Technology adoption is a decision that needs careful consideration. Implementing the wrong technology can indeed increase your workload and ruin customer satisfaction than reduce it.
For this reason, many field service businesses shy away from using field service management software. They prefer sticking to their traditional approaches, which are inefficient and hurt the business more in the long term.
This article will help you clarify if a field service management app is right for your business growth. We compare it with the traditional approach to field operations for better insight.
Challenges to the traditional approach of managing field service operations
The traditional approach to managing field operations involves manual intervention by field service teams and tons of paperwork.
For example, many factories today require workers to sign timesheet paper manually. These sheets are then filed and kept in the site’s office. It’s easy to lose on such papers, especially during fire hazards, leading to the loss of important data.
Apart from data loss, other challenges include:
- Detailing errors: It is easy for a booming business without automation to make mistakes in detailing job requests. It may result in wrong dispatching, material procurement, or output from field service technicians.
- Delays: traditional approach requires a human to handle every manual task. Every process involves a team member, from getting job details from clients and creating work orders to dispatching a field service technician. This leads to delays and impacts your customer experience.
- Mismanagement: it’s not easy to manage multiple job sites with multiple field service technicians of various skill sets. One is bound to face issues due to miscommunication or lack of visibility at some point in business growth.
How does field service management software overcome traditional approach challenges?
A field service management app helps organize and streamline field service business operations across invoicing, work order management, scheduling, dispatching, reporting, etc. It enables project managers to:
- Automate repetitive tasks
- Match jobs with relevant field service technicians
- Track jobs to gain visibility on field service operations
- Manage field service technicians and back office teams
- Organize data to extract insights
With the above benefits, a field service business can comfortably scale to service more customers.
It helps overcome above mentioned challenges to traditional approaches as follows:
Resource and asset management
Assigning jobs that require out-of-service equipment will create hassle in execution and derail customer experience. A field service management software handles asset maintenance schedules, resource tracking for raw materials, and purchases. It enables your business to never remain ‘out of order’ again.
Storage of data and reporting
No need to maintain paperwork and hoards of files for maintaining records. A field service management app helps store, access, and retrieve any data required anytime, anywhere.
Using historical data, your business can generate reports that aid management meetings. For example, creating status reports, job schedule reports, or field service technician performance is easy.
Automated workflows
Field service management software allows automated workflows for low-value, low-risk, or recurring jobs. One can also automate the creation and sending of invoices, follow up with customers for payments and manage worker payrolls. Such automation reduces response time by back-office teams, making your business more productive.
Sending quick replies to customers awaiting support also improves customer satisfaction. Charging more for customer support is also possible by enabling customers with DIY help sections.
Is the field service management app right for your business?
Field service management software suits every service business across sizes, budgets, and scales. The earlier a business incorporates technology, the better data analytics one can perform to optimize operations at every growth stage.
Implementing field service management may require change management, budget, and IT infrastructure – but in the long term, it gets much cheaper as your business grows. Many field service management apps have generous trial plans or demo walkthroughs that help managers experience the technology.
Integrate your business operations field service management app today
Zuper understands the hesitation of having a technology layer for a business that traditionally runs on manual workflows. We provide the ability to integrate Zuper with your existing software to enable the transition.
Book a demo today to learn how Zuper can help improve the productivity and scalability of your field services business.
