Picture this. It is your typical work day. After your service technician is dispatched, a customer calls your business phone, telling them their service technician has not yet arrived. Your office staff picks up your technician call, and they say that they could not find the customer’s location. Now, you note that office staff has dispatched your technician incorrectly to the wrong address, and he is already miles away from the customer’s location. The day is already a complete mess.
Being a part of a field service company, you may have faced this. But you do not need to rely on doing everything manually—at least not entirely. According to a report, 52% of field service businesses still use manual methods for most of their field service tasks. Managing work orders, job scheduling, and dispatching, all of these are done manually.
These processes are at the core of any business that performs some form of field service, and to insist on doing them all manually is inviting disaster. We don’t mean to say that your people are doing a bad job, but they are only human. And in a competitive market, being human can be a weakness. Especially if your competitors adopt field service management software ahead of you.
The field service industry is constantly growing. It has witnessed rapid growth in the last decade and is now a heavily competitive market. Keep ahead of the competition. In an evolving business landscape, it is high time to implement a field service solution to overcome obstacles and succeed by optimizing the business operations in field service management. If you are a field service manager or a business owner and face struggles in managing tasks, field service management (FSM) software is the solution. You have probably heard the term ‘FSM software’ but wondered how it could be used for optimization. Well, read on to find out!
Tracking
Keeping track of a technician’s progress and exact location hard is and time-consuming at best. Your office staff has to call and verify the technician’s location whenever they are dispatched to the customer’s location. But if a customer calls in to ask where the technician is and what their exact ETA is…it is not a simple answer. Answering that question means putting the customer on hold, calling the tech—who may already be en route or in no position to talk—and asking “hey where are you?” But even being able to talk with them relies on cell service being available.
Answering this question is not as easy as the customer thinks. But what if it was? This is where field service management software comes into play.
Field service management software allows you to optimize time-consuming and repetitive business operations. GPS-enabled tracking software allows you to track and monitor a service technician’s location in a non-invasive manner. It automatically updates technicians’ estimated time of arrival (ETA) and job progress. Customers can also elect to receive ETA alerts via SMS or email notifications so they don’t have to call in for updates.
Let’s assume that one of your technicians is closer to the customer’s location. However, per your timesheet policy, they have to travel all the way to your office to check in for the day before they can start working on jobs. Making your technicians travel back and forth just to capture timesheet information is time and labor-intensive. This process is archaic and pointless.
However, with remote timesheet management software, he can punch in at customers’ locations and start his job. Simple, isn’t it? The timesheet management module sets up a geo-fence around your customer’s location. When your technician reaches that limit, he/she will have the option to punch in for the day. Additionally, facial recognition eliminates the risk of buddy punching.
FSM software like Zuper, can help track each technician’s whereabouts, timesheet, and even their time log for a specific project. No compromises on ensuring the privacy of technicians. Real-time location tracking does not record during breaks or leaving the job site. This helps to get greater visibility of the productivity of field service teams. FSM software dramatically helps to prevent timesheet errors and miscalculation of labor costs.
Tracking technicians’ whereabouts help to allocate jobs according to their skill set, availability, and the nearest location. This helps significantly reduce the time to complete the work order and service delays.
Reporting
- How is your business operating?
- Where are you lacking?
- Which technician team is performing well?
- To make any informed decisions, all you need is data.
An FSM solution centralizes all the data you need and provides it to you in the form of reports. The reporting module in Zuper FSM software helps track the performance of your field service business operations, field service managers, and field workforce. You can access the data such as field service management KPI in a meaningful way. The data obtained is converted into the form of reports. The reports can help you get insights into your
