What is in the Window?Expectations of a scheduled window of a service.
Oh, the dreaded window of service. How often have you been told that “your service technician will arrive at your home between noon and 4 pm.” or even better (worse really) “your service window is 7am to 5pm.”? So, all day.
What is the expectation for a company and client after this contract is finalized? Is this a contract? It is a verbal contract for sure and an expectation.
The burdens.
For the customers:
1. Needing to take time off work.
2. Needing to reschedule other responsibilities.
3. Needing to rebalance the budget to afford the service.
These top reasons are all the hassles the client is dealing with regarding a window of service.
All of which present a burden (or opportunity) to be removed by the contractor. I recently had a window of service from 7am to 4pm, all day which sucked. Plain and simple sucked. Luckily, I can sometimes work remotely, others do not have this luxury. For them, this is a nightmare. Possibly losing 8 hours of pay can be the difference between making the mortgage payment and not for families. The painful part of this was that the technician did not show up. Did not call. The company did not even call. Radio silence. So, I had to call, and I was mad but professional. I expressed my concern and asked when I should expect the technician. I would have cancelled the whole thing entirely except that it would take a week or more to get another schedule (they knew that), so they had me in an awkward position. So, the next day was agreed upon and the same window 7am to 4pm, and even after asking them to narrow that down a bit – they said this is standard they would not change the window.
Finally, the technician showed up, at 7:30pm, did the job, did not apologize, and left us with some cleanup. Suffice it to say we will not be using this company again. They failed on so many customers service points, it is not even funny.
So back to the expectation of a window – the burdens on the contractor side:
1. Have your timing figured out, per task plus drive time.
2. Customers extend the offer to you for service its now your time to shine.
3. Automated follow ups, whether through email or calls/texts.
For instance, my car lets me know when I need a service. I always forget and later I will get a text from the service center that I normally get work done from, then I can also schedule through the text, or I can call or email the service desk myself. I usually plan a service through the same text and when I show up, they have my appointment. While there I get texts updates as my car gets the service done. Finally, a few days later I will get a customer survey. Talk about communication.
The same can happen with service technicians and companies providing services (which is every company’s function).
It is one thing to build a company, it’s another altogether to be good at service. There are a few products I like to use for my business to keep me straight:
3. Speedy Links
Using these I stay on track with customers and workloads. I probably shouldn’t even share these secrets. Of course if you are crazy busy like most of us there are ghostwriters that can help.
