Running a field service management company is similar to climbing a steep mountain: you should be aware of the obstacles and warning signals to reach the eagle’s view safely and gradually. However, if you overlook the warning flags and continue ascending, you end up at the bottom, far behind your competition and out of sight of your clients.
In this article, we’ll walk you through what is field service management, why it’s important, warning signs of failing field service businesses, and strategies for improving the performance of your FSM business.
What Is Field Service Management?
Field service management is a system that incorporates company resources, from employees to equipment, in line with the work performed outside the company.
Generally, FSM involves receiving work orders, scheduling and dispatching field workers to locations to install, repair, and maintain the systems, equipment, or assets, performing preventive maintenance, quoting and invoicing, managing inventory, and more.
Ultimately, FSM offers faster and longer-term benefits such as enhanced customer experience, increased productivity and ROI, and lessened resource and time consumption. However, some common pitfalls could easily affect your field service business.
Warning Signs Of Failing Field Service Management
Manually scheduling, dispatching, managing contractors and field forces, quoting and invoicing, communicating, and lacking real-time data are the primary challenges faced by your field forces. The sooner you identify the warning signs, the better you can improve your FSM business.
Disorganized Scheduling And Dispatching
Scheduling and dispatching are like two sides of the same coin. These two are the most crucial functions of field service management. Forgetting to schedule work orders properly, schedule an unavailable technician, reschedule the appointments, or overlap your schedules might impact your business end-to-end. Eventually, the unorganized scheduling leads to many dispatching conflicts, such as misaligned goals and continuously changing work orders.
Indefinite Unique Selling Point
A unique selling point is a.k.a. unique selling proposition, which means what makes you unique and stands out from competitors.
Do you know that thousands of field service management businesses provide the same services as you? So it’s challenging to entice your customers to spend their money and time on your service, but it’s not impossible. That’s where your unique selling proposition (USP) gives you an edge over your competition. If you haven’t established your USP, your customers will choose your competitors, even if you have better service.
Poor Customer Satisfaction
Delivering unsatisfactory customer service can annihilate your field service management business. Unless your services meet the needs of targeted customers, they will choose your competitors over you.
So what can you do to keep your customers by your side and reach more customers? The answer is simple. Be all ears to your customers, and let them talk about your service and tell you where you have to improve. The goal of your field service business should be providing first-class service and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Inadequate Training For Field Technicians
89% of customers are willing to pay more for on-demand scheduling technologies.
Are your technicians frequently making errors? Do they feel competent to complete specific tasks? Then it’s time to upskill your field technicians. So train your field forces to provide an excellent customer experience with best-in-class field services to future-proof your FSM business. Training your field technicians is crucial to stay up-to-date with technology and trends and keeping your field service business running smoothly.
Ineffective Marketing Strategies
Marketing is the gateway to making your customers aware of your products or services. A good marketing strategy lets you reach your targeted market and expands your customer reach. An ineffective marketing strategy will affect your field service business through low conversions, getting impressions from the wrong customers, an inability to reach new customers, and less traffic to your site.
Inefficient Asset Management System
Without an effective asset management system, your business may fall short. Asset management is a significant aspect of field service businesses’ growth. An asset management system helps you manage all your inventories, keep track of inventory, and deploy the right tools for the right job. With the best field service inventory management system, you can avoid downtime and decreased productivity.
Improper Resource Management
Field service resource management entails ensuring that your field technicians have the right tools, equipment, and resources to get the job done. If you haven’t managed your resources properly, it may reflect in job delays, incomplete tasks, and increased costs. Improper resource management leads to ineffective field service management. The best field service software enables you to track inventory, schedule maintenance, and allocate resources based on job requirements.
Lack Of Mobility
Mobile tools have increased employee productivity in 75% of field service businesses, while customer satisfaction has increased in the remaining 25%. (Source: ISE) In this mobilized world, mobility keeps your business ahead of the curve. A field service management system with a mobile field force helps technicians access job details, update completed job status, and communicate with customers on the go.
Strategies To Improve Your Field Service Management
From real-time tracking to less production costs, field service management has revolutionized the field service industry for the better. And here are the top three strategies for you to improve your field service business.
Understand The Competition
Do your competitor’s research properly and learn what they’re offering. Gather information from their customers and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. After getting all the information you need about your competitor, find the gap in the market and plan your business strategy accordingly to improve your FSM business.
Talk To Marketing Leaders
Talk to the market and sales leaders in your niche to gain a better understanding of what the market thinks of your company when compared to others. Whether you’re considered a leader in the market or not Are companies employing new strategies, expanding their services, and offering them in innovative ways that your management is lacking? Receive valuable feedback from industry experts and leverage it in your business strategy to grow your business.
Leverage Automated Field Service Management Software
Only 48% of businesses have been using field service management software. (Source: Fortune Business Insights)
As a field service business owner or manager, you might have come across the phrase “field service management software.” Field service software helps you manage your entire field operations, automate recurring processes like scheduling, dispatching, and invoicing, facilitate fast payments, and more. Leveraging the best field service software, like Fieldy, will help you manage your entire field force with its out-of-the-box features. You’ll gain the upper hand as half of the businesses are not using field service management solutions.
Final Thoughts
As you’ve learned, it’s important to be aware of obstacles when climbing the mountain. Disorganized scheduling and dispatching, an indefinite unique selling point, poor customer satisfaction, inadequate training for field technicians, ineffective marketing strategies, an inefficient asset management system, improper resource management, and a lack of mobility are the signs that your field service business is falling.
If you find any of these warning signs present, it is time to take swift action to keep your field service business operating efficiently. Try Fieldy for free and operate your field service management business smoothly. Book a free demo and see what Fieldy can do.
