If you think about incorporating a field service management software as a part of your small business tool kit, you shouldn’t have to think much about it. You should do it!
A field service management software system can improve customer experience by a significant margin. It can also help you provide a much-needed on-site customer support, manage service requests and monitor the work flows & timesheets of technicians in the field. Through the information that you get with field service software, you will be able to prioritize tasks and boost the overall efficiency of the company, while simultaneously improving customer satisfaction, and business profits.
The benefits for SMBs using field service management software are widely known. However, the market of software providers is crowded. A large number of well-executed and easy-to-use service management software companies already exist, so the question is: How do I choose the right one for my business?
In the following article, we will provide you with 6 tips to find the best field service management software.
Understand Your Business Needs & Challenges
Source: skedulo.com
Before you integrate any field service management software into your business tech stack, you should know what your main business needs are. Furthermore, you should accept the fact that there might be some challenges within your current business system which you might just need to change.
Knowing this will allow you to use the software to the fullest. With a field service management software such as Zuper, you will be able to organize your field service technicians, delivery and supply chain partners, help desk agents and have them all working together, thus improving their efficiency. Enabling them to concentrate on more revenue generating activities, opposed to non-revenue laborious work.
The best way to indicate any challenges is to talk to your staff members in the field and involve them in the decision-making process, or at least take their input into consideration. After all, they are the ones doing the work and they will benefit mostly from this FSM software.
Organize Field Teams
There are businesses that provide a variety of services and field service management software can help you create service groups. Each group will have a designed role, which will make it easier for everyone involved.
Organizing different groups can be applied even for companies that provide one service. For example, if your company has a large number of electricians, they might be working in pairs and each pair can constitute a group. Furthermore, each electrician has a unique skill set and your FSM software can make intelligent decisions to send the right crew to the right location for maximum efficiency. On the other hand, a certain crew can cover one area of the city. This will reduce the travel time significantly and your clients will receive quicker service – they won’t have to wait long for your crew to show up, which is always a bonus when it comes to fast customer service.
Scheduling and Appointments
Source: industrytoday.com
A good field service management tool should provide agents and field workers with an easy scheduling system. Therefore, everyone can see an open schedule which helps you avoid several things. First of all, jobs will be distributed equally between everyone. Secondly, it is highly unlikely for someone to slack off. Thirdly, the field workers have a “fixed schedule”. In other words, they won’t be overburdened with work and there’s less chance of someone working overtime with a clear schedule that’s known days ahead. Consequently, field workers will be much happier.
Efficient Automation and Forecasting
Some tasks are repetitive and can be automated. FSM software that provides you with that option is definitely the one to consider. Some of the tasks that can be automated are job ticket routing, assigning service tasks, missed appointments, time-related automatons, and automations based on agent performance or rating.
Using an intelligent FSM software system will help you become more efficient and you will not deal with mundane daily tasks, allowing you to be focused on bigger problems. Furthermore, service management software that has a forecasting ability can help you organize your time, predict issues and improve job service scheduling.
Provide Self-Service
Source: getfieldy.com
A part of your customer support should be encouraging your clients to find the solutions to their problems by themselves. Anyone who has worked a day in customer support knows that a majority of problems people call you for are trivial and can be solved on the spot.
However, you need to provide the basis for self-service first so that your clients could use it, allowing you to focus on more complex problems and devote 100% of your time and focus to each customer. Moreover, help desk agents will have more time to coordinate your field agents, which overall improves the level of services your business provides.
You can easily create a great self-service feature with the help of your FSM software. These include FAQs, knowledge base, articles & video content, customer community forums, and chatbots. A large majority of top-tier FSM software solutions come with the self-service features included.
A mobile field service management app
Last but not least, your chosen service management software should have a mobile app included too. The reason for it is for the field force to access it quickly and efficiently. Without the mobile app, the field service management software isn’t something you should consider.
However, the app should allow the technicians to do numerous things and it should be easy to use. For example, they should be able to add the job notes for future referents. A lot of time, they are working and they may be unable to add everything into the software on the spot – like their timesheets. In addition to that, they should be able to add images, log in and out, follow expenses, check in on the appointments, amongst many other things needed for their daily job work flows.
In addition, they will always be in touch with your help desk agents and they will be able to navigate more easily. Checking the field service app from time to time in between jobs should be enough for your crew to get moving quickly and receive all the necessary information.
The bottom line…
Finding the best field management software system requires some consideration. As we’ve already said, the FSM software you choose should considerably improve your business and make it easier for everyone. If you do not know how to use it or what your end goal is with it, then it is best not to integrate it on your own, but ask for a demo for any of the FSM software solutions you are considering for your business.
