• Replies 11 replies
  • Subscribers 2 subscribers
  • Views 2 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

How are you using customer notifications to set expectations?

Gwen Albright

We've been running FieldPulse for about 18 months now, and I keep coming back to customer notifications as the single highest-leverage thing we can tweak.

Here's what we do now:

  • Dispatch confirmation immediately after booking
  • 24-hour reminder with technician name and photo
  • "En route" trigger when status flips to In Transit
  • Completion summary with next steps

The "en route" one has been massive for us. Customers stop calling dispatch to ask "where's my tech?" — down maybe 70% from where we were.

But I'm curious what others are doing. Are you customizing the message copy? We tried being more casual and saw mixed results. What about SMS vs. email preferences? We default to SMS but I'm wondering if certain customer segments would rather get email.

Also — and this is where I'd love to hear from the ops managers here — are you using notifications to handle the negative stuff too? Like delays, reschedules, tech running late? We tend to call for that, but I'm wondering if a well-worded text actually lands better than a human calling to apologize.

Would love to hear what's working. This feels like an underexplored lever.

Parents

  • We do the same four touchpoints but honestly... the 24-hour reminder is the only one customers consistently engage with. The dispatch confirmation gets ignored, en route gets mixed reactions (some people love it, others text back "who is this"), and completion might as well not exist.

    What I'd actually push back on: are we sure notifications reduce calls? In my experience, they just change what people call about. "I got your text, just confirming..." Still a phone call. Still eating dispatch time.

    Not saying don't do them. Just... measure the actual outcome, not the send volume.

  • in reply to Ray DeLuca

    Ray's right. We tracked this for three months. Calls didn't drop — they shifted. We still staffed the same headcount in dispatch.

    Where notifications actually helped was customer satisfaction scores. People feel informed even if they still call. That's worth something, but it's not the labor savings everyone promises.

    We're keeping them. Just not pretending they're a cost center fix.

Reply
  • in reply to Ray DeLuca

    Ray's right. We tracked this for three months. Calls didn't drop — they shifted. We still staffed the same headcount in dispatch.

    Where notifications actually helped was customer satisfaction scores. People feel informed even if they still call. That's worth something, but it's not the labor savings everyone promises.

    We're keeping them. Just not pretending they're a cost center fix.

Children
No Data