Every field service company must dispatch. This is the essence of a field service business. To complete a customer’s repair job, a technician must be dispatched to the job site. But is it that simple? Well, it’s not for a lot of companies.
According to a study by SalesForce, 52% of field service companies still use manual methods to accomplish most of their tasks. This also includes dispatching and scheduling technicians.
It is so important to dispatch technicians in field service that having a service management or a field service scheduling software for proper dispatching has become indispensable in the current times.
But what is an enterprise field service management software? And who should use it? Read on to find answers to these questions—
What is a field service management software?
A field service management software allows service managers to better manage technicians in the field. This includes assigning them jobs, routing them to work sites, reassigning jobs and tracking their movements. Managers without any form of field service software will have to rely on whiteboards, email systems and online calendars to plan technicians’ work day. It can take a lot of labor and time. To accommodate emergency calls, the schedule has to be adjusted. For dispatchers having several manual processes to complete, taking emergency service calls and handling the service department will become difficult.
Thankfully, managers can see the entire workforce through a field service software. This includes every technician, every work order, and every free moment, all in one place. This visibility gives managers a lot more information to use when making decisions. They can use routing tools to locate the closest technician or narrow down technicians using skillset searches. This software is a manager’s dream tool to make their job easier. Remember, when service managers do their job well, the whole workforce follows suit.
What Makes Field Service Management Software A Necessity?
A Field service software for small businesses and enterprises is essential to make operations seamless. You can say goodbye to messy desks full of work orders that are waiting to be completed. There are no more multiple windows with multiple calendars open and a large number of emails to send. All of this can be done from one field service software, and sent to your technicians on the field.
Assign the most important work to the most skilled technicians. You can see their calendar for weeks and drag and drop work orders easily to create schedules. With this software, dispatching is a breeze. Your software can also allow you to optimize your schedules. Instead of making technicians sit idle, dispatchers are able to shift work orders to make space for new ones. Maybe technicians have to drive the same route multiple times because of mismanaged routing.
Thankfully, routes can be optimized with software and technicians can save the time they would have otherwise spent driving. It’s an essential tool for field service management companies. While technicians will be able to save time by using it, your company will make more money by taking more service calls.
Who should use a field service software?
It’s meant for all field service managers. But let’s break it down by the different business sizes. Small to medium-sized business owners will find this software a great way to grow their businesses.
They can use it to make more service calls and better utilize their small staff. In a lot of small companies, technicians dispatch themselves. It’s strange but this practice is still prevalent in the industry.
It can dramatically reduce the number of service calls that the company can take on a given day. Thankfully, a field service software can take this responsibility away from technicians.
But then, a lot of businesses don’t want to invest in service automation. The price of a field service software might seem overwhelming for some small and medium-sized business owners.
But this price is nothing compared to how much you gain over time. The software will give you more information about your technicians and their movements, which will make having it absolutely worthwhile.
The software will also help you make better business decisions irrespective of the size of your workforce.
Having a lot of technicians can be a problem for enterprise-level field service companies. For large businesses with many technicians, using whiteboards, emails, calendars and other tools can prove overwhelming.
With a field service software having a compatible field service app, you can view everything and everyone in one place. This software gives you an edge over your competitors with features such as skillset search, route tracking, optimizing, and a simple drag and drop system.
Dispatching software is a great tool for field service managers. There are numerous useful features available in this software that can help a service business, and easy dispatching is one of them.
Service managers shouldn’t be allowed to keep doing things the same way. It’s time to give them the tools they will need for optimizing your business.
Your entire business can be transformed by a competent field service software. With a great service software, you can give your dispatchers all the control they need to grow your business through greater insight, better control, and improved optimization.
