Communication and performance are vital in business. This is a given. But when your communication is below par, and you aren’t getting the right message across, this can be disastrous for all involved. After all, communication is a two-way process, and you must be modeling excellent communication skills to ensure that all your professional relationships are intact and supported at all times.
This is never more important than when your business has field agents who are frequently working outside of the office. Being able to get the correct details and ensuring effective communication and collaboration is vital to the success of their job roles. This, in turn, helps to improve performance and skills to become more proficient at their job.
Did you know that poor communication can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000 per employee and may lead to a loss of custom as clients move elsewhere due to the inefficiencies poor communication represents within a business? It is also one of the leading reasons employees look for alternative employment too. So if you are looking to attract and retain only the best talent, you need one focusing on your communication to improve employee cutlery, efficiency, and productivity. Never underestimate the power of effective communication.
However, communication isn’t just limited to verbal conversations. It is more than that. It is every interaction you have with employees, businesses, clients, and more. It is about how you get your message across regardless of the medium used and how well you work with each other to make the necessary improvements.
Your field agents can’t do their job role without clear and concise communication at all levels, and this needs to be set from the top to filter down and get the best form for each and every single rep.
Training
Training is a digital aspect of being able to carry out any task correctly. From knowing how to do their job to the ins and outs of the business to knowing their own capabilities within this job role, your field agents need to be confident in their abilities to be able to make the sale and keep clients happy while generating new and viable leads.
None of this is possible without good communication skills, so when you assign training, pay attention to their soft skills and work with them to improve their verbal and written communication, body language, and listening skills. A lot can be said without saying a word, and helping your reps present themselves in their best light will not only reflect well on them and your business but equip them with the skills required to represent your company.
But to foster good communication skills, you also need to address issues with communication at upper management levels and everyone involved in the company so everyone can work together well and eliminate miscommunication between all parties.
Effective training improves performance and gives people the skills they need and confidence when working independently.
Make Time for One to One Meetings
These meetings don’t always need to be face-to-face, although this should be done if possible, but you do need to talk to each rep face-to-face on a regular basis. While they might be capable of performing their job role, you need to be checking in and keeping abreast of their activities and communicating any changes or concerns you might have to address.
Not only can one-to-one meetings help you to discuss important details, but they can help you determine how well things are going and get a better idea of how people are coping with their demands. Too many variables can affect a person’s ability to communicate well, and regular chats with your agents who rent in the office frequently can help you to check in and ensure you know what is going on and how they are managing their workload. From here, you can make any changes or suggestions if required.
Suppose you can’t be available for one-on-one meetings using collaboration software. In that case, you need to remain in contact and give your field reps a way of contacting them privately and securely with any issues or concerns they have. While this doesn’t replace the need for these meetings, it can be a good substitute for those items when meeting them or something unexpected crops up. Software such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Asana, Google Drive, and Trello are good examples of software that can be used this way.
Be Honest and Transparent
Gatekeeping of information and withholding vital details will reflect poorly on your business and hinder your rep’s ability to perform their job. Never underestimate your employee’s ability to determine if you are being honest and open with them when holding meetings, sending emails, etc.
Employees at all levels need to feel valued and appreciated, and they will know if you are being sincere in your efforts to communicate effectively with them. You need to foster a culture of trust and openness with your field agents and instill confidence in them to perform as required, and communication is the backbone of this.
You should be making an effort not to communicate properly individually to discuss the status of projects, changes to workloads, and anything else that affects their working day as and when needed.
The upshot of this is that when employees feel in the loop and are valued, they will perform better as well as being equipped with the right tools and knowledge to go out there and represent your company, and when you have agents in the field; this is precisely what you need.
Improve Workflows and Assignments
Keeping track of employees when out in the field is something you hold be doing anyway; however, being able to distribute them where required and get them to the right places and clients can make or break how successful they are at their job.
Employing a field service platform that can track activity, collate data, monitor trends and employee activity can help you improve your field service agent approach and ensure you cover all your bases. It might be that you need to assign a specific agent with particular skills to the client; with appropriate software in place, you can find a space in their schedule and get a more accurate appointment time based on the current location and ability to take care of the sale or issue at hand. Or you might need other agents to collaborate to help a client out. The easier it is for you to get the information, the better your customer service will be, and the more effective your assigning of reps will be.
On top of this, ask for feedback from both reps and clients to help identify issues and bottlenecks or find solutions to existing barriers you might have. Put this feedback in place to help you improve your workflow to increase efficiency and productivity without compromising on the service you provide.
Use Data
Just because your field agents are capable of self-regulating their work and being able to perform without constant supervision, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to assess their performance as you would if they were office based. You still need to use the data collected from their activities to determine how well they perform and what works for you and them.
More than 80% of data businesses generate goes unused, so you can’t measure performance if this applies to you. Make a point of using the data to deliver effective feedback. This feedback can come from clients, suppliers, other employees, and data collected from performance. How are they closing deals, how many issues are they having, and are their issues repetitive, meaning they are struggling somehow? Use your experiences with each rep to quantify performance and help you improve your actions and how your agents perform. From here, you can tweak your communication strategy and improve where appropriate.
Team Building
Even though field agents are almost like lone wolves when it comes to working, including them in the many cities and arranging for them to come into the office periodically can help them feel more connected with the team and the company as a whole. It can be easy for them not to feel part of what is happening if they do not visit the office frequently. You can combat this by hosting team building exercises, workshops, or get-togethers they can attend and be encouraged to do to help them make the connections and ensure they are kept in the opp as far as employee culture goes. Just because they aren’t in the office daily doesn’t mean the company culture should be extended to them.
Doing this allows you to catch up with them face-to-face in a more relaxed setting and support them as you do with office workers. The more comfortable they feel as part of the team, the better the lines of communication will be between everyone, and the more productive they are likely to be.
Conclusion
Improving communication is vital for getting the best from our employees, and only do you need to cultivate a working culture of open and effective communication. Still, you need to lead by example too. You must pay particular attention to field agents’ performance and support them as needed.
