Business Context
How often your field service engineers/technicians resolve customers’ problems on the initial visit is a key metric for any field service business, a sit directly impacts both customer satisfaction and the organization’s profitability. Improved FTF means avoiding multiple truck rolls and the additional costs that go along with that – the extra labor, increased dispatch, and lost service opportunities
FTF rate is calculated as follows:
% of work orders completed on the first visit = (Number of work orders fixed on the first visit ÷ Total number of work orders completed) x 100
The causes of poor FTF can be varied such as lack of right skills/spare parts, insufficient knowledge of the problem/solution, poor planning, and soon. Only when FTF rates are measured regularly, they can be analyzed to find out the specific causes per service team, manager, technician, or product, and preventive measures can be put in place.
Addressing them generally involves one or more of the following:
• Providing visibility to product service history and up-to-date inventory information to technicians in the field, and enabling them to order parts from any place, at any time.
• Improved dispatch based on skill matching of technicians to work orders.
• Enhanced collaboration options for technicians to tap into the knowledge base available within the organization.