Digitize customer service records at source

Remove the pain of collecting and analyzing service data

When on a field visit to attend to customer complaints, a lot of data is collected. We will show that there is a lot to gain if you digitize customer service records right at the source- that is collect it in digital form rather than depending on someone to transcribe the form later.

Till recently, all that happened on sheets of paper- pre-printed stationery. The service technician would come to the site, and scribble something on the form at the end of the visit. The customer would sign off on the form and that would be that.

I often wonder, what happens to the data thus collected? Does the form serve any purpose rather than being a glorified attendance record?

It is not that the form does not collect any information. Depending on the company and the product being serviced, the form can range from the most simple to the most complex. Details of spares being used, time records, defects being addressed, fixes being applied etc. If you digitize customer service records, this data is available for future analysis, product imporvements, process improvements and coaching.

What you lose if you do not digitize customer service records

My scepticism is on account of 2 things:

1. The field technician is in a hurry- he fills in the details but half heartedly. Sometimes I have seen them fill up the details only when back in office.
2. And, even if one assumes the supervisor reviews the filled up service forms, for him to make sense of many a bunch of forms, brough in by the team under him, notye down learnings and apply corrections at the end of the day is perthaps expecting too much.

The above is a simple small organization- very flat. In the absense of transcribing the forms into digital, any attempt at lasting learning at an organizational level will be a failure.

Why digitize customer service records?

Capturing the visit details in service calls has several advantages:

1. You can create as many forms as scenarios. Let us say your team services Elevators. You may have 3 main categories of elevators and about ten models under each category. You may have 2 service types: preventive maintenance, breakdown/ repair.
   • You can create, if needed, 3 x 10 x 2 = 60 different forms and push them to the technicians automatically. If the ticket is for preventive maintenance, and for model M3 under category C1, then the technician should only see the form for preventive maintenance which is customized for M3 and C1.
     As an aside, try doing the same in paper form. Or have your technicians carry each type and get confused.
2. You can specify which are the data fields that are “mandatory” and which are not. Thus, ensuring we always get the important data across all tickets.
   You can of course specify which fields are mandatory to fill in a paper form- but, good luck trying to enforce it!
3. Save the data in the server immediately- in a structured format and thuis have it available at all levels for future analysis, learning and product imporvements.
   You can send the customer, a summary of the visit- from the data captured from the visit- right then and there.
   Goodbye transcribing data from paper form to the computer and goodbye data inaccuracy.
4. Pictures: using digital ensures you can capture photos- of the site, of thr equipment, of the spare being replaced.
   Pictures serve as proof, reminders of action to be taken por even corroboration of data.
5. Signatures: you can get the customer to sign off right on the mobile screen – thus removing the last reason to use paper.

When you digitize customer service records, thus, the key benefits are:

1. Accuracy and relevance of data captured.

2. Use in future analysis and learning across the company.

3. Cheaper and faster.

4. Use the data for future analysis.

The roadblocks: the difficulties to digitize customer service records

There are essentially 2 ways to digitize customer service records. Scan a document or fill a form online. Not counting the 3rd one which is transcribing from the manually filled up documents.

Scanning a document gives very poor results. We have worked with OCR software and even the best of them do not work with the kind of handwriting that you see on a custtomer service record form.

See a real manual CSR below.

What can you make of this? Forget an OCR; even a human transcriber will not be able to make any sense of this. Add to that – many of the important and required fields are empty.

Fill a form online and onsite: the ONLY way to digitize customer service records

The only way to accurately record customer service experience is to digitize customer service records on the spot. So, we are talking mobile apps with structured forms asking to be filled.

And, remember these forms will be different for diferent products – sometimes even within the same product class. Take elevators (lifts): so many varieties of them, shapes and sizes.

So, here’s what we did. Download the Saleswah CRM app at the Google playstore to see for yourself. If you need a demo or demo account creds, contact us.

We enabled YOU to create your own forms for ALL categories of products

We now allow the customer to create forms for all categories and all types of tickets- after all, a repair ticket requires very different information to be captured than a scheduled maintenance ticket.

We allow you to define virtually any number of variations. Not just that.

Depending on the equipment for which the service ticket is created, we push the exact type of repair ticket to the mobile phone of the technician.

See below:

The first 2 screens are for repair of batteries whereas the 3rd one is for a Generator set.

Same technician- obviously different tickets.

Similarly, you could create- without any need for programming, any number of forms catering to any need to digitize customer service records- on site.

Check out Saleswah CRM with a free trial. Absolutely free! And digitize customer service records, onsite, error free.