Service managers need to understand the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery. The lack of service measurements is one such area that lacks in paper base or simple home grown systems. This article describes how field service software can help you better understand the effectiveness of your service delivery.  Using extensive analytics information of Field Force Tracker’s reporting module, you can measure the effectiveness for field services  in your organization.

Service  companies are trying to move to electronic model of providing services. Paper based operation is too slow to address customer concerns and cannot provide suitable data analysis. Field Force Tracker is the most comprehensive software for field service management.  It takes care of everything from customer management to the payment collection for a service company. By using this software, our clients can see major improvement in their productivity and the customer satisfaction.

Field Service Reports To Help Business

For you to track the performance of your service operations and understand your business, you’ll need to be able to access the right information, when you need it and in a way that is meaningful to you. Without this insight you may be basing decisions on gut feel or doing things the way they have always been done.

Field service management technology gives you greater visibility into your field service operations. With that visibility comes a lot of data which is useful to the business, but the amount of data can often feel overwhelming in where to start or how to analyze what is needed. It can sometimes feel so overwhelming that data then sits unused.

Field Force Tracker leads the way in simplifying field service management and here we look at why simple can also mean effective when it comes to technology, which helps organizations get the information they need for their business success. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by data or have the time to wade through masses of numbers, so let your field service management solution organize the key information for you to identify the crucial stuff you need at any time to make decisions.

Using Field Service Reports in the Decision Making

A day in field service operations can often change and be unpredictable as even the best laid plans are affected if emergency work comes in or jobs overrun. On the spot decisions need to be made to keep up with and manage those changes and get the day back on track.

Lack of visibility into what is happening out in the field may mean poor decisions are made, which can have further impact on the day’s work. Having access to information can mean that better decisions can be made then and there, keeping the most effective plan for the work. The impact of making changes can be seen immediately and decisions can be based on that, taking into account this impact and any potential outcome on service performance, cost and the rest of the day’s work.

Longer term planning with Reports

While day-to-day access to data is critical to the management of daily performance, business intelligence dashboards are also vital in the longer term view. This information will feed into the more strategic business planning around budgets, resources, targets and areas to focus on driving performance in the future.

Identifying business trends is critical to growing revenue, retaining customers and increasing the productivity of field workers.  It’s important as a means of discovering problems before they can impact the business. Reporting is an essential component of any field service solution and being able to access the relevant information easily and quickly is fundamental.

Planning Proper Measurement

There is a saying that goes ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure’, so to understand your business, you need to know what is going on from your performance reports. For the best results, you need a solution that meets these business needs. Field Force Tracker helps field service companies simplify their performance reporting to get the information that is needed for better decision making and business success.

Field service management technology gives you greater visibility into your field service operations. With that visibility comes a lot of data which is useful to the business, but the amount of data can often feel overwhelming in where to start or how to analyse what is needed. It can sometimes feel so overwhelming that data then sits unused.

Service Performance Measurement Metrics

Surveys into field service delivery find that performance management and visibility continue to top the list of the key business concerns that managers have. For you to track the performance of your service operations and understand your business, you’ll need visibility of the right information, when you need it and in a way that is meaningful to you. Without this visibility you may be basing decisions on gut feel or doing things the way they have always been done.

Field Force Tracker leads the way in simplifying field service management and here we look at why simple can also mean effective when it comes to technology, which helps organizations get the information they need for their business success. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by data or have the time to wade through masses of numbers, so let your field service management solution organize the key information for you to identify the crucial stuff you need at any time to make decisions.

Business Analytics is the Key to Success

Business intelligence (BI) dashboards do just that and organize key metrics about your company’s service operation so that you can make fully informed business decisions.

With this view into your field operations, you will be able to answer questions like:

• Which services are most profitable?
• Which are the most productive crews and technicians?
• How are changes affecting specific operations?

The visual presentation of data in BI dashboards needs to be easy to understand and should be easy to filter by service type, individual, crew or any other data point collected. Week-to-week or month-to-month comparisons can surface meaningful trends that can help fine-tune a service organization to run at maximum productivity – while maximizing profit.

Making Decision Based on Data

A day in field service operations can often change and be unpredictable as even the best laid plans are affected if emergency work comes in or jobs overrun. On the spot decisions need to be made to keep up with and manage those changes and get the day back on track.

Lack of visibility into what is happening out in the field may mean poor decisions are made, which can have further impact on the day’s work. Having access to information can mean that better decisions can be made then and there, keeping the most effective plan for the work. The impact of making changes can be seen immediately and decisions can be based on that, taking into account this impact and any potential outcome on service performance, cost and the rest of the day’s work.

Organizing Field Service Reports

While day-to-day access to data is critical to the management of daily performance, business intelligence dashboards are also vital in the longer-term view. This information will feed into the more strategic business planning around budgets, resources, targets and areas to focus on driving performance in the future.

Identifying business trends is critical to growing revenue, retaining customers and increasing the productivity of field workers.  It’s important as a means of discovering problems before they can impact the business. Reporting is an essential component of any field service solution and being able to access the relevant information easily and quickly is fundamental.

There is a saying that goes ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure’, so to understand your business, you need to know what is going on from your performance reports. For the best results, you need a solution that meets these business needs.

Field Force Tracker helps field service companies simplify their performance reporting to get the information that is needed for better decision making and business success.

Mobile enabled, cloud-based field service software was designed to provide ease of use with incredible flexibility. Along with the ease – and speed – of our implementation and the ongoing support service that we provide we enable companies to take full advantage of today’s mobile field service.

Field Force Tracker’s power mobile apps for iPhone and Android are available to all new and existing Field Force Tracker customers. They can extend the feature set with the enhanced mobile forms capabilities, and better system integration.  Field Force Tracker, a mobile enabled web-based field service management software, streamlines technician scheduling, dispatch, customer management, vendor and employee management, work orders, equipment maintenance, inventory tracking, contracts, estimates, invoices, payments and accounting. It is considered one of the most feature rich software of its kind.

About Field Force Tracker

Force Tracker (http://www.fieldforcetracker.com) is a leading global provider of its award winning mobile workforce solutions for service-based businesses of all sizes delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Its solutions enable businesses of all sizes (from 1 user to 10,000 users) to meet the challenges associated with managing and running complex service operations. It helps in improving the productivity of their mobile workforce.

With Field Force Tracker customers can create service schedule and route quickly, dispatch sooner, collect correct information at once in the field and invoice faster. The field service software makes it easy for users to eliminate waste, get more done in less time and be more profitable.

Field Force Tracker is a wholly owned unit of Rapidsoft Systems Inc. (http://www.rapidsoftsystems.com). Rapidsoft Systems, Inc. has its main office in Princeton, NJ, USA, a US R&D Center in Mercerville NJ, and sales, support and development offices in Palo Alto, CA, USA, Singapore, Dubai (UAE), Bombay, and Noida (India).

 

Field Force Tracker is the most comprehensive software for field service management.  It takes care of everything from customer management to the payment collection for a service company. By using this software, our clients can see major improvement in their productivity and the customer satisfaction.

The field service of many businesses across different industries have long been seen as purely cost centers. However, the focus of any field service software decisions must have the goals of increasing field service profit contribution.

This can’t be at a cost to other elements of the service, especially customer satisfaction, for example, but can be achieved through the efficiencies which field service software deliver to the business.

Below are several tips on how to tweak your business and increase your business margins.

1.  Use Software Automation to Remove Bottlenecks

You may not realize it, but the very thing that underpins your business is also holding you back: the paperwork. Having a paper trail at the core of your work flow means that only one person has visibility to a work order at any given time. It also means that there’s an inherent delay in getting a job to a field worker, getting it back to the office, and then getting it to the right person to generate the invoice or update the payment status. Not to mention that paper work orders often get lost or destroyed. Do you even know how many times that happens in your business? You may be losing revenue without even knowing it.

Ideally, your service workflow should be digitized so that when a service call comes in, it’s captured electronically, dispatched to a field tech’s smartphone, and then available for invoicing upon completion – all within one system. Your business may still require paperwork for certifications, warranties, or 3rd party documentation, but at least your core workflow will process as quickly as possible without the unnecessary bottlenecks of a paper work order.

2. Accelerate Customer  Invoicing

If any portion of your business results in an invoice for payment, you’re floating part of your customer base. Some service companies report that they normally wait 45 days to receive invoice payments, and up to two weeks of that delay is due to the process of generating the invoices in the first place. The longer it takes to get payment for your services, the more it impacts your business by tying up your cash for the parts and payroll it took to deliver the service.

As a result, you should do everything possible to reduce the time it takes to get an invoice into the hands of your customer. That requires the information for the invoice to be in electronic form so that it can flow directly from the work order without any additional data entry. If it is, you can generate an invoice for that customer as soon as the work is complete. Doing so can eliminate any internal time lag so that you get your money as soon as possible, freeing it up to be used where it’s needed most: growing your business.

3. Simplify and Improve Scheduling

Your entire service process begins with the conversion of a service request into a job assigned to a field worker. Doesn’t it make sense to start looking for productivity gains right off the bat? Improving your ability to handle service requests efficiently has a direct impact on your business margins.. And since ‘stuff happens’, your service schedule will change more than you’d like.

The most efficient service companies use computer-based scheduling tools to streamline the process of capturing and dispatching service requests, saving as much as 80% over the effort of a paper-based process. Electronic scheduling also provides visibility for real-time monitoring of assigned jobs and field staff availability. Additionally, centralizing the scheduling data allows all required staff to view it as needed, reducing the number of status requests your dispatcher has to fulfil.

4.  Use Mobility for Better Service

Today’s smartphone technology gives businesses an opportunity to communicate with their mobile workforce more efficiently than ever. Smartphone applications give field techs access to powerful solutions right at their fingertips. If your company is not leveraging smartphone technology in native form, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase your overall efficiency and drive more dollars to your business margins.. Don’t rely on a cumbersome paper-based workflow, or expensive handheld wireless devices for your field staff.

Leverage technology you probably already have to drive your field-based business: smartphones and the internet. Today’s SaaS offerings (Software as a Service) provide enterprise-quality solutions without requiring you to purchase software, servers, or expensive wireless equipment for field staff.

5.  Improve Customer Satisfaction with Proper Feedback

The best customer is a happy customer. Because happy customers bring repeat business and referrals, two things you surely want more of. They also tend to pay on a more timely basis. All in all, customer satisfaction is critical to your field service business because happy customers are your lifeblood. Make sure you deliver the level of service your customers are looking for by using a field service automation solution that will deliver what you need.

Your solution should be centralized so that all of your staff have access to the same customer information. It should be available 24/7 from anywhere you might be when you need it. It should include service history so that you and your field techs know the full story. And it should allow you to seamlessly track multiple contacts, locations, and assets for each customer.

6. Increase Your Average  Service Ticket

To increase total revenue, you either need to generate more tickets, or generate bigger tickets. Or both. Increasing your average ticket is the fastest way to increase your business margins.. Particularly if those ticket increases come from existing customers or from the sale of consumables.

If your existing customers are happy, they are most likely your company’s ‘low hanging fruit’. Look for opportunities to up-sell additional services, service contracts, or get referrals. Ideally, your field service automation solution will prompt your field techs to identify these leads as they’re doing their normal job. Doing so could easily generate an additional 10-15% in revenue for your business – without any additional staff.

Depending on your business, it may be possible to add consumables to the products you currently carry. For an electrical service company, offering customers the option to buy a small variety of high efficiency fluorescent bulbs could add another 3-5% to the average ticket. Depending on the profit margin, that could result in an extra 1-2% on the total business margins.

7.  Monitor Service Parameters and Reports

In order to really maximize profitability, you must have access to the summary metrics — and underlying details – that your business generates. Without a field service automation solution to capture this information automatically in the course of business, you’re left to rely on hunches and best guesses for key business decisions that could make or break your company.

You should be using analytical reports that can illustrate which field workers are the most time-efficient, who up-sells the most, which service requests have the highest margin, and more. Increasing your business margins. requires you to get current business metrics at a glance, while also having access to ad hoc reports that can answer the tricky questions that come up as you identify irregularities in those metrics. While it’s good to know that you’re field techs are completing 25% more jobs than they did last month, it’s even better to know why so you can capitalize on it!

Increasing Your Business margins Using Field Force Tracker

Field Force Tracker helps companies to identify where they need to improve their field service organization and focuses on simplifying field service management.

We help field service companies make more money by streamlining the service scheduling process, increasing field worker productivity, improving customer satisfaction, accelerating invoicing, automating timesheets, and generating lead opportunities in the field. Best of all, our solution is provided via technology you already have: smartphones and the internet. And all for a low monthly fee per user, with no up-front costs. Our SaaS product can be accessed from anywhere, at any time day or night, and handles your service delivery process from end-to-end.

Field Force Tracker allows you to schedule your resources easily and quickly and dispatch the job to the field instantly. Our leading field service solution can transform how you run your field operation and ensure that you can get the most out of all the resources you have.

Our made-for-mobile, cloud-based field service software was designed to provide ease of use with incredible flexibility. Along with the ease – and speed – of our implementation and the ongoing support service that we provide we enable companies to take full advantage of today’s mobile field service.

Field Force Tracker’s power mobile apps for iPhone and Android are available to all new and existing Field Force Tracker customers. They can extend the feature set with the enhanced mobile forms capabilities, and better system integration.  Field Force Tracker, a mobile enabled web-based field service management software, streamlines technician scheduling, dispatch, customer management, vendor and employee management, work orders, equipment maintenance, inventory tracking, contracts, estimates, invoices, payments and accounting. It is considered one of the most feature rich software of its kind.

About Field Force Tracker

Force Tracker (http://www.fieldforcetracker.com) is a leading global provider of its award winning mobile workforce solutions for service-based businesses of all sizes delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Its solutions enable businesses of all sizes (from 1 user to 10,000 users) to meet the challenges associated with managing and running complex service operations. It helps in improving the productivity of their mobile workforce.

With Field Force Tracker customers can create service schedule and route quickly, dispatch sooner, collect correct information at once in the field and invoice faster. The field service software makes it easy for users to eliminate waste, get more done in less time and be more profitable.

Field Force Tracker is a wholly owned unit of Rapidsoft Systems Inc. (http://www.rapidsoftsystems.com). Rapidsoft Systems, Inc. has its main office in Princeton, NJ, USA, a US R&D Center in Mercerville NJ, and sales, support and development offices in Palo Alto, CA, USA, Singapore, Dubai (UAE), Bombay, and Noida (India).

Field Employees are the most important assets of any service company as they are the contact points for the customers. Good technicians are ambassador of your company and hard to find and keeping them happy on the job is going to reflect on services that they will provide.  This article describes how cloud based Field Service CRM like Field Force Tracker can help you in increasing job satisfaction and at the same time, improve your company’s profitability.

Customers know your company by your technician’s name. Field service engineers have more face-to-face contact with customers than any other part of a business. They’re responsible for sales, installation, maintenance, support, and other tasks that require direct access to the products and services a business provides. They also have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction. As a result, they are the most valuable members of a service chain. Empowering them with the right training, the right information and the right technology enables them to help build the reputation of the business, and also makes them a key to company growth and increasing business revenue.

Field Service Employees As Customer Ambassador

Service Agreements are keys to any business. But validating contracts in the field requires a software like Field Force Tracker. There are a number of checks and balances that must be maintained to properly service equipment in the field. A field service worker must be aware of the customer support agreements (CSA), and they must be aware of the customer’s history, service status and details of warranties that are in place.  They also must track on truck and be aware of off-truck inventory, while ensuring that any services rendered are properly invoiced. In an industry such as manufacturing, they must also ensure that checklists are followed for safety and compliance, all while managing travel and delivering quality service and training.

Failure to maintain software and follow standards for these tasks can be stressful. The more stressful a process is – or if there’s not a process in place at all – the more likely it is that a field service worker will burn out and move on to another employer who provides an easier work environment.

Employee churn can be very expensive. With their exit, they take knowledge and possible customer relationships with them. And when dealing with specialized equipment, the range of qualified candidates may be limited; thereby lengthening the timeframe it may take to hire a replacement. In the meantime, your dispatchers struggle to provide coverage for requests, your remaining field workers feel additional pressure to perform, and your customers may suffer by receiving less than stellar care.

Financial impact of employee churn

Losing an employee is bad for a business. The financial impact can be very damaging as well. For example, for an entry-level worker making $20.00 per hour/$41,600 per year wages requires almost a month to recruit. Then a similar amount must be spent on search, interviewing, on-boarding and training of their replacement

The more specialized the employee, the higher the percentage is to replace them, upwards of 300% of their annual pay. Note that this does not include the administrative and technology costs for their departure. The exit interview, resetting of equipment and passwords, and managing their customer relationships all add to the tally.

Reducing Employee Churn in the Field Service Organization

Every company is concerned about maintaining a stable environment, It must make an attempt to stop this churn and retain its field service workers.  Reducing the stress they experience in daily operations is a key element in keeping engineers happy. Moving from a paper-based system and optimizing your service chain provides a streamlined environment for both your field service workers and your back office (who may also be prone to churn due to inefficiencies). Field service management can:

• Deploy Field Force Tracker – one of the best Field Service Software. Connect your field operations with dispatch and your back office to ensure seamless, bidirectional communication
• Improve safety numbers by reducing distractions while en route to the customer
• Decrease frustration for field service workers by providing account history, agreements, contracts, and checklists within the application
• Improve first-time fix rates, enabling the worker to close a job out and focus on the next
• Reduce the travel time between jobs, delivering for greater efficiency and less time on the road and in potentially poor traffic conditions

Each of these points play a part in reducing the stress for your field service workers. It also helps them to feel more confident about each customer they service because they are equipped with the tools and information they need to deliver quality service.

Recruiting and Training New employees

Employees leave for a variety of reasons. Some of your employees left because your service processes were very cumbersome. By employing field service management into your business, you will become the company good candidates seek, empowering your to choose from a wider selection and find those who fit your company’s culture. Also, that meets the needed expertise for the position. In addition, more candidates means a shorter and less expensive search period.

The use of field service management process for operations can bring candidates that will not come to you otherwise. You may search for candidates that already have experience working with technology when making service calls; however, to ensure that you have the best opportunity to make the best placement, you could also note in the description that training is provided. An intuitive, easy-to-use system will ensure that with the right candidate, the learning curve will remain simple.

It’s worth noting that companies that have employed a field service management process into their operations have realized a big gain in the retention.

Field service management  is helpful in cutting waste and improving profitability. It can provide your business with the tools your field service workers need to better serve your customers. By reducing the stress in their day-to-day operations, a business not only makes it a more pleasant work environment for existing employees, but is empowered with an asset to recruit the best talent for your organization.

Enhancing Value Using Field Force Tracker

An easy to use service software can help everyone in the company to better manage the effectiveness of your service delivery.  Using extensive capabilities of Field Force Tracker’s software, you can improve the effectiveness for field services in your organization. Deploying a rich cloud based field service CRM software with mobile apps can improve your ability to manage your business. This facilitates service managers to better management of your service resources in the most cost effective way.

Service companies in all parts of the world are trying to move to electronic model of providing services. Paper based operation is too slow to address customer concerns and cannot provide suitable data analysis to the business. Field Force Tracker is the most comprehensive software for field service management.  It takes care of everything from customer management to the payment collection for a service company. By using this software, our clients can see major improvement in their productivity and the customer satisfaction. Service managers are constantly working to improve the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery with Field Force Tracker.

Why Field Force Tracker

Mobile enabled, cloud-based field service software was designed to provide ease of use with incredible flexibility. Along with the ease – and speed – of our implementation and the ongoing support service that we provide we enable companies to take full advantage of today’s mobile field service.

Field Force Tracker’s power mobile apps for iPhone and Android are available to all new and existing Field Force Tracker customers. They can extend the feature set with the enhanced mobile forms capabilities, and better system integration.  Field Force Tracker, a mobile enabled web-based field service management software, streamlines technician scheduling, dispatch, customer management, vendor and employee management, work orders, equipment maintenance, inventory tracking, contracts, estimates, invoices, payments and accounting. It is considered one of the most feature rich software of its kind.

About Field Force Tracker

Force Tracker (http://www.fieldforcetracker.com) is a leading global provider of its award winning mobile workforce solutions for service-based businesses of all sizes delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Its solutions enable businesses of all sizes (from 1 user to 10,000 users) to meet the challenges associated with managing and running complex service operations. It helps in improving the productivity of their mobile workforce.

With Field Force Tracker customers can create service schedule and route quickly, dispatch sooner, collect correct information at once in the field and invoice faster. The field service software makes it easy for users to eliminate waste, get more done in less time and be more profitable.

Field Force Tracker is a wholly owned unit of Rapidsoft Systems Inc. (http://www.rapidsoftsystems.com). Rapidsoft Systems, Inc. has its main office in Princeton, NJ, USA, a US R&D Center in Mercerville NJ, and sales, support and development offices in Palo Alto, CA, USA, Singapore, Dubai (UAE), Bombay, and Noida (India).