Statistics show that 52% of organisations continue to rely on phone calls, texts, outdated legacy systems and burdensome, paper-based administration methods to manage their field service operations.
But, companies that want to prosper in a post-pandemic world will have to step up their game to meet customer expectations and maintain their cash flow.
To effectively manage a field service business, you must ensure that you have excellent communication methods and efficient processes that maintain the workflow. Plus, you'll need complete visibility over your workforce, inventory and finances.
With field service management software, you can seamlessly connect your office, field-based workers and customers. Better communication makes the entire procedure - from quotation to invoicing - streamlined and agile.
Read on to find out how technology can benefit your business in more detail.
How Will Field Service Management Software Help My Business?
1. Superior Job Scheduling
Job scheduling is a crucial component of field service management. However, organisations that depend on antiquated systems and manual processes to manage their schedule may struggle with unnecessary downtime, dispatching issues and overlaps that complicate the entire workflow.
With field service job scheduling software, you can simplify your job scheduling methods and increase efficiency. State-of-the-art platforms take into account future predicted workloads by allowing you to set up recurring jobs and allocate the resources required.
Using real-time data and geolocation tracking, you can assign projects to the appropriately skilled engineer nearest to the customer. Modern systems can also handle the dynamic nature of the workday, enabling you to promptly re-allocate resources to fit in emergency jobs and mitigate any potentially costly issues before they occur.
Automated, smart scheduling processes reduce time spent on the road, lower travel costs and enable your field-based engineers to complete a higher volume of work each day.
Why Accurate and Reliable Data is So Important in Asset Management
Without accurate and reliable data, you won't have full visibility over your equipment and assets. As a result, you could end up spending more money than you need to, reducing first-time fix rates, increasing downtime and losing high-value items.
Instead, companies that have access to solid asset management data benefit from the following:
1. Fewer Equipment Losses
On paper, it makes sense to use manual check-out and check-in sheets to keep track of your equipment. However, traditional asset management methods don't always work in practice and are inherently error-prone. In fact, human error is the leading problem for 46% of businesses when it comes to accurately reporting on assets.
Whether your technicians forget to sign the sheets, inadvertently take too many items and stash them in their van for another project, or their writing is simply illegible, you'll soon realise that numbers aren't adding up.
As such, your equipment can go missing, and there's no exact way of tracking what happened to it. Not only will lost equipment likely stall other projects, but replacements can be pricey.
Instead, when you digitise your asset management methods, you can create a detailed register of equipment and other vital assets, maintain a record of fitted parts, track item movements and include serial numbers, barcodes or QR codes on the stock. Your technicians can then check inventory in and out directly from their mobile devices, and you will have better visibility over your valuable equipment.
2. Visibility Over Finances
Cutting costs and increasing revenue are essential to business success. But, if you don't have complete visibility over your financial data, or if information is stored across multiple platforms, you may be unable to visualise the whole picture, create suitable budgets or make informed decisions.
Field service management software gives you complete visibility over operational spending and other vital metrics such as unpaid or overdue invoices. With access to the latest and most accurate data all stored in one place, you'll be able to make better judgments when ordering stock and create more realistic budgets for the future based on your current situation.
Better control over your finances and spending will ensure that your business has the funds it needs to take on more projects in the future and continue to grow.
3. Enhanced Cash Flow
Let's imagine for a moment that your accounts receivable team has mailed a paper invoice to your customer. The invoice arrives several days later, and the customer puts it on their finance department's desk to process.
However, the customer's finance department accidentally throws the paper in the bin. Several days later, your accounts receivable team realises that the payment is overdue, so they call the client.
Unfortunately, their finance department can't find the invoice, so your team now has to send out a new one and wait even longer for the cheque to come through. In the meantime, your cash flow has taken a hit, and you're wondering how you'll cover other operational expenses.
With field service management software, you can speed up the payments process. Once your field-based engineers have marked the job as complete from their mobile devices, an electronic invoice is immediately issued to your customer. Alternatively, your accounts receivable team can generate the invoice directly in the system. You can also include payment links, which enable your customers to pay via card and mark the invoice as complete.
No more lost or forgotten invoices. No more waiting weeks on end for payments.
4. Increased Customer Satisfaction
By removing the reliance on phone calls and paper-based documents, you could be saving around two hours each day, making the process much speedier for both the customer and your back-office team. You can manage all administrative aspects of a project on one easy-to-use platform with field service management software.
Instead of being stuck on the phone for 15 minutes to make an appointment, customers can book online via the portal. You can then allocate the best resource for the job based on set requirements or skills and send your customers real-time status updates.
When engineers complete their jobs, having filled in the electronic paperwork as they go, the system instantly generates job cards, certificates and invoices to email to the customer or head office. You can also provide your customers with a survey to measure your performance, so you can be sure that they are pleased with the job.
Not only will your customers be satisfied with the communication, along with the quality and speed of the work, but they're likely to spend more as a result of the exemplary service.
Win-win.
5. Guaranteed Compliance
Annually, UK companies lose approximately £16.2 billion as a result of injury. In addition to hazards for your technicians, poor compliance can endanger your customers. For example, if your engineer incorrectly installs an electrical system, it can catch fire.
Therefore, it's critical for any field service business to prioritise health and safety. With a field service management system, you can significantly reduce the risk of accidents:
- Digitised paperwork: Engineers fill out the forms and paperwork from their mobile devices. You can set mandatory fields within the digital documents to ensure that the workers follow the correct protocols. Engineers can also attach time, date and geolocation-stamped photos, videos and more to the work order as evidence.
- Geolocation tracking and online timesheets: With a digital record of your engineers' working hours, you can ensure that they're not exceeding legal limits.
- Scheduling: You can set automatic service schedules for installed equipment to guarantee that they're inspected at set intervals and are continuing to operate correctly.
By reducing the number of workplace incidents, you'll have happier staff and customers, your reputation will flourish and your business will grow.
Manage Your Field Service Business Effectively with BigChange
BigChange is the complete job management software system that’s helping field service businesses across the UK to win more work, take control of their operations and deliver winning customer experiences. Bringing customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, field resource management, financial management and business intelligence into one simple to use and easy to integrate platform.
Want to find out more?
Discover how BigChange field service management software can make your business grow stronger here and arrange a freedemo today. Also read the 5 biggest benefits of field service management software.
