1. By what medium are most customers best handled, *when there's a choice*. (e.g. in-person, phone, fax, e-mail, etc.)
2. Do you find most customer service needs are taken care of through a single contact (by whichever medium above works best), or does it usually take several? If it's several, why do you think that is?
3. Do you think a service log and/or database is necessary? If so, what does it need to contain besides {contact name/address/phone/e-mail and service date/time/problem resolution/follow-up}?
4. Do you get more feedback when customers think the service is bad or when they think it's good? Why do you think that is?
5. Do you usually have what you need on hand to resolve a service issue, or do you have to order it from someone else?

How are contacts made?

You have to balance timeliness of response against degree of intrusiveness. Service calls can be made by phone if

• a single repair is needed
• notes to refer back to are relatively unimportant
• the customer is able to sort things out

On the other hand, if information exchange is important you may find fax or e-mail contact works better; if there are several repairs or a large or complex problem, or if the customer is not experienced, you'll need to visit. E-mail is a dependable way to handle non-trivial problems, because it inherently leaves a "paper trail" and your mailbox serves as a "service log." On the other hand, not everyone reads their e-mail every day. The snail-mail is reliable, but offers no deadline guarantees. When you drop something in the mailbox, it might show up at the destination the next day, or the next week.

Even if you know you'll have to visit, you can use that phone call to help you organize the parts you'll need. On the other hand, even if you can resolve the problem over the phone, you can use e-mail or snail mail to leave a "paper trail" verifying the time of the service (and perhaps its quality as well).

I accidentally fixed a piece of equipment on the telephone once! I was an electronics technician, working at a pinball machine/video game place. Cool job, because when you fix them, you have to test them, heh, heh! Anyway, we did some telephone work there, because the guys who operate the machines (and collect the quarters) aren't really electronic technicians. So, they'll call, and we'll walk them through the diagnosis and so on. This guy called one time, with a dead machine. "Did you check if it's plugged in?" "Yup." "Is the fuse OK?" "Yup." "Is there power at the 'on-off' switch?" "Uh, lemme check." Then, in the background, on the telephone, I hear the machine powering up. He came back to the phone, and said, "Well, I fixed it, and I'm not gonna tell ya what I did, gu-hyuk!"

How many contacts are needed?

Your customer may have to speak to a reseller and dispatcher before reaching field personnel. In that sense, customers have more talking to do than you do. :-) Even when the customer talks to a field service representative, others may be called in if the first representative doesn't have enough experience in the particular problem faced. If you are the first representative, help the customer explain the problem to the next -- remember that the customer's gone through this several times by this point.

If the first point of contact isn't able to solve the problem, it should be automatically forwarded to someone who can -- why should the customer be forced to remain on hold, or expecting a return call, while the "expert" is consulted (or located)?

On the other hand, you will often find that the first problem has to be fixed before the second one can even reveal itself. This means multiple service calls on your part. :-) On-site service calls mean travel expenditures too:

I generally follow the rule that one hour in my workshop produces the same effect as two hours work on-site, and then you need to consider travel time. I recently had to fly to Edinburgh from London to do a repair that took one hour, and I regarded as simple but was totally beyond the customer (the customer has zero technical ability but makes GREAT chutney :-)). I [...] charged as close to cost as I could...

If you find that your field service requires many on-site visits, remember that your travel time is likely to be much greater than the time you actually spend on the problem itself. Some technicians report that the travel is more wearying than the work.

Do you need a database?

Most definitely, if:

• you perform large installations
• you can use it to diagnose recurring problems and develop predictive maintenance procedures
• you can use it to find whether contract vendors are effective
• it's used in the home office for billing purposes

Customer Info

• company name
• contact name
• address
• phone
• fax
• e-mail

Product Info

• product name
• serial number (or some other tracking info) -- especially needed if there are multiple products at the customer site, and they can be moved around
• when purchased
• status of warranty or service agreement
• reseller (if any)
• cost

Service Info

• date
• time
• problem description
• resolution description
• parts replaced (with part number if needed)
• standard tests performed
• follow-ups scheduled
• whether or not the problem was forwarded to the company's design staff
• cost (possibly classified by parts, labor, travel)

If you maintain a database, it's important to organize it in such a way that you don't have to enter each piece of data for every service call. Choose appropriate keys to link the separate info types.

What kind of feedback can you expect?

Usually none. But:

If you are their sole source then you'll get more feedback when service is bad. If they have a chance to go somewhere else then your coming back for repeat service is what I consider positive feedback. I have a couple of places that are the sole source for the [...] we use. We can't get them on the phone, their service sucks and the product isn't as reliable as we expect but we're stuck with them unless we want to spend several hundred thousand on a new [...] and they know it.

If you don't hear from customers they're usually happy; the second they have problems you'll hear about it :-(. Some companies will give you a questionnaire to fill out after a service call:

One such company is a local medical center: I had to tell them to not let husbands still under the influence of anesthesia call home for a ride after out-patient surgery. Luckily for me, my wife wasn't homicidal when I said something akin to "Hey, woman, get over here and take me home!" after a I had a minor operation. I noticed in [subsequent] cases, a nurse makes the call. 8-)

And some companies (mostly software) offer tech support online:

A good model for (software) support is that of the late and great DEC. You paid a substantial amount of money for it, but it was good and you did get an answer. Of course, sometimes the answer was that it was a bug and would have to wait for the next release for correction (but it usually did get corrected, unlike certain other companies which shall remain nameless).

Having what you need

If you have a truck, carry everything you might need. If not, or if you're working out of a shop, get the best idea you can what you need before you leave for the customer site. You'll be very glad if you can keep the customer's down time to a minimum.

Found on the Internet and submitted for your approval: "Squawks" are problems noted by US Air Force pilots and left for maintenance crews to fix before the next flight. Here are some actual maintenance complaints logged by pilots and the replies from maintenance crews.