Three Simple Ways to Increase First-Time Fix Rates

Apart from customer satisfaction, a service operation’s first-time fix rate is one of the most quintessential measures of how well an organization is functioning. Technicians’ abilities to solve problems boils down to a combination of two things: 1) how prepared they are when they arrive on site, and 2) what resources they can access to help overcome whatever challenges may arise.

Taken together, a service manager must enable their on-site technicians with knowledge, tools, and a feedback system that allows problems to be fixed the first time a technician encounters them.

Step One: Engaging and Interactive Training

The technicians you onboard are likely problem solvers who have experience within your industry. However, do they understand the nuances of your particular product or service? Do they know the right time to escalate a problem?

The best onboarding solutions engage users by utilizing videos, interactive content, and bite-sized chunks of information. Videos and 3D diagrams help technicians visualize the specific details involved in installing or repairing your product. Dynamic content increases information retention and prepares your technicians before they are sent out into the field.

Because technicians work in distributed locations, investing in onboarding platforms built for remote employees returns dividends. Your workforce can access the content from any device and learn at their own pace. Highly trained technicians function as your brand ambassadors, which can have a positive impact on customer satisfaction and retention.

Step Two: Mobile-ready SOPs and Job-aids

Field technicians are often equipped with mobile devices to help automate dispatching and inventory reports for every work order. Streamlining logistics optimizes the route your technicians take to get to the correct location, but what about equipping them with the necessary job-aids to ensure every task is executed properly?

Even the most knowledgeable technicians may encounter unforeseen issues and need to troubleshoot on the spot. Equipping technicians with a searchable digital library of SOPs helps to standardize the processes used to assemble, install, or fix your product or service.

Imagine a scenario where your technician simply inputs or scans a part number directly on his or her mobile device, and the exact troubleshooting guide needed pops up! Of course, technicians sometimes have spotty connections, but with offline availability, job aids are always accessible.

Mobile-ready SOPs help enforce uniform operations across all jobs and exponentially increase the amount of knowledge brought to bear on a single problem, leading to a much higher incidence of solutions being identified on a first visit.

Step Three: Iterate and Improve

Utilizing data and analytics about every completed job helps to inform future work and improve processes. While you likely know your percentage of successful first-time fix rates, do you know why?

Digital solutions make it easy to correlate potential tools or solutions used for successful deployments. If educated technicians have better first-time fix rates, then track the enablement path of each technician. By looking at the quantity of content consumption, more accurate projections can be made regarding how well technicians can and should successfully complete each task.

With each new best practice discovered, an effective communication method is needed to share that knowledge with your distributed workforce. Ideally, process guides are edited easily with new tips and pushed out automatically to all technicians so they always have accurate and up-to-date policies and procedures. Nothing is worse than technicians undergoing unnecessary risk because they accessed an out-of-date safety document.

In conclusion

If you’d like to improve first-time fix rates or customer satisfaction levels, enabling technicians with mobile job aids and SOPs should be your highest priority. Dynamic and interactive content makes onboarding easier, and the ability to communicate changes in real-time provides peace of mind that accurate information is always utilized.

Technicians’ confidence will rise when they know that everything needed to do the job right the first time is in the palm of their hands.