Bridge Insights

6 Indispensable Soft Skills of Service Technicians

Dec 12, 2019

The role of service technician can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but across the board, service technicians are essential to keeping the heart of your business beating. For many, a business’s service team is the face of that company. Service technicians are responsible for ensuring client satisfaction, and the service they deliver to your clients plays an essential part in acquiring repeat business.

It is vital for businesses to have the right team in place; a team that can deliver a superior customer experience while performing the task at hand. When building out your team of service technicians, vetting candidates for technical skills and working knowledge is important. However, it is equally important to make sure they have the right soft skills necessary to turn one-time customers into repeat business.

Below are 6 soft skills to look for when interviewing candidates for your service technician opening.

1. Time Management

Technicians often have a heavy workload composed of many time-sensitive jobs. Success in the role of service technician necessitates someone who is organized and has strong recovery and efficiency rates. An individual who is not able to properly prioritize their jobs and work with a sense of urgency will constantly be behind. This habitual tardiness will inevitably affect your customers’ business due to long downtimes, missed deadlines and unachieved expectations.

2. Curiosity

A service technician who gives their morning supply checklist a mere glance, or who is only able to see what’s immediately in front of them will often overlook critical data necessary to effectively resolve issues and deliver thorough service. This can result in time lost as well as future complications. Successful technicians will be naturally motivated to diagnose the problem rather than treat the symptoms and will be excited to think outside of the box to do just that.

3. Work Ethic

Days are typically long and hard for service technicians. Someone who is often late for work or calls in sick will hurt your organization. It is imperative to have someone who has a strong work ethic, is reliable, and willing to go above and beyond for your customers –even if that means working overtime or going into work when they are off to complete an emergency job.

4. Integrity

As mentioned before, service technicians are the face of your company; it is important to have someone with strong morals who places a high value on honesty in this role. When a technician says a job is completed, businesses and customers alike need to be confident that the job was done accurately, and the final invoice is accurate.
The level of service your Service technicians deliver to your clients plays an essential part in acquiring repeat business.

5. Personable

As the client ambassador for your organization, it is not uncommon for service technicians to find themselves acting as on-site customer service reps, account managers, or even sales members. Because of this, it is imperative to have your service technician have strong communication skills. Your technicians need to be sociable as well as knowledgeable. Furthermore, they need to be able to effectively communicate this knowledge to your customers in a friendly and polite manner. These types of interactions are what customers think about when it is time to make another purchase.

6. Detail Oriented

It is essential for service technicians to be thorough in their written and verbal communication -especially when it comes to detail on a client’s account and the services performed. If a visit is not notated well, it is impossible to put together the pieces to make a comprehensive service plan for the client. As the old saying goes, “if it wasn’t written down, it didn’t happen.”

Notable Mentions

In addition to the above-mentioned soft skills there are also two additional imperative skills that do not fall in the soft skills category but are worth mentioning because of how important they are:

  • Finding someone who is technically inclined
  • Someone who can interpret schematics and workflow diagrams
Looking for the above-mentioned soft skills when interviewing for your next open position of service technician will help you find the newest rockstar for your service team.Good Luck in your service technician search, and be sure to ask questions during the interview that touch on an applicant’s soft skills in addition to the harder, more traditional skills that go along with this technical role.