7 Growth Strategies to Scale Up Your Field Service Business

If you're like most business owners, you're always looking for ways to grow your company. Growth often requires capital expenditures and investments in people, equipment, and technology. Yet with a looming recession and a tight labor market, every growth-stage business leader is working to balance sustainability and profitability. 

According to Boston-based Volition Capital, a growth equity investor, “companies should evaluate their specific market, and capital availability, to determine if sacrificing short-term profitability in pursuit of responsible growth is the correct decision. Growth at all costs introduces financing risk and assumes that capital will remain readily available to fund continued losses.”

For field service businesses, growth was tough without added market pressure. After all, field service teams are often subjected to working in dangerous conditions while under intense customer demands to meet exact project specifications. The good news is that there are strategies that businesses with field service operations can begin implementing today to scale in 2023.

1. Focus on quality customer service. One of the main initiatives of field service teams should be to build deeper, meaningful relationships with their customers. Of course, quality customer service is essential for any successful business, but it’s especially important in the field service industry where technicians are called to provide prompt, professional service. Make sure your team is highly trained and well-equipped to deliver top-notch service every time. This will help you retain existing customers and win new ones. In fact, research has shown that keeping an existing customer can be five times more cost-effective than acquiring a new customer. 
2. Leverage technology. Technology can be a huge asset to help scale up field service businesses by providing strong infrastructure for communication and collaboration. Additionally, technology can help capture contracts, manage financial documents, and schedule and dispatch field technicians. By investing in the right tools—such as cloud-based software and mobile apps—you’ll save time and money while providing exceptional service to customers.
3. Expand into new markets. New markets are emerging constantly, so it’s important that business leaders stay on the pulse of the industries they serve. By identifying new areas where your company’s services are needed, and then developing a strategy for reaching potential customers in those areas, the leads should slowly trickle in. Accelerate this expansion by leaning on outreach strategies including digital marketing campaigns, industry events, or even partnering with other local businesses to provide services.
4. Diversify your offerings. Consider expanding the services you offer to attract more customers and increase revenue streams. You could add additional services related to your existing offerings—concentric diversification—or offer completely new services that appeal to different customer needs, which is horizontal diversification. These steps will require you to fully understand customers’ problems and, subsequently, offer outside-of-the-box solutions.
5. Hire the right people. Finding and hiring talented employees is essential for scaling up any business successfully. However, the field services industry is even more dependent on employees who ultimately become ambassadors for the business. Look for empathetic, critical thinkers, and problem solvers with a passion for customer service who can help you meet specific organizational goals, contribute to a positive workforce culture, and build your brand’s equity.
6. Utilize data. Data-driven decision making transcends the buzzworthy term that it has become; it’s truly a powerful tool for scaling your business quickly and efficiently. Today, data is readily available from multiple sources. Use market data, customer feedback, and other metrics to inform decisions about pricing, promotions, product development, and more.
7. Develop a referral program. Referral programs are an effective way to attract new customers and expand your reach. Offer incentives—such as discounts, free services, or rewards points—to encourage customers to refer you to their coworkers, friends, and family. 

Following these strategies, you can scale up your field service business quickly and efficiently in 2023. By investing in the right tools and resources, focusing on quality customer service, and launching referral programs and data-driven decision making, you’ll be carving a scalable trajectory for growth. 

Rob Freedman is the head of growth marketing at Zuper. Freedman earned his expertise in demand generation, digital marketing, social media, and public relations from his prior marketing roles at Fourlane, Advisor Software, Focus Financial Partners, and HighTower Advisors. He is a marketing and revenue operations executive with nearly 20 years of experience.