Field Employees are the most important assets of any service company as they are the contact points for the customers. Good technicians are 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.

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.

Value of Field Engineers to The Service Business

To provide field engineers with the tools they need, companies must supply vehicles, maintenance and support for those vehicles, tools, technology and parts to support their day-to-day activities. In addition, continuing education is needed to keep up with the changes in the equipment they service. To perform their duties and deliver a quality experience to the customer, field engineers need to have easy access to account history as well.

While many of these tools are standard – the vehicles, their maintenance, fuel and so on, one of the tools often missing in the field is information. Compared to the technology that’s available today, many field engineers are saddled with a disparate paper-based process. They’re forced to rely on the limited knowledge provided by dispatchers, which may also be incomplete. Rather than having access to the full equipment and relationship history for the customer, they do the best they can with the information they have on hand, which can cause the appearance of being ill prepared, hampering customer confidence. Introducing mobile technology into field operations is the remedy to this problem.

Enhancing Value Using Field Force Tracker

A good 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 good 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 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. Service managers are constantly working to improve the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery with Field Force Tracker.

Managing Customer Interactions

A good field engineer knows how to interact with customers. When hiring, it’s beneficial to seek candidates who have quality people skills. Listening, patience, the ability to communicate at the customer’s level of understanding and conflict resolution are all essential skills to providing a quality customer experience. To resolve this, companies that provide workshops to develop these skills can see an improvement in field performance. Review of field metrics revenue by employee and job estimated time versus actual job time to determine which employees are putting their skills to use.

Knowledge Distribution to Field Engineers

A field engineer who is empowered with the right information on site has the ability to make an incredible impression with the customer. Understanding the customer’s challenges and how the products or services are a solution for these challenges is vital to sales. Post sales, having access to customer and product history enables them to appear confident and knowledgeable, which in turn helps the customer feel confident about the business. For most companies, this information isn’t available. Their engineers must rely on pre-route check-ins and time-consuming calls to dispatch to gain the information they need.

Mobile technology is the solution. Field Force Tracker’s field service management solution maintains customer and asset history in one place. When the field engineer pulls up the customer’s account, they’re able to access the pertinent information needed to ensure they are servicing the right equipment in the correct location, and verify any work that has been performed. Other corresponding documents can be stored on their mobile devices to ensure that the field engineers are providing the best service, and can also provide accurate information to customers.

Revenue Contribution By Proper Software Tools

The business has field engineers with people skills and they have the right information for the customer in their hands – now they can help to drive new revenue. One of the keys to making this a realization is to help with the identification of sales opportunities. In the case of an industry such as industrial equipment manufacturing, a field engineer can review the equipment history to determine when it may be time for the customer to upgrade or purchase new equipment. In addition, they can identify which other products or services may be of interest as well. The use of mobile technology in the field makes this possible.

Empower field engineers with the technology and tools needed to perform at their best. As the face of a business, they are the most valuable asset to a company, helping to drive the business through quality relationships and improved sales.

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).

Field Employees are the most important assets of any service company. Good technicians are hard to find and keeping them happy on the job is the responsibility of the management.  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.  A good 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 good 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 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. Service managers are constantly working to improve the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery with Field Force Tracker.

Field Employees are the Most Important Assets

Many good employers understand that a company’s most important customers are its employees. As much as a business has an obligation to provide goods and services to clients, it should be committed first to fulfilling promises to its staff. This is even more critical for those with a field service workforce that relies on skilled labor. While customers are the lifeline for any business, a stable, dependable team is especially important to meet customer expectations throughout the service chain.

The conviction of treating employees better than customers is more imperative today than ever before. The Digital Revolution is upon us. Its scale, scope and complexity are expected to be unlike anything humankind has previously experienced. In the near future we’ll see mobile devices with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity and access to knowledge. We’ll witness major advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, nanotechnology, quantum computing and other emerging technologies.

It’s all very impressive and exciting. It’s also very scary for those who see the exponential pace it is evolving. The disruptive technology of this revolution is already impacting systems and processes in every industry. However, its greatest impact may well be on the labor force.

Preparing the  Labor Force for the Digital Age

There are ways to prepare your field service workforce for the oncoming revolution. Two ways an employer can help ensure the stability and at the same time show employees they are of value to the company include providing education and ensuring core protections.

Education and Job Training. Because technology is moving far beyond the ability to keep up with the basic education employees have, workers should be retooled and retrained for their jobs annually. This is of particular importance in fields like IT, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and energy, where some of the emerging technologies are making the biggest impacts. Providing affordable education and training is not only the obligation of governments, but also the responsibility of employers. Business leaders can invest in their workers by making upskilling part of their business models.

Basic Protection for Workers. Companies have an obligation to strengthen core protections—wages, payment of overtime and child care—by investing in their people. Over the last few decades, changes in corporate culture has led to 91 percent of profits going to the owners and shareholders, leaving only 9 percent for research, development, cash reserves, raises and employee training. This has added to the problem of stagnant wages and reduced productivity. Shifting more of those profits to employees will benefit all in the end by helping to improve employee confidence in their employers and reduce employee churn.

Treating Employees Well

Of course, while employers must rethink their business models in light of the changes to come, continuing to show employees that they are valued now will help ease any fears they may have about what is to come next. It is the no-cost, simple actions that can make a difference in your relationship with employees.

Be real and transparent. Keep your employees in the loop as to any upcoming changes or challenges facing your organization. Allow them to contribute ideas and be a part of any solution. Employee morale reaches its lowest point when secrecy and distrust reign.

Offer encouragement. The most cost-effective way to inspire loyalty and increase productivity is to acknowledge performances and offer encouragement. Employees are human, not machines. A kind word here and there can mean more than you know.

Make time for employees. Be sure to make time for your employees, whether it involves a work-related or personal issue. By taking an interest in their personal lives and showing you care, you help to create a trusted environment that will enable to feel they are a valued in the company.

Refocusing on Corporate Culture

Change has always brought with it new both challenges and perils, and the Digital Revolution is certainly bringing with it changes that will impact everyone. In previous eras of technological change, past generations have been able to bend the shifts brought on by new technology to the benefit of all of society. That might be more difficult with this revolution due to the speed of its growth. Refocusing on corporate culture and core obligations now will show your workers you value them and are committed to them.

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).

Mobile apps are changing the life of field technicians. Deploying a good 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.  This article describes how cloud based Field Service CRM like Field Force Tracker can help you in running your service business and improve your company’s profitability.  A good 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.

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. Service managers are constantly working to improve the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery with Field Force

Mobile Applications – Must Have  For Your Technicians

As many as 25% of American customers cancel services due to a frustrating experience. The best way for your field teams to avoid that churn is to resolve problems in as few visits as possible. Giving them the data and tools they need to tackle almost any task equips them to be successful in delivering quality, knowledgeable service to your customers.

Thankfully, there’s a way to provide all of that team support without requiring boxes of manuals, reams of paperwork or calls back to your office where customers feel like they’re on hold in person. As an alternative, having the flexibility of bi-directional connectivity through mobility to communicate job-related data helps companies to turn each job into an opportunity for a stellar customer experience.

Five ways that the flexibility of mobility helps field service companies to deliver excellent customer service are:

1. Access to  Job Data Anytime, Anywhere

Nearly every time you or I call our Internet service provider about a problem, we’re told to reset the router manually. If the call is interrupted or the error happens again, we’re again told to reset the router. Customers who endure this type of experience in their personal lives expect much better in the B2B space. Not only is their financial investment more, but a failure to meet their needs could cost them their jobs and their livelihood. Smart, in-field mobility helps to resolve this challenge by enabling your engineers to prevent making your business known for having a “reset the router” reputation in your industry.

Mobility, and particularly when used with field service-based businesses, equips engineers to arrive at a customer’s site with access to work orders, customer history, and any other pertinent information needed to try to remedy a service call on the first visit. The flexibility that Field Force Tracker provides extends this ability to locations that are even off-the-grid for a mobile connection, ensuring that engineers have the information needed to complete jobs as ordered. Once they are within range again, data can be synced up with the back office.

2. Real-Time Troubleshooting Through Better On-Site Materials

Sometimes clients misdiagnose a problem or don’t fully grasp its depth. This means a field engineer arrives and faces a very different issue. Mobility through field service management facilitates access to product manuals, repair guidance and more, so the engineer can make the best use of their expertise with on-site educational tools related to the equipment they’re servicing.

Equipping engineers with the information needed to provide a higher level of service goes a long way to protect customer relationships with your business. Field engineers are able to appear competent, knowledgeable and can therefore, position themselves as an extension of the business they are there to serve.

3. Capture Accurate Customer Job Details

The drive after visiting a customer location gives your field engineers plenty of time to forget key service details that may be helpful in assessing the customer value, identifying upsell opportunities, evaluating the equipment being serviced and preparing the next engineer who must visit the site. And, companies that are reliant upon a paper- or email-based process suffer by wasting valuable opportunities to better communicate needed information.

Field service management through mobile devices, however, allows for the immediate input of job details, including capturing photos and videos for more accurate documentation, as well as alerting future personnel of potential safety concerns of a job site before they leave the customer’s location.

Mobile field service solutions take data capture one step further – customers can sign off on work orders when a service engineer finishes the job. This delivers another layer of communication and verification that protects both the customer’s interest and your business reputation.

4. Streamlined Services Through Integration

Mobility makes it possible to connect valuable customer data directly into other critical systems that help you to run your business. Through integration, this information can be fed directly into your CRM, ERP, accounting system or other application to keep the field and the back office in sync at all times.

Such a level of data integrity positions your company to operate more efficiently and realize benefits such as shorter invoicing times resulting in lower days of sales outstanding, thereby reducing the need for greater working capital. This sets the stage for increased profitability through the streamlined flow of data from the field through mobile devices directly to the integrated systems.

5. Improved Visibility for Management

Customer service is about more than just the person in the field. Every step in the service chain, from the initial call to the final customer invoice, plays a role into how your customer perceives your business. You’ve seen how mobility can better track service your team provides in the field, but it can also improve your ability to manage and deliver future service.

Field service management through mobile devices facilitates an improved ability to determine key operational information such as the average time it takes for engineers complete each type of call. In addition, it delivers insight to identify opportunities to optimize scheduling, and ensure customers are being invoiced when jobs are complete.

Every organization that provides service in the field – regardless of industry, customer base or team size – can see benefits and improvements by adopting field service automation though mobility.  It provides the flexibility field engineers need to properly service customers, putting job-related data right in their hands. In addition, the real-time visibility into field operations enables business leaders to better plan day-to-day operations. These help to create a system that is more responsive to customer needs and therefore, provide a higher level of customer service.

 

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).

Service managers are constantly working to improve the quality and effectiveness of their service delivery.  Deploying a good field service software can improve their ability to provide better management of their resources.  This article describes how mobile applications can help you deliver betters services and improve your productivity.  A good 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.

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.

Making the Move to Mobile Field Service Software

Whether you are looking at developing your mobile strategy or starting out, how do you choose the right solution with so many solutions available today?

From working with a range of service companies in hvac, plumbing and electrical services, we’ve found that there are some common principals.

Ease of integration with existing system flow is the key. You don’t need to have to think about changing your whole field service solution. Extending the life of your current systems is all important so look at mobile solutions which will leverage and expand their use.

Implementation needs to be as quick and straightforward as possible. A lengthy implementation process will defeat its objective. So being up and running in days, not months, should be the realistic goal – delivering a much faster Return on Investment (ROI).

Ultimately, having an effective mobility strategy in place allows for better empowerment, data sharing and collaboration out in the field. For a field worker the right mobile solution means they are empowered to do their job in the best possible way. Critical information can be accessed and shared in real time both in the field and the office, and the enhanced knowledge and collaboration this brings enables better decision-making and ultimately improved resolution.

Any mobility solution should be easy to use. Overly-complicated systems will be bypassed and worked around or ignored all together. The easier to use, the quicker the adoption and the better the ROI.

All mobility software needs to be agile and able to move with the next generation of mobility. Developments are moving fast and your provider keeping up to speed with these changes is important.

It is crucial for any mobility solution to work across mixed digital devices.  The apps will need to work across different operating systems too.

Vitally, mobility is about the anytime, anywhere access to information and it is essential that your solution makes it as easy as possible to achieve this.

Better Mobile Apps Mean Better User Experience

The face of field service has changed.  Technicians are the priority, and they need the tools and access to the information that will transform them from corporate overhead to revenue and profit generating brand proponents.

Mobile apps must have capabilities which take the technicians’ role into account, without forgetting the back office. Cloud-based web applications deliver advanced capabilities and must be easy to use and easy to integrate with existing ERP, CRM and accounting systems.

Once implemented, the two-way flow of information means that many tasks can be automated from the field as soon as jobs are completed. The result of the right mobility solution is extending the work of the back office out into the field in a robust and reliable way, connecting the operational workflow and ultimately ensuring service objectives are met.

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- The Best Field Service Software

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).