The Critical Role Of Field Service Management In Customer Experience

Two researchers recently looked at data from over 6,000 mergers and acquisitions worldwide between 2003 and 2013. They used mergers and acquisitions data because those typically contain dollar valuations of all assets at the time of acquisition, including elements of “brand” and elements of “customer relationships.”

For years, most companies had operated according to a principle that “brand” -- both the general idea of how you’re perceived in the marketplace, but also specific concepts around trademarks, trade names, product names, publishing titles, domains, and the like -- was the most important aspect of a business.

When the data was crunched on these 6,000+ mergers, the researchers found that the value of customer relationships was seemingly more financially important than the value of ‘brand’ itself. In this case, it was gauged through existing repeat customers.

That’s a big shift. Customer experience now trumps ‘brand’ which has been the gold standard of evaluating businesses for decades.

If you’re running a field service organization, you probably know by now that customer experience, customer service, customer satisfaction -- really, whatever you choose to call it -- is very important to your overall business health and growth potential. At the most logical, basic level, happy customers lead to more sales and more referrals, and referral is, by far, the most powerful marketing driver there is.