No field service operation is perfect. Everyone has their struggles and their challenges to deal with. If you’re in a service-related field, you know pleasing customers is never easy. As the industry changes, as service itself changes, new challenges will pop up. Those can be unwelcome forks in the road where you have to decide in which direction to turn your business.
It’s no question that field service software is among the top solutions for the problems field service organization have to battle. The reason many turn to field service software is because it is tried and tested with real positive results. When a new problem arises in the field service industry, those who make the software are looking for solutions. It’s how field service software today has become the robust software that leads plenty of organizations.
Each business, regardless if they are an enterprise-level field service organization or a local small-to-medium business, has unique challenges. But among them all are also common ones they struggle with every day. Here are some of the challenges that keep field service leaders awake at night and battling every day.
Challenge: Increasing Technician Efficiency
The largest challenge by far is increasing technician efficiency. The field service landscape is changing in that margins are becoming slimmer and service is trying to pack as much in a day’s schedule as they can. The more service calls your technicians take in a day, the more revenue you earn. For many field service organizations, that’s the only way to grow revenue. With product-installations not having the same revenue stream as before, the value now lies in the service sector. Signing long-term contracts is more valuable than installing a new piece of equipment.
Technicians are now being relied upon to not only be the face of the organization, but the lead driver of revenue. Because of this, managers and dispatchers are looking for every way possible to make them more efficient. That includes better optimization of the routes they drive, limiting the amount of administrative work they complete, and giving them as much access to information as possible to speed up repair times. In essence, efficiency is giving back time, which can then be used to schedule additional appointments.
How Field Service Software Helps: Look for a mobile field service software that gives your technicians a field service mobile app to complete their appointments. With this app, they not only get rid of painful paper-based work orders, but they also get access to the field service software with service history, inventory, and repair manuals.
Challenge: Increasing Customer Demands
The service industry has changed and not just field service. This new, on-demand style of service is prevalent in our lives, from Uber to Netflix to ordering coffee through an app and having it ready when we arrive. That style of service is all over our lives, so it should not be surprising that it’s leaking into the field service field. Simply put, customers are demanding more from their field service management providers. They are wanting on-call, on-demand service, but they don’t want to be waiting on hold for someone to book their request, especially during a downtime.
How Field Service Software Helps: If your customers want on-demand service, give them on-demand tools. Give them their own customer portal to request service. Think of it like selecting a movie on Netflix or buying your coffee through a mobile app. The customer is making all the decisions, and you’re just providing the service. It’s convenient for them, and through automation, work orders will be created in your field service software. With plenty of on-demand ways for your customer to request service, customer demand can be seen as customer empowerment. Give them the tools to request, and you can focus on delivering exceptional service.
Challenge: Remaining Competitive
All signs are pointing to field service software becoming a must-have for everyone in the industry. It’s no longer just a trend to have a field service management software in place, but many see it as a need. For those who aren’t running any kind of field service software, they could be spending many nights thinking of how they will remain competitive, especially as their competition adds things like field service automation, mobile apps, integrations to different systems and resource utilization tools.
If your organization is still running manual processes, it’s hard to be competitive with organizations that are embracing technology. It’s that old business saying: if you’re not willing to do something, someone else will. A mindset of always being the person who is willing to take on new challenges will lead to additional growth. In a competitive sector like field service, any growth is good growth, and you don’t want to fall behind as your competition grows due to technology.
How Field Service Software helps: From simple tasks such as creating work orders, to complex tasks, such as scheduling entire crews for projects or their weekly schedule, field service software makes things easier. Through automation, integrations, and an all-in-one system, there isn’t an area of your daily life in which field service software won’t have a positive effect.
If you want to remain competitive, you need to find every approach possible to become more efficient in your daily tasks. That means getting your technicians to their job sites faster. That means never missing calls as part of preventative maintenance contracts. That means finding any place you can to reduce expenses while growing revenue—all while offering better service than your competition.
Don’t Let Field Service Struggles Define Your Service
You can’t avoid all struggles when you’re in the field service industry; they come with the territory. But you don’t have to let them define the service you deliver. In fact, you can turn them around to be a driving force behind change in your business to make you more efficient. Field service organizations today are running leaner, with more automation tools and more technology solutions.
If you’re not embracing what field service software brings to the table, then you’re probably more worried about your competition than they are of you. Ask yourself what struggles you face every day. Then, see how a field service software can battle them for you and turn them into a positive, profit-focused solution, rather than a nagging struggle.