For the small to medium businesses in the HVAC industry, growth is always on their mind. But it doesn’t come easy. It all comes down to time and finding the right amount of it to grow. Time does equal money in many cases, and for small businesses, that point hits home every single day. New calls come in, but with a limited workforce, small HVAC businesses struggle to find the time to attend those calls.
And as the industry continues to grow, so do the players in that industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Association, small businesses in the United States have increased 49 percent since 1982. So, there is a lot more competition in the world today. And if you don’t have the time for service calls, those companies will make the time.
The problem for today’s HVAC small to medium business owners is, they don’t have the time to grow. They are so busy in their day to day lives that thinking of the future can be a struggle. How do you think about growing your business when the phone is ringing for service today? You can’t think of growth tomorrow when you are putting out fires today. But perhaps the solution to today’s problems is tomorrow’s growth.
That’s where HVAC field service software for small businesses is making the difference. It’s giving small business HVAC service teams the chance to think of tomorrow, while solving the problems of today. It’s giving small business HVAC companies the full functionality of a HVAC field service software that can change their business. It’s not field service software that has less features, but rather HVAC field service software that is designed for the small business owners.
SMB Field Service Challenge: Finding More Resources
One of the struggles of small to medium businesses is finding the right people when they need them. What do you do when those calls are coming in and your technicians are already accounted for? How do you increase business while not increasing expenses?
Solution: Hire Subcontractors
More small business owners in the HVAC industry are turning to subcontractors to complete work. Subcontractors come at less cost, as they aren’t full-time employees, and are all paid when they complete work. The challenge for HVAC field service companies is, how do you hire them, get them to complete service and get them paid? The answer is with subcontractor management tools in HVAC field service software for small businesses.
Owners can use workforce integrations to find new and talented technicians, complete the on-boarding process and accept their quotes for work. When a quote is accepted, they can be dispatched work orders using the field service mobile app. Upon competition, the work order is sent back to the head office and with financial integrations, payment vouchers can be automatically created. No additional overhead, no delayed service times, and fast use of a skilled subcontractor, all because they are using HVAC field service software.
SMB Field Service Challenge: Collecting Time
Tracking the time technicians are putting into their work is difficult. For accurate bills that account for each minute of work, technicians need to properly log their time. It’s not a guessing game when it comes to an invoice, so small business owners need a way to collect time straight from the field.
Solution: Field Service Mobile Apps
Tracking time is as simple as hitting a start button on a mobile app. With mobile field service software, technicians for even SMB companies can track time using their mobile devices. Technicians open their work orders and can begin tracking their work time. They can account for breaks, lunch, and each hour worked. The benefit, however, of using an HVAC field service software for small business is that those hours can be dispersed across overtime hours automatically. Let the software figure out how much the invoice should be based on the time the technician tracked. With HVAC field service management software, you will get accurate time for the work completed.
SMB Field Service Challenge: Where Are Your Techs?
Even though SMB HVAC companies have fewer technicians, it doesn’t mean they know where they are at all times. As emergency calls come in, dispatchers don’t want to be stuck on the phone and radio trying to locate the closest technician. They need greater visibility into what is happening in the field. Are their technicians traveling to another job, are they working, or are they sitting idle? They won’t know without real-time visibility into their work lives.
Solution: Routing Map Tools
With HVAC field service software for small businesses, dispatchers will get greater insight into their technicians’ movements with resource routing tools. It’s the real-time feed into their fleet’s movements. And it not only tells them where they are and what they are doing, but where they are headed. With this type of insight, dispatchers can adjust schedules, optimize the routes the technician takes, and reassign based on location. When we talk about saving time, this is a critical area. Why have technicians driving from one end of the city to the other, when you can rework their route to group calls close together.
Greater visibility with HVAC field service software will allow the back office to make better decisions. It’s about getting more data, more information from the field and then making a decision. You’re not scheduling on whiteboards anymore, but with an HVAC field service software that can help you react fast. Rearrange appointments and changes will updated on the field service mobile app, sending the technician to the right call.
Solve Your SMB Field Service Challenges with HVAC Field Service Software
Today’s small business owners have the same challenges as their larger competition. But just because they are small, doesn’t mean there isn’t a solution for them. Fieldpoint’s HVAC field service software is designed for the small business HVAC company. It doesn’t mean less features, it means functionality that small business owners need to succeed. It’s designed with you in mind, to be that solution that is just right for the size of your business.
Let us show you what our HVAC field service software for small businesses can do to solve your field service challenges.