are you still winning the same amount of work from your current customers?
If the closing ratio is good, then you need to increase your marketing output to increase leads. If the amount of leads you receive is plentiful then review the sales process.
Don’t be tempted to race to the bottom on price. Be firm and understand your value proposition to your customers. Support both your sales and marketing teams, listen to their feedback and adjust your strategy.
For more on pricing strategies and finding more customers check out this article: How to quickly go from 100 customers to 1000.
2. Website Traffic isn’t growing
As your business grows so should your website traffic.
An early warning sign that you aren’t growing fast enough or that you have a problem with your customer job pipeline is that your website traffic isn’t growing.
Your customers will do research before finding a Field Service provider. They will look at your social media, your website, pricing, blog content and case studies to make an informed decision as to whether you’re worth considering for their business.
If your website traffic isn’t growing then it highlights a slowing of interest.
Website analytics is your friend. It paints an accurate picture of your website performance and it’s free to use. If you own and manage your own website, speak to whoever set it up and gain access.
A lot of people use Google Analytics to view their website performance.
That’s what we use at Klipboard, it allows us to review the total visitors to our website, how often they return and what pages are they interested in (like this one your reading).
The image above shows traffic to Klipboard over a two year period. You should be monitoring traffic to your website and paying attention to whether it’s growing and if you’re increasing the amount of direct traffic (green line).
This will give you insight as to whether your advertising, word of mouth, or referrals from customers are driving traffic to your website and having a positive effect on your business.
3. Your spending more on advertising not getting a return
How you choose to advertise your Field Service business is entirely dependent on your market and the services you offer.
Field Service businesses advertise in lot’s of different ways such as:
- Sponsored Social Media Posts
- Magazine and Online News Forums
- Paid for PR articles
- Leaflets
- Sponsored charity and sports events
Google Adverts can be an effective way of finding people with a high intention to purchase. When people come to search for a specific service or product your advert will appear.
For example if you choose to bid on an advert for…
‘HVAC Servicing in London’
The advert in the image above is going to reach people looking for that particular service but will most likely be an expensive term to bid on because of it’s popularity making it competitive for other businesses. You only pay the cost of advertising when people click on the advert, this is referred to as the Cost Per Click.
This strategy may work for the businesses featured in the image above but could prove expensive if not correctly managed. You need to consider the size of your business, the locations you cover and the budget available before making a decision on how to advertise your business.
Make your spending go further
However you choose to advertise your services you need to make sure you measure your return, what’s happening to those leads? If they didn’t become a customer then, what are you doing to make sure you stay in touch with them?
You might be advertising in ways that aren’t digital and a little more difficult to measure such as newspapers, magazines, PR and posters.
In that instance, go back to Tip 2 (Website Traffic) and review your Brand Traffic or Direct Traffic to your website. This will show you the number of visits to your website from people specifically typing in your company name into search engines.
If you spend on advertising like this you should see an increase in people showing an interest in your services.
4. It’s taking too long to make big decisions
Make the important things happen.
Having a detail focused team and people in your business who are able to see the bigger picture and plan ahead is excellent.
However, a whole team full of those types of individuals will create wonderful plans for things that will never get done.
Sooner or later the rubber has to meet the road and actions need to be taken.
Smaller businesses have an advantage over medium or larger sized organisations because of their ability to make quicker decisions, if you fit that category then use that to your advantage.
If you’re a larger business then encourage action from your team by making responsibility part of your overall business culture.
Encourage accountability
Always make sure there’s a person responsible for each task. Don’t be afraid to encourage accountability.
It might seem daunting at first but accountability breeds confidence. When you trust your team enough to task them with getting a job done then what you’re actually saying is ‘I believe in you’.
If it’s down to you then trust your gut and make decisions after consulting experienced and fresh opinions in your business.
Acting and getting it wrong is always better than not acting at all.
5. You’re sweating the small stuff
The little things do matter but you can’t let yourself get caught up in the day to day, managers or business owners need to focus on the bigger picture.
Your Field Service business is made up of small details:
- How do new customers discover you?
- Do they call or email you when they need to book a job?
- How do you book a job and dispatch it to your team?
- Does you team have all the tools and parts they need to do the job?
- What happens if a customer cancels a job?
- Is a thank you or feed back request sent after a completed job?
- How quickly can you invoice for a completed job?
These are all small details that build a bigger picture of how your customer feels about your business.
Business owners and managers need to ensure their team has the tools and support to do their job well, but if you find yourself involved with the detail then you won’t grow.
6. You’ve stopped investing in your business
There’s a saying in business that goes…
“If you’re not moving forward then you’re moving backwards”
Complacency can kill momentum, so when you do find that you’ve got steady cash flow and your business is operating well, that’s the time to look at your processes and invest in your business.
Here are some areas of a Field Service business that can be overlooked but investment here will improve how effect your team can perform:
Job Scheduling
If your team is busy and you’re booked out all day every day, it’s easy to consider this side of your business working well.
Have you reached every job you could have?
Consider adding Field Service Management Software to your business. It will cut out the endless emails and miscommunication your team is most likely contending with but you can’t see that because everyone appears busy.
Inventory Management
Part availability is going to play a big part in your ability to grow. Inefficient management of parts can lead to your First Time Fix Rate dropping and poor customer satisfaction.
An Inventory Management system in place that your team can access giving them real-time information on stock quantities and locations will significantly improve your ability to finish more jobs.
Marketing
Marketing is an investment because what you put in you expect to get more in return.
If you find you’re not spending enough on marketing you’re most likely struggling to grow.
At the very least you are slowing your growth because you’re not investing in finding new customers. This doesn’t just have to be spending money of adverts. Consider a referral inventive scheme or competitions to draw attention to your business.
Fix broken processes first. That should be your priority. Once you’ve got the right team, with the right tools and your time management is acceptable then look to finding new customers. There’s no use in doing more work if that work isn’t an efficient use of your time.
7. Not enough of your tasks are automated
Automation will unshackle your team from time consuming activities.
Booking jobs, sending job details to engineers, emailing customers, invoicing and raising quotes. If done manually or over several different systems this can take up a lot of your team’s time.
If you’re still sending out job details on attachments, completing paperwork in the field and not automating your customer communications, then you’ll struggle to grow.
Customer expectations have risen to the point that many expect an ‘Uber-Like’ experience from every service provider. They expect to receive notifications of when a job is booked, who is coming, what time will they get there?
To help you meet those lofty expectations of the modern customer look to automate more of your customer communications. Use systems that allow you to write your own bespoke messages to customers and your team. These need to be set up to send automatically so you can concentrate on other tasks that will grow your business.
8. Your jobs are less-profitable
Every time a job takes longer than expected to complete it becomes less profitable. When parts are missing or the work isn’t up to standard and has to be re-done then the job is less profitable.
Avoid repeating jobs
You can address inconsistent quality by incorporating workflows into your Field Service jobs. Workflows are essentially digital forms that your team complete while on the job and acts as checklists so everything that needs to get done – gets done.
This is especially important for those who work in highly regulated industries where you have to meet compliance, such as; Fire Safety, Security, High Voltage, F-Gas inspections for HVAC and Legionella reports for Water Treatment.
Improve visibility of your inventory
A robust and cloud based Inventory Management software system will ensure your team has all the parts they need for a job. Without one, you’re simply hoping that they remember to pick up the parts they need for the job at your storage centre or that what they expect to be in the van hasn’t been used on a preview job.
Field Service businesses who use Inventory Management systems can see exactly what parts they have in stock, how much they were bought for and where they are stored. This allows Field Service businesses to correctly quote for jobs and get the best possible margins.
Bonus: How to spot if you’re growing too quickly!
What a lovely problem to have. You’ve been too successful, your service has been noticed by lots of customers, you’ve received plenty of recommendations and your diary is filling up.
That might be the dream scenario for a lot of business owners but if you’re not careful you’re going to allow small mistakes to creep in.
Admin mistakes and Human Error
Look for inconsistency in the quality of work from your admin team.
They are trying hard to keep up, they are managing endless emails and phone calls from your ever increasing list of customers but there’s only so much they can do.
Support them by giving them the tools they need to manage more customers, listen to the people on the front line and for feedback from your customers. A complaint about a missed appointment or an invoicing error should be a sign you need to give your team more support.
Inconsistency in the quality of work
Complaints from customers about the quality of work will most likely to be a sign that corners are having to be cut. This shouldn’t be a bad reflection on your team, most likely you’ve hired people you trust with the skills and expertise to do a brilliant job, you need to match their commitment by investing in a better job scheduling system so they don’t need to feel rushed to their next appointment.
Conclusion
Field Service is a highly competitive, challenging and rewarding industry. Staying on top of the demands of your customer whilst maintaining steady growth presents a real challenge.
It requires you to surround yourself with a high performing team and spot the early signs that your business isn’t growing fast enough.
Being decisive and having a clear picture of what’s happening in your business is the key to resolving most of the issues and will help you grow a successful field service business.
