Profit Fix #6: Want More PMs But Existing Clients Are Canceling Their Contracts?

Whenever I speak with Field Service executives about Preventative Maintenance (PM) contracts, they tell me they want more of them! But dealing with emergencies and quick fix requests leaves no time to schedule preventative maintenance for clients.

Because of that, the few PM contracts that most Field Service companies have don’t get quality service and they churn almost faster than they come. So district managers don’t actively go after PM contracts nor make good PM offers because the company cannot attend to them properly, anyway, leaving the whole business to rely on quick fixes (and some installations) which leaves no time for PM jobs.

Do we have a chicken and egg problem here?

All Field Service executives understand intellectually that PM contracts are good for the business because they lead to:

? Recurring revenue

? Clients “locked-in” with them

? FEWER emergencies—because their clients’ units are being pampered

? And fewer “hair-on-fire” situations in the back office

Yet after talking to dozens of executives, we see that the average contribution of PM contracts to a Field Service business is between two and ten percent.

What should be done first?

a) Go after PM contracts?

or

b) Fix the back office to be able to service PM contracts in the first place?

Let’s explore both options based on what we know after processing almost one million work orders in the last three years and you be the judge.

If Field Service executives go after PM contracts first, this is what would easily happen on any given month:

- Dispatchers are normally extremely busy all the time.

- Emergencies (understandably) take priority.

- “Oh, we have this PM contract for such and such client, we should schedule something… Ok, ok, but not right now.”

- The busyness doesn’t stop.

- End of the month comes. “Omg! Jack, can you visit such and such client?... You’re just two blocks away…”

- Jack (a master technician) rolls his eyes and thinks “man, that’s a bad use of my 25 years of experience.” but says “Sure, I’ll drop by.”

- Meanwhile, Mike, a new junior technician, is at the office finishing an installation tutorial.

In other words, going after PM contracts WITHOUT a back-office team and process leads to:

- The same overload on dispatchers

- Bad use of master technicians

- Bad use of junior technicians

That's IF the maintenance job even got scheduled at all that month. When it isn’t, the risk is bigger. An unhappy client? A whole account lost?

That’s why “fixing” the back office first is what sets the ground to fulfill on PM contracts—at a good quality—in the first place.

That’s what we did with one of our partners and enabled them to reach out proactively to preventive maintenance clients and get those jobs scheduled.

And what’s so great about having this remote team in place first, is that—if the PM volume is low—it can be repurposed for other cash flow-generating activities in the business, such as getting estimates out within the hour, getting invoices out within the day, collecting unpaid invoices, and after-hours customer service. If the PM volume is high, then it is easy to have a dedicated team on it, making sure that those simpler orders are scheduled and dispatched while the rest of the team can focus on custom, higher-value tasks.

And, in case you’re thinking that a remote team would dilute the company culture, remove jobs, or be hard to train and manage, I’d encourage you to talk to one of our industry-leading partners, like Rodger Smelcer from United Service Technologies; or Gyner Ozgul from Smart Care Solutions.

If anything, their remote teams:

- Drive their team culture up.

- Are easy to train and manage—because we do most of it.

- Will often enhance your current processes and documentation.

- And enable your seasoned team members to shine in high-value tasks.

It’s all part of the new “gold standard” in remote teams —focused on business profits—that we’re thrilled to be bringing to the Field Service industry. Several industry pioneers have already discovered the kind of competitive advantage that we can give them, and we’d love to give it to you as well.

So, I’d like to invite you to have a run through our “Profit Score” Quiz to find out if your preventive maintenance program is leaking profits—as well as 8 other key business areas.

It’s a simple and extremely eye-opening questionnaire that we’ve developed after processing more than a million work orders over the last three years.

Take the Profit Score Quiz here ?https://www.origobpo.com/quiz-page/

For Field Service executives with companies processing 10,000+ orders every month, I wouldn’t be surprised if they uncover six-plus figures a month in profits leaks. But even if they don’t find any leaks, they can be sure that they’re running a tight ship that’s ready to scale!

Honestly, for the amount of strategic clarity it provides, I'd reckon fancy consultants could charge tens of thousands of dollars for it. But if you’re reading this, you get a free run through with me, as my holiday treat.

Are you up for it? Send me a message and let’s talk shop.

Yassin Shaar

Chief Growth Officer