Your business is as good as the team you employ, and it’s especially important when you’re managing staff and team of service technicians. But if you have an unmotivated contractor or technician handling service requests out in the field, you can easily see a stunt in business growth. That’s why it’s critical to understand the root causes that can hamper team morale and motivation among your staff and field service team members. Here are five of the top reasons why your team of field service techs and staff lack motivation (and how to fix it):
1. They Lack the Right Tools
If you don’t arm your field service technicians and staff with the right tools that help them productive, they won’t be efficient at their jobs. This can lead to delayed appointments and unhappy field service customers. Moreover, when your field service technicians are stuck spending time on administrative tasks or need to return to the office to get their next assignment, they become inefficient. These inefficiencies lead to frustration and can turn to a lack of motivation to do their job at their best.
2. Your Field Service Technicians Feel Under-appreciated (and Underpaid)
While money doesn’t equal complete happiness, not being able to pay your bills due to a lack of funds can demotivate your contractors from doing their best. Instead of trying to save money by offering rock-bottom salaries, make sure your team is being paid fairly and periodically auditing the wages you pay. Also, motivate your team with other forms of incentives, such as prizes, reward systems, extra time off and even a vacation if the budget allows.
3. You’re Micromanaging Them
It’s okay to help be a guiding light for new field service technicians and office staff new on the job, but if you don’t give them space to learn even from the mistakes they make, you’ll quickly demotivate your staff. Instead of micromanaging every aspect of your team, allow them to handle customer inquiries and other tasks they are assigned to do. Once they know their job and the goals you set for them, let them do their work.
Field service programs like mHelpDesk comes equipped with staff productivity reporting, so business owners can easily spot how their team is doing, from key metrics like total jobs completed per technician and the total hours they spend on a job. Business owners can determine their team’s baseline or average numbers, and use that to motivate their team to do better.
If you want a field technician to do his best, then you need to acknowledge the work he does. That’s why it’s important to recognize the efforts of your staff. Instead of overlooking your team’s efforts, show them that you care and that they are a valuable part of the company, including helping to move the needle with sales. Give out awards or send out a monthly newsletter that recognizes the technicians who go above and beyond for your customers.
5. There’s a Lack of Effective Communication
Your team needs to know when they should arrive at an appointment, whether situations have changed and have a way to communicate any issues that may arise on the job. You’ll also want to be clear about what you expect from them, pointing to productivity levels and the goals you want them to achieve. If there is a lack of effective communication, this can deter your team’s progress and keep them from performing at their best.
Automated text and email notifications in mHelpDesk make life easier for techs and staff!
Free yourself from having to manually send updates to customers and office staff! Set up appointment reminders, scheduling confirmations and more! In mHelpDesk, go to Settings > Other > Notifications to get started.
Motivation requires constant effort and a team that lacks motivation can bring your business down. But with the help of the right technology and strategies, you can motivate your team and enhance productivity and performance while increasing your profits.
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Free yourself from having to manually send updates to customers and office staff! Set up appointment reminders, scheduling confirmations and more! In mHelpDesk, go to Settings > Other > Notifications to get started.
