As a field service business owner, optimizing the flow of business should be one of your top priorities, and knowing how to utilize the service software you are using is a big step towards that goal. By not doing this, you are essentially leaving money on the table, which ends up hurting your bottom line.
In order to bring you on the path to success, we’ve listed 5 most important things you need to know about your service software:
- Mobile tracking
If the service software allows for mobile tracking and service history, your clients will quickly be able to see where the service provider is currently located. Depending on the type of the business you’re running, the importance of this may vary, but one thing is for certain: drivers and couriers of any sort will greatly benefit from this feature. This not only enables the clients to plan their schedule more efficiently, but also allows you to see, for example, which employees are available to fulfill an order.
- Scheduling
It’s absolutely essential for your field service management software to allow for scheduling. This helps you keep things organized and make better business decisions. In concrete terms, one of your employees might report that one of the company’s vehicles is temporarily unavailable due to repairs or maintenance. Also, scheduling helps you keep track of employee availability, vacations, skills, shifts, etc. In essence, good scheduling helps reduce downtime.
- Task management automation
Even though this may take some time to set up, it will be well worth it in the end. This feature will allow you, as well as your customers, to see what’s going on in real-time. If the tasks are mapped out in advance, it’s easy to update the order status.
- Resource inventory access
Your field workers need to be informed of what equipment is available, and the shift manager needs to know who is available to take on the job. That’s the importance of resource inventory access in a nutshell. You can also take this up a notch by enabling automatic re-ordering whenever the stock is low. This type of business automation will help you focus on more important aspects of your business while the software automatically takes care of the mundane, yet necessary type of tasks.
- Electronic dispatching
Further elaborating on the point made above, the less time you and your employees spend on mundane day-to-day tasks, the more time you will have to ensure a great service. Electronic dispatching saves you time by reducing the amount of phone calls you’re going to have to make in the process. One final nugget of wisdom is that you shouldn’t be too controlling and allow plenty of autonomy for your employees. You should only ever inquire about the job progress status if things get excessively delayed without an explanation.
Conclusion
By learning how to make the most out of the service software you’re using, you’re going to be able to become more productive by streamlining the company’s operations. This will unavoidably consume some of your time, but this should be regarded as a short-term investment that yields long-term benefits, making your business more efficient in the end.
