Field service management leaders have already set their goals for the new year and they generally follow a similar pattern. Unless you’re trying to expand your business, add a new line of service, or take on more installation projects, your goals are typical:
- Do more service work with fewer technicians
- Continue to focus on the customer experience
- Add additional service and up-sell to contribute to revenue growth
The question now is, how do you achieve those goals? How do you do it in a way that is positive towards your business? And how can you do it so that employees’ lives are easier, yet revenue is being added? For most service leaders, the way to accomplish this is by investing in their workforce. By giving your technicians the tools they need, they can tick off each goal on their list, on their way to a successful 2019.
Goal 1: Schedule and Dispatch Fewer Technicians and Increase Service Work
Running a lean service department is sometimes not the desire of dispatchers and service managers. Retiring technicians and a small workforce to hire new technicians is making it difficult to get enough available hands to cover every service call. But as work increases, the demand needs to be met, and dispatchers must figure out a way to do more with less.
Most are trying to better accommodate technicians in their travel by grouping their calls together, limiting the amount of time they spend driving from job to job. This schedule optimization always for more work orders to be packed into a daily schedule. With a resource routing tool in a field service scheduling software, dispatchers get the full picture of their technicians’ daily life in the field. They are starting to ask questions like:
- How many miles is the technician driving from one job to another?
- Are they crisscrossing a city and overlapping other routes they have taken?
- Are there groups of service calls close together that can be scheduled in a row?
- Is there a better route for them to take to the next job site?
Give Technicians Mobile Field Service Software
Fewer technicians doesn’t mean decreased service, but rather it just means your service team needs creative solutions. It’s about finding the time to fit in those extra calls. Doing more with less doesn’t have to mean doing more service calls with fewer technicians. Rather, doing more service calls with less time-consuming duties. Think of everything you technician does in the field and how you can minimize the work they have to complete.
Filling out work orders and inspection reports can all be completed using field service mobile apps. This cuts down the time technicians spend on paper-based work orders and checklists. They can also use the mobile field service app for routing maps to get them to job sites faster. Administrative work is now completed in minutes, sent directly to the head office, without the technician having to make a trip themselves to submit documents.
Goal 2: Continue to Make Your Customers the Top Goal
As customers continue to demand more, the focus in the field service industry has become focused on their experience. A happy customer is a loyal customer, and loyal customers are repeat customer. It’s why many service departments are hiring technicians with soft-skills, such as customer service and sales knowledge backgrounds, as opposed to technicians with experience. With mobile field service software, experience can be at a technician’s fingertips. Documents, manuals, how-to guides and service history is all accessible from the field service mobile app.
Customers are expecting timely service, and for high first-time fix rates. Technicians need all the information they can to make the job go faster, as customers don’t want to wait for a solution on the second visit. They also want ways to automate the request for service, such as direct emails, QR codes and automated phone systems that avoid speaking with call center agents. It’s turned the industry into a customer service field now, as opposed to worrying just about the repair. And to build a better customer experience, you much have a field service management software that gives you the tools to offer a better service experience.
Goal 3: Make Your Technicians Part of Revenue Growth
Technicians are your frontline workers and interact with the customer each and every day. They are the ones the customer wants answers from, and not just about repairs, but future jobs and products. As mentioned, soft-skills, such as selling techniques, are something service managers are looking for. In order to increase revenue, technicians are turning into the on-site sales force. Rather than referring a customer to a sales member, or telling them one will contact them, technicians are being the sales team.
With their field service mobile app, technicians are providing fully detailed quotes to customers with accurate pricing. With their mobile app connected to the field service management software, they have full access to the ERP and CRM system when inventory and pricing are located, and with built-in costs, the software will automatically calculate the price based on hours quoted. Technicians can build a quote and send it to the customer in minutes, straight from their mobile device.
It’s great for when they find additional work that needs to be completed, or notice something else that could be fixed, or a new product that could be installed. They can build a quote and have the customer sign off on it and complete the work before leaving. This up-selling is the perfect way to add additional value to the business, earn more revenue, and gain the customers trust.
Invest in Your Technicians with Field Service Software
The common theme behind every goal in the field service management industry is to give your technicians what they need to succeed. Investing in them and their abilities to allow them to provide the best possible service they can to the customer. With mobile field service software, technicians have the power of full field service management software in their hands and can be more efficient, more informed, and better prepared to serve customers.