Field management is effectively a company's management of resources either employed at or to the property of clients rather than to the company's property. This type of management includes scheduling work orders, the dispatch technicians, the tracking work hours, the status of jobs, and even sending out and managing invoices. There are common examples of these types of businesses that include customer support, maintenance, inspections, consultancy, and even repair.
Believe it or not, as many as 52 percent of all companies don't leverage automated methods for completing these tasks. Rather they do them manually despite there being field service software readily available that can help to increase efficiency and streamline the entire process. Doing so can yield excellent results by improving customer satisfaction rates, improving data tracking, and more. Here are some of the many benefits of integrating field service management software into the mix.
You might be wondering why you need to integrate this type of software into your business. The fact is, it comes with a host of benefits. Not only does it help to improve your workflow, but it can skyrocket your productivity. Integrating this software into the mix can help your business in the following areas.
One of the main reasons to integrate this type of software into your business has to do with the ways you can leverage it for automation. This software allows you to do a lot of processes much quicker and more efficiently. There are a lot of processes in your business that likely are done very inefficiently. Likewise, they leave room for a lot of potential for human error. This is something automation can dramatically reduce.
One of the ways you can skyrocket efficiency in your business is by improving productivity. Storing all of the relevant information in a single place will allow all of your technicians to be able to access and review orders and agreements without having to go higher up the chain to management.
Artificial Intelligence allows dispatchers to effectively hand out the right jobs to the right technicians without any delay. It all happens in real-time.
Having remote asset monitoring and easy-access tutorials along with other important information will help workers learn how to solve their issues much quicker.
Having access to this software is going to help to standardize workflow and improve operational efficiency by default.
Being able to digitally process this workflow can make having to deal with stacks of paper trails nonexistent. You'll be able to do everything from assigning tasks to field staff in real-time to monitoring schedules, and even managing invoices and tracking your technician's routes from a central device. Depending on the software, you can do it from a smartphone, tablet, desktop, or laptop making it extremely flexible and convenient.
All of the workflow processes involved in your business will gain flexibility because your entire operations will be more accessible than ever before. Rather than have to deal with multiple phone calls at a time, technicians will be able to view the updates right where they are from their smartphones. This is only a single benefit of this type of software that can have a tremendous impact on the efficiency of your business. A lot of these businesses face unique challenges like having to deal with inefficient communication, inefficient scheduling, and the inability to assign the right technicians to the right job. All of these things can be mitigated with the proper implementation of the right field service management software.
With this software, you'll be able to optimize your technician's schedules. You can monitor their progress without having to interrupt them. You can even keep them from having to spend time talking to upper management which can reduce service times considerably. You'll have complete access to the progress they've made. Therefore, you don't have to worry about issues involved with overbooking because you can schedule their assignments on the spot. Also, you can schedule their appointments by accounting for traffic and road time. Having this level of flexibility can keep you from wasting a lot of your technician's time on the road going from job to job.
Any manager can set key performance indicators that they can use to judge their technician's performance. This kind of data is essential if you want to get the most out of your technicians. It will show the technicians that are performing the best and it will highlight those that need to work on their performance. Best of all, it can give valuable data and insight as to why they are underperforming so they know how to best fix it. It could be something as simple as not being assigned enough jobs which is an easy problem to solve if you know that's the problem.
One of the clearest benefits of using this software is the ability to optimize sales and get rid of wasted overhead. You can get rid of a lot of manual processing and work. By taking your paper trails digital, you can reduce the need for physical storage. You can also reduce wasted time on phone calls with real-time messaging. Everything can be streamlined to save a lot of time and money. There are plenty of ways costs can be reduced with this automated software including:
Having access to real-time analytics is key. Not only does it allow your managers to make more informed decisions, but they can make quicker decisions without disrupting the workflow of your technicians. You can also optimize your inventory to minimize any overstocks. It can also give you a lot of valuable information to improve any first-time customer visits. It can eliminate a lot of manual reporting and manual labor.
However, this software isn't all about getting rid of excess costs. It's also about moving a lot of your business processes digitally where the world is headed. The new digital age is all about being flexible and accessible. You need to make changes swiftly to keep up with the competition. You need to eliminate a lot of the outdated and inefficient processes and turn the page to the automated and more efficient ones.
Most consumers use customer service to decide whether or not they want to do business with a company. They will determine whether or not they do business with them based on their feedback and reputation. They are constantly looking at third-party review sites to monitor a company's reputation. This is putting immense pressure on companies to strive for perfection with their customer service efforts. Field management software can be advantageous to a company looking to improve its customer service efforts in many ways. For instance, it can:
For one, it can give your business an edge when it comes to responding to customers quicker. You can leverage features like email reminders, automated booking, and automated billing processes to improve the relationships you have with your end customers.
A lot of customers expect a business to have some kind of customer experience portal where they can communicate with the company. They want to know that their voices are being heard. You need to give them some way to communicate with your customer service team. The better you do this, the more likely you can retain them as a customer in the future. This can improve your retention efforts and maximize your market share.
