Investing in first-time fix improvements reduces failure costs, enhances efficiency, and boosts customer satisfaction.
The Methodology
The following outlines the recommended steps to implement this methodology:
An internet provider conducted a forensic analysis of their failure costs and discovered that not scheduling enough time for an engineer to fix an issue at a customerās home was responsible for 15% of first-time fix failures. To address this, they increased the allotted time per appointment from 45 minutes to 1 hour. As a result, their first-time fix rate improved, leading to fewer repeat calls to the help desk, reduced scheduling workload, and a decrease in repeat engineer visitsācutting associated costs such as fuel and labor.
Focus on operational inefficiencies that impact first-time fix rates, such as scheduling, equipment availability, or training gaps.
Analyse whether staff training, resource allocation, or logistical challenges are contributing to failure costs.
Track first-time fix rates, repeat visits, CSAT, and cost savings.
This approach is particularly valuable in industries with long service chains, such as field services, utilities, and IT support.
Key themes of the research include:
The research is based on interviews with senior executives (including Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers and Customer Service or Customer Experience Directors) and online surveys with 751 employees in a variety of roles, across organisations and sectors, 929 consumers and 500 young people aged between 16 and 21. The research was conducted between December 2022 and February 2023.
Around 67% of UK employees spanning a wide range of roles, departments or functions, spend significant amounts of time in their job dealing with customers. Therefore, for many organisations, the profession of customer service is about embedding a service culture to deliver the organisationās commercial and customer experience objectives, as well as developing appropriate skills in specific roles.Ā The research identifies that there is a growing requirement for broader and more advanced skills and lays out in detail what these skills and capabilities will be.
Customer service provides a challenging and rewarding career with genuine pathways to develop skills and experience but potential employees are not always aware of the breadth of career opportunities and many are more likely to see customer service as a foundation for other careers than a respected profession offering good career opportunities.Ā The research presents 5 main pathways for careers in customer service.
To conclude, our research highlights 9 areas to improve the perception and recognition of roles and careers in customer service as well as practical recommendations to aid organisations in addressing them.
With almost 80% of UK GDP generated by the service sector, there is an urgent need to define, develop and measure productivity in a service context.
This Breakthrough Research examines the perspectives of senior managers, employees and customers on productivity in a service context.
The research looks at how organisations have sought to improve both their productivity and customer satisfaction, and recommends a framework to enable organisations to improve and measure their performance.
