FMs MAY NEED TO UPDATE THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGIES

Per an article in facilitiesnet.com, the value of the customer service function is up for debate in 2019.  The business environment has changed dramatically in the last 10 years and customer service is not now among KPI categories that show up on the facility management radar most frequently. Among those that do show up are:

• Finding lowest cost for operating and maintaining facilities without jeopardizing facility integrity
• Providing high performance facilities, while maintaining energy efficiency and effectiveness
• Creating safe and productive environments for all employees/occupants

Changes in corporate demographics have also skewed the traditional customer service orientation and have a profound impact on whether or not customer service makes any difference to employees/occupants.

Another demographic change: Millennial and younger workers prefer service interactions other than telephone and email — they prefer text, chat, and artificial intelligence service interaction.

Facility managers might not realize it, but technology has become a customer service substitute.

Adding to this problem for facility managers is the interaction with customer service personnel isn’t being replaced by a single new technology or channel; it is being replaced by multiple channels, including text, Twitter, Facebook, and artificial intelligence assistants. This puts pressure on facility managers to test different modalities to see which ones their customers prefer. Not only is it expensive and time-consuming to perform these tests, but it requires investment in multiple forms of technology in order to appeal to a diverse demographic of employees.  Read the entire article