About the study

In recent years we have seen a marked shift in the emphasis on the metrics which define success within field service operations.

Traditionally, the critical metrics within field service organisations have centred around operational success. KPIs such as Mean-time-to-Repair (MTTR), Technician Utilisation and First-Time-Fix (FTF) have always been at the top of any benchmarking study relating to this area.

However, increasingly across the last few years of undertaking such benchmarking studies, we have seen Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) metrics become widely cited as critical KPIs amongst field service organisations.

For example, in a previous study hosted by FSN Research, we noted that 51% of field service companies now saw an equal weighting in importance between operationally-focused KPIs and CSAT-focused KPIs. Furthermore, 13% of field service companies went further and stated that they felt CSAT focused KPIs were of greater importance for measuring their business success.

With this in mind, FSN Research, in partnership with HSO has undertaken a detailed study to understand precisely what CSAT metrics are being tracked. At the same time, we must also acknowledge that the digital transformation journey our sector has been on for several years was significantly accelerated due to the pandemic across 2020 and into this year.

There has been much discussion of what the new normal will look like for the field service sector.

However, the indicators apparent within numerous studies from FSN Research and beyond suggest many of the key trends that were emerging will be at the heart of our thinking as we move into the brave new world of the post pandemic field service operations.

Three of the key pillars of this future of field service are servitization, digital transformation and customer-centricity. Therefore, the second objective of this study is to better define the interplay between these three crucial areas.

Next, the study was designed to focus on how the digital transformation our industry is moving through can empower the shift to an industry more focused on customer success and, finally, to assess whether that transformation will lead us naturally towards becoming an industry that places servitization at its heart.

In the study we spoke to a sample of over 280 field service leaders from a variety of different industry verticals including manufacturing, utilities, telecommunications, power generation, healthcare, med-tech, security and many others.

The study was conducted during April and May 2021 and data was collected online via personal invitations to participate. The data presented in this report is quantitative. We are currently undertaking interviews with a selection of respondents for our final report within this study which will then be based on further qualitative data yielded in those interviews.