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Why does your service business need an email marketing tool ?

Field service companies are constantly seeking for new and imaginative methods to sell themselves. To attract new consumers, your company may have tried direct mailers, newspaper commercials, buying ad space in discount publications, generating radio ads, and other traditional types of promotion. While many of these marketing channels can be beneficial, they can also take a lot of time and effort to implement, especially for a field service company.

More and more successful field service organisations are turning to email marketing to reach out to new and existing clients in a cost-effective and efficient manner. As a field service technician, you most likely already have a lot on your plate. Setting up and managing email campaigns may appear to be a difficult undertaking. The process has grown a lot easier now that there are various email marketing packages available to assist you develop, administer, and monitor your campaigns. MailChimp and Constant Contact are two popular email marketing tools. Look for a tool that allows you to simply create emails, add current and new customers, and view reports on the emails you send to save time and resources.

Use of email marketing campaigns for field service companies

If you have detailed client data, you may use them to send customised emails to your current customers. Customers in several field service sectors, such as plumbing, HVAC, and appliance repair, may only contact you a few times each year. Effective email marketing campaigns may help your organisation keep ahead of the competition in terms of client awareness. To promote return business, offer pleasant maintenance reminders or contact consumers about seasonal specials. If your company uses field service management software, you can quickly create client email lists from current data and send numerous emails at once, saving even more time. Make sure that every client’s email address becomes a datapoint you gather and enters safely into your customer database.

If your field service firm has a website, you may take advantage of internet visitors by using an email automation platform. Streamline your email marketing with tailored communications that are sent out in response to user activity signs like page clicks, email openings, and transaction histories. This will most certainly require some technical effort to integrate with your website, but if done correctly, it can be a strong and successful lead generation tool.

Boost your website’s traffic

Within the emails you send to consumers, you may highlight website information and provide links. As a consequence, your website’s traffic will increase, and your SEO will improve. Furthermore, the traffic sent to your website will be qualified. A qualified lead is a prospective customer who is likely to make a purchase because they require the seller’s solution.

You may utilize the unique material you develop for your email campaigns on your website if it performs successfully. On-site involvement can assist with SEO. Use email as a testing tool to evaluate what types of content you should create.

Keep lines of communication open

One of the most efficient marketing methods is open email, which allows you to maintain a direct line of communication with prospects and consumers. Most people check their email at least once a day, so there’s a good chance they’ll notice and open your message (if the content is relevant and you present it in a way that makes sense)

Use email to establish thought leadership by delivering material that gives users with relevant suggestions or information. If you have a new deal, make sure to let your consumers know about it.

You can send a variety of content:

  • Important announcements and events are included in the newsletter.
  • Promotions and offers
  • Articles on the blog and more!
Get email feedback from customers on a regular basis

To improve the consumer experience, consider implementing email marketing. Send surveys to your consumers to find out what they think of your company. Request that they post evaluations about your service after an appointment by email, either on your website or on a third-party review website like Google My Business. Hearing from your consumers on a regular basis may help you enhance your offerings and customer experience. This information can assist you in better understanding your consumers’ problems with your company. It will, on the other hand, provide you insight into what your company appears to be doing well.

Email marketing may help your service firm build stronger client relationships and increase revenue. Consider going digital with your marketing if you’ve previously gone digital with your client database using field service software. To advertise your field service business more successfully and efficiently, combine the two tools.

4 Ways to improve and increase field service customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is critical to every company’s long-term survival, but it’s especially critical for field service companies. Customer satisfaction, which is a measure of how satisfied someone is with your product or service, their whole experience, and your company as a whole, may have a significant influence on your bottom line. It has an impact on everything from customer retention and brand loyalty to reputation and recommendations, so it’s critical to assess where your firm thrives and where it falls short when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and Customer Effort Score (CES) are a few useful KPIs to focus on as you try to enhance your customer experience — and, with an intuitive field service software, you can provide quality field service delivery and an exceptional customer experience.

In this blog article, we’ll look at 4 techniques for improving your field service, customer satisfaction KPIs, and overall business health.

A personalized experience for field service customers

Over the last decade, the consumer environment has shifted dramatically. Despite the fact that the expression “customer is king” has been around for a long time, it has only recently become a widespread phenomenon. Customers will be more satisfied if you focus your offers on them, and if you take a step back, your competitors will be right behind you, ready to pounce on your market share. Customer insights may be leveraged to give a more tailored service using predictive analytics. As an example, assigning a field service task according to the customer’s desired time periods. Their preferences may be remembered from previous interactions and used to deliver customized value in order to increase customer satisfaction.

Enhancing Field Service Technician’s Skills

It is critical for field service workers to be knowledgeable of issue scenarios and technical guidelines in order to work more efficiently and quickly solve a problem at a client site. Past service data and records may be studied using analytics to get insights that can aid with faster issue resolution, better maintenance procedures, and even empower field associates with knowledge about what keeps a specific client engagement. If the majority of your field service efforts include sales and marketing, updating field employees with client preferences might be very beneficial. When service history is available for evaluating data patterns of comparable occurrences, faster diagnosis of problems is feasible. As a result, predictive analytics may help equip employees with the knowledge they need to match exact client demands and offer faster and more effective field service.

Consistent Customer Interaction

Customers prefer not to contact customer service until the problem cannot be resolved on their own. Customers are strongly averse to repeated calls from a business for following up with them for every single service update. In order to sort that, if customers can install field service software they can receive real-time updates on Technician arrival, payment information, and transactions via emails, SMS, or the customer portal. Customers would not feel isolated and will have constant access to data, which will boost customer satisfaction.

Field Service Software For Automated Workflows

The advantages of using field service software to improve client satisfaction are enormous. Even if customers have no involvement in the automation of workflows, the improved procedures can assist to reduce mistakes and improve customer satisfaction. Your field technicians are automatically scheduled, and deployed, arrive at the customer location at the correct time with the proper equipment, finish the work assigned, collect customer feedback, take a photo, access crucial client data through the app, and bill and invoice in a legible manner. These tasks must be completed without leaving any room for clients to become frustrated or have a negative impression of your organization or professional. Your consumers will appreciate the smooth, well-managed operations, and the first-time fix rates have a significant influence on customer satisfaction.

Any firm that fails to understand and address the demands of its customers, regardless of how the products or services are classified, will not be successful in the long run.

Digitize your business, automate operations, increase visibility, enhance business and staff performance, increase consumer trust, and propel your company’s growth and revenue.

By utilizing Fieldy, you may have a profitable business. Do you want to test out the software? Contact us for a live demo.

How field service software can help you grow your business?

In the past 2 decades, field service management (FSM) has been slowly and steadily developing alongside technological advancements and changes in lifestyle. Tools/methods that were developed back in the 1990s, took FSM companies only a few steps ahead of paper-based maintenance management systems.

If you see now, Field service management is an immensely growing sector, and to become a successful FSM company you require heightened expertise in your approach. You’ll have to face lots of obstacles if you don’t opt for appropriate technology, from providing clients with easy-to-use mobile apps to offering your employees with necessary digital tools for heightened field efficiency.

So, why is field service software necessary?

The need for a tool to maintain/manage field operations is still understated, and several field service organizations insist on using spreadsheets to look after processes. Field service maintenance became more complex and time-consuming as businesses began expanding. Because of covid-19 epidemic, commercial firms started realizing the need for proper field service maintenance and are instantly adopting digital approaches for providing exceptional field management services. Top of all, in order to serve all the modern needs of a field services company, a Field Service Management Software must have advanced analytics, data management & protection capabilities, artificial intelligence, and cloud storage.

Let’s look at different benefits a FSM software can offer to you in scaling your business:

Increased FTFR rate

The technician you send must have the appropriate skill(s) and required spare parts and tools in order to successfully fulfill the job and thereby improve your FTFR rate. By adding advanced FSM software to your digital transformation strategy you can own the following:

  • Built-in algorithms in the FSM system can aid you in finding the most appropriate technician for each job.
  • Real-time tool stock information: It lets your service personnel keep track of common spare parts that they might need to accomplish the job, which is handy.
  • Tool booking: This helps technicians make sure that the tools required for a field service job are available, the planner can reserve them.
  • Job forms: Your technicians can handle scheduling, job estimates, checklists, troubleshooting, and work order data on-site with the readily accessible job forms. They can account for their work, follow job instructions, enter work requests while on-site, and respond to client inquiries. As a result, the first time fix rates are improved.

Simpler third-party integrations

It is a must for every field service management company to integrate their operations with multiple assistive tools, for example, CRM and payment gateways. These integrations are a must and are no easy job as they might appear. By offering the capability to work with a variety of software you are giving your customers the best experience possible. And by opting for advanced field service management software, you gain the power to integrate it with a tonne of useful features that can potentially round out your experience. This way, managing a field service business becomes much easier, as you have access to the right payment portal, CRM, and other needed tools. As a result, field executives, administrative staff, and customers have a spectacular experience.

Improved visibility into maintenance

When FSM software/systems are used to their fullest potential they can help businesses reduce repairs, provide management an enhanced view of the ongoing maintenance activities, offer step-by-step checklists with image or video files attached for field experts to approach problems in an informed way, and also gain customers’ trust. FSM software can show if your budgets are acceptable and are on track, as well as identify weaker areas of a technician so that necessary training can be provided. Senior field officers or management can make well-informed judgments with the help of detailed reports. Additionally, a 52-week PPM calendar can offer a quick overview of scheduled work for the day, month, or year all from a single source.

External contractors’ workflow

During the unavailability of in-house technicians or when there is a shortage of a particular expertise, field service businesses may need to procure technicians to fulfill service jobs from an external agency. To look after these components that are part of the holistic field service operations, FSM software can be used to build a dedicated workflow to specifically deal with external service contractors and their teams of technical experts.

Record field service/job evidence

To maintain and scale a field service business, on every job done, task data must be collected. This information can further be used to infer patterns of customer requests, identify peak months, and gain an understanding of how to best serve a customer. Additionally, next-generation FSM tools can help technicians collect field evidence and do much more.

Overall, when you adopt an all-in-one FSM software, managing data becomes extremely easier. And when you are powered with advanced field service management software, you can always stay ahead of the rest in the industry, get rid of paper works and offer the best customer experience.

With Fieldy, you can leverage the best field service automation! Fieldy will provide you with tools that are needed to digitize any kind of field service jobs you may offer, help you scale your processes, and increase your ROI.

Would you like a free demo to know why Fieldy is best for your business? – Hit us up here.

Future trends of field service management

Field service management has transformed more in the last year than in any previous year. Due to the maturity of FSM software, many businesses have begun adopting its advancements and the technology it’s built on. Perhaps what we are seeing now is how field service management is being revolutionized by various needs of FSM businesses and how vendors are providing solutions for each.

Field service professionals are always on the lookout for what’s new in the space and often wonder what the future of the industry looks like. When it’s about modern technology, one should always be searching for new advancements/developments and adopt those that will give them an edge over their competitors. Currently, many new themes are emerging in the field service arena that will revolutionize the foundation of the industry. Several businesses will be pushed to test out their existing strategies and transform them all for better business outcomes.

In this blog, we’ll take you through some of the advancements that you can look forward to in the space of field service management.

Automated Field Service Management

Predictive maintenance is all about utilizing IoT and/or sensors linked with analytics and machine learning to forecast the tasks that will need maintenance in the future. It can also identify the right time for equipment to be serviced, aiming for all the maintenance to be finished just in time.

Some of the advantages of utilizing a predictive maintenance solution are:

  • Increased availability of the system
  • Reduced operational and repair cost
  • No unexpected breakdowns

While preventative maintenance helps us bring down the chances of a machine failing, predictive maintenance relies on data to suspect a machine’s likelihood of failure before it happens.

Automation in FSM

By deploying a field service automation solution companies can gain several advantages, including (but not limited to):

  • Field service automation software stores all data in an easy-to-access format, and provides an indexable archive within the solution, resulting in less or no paperwork to execute processes.
  • With mobile apps and access to smart devices that are linked to automated FSM software, technicians can instantly check their work orders, inventory allocation, service-level agreements (SLAs), and more, while out in the field.
  • For quick invoicing, technicians while still on-site can send all necessary details regarding their jobs to headquarters, including information such as time spent, components and supplies utilized, and even the client’s electronic signature.
  • Field service automation software provides dispatchers complete insight and access to technicians’ work schedules, allowing them to make modifications and updates to jobs on the fly if necessary.

Artificial Intelligence to Improve Field Service Excellence

AI, like IoT, is one of the most talked-about subjects in today’s business world. Field service managers may now take advantage of large volumes of data thanks to recent AI developments. FSM organizations may now swiftly assign tasks to the best-performing service technicians by integrating AI scheduling into certain business processes. Managers can use intelligent planning to look at the technician’s availability, skill set, and location to ensure the best and most appropriate technician for the job. AI can help improve first-time fixes, and drive customer happiness and income by reducing time spent scouting the same site multiple times.

Well-informed Dispatching

The dispatcher’s duty is considering becoming more informed, focused, and productive as AI is becoming good at finding the best technician and enhancing the recommended dispatch process. The dispatcher will be far more confident in their decisions as a result of the system’s increased accuracy, and the amount of time and effort committed to the dispatching function will be significantly reduced.

Conclusion

Field service is now proactive rather than reactive. These expanding field service trends can help you pivot if your goal is to empower technicians, boost customer interaction, and transform field service into a profit-generating arm of your business. The next step is to look at a comprehensive solution that will offer you with the tools you need to implement these trends.

Fieldy is a comprehensive field service management solution with robust features designed to improve every element of your field service operations, including customer asset management, work order management, and more.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the product, or other field service trends, or just to know how Fieldy can benefit your company.

How to choose a best field service management software

Technology is always changing and expanding, bringing with it new trends and phrases. In comparison to Field Service Management (FSM), business mobile workforce maintenance and management is a newer business category, and its growth will reflect how the way businesses deliver services to consumers and customers has changed as a result of innovations and creations in the latest trends and technology, such as androids and smartphones, as well as changing customer or prospect preferences.

In the process of implementing an FSM system a company might require a significant amount of time and money — at least at first. During this period, it is critical for the firm to remember that comparing different systems and making a selection based on the outcomes of those comparisons is a smart idea. The benefits of a well-chosen FSM system are numerous. There are several factors to consider while selecting the perfect one, all of which might have an impact on the overall product. The organisation should devote time to researching several possibilities so that they may select the best one for their purposes.

1. Recognize your company’s requirements

It’s easy to get caught in field service management software’s grandiose, jargon-filled boasts.

Talking to field service executives, helpdesk personnel, delivery, and supply chain partners is the greatest method to understand your genuine company demands. Because these are teams that will be talking with one another via various platforms that aren’t compatible. Involving people in your decision-making will clear the air on needed features, gaps that must be addressed, and bottlenecks that must be identified.

2. Mobility

If a field service management software doesn’t include a mobile option, it’s useless. Technicians may gain real-time access to work details including service requests, billing information, etc. with smart mobile service. It would be beneficial if you looked into features like in-field triage and scheduling adjustments based on domain expertise, parts availability, and proximity. Allowing professionals this level of openness can help you boost your first-time fix rate and maintain clients. Work orders and fill updates should be able to be completed even if the programme is unavailable due to lack of internet connectivity.

After this, it’s now up to you to utilise the features and functions of an FSM software as benchmarks when choosing the best field service management software.

3. Feature to organize field teams and volunteer groups

If your company provides a variety of services, make sure the field service management software you choose allows you to divide them into service groups based on technicality and technician skill. For example,’replacing machine components’ may have its own group of field technicians, while ‘regular service’ could have its own group. This feature will assist you in creating well-defined roles, allocating the appropriate resources to relevant field activities, and effectively managing your personnel.

4. Omnichannel assistance to get a 360-degree perspective of your customers

Field service management necessitates collaboration between customer service representatives and field service executives. Collaboration is challenging in traditional systems since information is difficult to convey between agents and technicians. A contemporary field service management software, on the other hand, gives the entire context about a customer’s dialogues across several channels in a single view. To cooperate, customer care representatives and field service professionals no longer have to switch between several tools or windows.

5. Scheduling and appointments with a single tap depending on agent availability

A clear field agent calendar would be provided by the ideal field service management software, allowing field agents to allocate assignments conscientiously and without scheduling conflicts. Aside from automatic routing, helpdesk agents should be able to override tasks and allocate them to the most qualified and available agent based on expertise and geography.

It should be as easy as dragging and dropping assignments into the calendars of the agents.

Various types of field trips might have different SLAs.

Along with the benefits listed above, the security of cloud-hosted software, access to consolidated information, smart scheduling capabilities, and extensive reporting and analytics not only make agents’ work simpler, but they also improve customers’ whole digital experience.

The correct field service management software can help you succeed in your organisation.
By choosing the proper solution, you may increase your field service agents’ mobility, streamline operations, and remove the laborious paperwork that comes with large orders.

Well, Fieldy has it all. To know more about its capabilities, feature availability and more, reach out to us right away.

6 Field service management challenges ways to overcome them

Field service management challenges are inevitable, it doesn’t matter if you’re a field manager, worker, or back office staff, every aspect of a field team has its own set of problems. Field technicians need to make sure they’re on pace to meet deadlines and that no steps are missed to avoid a repeat trip, while operations managers require accurate records of the job being done to advise supervisors and report back to customers. Lacking access to critical field data causes issues and prevents you from making educated judgments. Billing cycles are slowed, quality assurance and customer satisfaction are at risk, and work schedules must be adjusted.

These are some of the typical issues and obstacles that your field crew has, as well as how you can solve them by using a mobile forms solution to automate procedures and increase operational efficiency.

Achieving higher customer satisfaction

The major field service management challenge is keeping track of many workers in multiple places of dispersed teams. Customers are accustomed to high levels of connection these days, and they have high expectations for their service requests, as well as insight into specialists’ job progress.

Managers and customers can’t tell in real time if a technician is fulfilling those objectives in the field without the proper technologies. A connected field service management system, on the other hand, may provide managers with real-time visibility into job completion and allow customers to view updates as they occur.

Access to Real-Time Data

Traditional manual data input has long since passed us by. Field managers nowadays want instant access to real-time business data at their fingertips. Coordination between on-site employees and operations managers, on the other hand, is a challenge. Duplication of effort and mistakes can occur when field data is manually transferred to computer systems.

Field service management software allows workers to gather and store data in real time.
It allows you to enter essential factors like time spent, parts required, and budget.

Client digital signatures may also be collected using modern field service management technologies. They save before and after photos of the job site, as well as other important project information. This information may be synchronized with back-end systems to improve work engagement.

On-demand Assistance To Field Technicians

On-demand service delivery is one of the most faced field service management challenges in the field service industry. Clients are used to receiving competent service calls. They don’t want an inflated price or service representatives who aren’t well-versed in the basics. Inefficiencies and widespread customer discontent might result from having an unprepared technical base.

The nicest aspect of purchasing field service management software is that it is Field-based mobile app-friendly. This allows for work monitoring, precise information, and fewer repeat visits.
Field service management software makes it easier for professionals to provide accurate quotations and product estimates. Managers can use GPS to track the real-time position of technicians. This facility allows for smooth item scheduling and dispatch. It’s a wonderful approach to make the entire service process go more smoothly and profitably.

Dropping FTFR

It’s not easy to obtain first-time repair rates. According to reports, 24% of field service assignments necessitate a second visit. Every visit to the field is a cost to the firm, therefore it only makes sense to have the technician or delivery person do the work correctly on the first try. According to studies, an organization’s average field time fix rate is 77%, which means field technicians must make follow-up visits for at least 23% of service calls.

This might be due to the technician’s lack of knowledge, his inability to bring the correct components for the task, or simply a system misunderstanding. Whatever the cause, this might have a long-term negative impact on the bottom line for businesses. Companies are increasingly using technological automation to plan and perform better in the field to maintain service quality without putting a strain on performance expenses.

Precise Scheduling

The daily tracking of your field workers and ensuring that they stick to their allotted timetables is critical to the overall success of your field operations. And it’s often a difficulty for businesses, especially if they’re still scheduling field tasks manually. Automated scheduling using an FSM tool can assist in tracking real-time coordinates of your field force and assigning assignments to them on the fly. This improves workload distribution while also limiting potential deviations.

Manual Documentation

Work orders, scopes of work, and equipment requirements are traditionally maintained on paper forms and handed from management to technicians in conventional service firms (and back, when the job is done). Is this, however, an effective approach to managing the service process?
Certainly not. This style of management leads to human mistakes, wastes time, and prevents the firm from attaining shorter mean time to fulfill orders and completing more activities per day. The fact is that all paper data can be moved to mobile applications and subsequently to the reporting system, saving hours of wasteful work time and enabling performance tracking.

While these problems were formerly considered a “cost of doing business” in the field service industry, they no longer have to be a hindrance to your firm. Learn how Fieldy may help you achieve greater success by addressing these revenue, efficiency, and customer satisfaction issues. Request a free demo to see for yourself.

5 Ways field service management software can increase your ROI

By 2025, the onsite services industry is expected to surpass $5.1 billion in market share. As a result, customers expect to receive enhanced service, at the right time and at the right place.

However, technicians have to combat several obstacles, such as: slow functioning equipment, limited access to data, activities that require manual entry, and so on and so forth.

With all the given obstacles, how can field service providers give their best? The answer is by opting a Field service management software. Field service management software can help organisations address 2 of the main concerns:

  • Ensuring workforce efficiency
  • Customer satisfaction

Field service management software and mobile apps have a variety of advantages, including making field technicians’ duties easier, increasing customer and staff happiness, and streamlining internal operations.

Continue reading to learn more about the advantages of field service management and how they relate to ROI of the business.

Field service management advantages

Tools like augmented reality (AR), cloud-based knowledge sharing, and field service management (FSM) systems are expected to be used in more than half of the field service organisations by 2025. In order to cater to the growing customer expectations, an exceptional FSM tool should reap ROI by not just reducing paperwork but also by speeding up invoicing and doing much more. It should also raise the productivity of the workforce, elevate customer experience, cut costs, and aid in boosting the company’s bottom line.

1. Seamless and streamlined communication

FSM software makes communication seamless and keeps the workforce connected, by helping them share information without having to go through tedious workflow. FSM software can be used to plan service calls by dispatchers. Additionally, field technicians can use the FSM tool’s mobile app to stay informed about their assigned jobs and also keep the customers aware about their arrival.

2. Time efficiency

FSM software helps contractors save time by making the processes efficient, also by making communication easier. With the mobile version of FSM software, technicians can save time by accessing and offering information to customers on the go. Similarly, dispatchers can save time by gaining visibility into customer data through a single platform.

3. Optimized staff management

Managing and scheduling a whole group of deskless workforce demands a lot of time and energy. Additionally, adding a last-minute emergency task can be extremely painful. By implementing a FSM tool, field service offering organisations can certainly benefit by bridging the gap between office, customer and the field.

4. Invoicing accuracy and efficiency

Field workers/technicians can make use of the field service management software to take notes in the CRM, generate invoices, and make sure they record signatures on the spot. With the paperless workflow of managing field jobs, technicians do not have the need to return to the office or produce papers once the job is finished.

5. Boost customer satisfaction

Customers always demand a seamless and more modernised service experience from companies. In order to satisfy their service-facing demands, companies use FSM tool to offer fully customizable portals with real-time notifications, two-way chat with their assigned technician, warranty coverage, and more.

With some of the FSM tools out there, customers can also be provided with technicians or specialists they are already familiar with, they will also have a database where they can view their whole order history.
This type of accessibility to historical information can certainly boost the consumer experience, having a great impact in the ROI.

FSM software solves some of the most prominent and frequent issues that often affect the continuous client experience a field service firm can/should offer a customer. Such as,

  • Inability to move the job to nearby technicians, due to the lack of visibility into technician’s location
  • Inaccessibility to real-time information on client’s requests, availability and more
  • Workflows that demand paperwork

With FSM tool field technicians can gain access to the information they need on their way to their next appointment and can stay aware of the whereabouts of a specific job.

Well,

The ultimate aim of a Field Service Management software is to eventually boost your bottom line. In order to get there, your entire field operation should be more efficient, by lowering operational costs, managing inventory efficiently, streamlining customer communication, etc. By cutting costs and by improving how your field service processes are executed, your ROI for investing in a FSM software can be multiplied many times.

Summary:

A field service management software is one of the critical investments you can make to improve the overall operations and revenue of your company.

Field service management software: 4 top must-haves

One of the most difficult operational responsibilities for most field service providers is managing a team of technicians. They may still rely on antiquated manual techniques to assign work and track their mobile workforce, which is a time-consuming and error-prone process.

Furthermore, field technicians respond to emergency calls on a daily basis, which must be prioritized over their usual process and necessitate immediate schedule modifications. Poor customer service, idle technician time, and low efficiency can all be caused by minor misunderstandings, delays, or missing information.

Let’s look at 4 key features of a Field Service Management tool that will help you make the most of the software and deliver desired results for your field service business.

1. Work order management

Work orders, like everything else these days, have gone digital. Who wants to deal with paperwork orders in the first place? Work order management is a typical component of field service software that simplifies and clarifies the process. When a project is received and allocated, the technician who was given it is noted on the work order so that everyone knows who was in charge of doing it.

This function also allows technicians to record their work at a specific task. Techs have the ability to take notes, capture video and audio, and photographs. In this manner, information about the job may be quickly retrieved in the future by office employees or various specialists without worrying about poor handwriting or misplaced notepads.

Then, after work is completed, your experts may label it as such in the system. Nobody will have to wonder if a project was finished since they can simply check the system to view the status of all of the work orders. Work orders are retained even after they’ve been completed so you may review them later if necessary. However, double-check your vendor’s data storage plans to ensure you have access to documents going back as far as you need.

2. Inventory management

By keeping track of the components your technicians utilize on a regular basis, field service management may aid your asset management efforts. Because your field personnel is likely to utilize many of the same parts to accomplish a variety of jobs and repairs, you must ensure that those parts are always in stock. You can keep track of your inventory levels with field service software that includes parts inventory management tools.

The system keeps track of every time a technician takes or uses a tool, allowing you to keep track of your inventory in real-time. Many providers will give you an alert when a part’s inventory reaches a specific level, so you’ll always know when you need to purchase more. Furthermore, several systems combine analytics with inventory software to provide demand projections. This informs office employees about which components are most frequently utilized and when they should anticipate restocking.

3. Scheduling and dispatching

Supervisors have comprehensive insight into the performance of field service executives, which aids in task scheduling. FSM software can automate the whole scheduling process with a centralized hub for day-to-day operations. Executives are automatically alerted of the nature and location of their next task once it has been arranged. This eliminates work duplication and ensures that the proper executive and tools are on hand when and where they are needed.

Smart scheduling: Allows dispatchers to make last-minute changes to schedules while techs are automatically updated. For allocating new work, technicians are also sorted by competence, availability, and other factors.

Text alerts: In this case, text notifications are customer-facing and may be used as a service reminder as well as a message that a technician is on the way or that the appointment has to be rescheduled.

4. Ongoing billing and service-based billing

When you manage a field service firm, you rely on a variety of income sources, the most common of which are fee-for-service and service contracts. Each of these tasks necessitates tracking, administration, and payment processing. Each of these can be difficult to manage—fee-for-service may necessitate invoicing, mobile app payments, and more; service contracts may necessitate functional billing and recurring revenue management. Add in-warranty repairs or maintenance, and the processes for each of them need having the correct information at the right time.

When it comes to choosing a field service management software that works for you or your company, all of the factors stated above are critical. Well, while you are deciding which product to go with you might as well want to check out how efficient field service management software is.

What is field service management software and why it matters?

Adding to what you may already know,

Managing a team of field service professionals is the most operationally daunting duty. The efforts are enormous if one wants to streamline, manage and keep track of all the unexpected changes that could possibly occur at any time in the field servicing job, as there are plentiful variables that need to be logged, monitored and regulated by manual labour.

Oftentimes, firms have to tackle inadequate information, lags, and invalid or missing information in these instances and while some of it is handled by electronic databases, yet human error is non-negligible.

With the advancement in how we can stay connected with each other and the rest of the world via our mobile devices, all-the-time, it was obvious to come up with a technological solution that can help companies manage mobile workforces and field service operations seamlessly and efficiently.

This resulted in the development of advanced field service management (FSM) systems.

What is FSM software?

FSM systems use mobile equipment to automate and regulate field operations of service workers. The FSM market was worth more than $3.5 billion in 2019, and many bigger software firms such as Salesforce have since added FSM to their stack as one of their key offerings.

Due to the rise in consumer demands and the growing complexity of managing logistics, many business owners, as well as employees, stockholders and customers are seeking some sort of automation in their day-to-day jobs, thus seeing value in FSM software.

Industries that can/should leverage FSM

Since its inception, FSM software has entirely changed the way field service management has been done across a varied range of industries. For example:

  • Courier companies are using FSM software to improve their processes by removing
    inefficiencies and thereby save cost and enhance driver efficiency.
  • Telecom companies are using FSM’s intelligent scheduling and vehicle tracking
    capability to reduce missed appointments rate and consumer complaints.
  • Construction companies are using FSM software to make tracking and maintaining pricey
    machinery easier. And with the help of access to real-time data the progress of each job
    can be closely monitored.
  • In the healthcare industry FSM tools are used by doctors, nurses and paramedics to have
    accurate information on patient records.

In a nutshell, existing FSM software and the innovations in tools by new entrants are benefiting a wide range of SMB, Mid-market and enterprise companies across industries.

Importance of field service management software

Customers do not like service delays, miscommunications, and incoherent customer service. Hence it is essential for companies to have a defined coordination system between workers and the customers in order to offer the best customer service possible. With FSM software, companies can seamlessly keep track of customer requests and unprecedented internal changes in a more informed way.

What is the current role/impact of field service management?

The role and impact of an FSM software may vary based on the nature of the business, customer base, needs of the customers and employees, and other external parameters. So in order for a successful implementation of a FSM software what does it require?

In order to support the growing need of the work-from-home workforce, the nature of FSM software has been constantly evolving. Despite all the sudden shift in how people work and interact with the world, usage of software solutions has resulted in significant rise in productivity, reduction in cost and service betterment.

With the help of advanced FSM software consumers/customers can now have easy access to their service requests. And with no extra phone calls to the company, customers can receive information regarding service professional’s arrival time, status of their service request, so on and so forth.

Field service management uses

Field service management software don’t just aid companies with their customer service efforts, but also help them with cost control. Along with that, the FSM solution allows workers to be proactive and do their jobs on time and more swiftly.

Listed below are some of the benefits of Field Service Management software:

Defined workflows: FSM tools help workers adhere to a defined workflow from start to end, whether in the field or not, which directly impacts the efficiency of the work executed and service offered. It also helps workers organize their tasks, stay in sync with their fellow colleagues and also stay ahead of time. With this level of coordination, the service offered is always a hit.

Less/Zero-paperwork: By integrating FMS software with tools like EDMS (electronic document management system) companies can quickly cut down on the amount of paper and manual work done, and also eliminate the dependencies on old and outdated filing systems, altogether.

Seamless scheduling regime: FMS tool helps organizations/workers reduce service disagreements/conflicts, double down on offering better customer service, and save ample money and time. On the other hand customers are benefited with lesser wait time, service precision and overall a positive service experience.

Precise resource and task allotment: field service management software allows organizations to be on point with assigning the right person for service requests. Advanced FSM systems can identify workers’ strengths and match them with relevant service needs/activities, and also takes into account the job location, deadline and cost applied. This improves the overall quality of the service as well as employee morale, and lastly, the jobs are done efficiently.

Improved work quality: As all the real-time data points on employees, customers and software usage get fed into the FSM software, the team can leverage these insights and drive new process innovations. With multiple data points, the system can easily identify service gaps and predict possible breakdowns, time frame to finish a specific type of job, etc. which can aid organisations with workforce planning and much more.

In the closing…

For a company like yours a FSM software can help with automating critical processes like auto-filling work order forms, notifying clients with service status updates, dispatching workers, monitoring asset usage, regular maintenance of critical machinery, etc. But before opting for a Field service management (FSM) software it’s important to focus on the cost of the tool, customer experience with the product so far, process digitization capabilities offered, and mainly the scalability of the system to fit all your future business expansions.

Well, checkout how field service management software can amp up your field service management game!