Mobile technology selections can change depending on the type of work a technician is doing, but no matter what option is selected, field service technicians are seeing the benefits of a mobile field service management software.
Smartphones make up the largest portion of devices used in the field service industry, as a recent survey by The Service Council showed that 71% of field service technicians use a smartphone as their selected device. With bring your own device (BYOD) options, and smartphones being easily accessible, it’s not a surprise that the number is much higher than laptops, at 18%, and tablets at just 4%.
And moving forward, it will remain pretty much the same, as 64% of the same technicians surveyed said they want a mobile device as their primary device in the field, while tablets, which offer much larger screens, jumped to 21%, and laptops fell to 11%.
While all the technicians in the survey were using a mobile device, not all field service organizations are 100% mobile, as only 78% have deployed some form of mobile field service application, and 72% have equipped all their workers with a mobile device.
Day-to-Day use of mobile field service software
When you dig deeper into what field technicians are using a mobile device for, you get a clear indication of where the industry is heading, and what benefits a mobile field service management software has when it comes to service delivery.
At the very core, 94% of responding technicians use their mobile device to check email, which shows that it is still the primary form of communication in the field, as only 63% use their mobile device for texting.
When it comes to actual field service, mobile devices are being used for management of work orders, which includes reporting information, inputting data, and capturing information for billing purposes. 74% responded by saying they use a mobile field service app to check in and check out of service calls, which immediately gives an accurate detail of how long a technician was on the job for. When this information is feed into a field service software, especially one with integrations to accounting software, it leads to fast billing times, and in the case of a subcontractor, quick voucher creation and payment for their services.
70% also responded saying they use their mobile device for service work order review and management. With Fieldpoint’s mobile field service app, work orders are pushed to the technician in the field and they are able to review the entire day’s schedule and work order information so they can grab the right parts and equipment they would need before heading out for a service call. 62% also said they use it for scheduling, as technicians can look at their mobile app and see the days service calls, while navigation and routing also came in at 63%, as technicians are using mobile device to get them to their service calls faster.
Whether you use a smartphone, tablet or laptop, the benefits of a mobile field service software can be felt in many different ways by your field service technicians. Delivering efficient service to your customers will become easier with a mobile solution that gives your technicians tools that they wouldn’t have had before, or removes the manual processing and administrative work and puts it all on a mobile app.