Businesses in the field services industry look for innovative ways to improve their operational efficiency and offer an unmatched experience to their customers. This can be possible by monitoring field personnel’s productivity and constantly analyzing the areas that need improvement. Effective field service management runs from the top and requires empowering the staff with the right resources to deliver excellent service for various customer needs.
Modern field service management solutions make it very easy to manage employees in the field and ensure that all the customer expectations are met fittingly. Enterprises are making use of the latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things to make their field operations efficient and ensure customer satisfaction. Most of the field service management software applications come with advanced features that help to automate various functions in field operations. This makes the process seamless and leads to success. Below are 5 ways to ensure better productivity of field personnel.
Automate the Processes
Automating the routine field service tasks, such as filling forms, work orders, and data collection can be very helpful to ease the stress from the technicians. It not just makes the time-consuming jobs faster, but also helps to reduce the chances of manual errors in data entry. Field service management software can help to automate most of the functions and digitize them to make the process simpler. It can also be helpful in keeping track of time and attendance, as well as CRM data management.
Empower the Field Personnel
Field service management software allows technicians to record their activities in real-time using the mobile companion app. This makes sure that the data is available to the other teams instantly, which can be helpful to take the necessary actions as per the work order. For instance, when the field personnel updates the forms after closing the job, the back-office staff can generate invoices quickly. Besides, a dedicated app will also allow field technicians to check all the relevant information before attending to a customer problem.
Integrate Different Field Service Systems
A field service management system makes it easy to integrate different tools used in the company. This allows both the back-office staff as well as the field technician to check all the necessary information in one place. As they do not have to switch between different applications, this helps to save valuable time for solving customer issues. For instance, Geofencing and geo-positioning tools can help to optimize the routes for the work orders as well as track any delays in reaching the location in time.
Make Use of IoT Data
IoT solutions can collect great volumes of data, which can be beneficial for field service businesses in a lot of ways. For instance, the sensors on different machines can be customized to send data to the field services company about the specific problem and even create alerts for potential malfunctioning. Managing this data and sharing it with the field personnel as per the work orders can make the necessary maintenance work much simpler, reduce the number of routine tasks, and help to improve their productivity.
Plan and Assign Tasks Smartly
Automating the planning and scheduling of work orders can help to make the entire process streamlined and more efficient. A field service management solution can allocate the tasks to different technicians based on the customer information recorded in the system, such as location, preferred service hours, etc. This also helps to allocate different jobs to different field personnel based on variables like their technical knowledge, experience, location, and availability. The automation also makes it easy to prioritize preventive and reactive interventions to meet customer requirements.
Most of the modern field service management software applications have two distinct yet interrelated parts – an administrative portal for the supervisor or back-office staff and a companion mobile app for the field technicians or auditors. This makes it easier to transfer relevant information, such as the work orders, forms, instructions, pictures, and signatures, between the software and mobile app. That way, any inconsistency caused due to the misinterpretation of unreadable handwritten notes or going through long emails and spreadsheets can be avoided.
The field personnel can easily download the required forms, update relevant data for the completed jobs, and upload them to the server. The software can be integrated with different back-office systems to use the data and keep track of the work orders, manage time and scheduling, send reports, and do a lot more. Besides, not having to scan and print documents and then filing them manually saves a lot of valuable time for the field technicians, which can be used accordingly to attend to other jobs.
Field service management solutions also provide a unified view for the managers and supervisors to stay in control of the entire process. In turn, this helps them to ensure better team collaboration and enhanced productivity.
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