The difference dispatch software makes includes:
- Accommodating incoming work
- Makes it easier to find the best worker for the job
- Allows you to find the closest worker for a job
- Enables you to better optimize routes
- More accurate information for everyone involved
Let’s learn more about the power of dispatch software.
Accommodate any incoming work
No dispatcher can fully plan for a day’s service needs. You can schedule preventative maintenance calls ahead of time, but when an emergency call comes in, you have to be ready to react. How do you handle emergency calls when they come in? If your customer is under a contract, their contract may say something like a guaranteed technician on-site within 12 hours. How do you then prioritize service calls over each other or dispense calls from one technician to another?
One specific area service dispatch software makes a difference is in the ability to quickly transition technicians from service call to service call. It’s not a simple decision to just take a service call from one technician and put it on another. There are routes to consider, the other technician’s schedule, and other customers who may get bumped from your spot.
However, the greater visibility service dispatch software gives dispatchers allows them to see all that information in front of them. They can see each technician’s schedule, the routes they are going to take, and who is going to be near the job site of the emergency call, or of the call that needs to be replaced. And more importantly, you can accommodate all the work coming into your business and never have to turn anyone away.
Find the best worker for the job
Not all jobs are the same. Some require more skills from technicians or a higher level of safety or certification. Even if you have only a couple of technicians as a small to medium-size business, or hundreds of technicians, it can be challenging to keep track of everyone’s level of certification and expertise. So, how do you find the right technician for the right job?
Using skillset searches can easily narrow down the pool the technicians you have to find the right one for the job. With it being part of your greater service dispatch software, quickly narrow down your technician pool and then see the schedules of those technicians. Then make a decision on who is best to get to the job site. Base it on the route they are already taking, or who has an opening in their schedule that won’t disrupt other calls. The main difference now is, you have more options that leads towards a positive result, as opposed to putting out scheduling fires.
Find the closest worker to the job
With service jobs all over a geographical area, it would be great to see a real-time map of the locations of your technicians and the service calls that need to be scheduled. Seeing the paths your technicians cross over the course of the day can make it easier to decide who you should dispatch for the call. What if one technician is driving right by the job site you have an emergency call for? Would it not be more productive to work that call into their schedule?
Routing maps in a service dispatch software give you that kind of visibility into your technicians’ movements and the location of their service calls. It’s a live map in which dispatchers can see where the technicians are, where they are going, and what route they will be taking to get there. With that level of insight and visibility, dispatchers can make more informed decisions with real-time data and information. There is little guesswork when you are using mobile field service apps and routing tools to get the most information back to make decisions.
Optimize the routes of your technicians
One of the newest trends in field service management is optimizing the routes of technicians. Dispatchers need to make room to put in more work order appointments with a limited pool of technicians. So, they optimize the routes each technician has each day to limit the travel time and distance they travel. By reducing the travel time, dispatchers can start to fit in more service calls over a technician’s shift.
Routing tools enable the dispatcher to see the routes the technician is going to take and optimize their schedule appropriately. That means putting work orders in order of the shortest driving distance between them so that technicians are not crisscrossing a city from one end to the other when it can be avoided. These tools in service dispatch software have the benefit of optimizing the routes for you with just a click of a button. Take a mess of scheduled appointments and create the best route possible to lower travel time. With lower travel time, the business will save:
- Money on gas expenses
- Money on regular repairs and recurring maintenance to trucks and vans
- Time the technician is using driving and put it into working time
Giving more accurate information to the entire team
Perhaps the largest benefit of a service dispatch software system is the amount of accurate information it can handle. And more importantly, dispatch that information to each member of the team. There isn’t a person in the business that doesn’t benefit from more accurate information.
It can be difficult to compare three or more technician’s schedules to see who is free for a job or who can take on someone else’s work. But with a service dispatch software, that information is available and accurate. Information collected from the mobile field service app makes it easy to calculate first-time fix rates, driving time calculations, and work time analytics. From here, dispatchers can make smarter decisions when scheduling, such as giving certain high-efficient technicians more challenging jobs because they work faster.
Technicians in the field also benefit from accurate information being transferred to them. Work orders, parts and service history are readily available to them. And because they are connected to the service dispatch software, dispatchers can make changes to their schedule without having to alert them via phone call or text message that their schedule has changed. They just look at their mobile field service app and move on to the next service appointment listed.
Conclusion: The right service dispatch software makes a difference
It’s not about getting a service dispatch software, but rather, getting the right service dispatch software. A robust dispatch software should be able to handle all of your daily scheduling needs and give your dispatchers confidence to handle emergency calls when they come in. As their day changes with new appointments to schedule, they know they have a tool that offers them solutions to their challenges of getting a technician on-site fast.
Learn more about your own dispatcher challenges and talk to your dispatchers about what they would like to see improved in their own capabilities. And then contact Fieldpoint as we’ll show you how our service dispatch software will make a difference in your business operations.