Let us begin this post with a series of questions…When does a service-based company turn into a brand?
‍When the quality of service offered by them is exceptional. Isn’t it?
Next…What determines whether the quality of service offered is exceptional or not?
‍In all probability, it will be determined by the interaction between the customer and the field service agents.
Now, who are these field service agents?
They are the real face of the brand. They are the ones who interact with the customers often and solve their problems. Every company has field agents who can be anyone from a maintenance engineer to a cable fixing guy.
According to research by Salesforce, 80% of companies who offer field service say field service is a key part of their overall strategy. Due to the importance of field service agents, their management becomes pretty crucial on a day-to-day basis.
This brings us to a very important question…
What is field service management?
Field service management is the process that oversees all field-related operations. These include optimizing the equipment, operations, workers, and services on the field. A myriad of processes is involved in field service management. They include:
- Dispatching workers to an assignment
- Managing product inventory
- Scheduling and assigning work orders
- Collecting data from the field
- Communicating with the field workers
For companies to work effectively, they need to optimize and streamline all the above functions. This way, they can simplify the everyday work of both the field agents and the desk workers. Let us now understand the technology behind effective field service management.
What is field service software?
There are a plethora of factors that need to be considered to have a smooth field service management process. Balancing so many factors becomes quite a challenge for most businesses. To ease the pressure on them, field service software paves way for a more efficient and easy way to handle all the intricacies involved in a typical field service management process.
Field service software gathers the entire workforce into one platform which can be accessed by an application on any device. This application is packed with benefits like automated scheduling, information sharing, easy communication, and improved dispatching. Above all, the app bridges the gap between the back office and field workers.
More importantly, field management software is not a simple tool; it is a highly dynamic one and continuously transfers real-time data, information, and communication with multiple stakeholders instantly. A typical field service software maximizes the productivity of the business, reduces the total cost, and helps to keep up with the fast-changing industry.
Let us understand the benefits of field service software in detail.
Benefits of field service software
Successful businesses know the real value of field service software; hence they don’t hesitate to invest more in this sector. Here are a ton of benefits that a business gets by investing in a powerful field service technology provider:
1. Visibility
Most of the field service software that is used today is cloud-connected and easily accessible by all personnel. Such enhanced visibility helps the company to keep track, collect data, and analyze crucial data like time, field notes, expenses, and job completion at any point in time. This directly translates to better and informed decisions.
2. Productivity
The world is digitizing at a very rapid pace. To keep up with modern complex requirements, field agents should be highly effective and productive. Luckily, most of the modern field service management tools no longer use manual systems; it’s all electronic and automated, thus boosting employee productivity and operational efficiency.
3. Overhead costs
The burden of overhead costs is often unmanageable for businesses. Overhead costs shoot up in traditional processes, especially when the requirements become more complex.
A field service management software helps by streamlining activities like dispatching, communication, scheduling, and inventory management – all these result in lower overhead costs. These savings will help companies provide better benefits to the employees, enjoy improved profit margins themselves, and offer low product prices to the customers.
4. Employee experience
Having all the essential details in a centralized system would help employees concentrate more on customers and less on manual administrative tasks as it becomes easy to access essential resources, receive timely tasks, and communicate with one another effortlessly.
How to choose the right field service management solution?
There is a wide variety of field management software that is available in the market. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that you have more choices. The bad news is it becomes more difficult to pick one. So we’ve decided to make your life easier by coming up with five essential features that you should look out for while selecting a field management software
1. Straightforward implementation
You would be already using certain tools and technology for other operations in your business. So you need to check if the new software can easily fit or integrate with the existing tools without disrupting any current workflows.
2. Easy to use
This is a given. Your field service agents will have different skills, and not all of them will be tech wizards. So you need to ensure that navigating through the application is easy and simple, even for someone who has never used these tools before. This will also reduce the need for additional training and save you some costs there.
3. Mobile compatible
Field workers are always on-the-go. They cannot carry a laptop everywhere they go. So they should be able to perform all required operations from their mobile device. Hence, the field service management software you pick should be compatible with most mobile devices and specifically with the one that your workforce is predominantly using.
4. Real-time data
Always opt for a field service management solution that provides real-time data. Real-time data is very helpful to provide assistance without any delay and make informed decisions on the go.
5. Scalability and flexibility
It doesn’t matter if you are a giant or a tiny company; the solution you invest in should be built for change. As your workflow and workload change, the system should be capable of handling it and should quickly adapt to new needs.
Conclusion
Field service is gaining more prominence in the modern world, and the number of industries opting for field service management solutions is growing rapidly. There is no doubt that growth and complexity go hand in hand.
Better public image, improved customer retention, and enhanced trust among customers are the key signals for your growth. But they are also challenging to achieve. This is where field service management software like Zuper helps as they streamline the entire field management process and let you stay ahead of the game. To get started, click here.
