Tip#9: Subcontract to manage peak demand.

Building and managing great relationships with subcontractors can help your field service business to match capacity with demand almost perfectly.

Don’t expect your subcontractors to act like your internal technicians, but they can come pretty close if you have a well-articulated agreement with these key elements:

1. Quality - spell out your expectations for the perfect service call and leave nothing out. If your partner is not willing to sign up, they are not the partner for you.

2. Capacity - how many calls will the contractor take on each day.

3. Demand - How many calls will you commit to give them each month or quarter? You may want to apply tiered pricing to these volume levels to keep the contractor committed, even at lower volume.

4. Order Management Process - How do you communicate calls to the contractor, in what format and detail, and how far in advance.

5. Lead Generation - Don’t forget the elephant in the room, and that is who owns the client relationship after the first call. You will both want that to happen, so make sure you spell it out. If you want to own the client exclusively, expect to pay a little more for the service call.

6. Measurement - Detail how the contractor will be measured and what penalties and incentives are in place to recognize the right behaviours.

Farm out calls to your subcontractors early to free up internal capacity for the last-minute work. Hang onto those calls that are the most likely to generate a sale and reserve capacity for the work that you know will come in. One company that used this approach was able to book over 60% of their calls on the same day. This creates an outstanding customer experience and maintains a great employee and contractor experience as well. Yes, you can have it all!

Managing the flow of calls to subcontractors while maintaining the productivity of your internal workforce is as much science as art. Having a clear contract in place will get you off to a great start.

Do you use subcontractors in your field service business to manage peak demand?

Share your experiences in the comments below and learn more about field service transformation with Chapman Management Solutions at www.chrischapman.ca.