Overcoming Pain Points in Field Service Operations

Companies offering field service management are grappling with intricate challenges impacting operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. However, field service management software can eliminate all these pain points. 

Field service management teams deal with difficulties daily. They constantly try to strike a balance between providing high-quality service and making money for the company. Additionally, these teams deal with problems daily that field service software could help them with.

But it just might be because you don’t have a field service software solution to help tackle the problems in the first place. Let’s look at some pain points in field service management and how field service software will handle them. 

Ouch! That Hurts- Pain Points of Field Sevice Management

Here are the pain points of field service management along with the solution provided by TrackoField’s abled field service management software. 

1. Scheduling and Dispatching Conflicts

Effective technician dispatch and scheduling are one of the main obstacles. Using manual techniques, it is challenging to keep track of technicians’ availability, scheduling, and whereabouts. This may result in inefficiencies and longer response times. A few examples include an increase in call requests between technicians and office workers, more time spent driving rather than attending to clients, and the deployment of technicians who are not qualified for the tasks at hand. 

Solution: Automation-driven field staff management platforms can speed up reaction times and provide real-time information on technicians’ locations and availability, aiding in scheduling and dispatch procedures. For easy scheduling management, service managers can monitor their technicians’ whereabouts during service calls and the routes they take.

With the most flexible work calendar available, TrackoField’s field service management software lets you easily plan jobs or drag and drop them to reschedule, even at the last minute.

You can expect better performance from your field employees when they know their schedule and responsibilities and dealines when they are just handed out task sheets or manual calling. 

2. Poor First-Time Fix Rate

Businesses engaged in field service management should aim for a high first-time repair rate. When technicians are forced to depart a job site before the task is completed, the customer may become irate and choose to work with someone else. Clients may begin to believe that your technicians are showing up unprepared, which will only end up costing them more money in labour hours.

 In order to be completely prepared when they arrive at the job site, technicians need greater knowledge of the jobs they will perform, as customers are now expecting them to do the job correctly the first time.

Solution: Before arriving at the job, technicians may now check the equipment’s service history for the customer using TrackoField’s field service software and mobile apps. They have access to previous repair notes to aid with a quicker diagnosis. The group of tasks feature makes it easier to assign many steps to an employee’s work and to share information with the following employee.

Additionally, before leaving for the job location, they may make sure they have the right parts on hand. As a result, the technician won’t need to leave the location as frequently. Using selection and search capabilities, dispatchers can also help by scheduling personnel with the appropriate skill level, qualifications, and customer understanding in their initial dispatch.

3. Long ETA Window for Customers

You can be sure that the customer will be quite dissatisfied if you have to inform them that a technician will arrive at some point within a five-hour span. While lengthy ETA windows are rather typical in the field service sector, offering shorter, more precise appointment windows to your clients can set your company apart from the competition. Additionally, you can get repeat business from it.

Did You Know? 67% of customers want faster response time.

Solution: Using field service scheduling software allows you to reduce the length of your estimated time of arrival. This software facilitates more precise scheduling and makes it simple for your office staff to monitor each appointment’s progress. Your technicians can use the real-time information you provide to update your scheduled consumers about their whereabouts better.

Communicating dynamic ETA can bring clarity to the operation. Customers aren’t left in the dark and can better use their time that day.

4. Poor Communication with Field Service Technicians 

Field service managers usually use texts and phone calls to stay in touch with their field staff.

Many, however, have complained that their employees are frequently not in the network area or that their work requires so much minute detail that keeping them updated takes up a lot of staff time in the office.

Are you able to relate to these issues in field service management?

Personal messaging apps typically don’t function well for team real-time communication since they don’t clearly communicate the proper meaning of the task or accountability.

It is unreasonable to expect every field service team member to operate the equipment similarly. Managers may find it challenging to enforce certain standards on personal devices or applications since staff members may not wish to comply.

Solution: The issue can be resolved if you start using specially created software designed to assist businesses in overcoming such field service management obstacles.

TrackoField has a specially designed executive app for field technicians, and office users typically can use the software’s web interface. This helps establish a solid network of sending and receiving information via the software, so field service employees and office executives can communicate in real-time. All the vital information is already on the cloud and visible on the executive app. This helps mitigate doubts and confusion among the field force.

5. Low Field Service Technician Productivity

Monitoring employee productivity is a typical business challenge for field services. Furthermore, you still need to figure out how to address the problem even if you believe that some employees are less productive than others. Field service management software can give you comprehensive information on every employee. Such as how each employee uses their work hours, how much each field technician is billing for, and more.

Solution: When you are more adept at tracking employee productivity, you can find problems limiting it. For example, you may observe that some field technicians aren’t as adept at upselling as others, so giving them further training on your offerings could be beneficial. Monitoring productivity can help you make more informed decisions about staff training investments. It can also help you uncover other problems, such as poor communication, misinformation, and policies that employees attempt to follow.

Employing software to track and resolve issues with employee productivity has several benefits. Not only may more productive employees increase earnings for your company, but they will also be better equipped to collaborate as a team.

Did You Know? 94% of service professionals in high-performing organizations cite productivity as a major of field service management software.  73% of field technicians say they spend too much of their day-to-day job on paperwork. 70% of field service companies find hiring and retaining technicians difficult.

6. Performance Management

Accurate and transparent data is essential for field management organisations, particularly for comparing performance to targets and making business-advancing decisions. Although manual techniques, such as spreadsheets, paper documents, and calculators, can yield precise analytics, they are prone to human error and demand significant manual data entry and study.

Did You Know! 86% of decision-makers at organizations with field service say it’s critical to scaling their business

Solution: Switching to TrackoField’s automated dashboard and reporting modules can help decision-makers monitor performance and trends without adding more work hours to an already hectic schedule.

Field Service Management Software – The Ointment You Need

Certain field service management teams find it challenging to address these issues while still trying to give their clients good service. TrackoField’s field service software is the ideal tool for addressing all of these issues and efficiently delivering services.

So, if you, too, want TrackoField to improve your capacity to provide excellent customer care while addressing any pain points hindering your company’s growth, schedule a free demo.