Effective field service management involves balancing a lot of moving parts. Customer expectations on top of managing the costs, compliance and inventory of a field service team make for a complicated task, and if something goes wrong, it can quickly snowball into issues across the board. The good news is that with the right strategies in place and by taking advantage of the tools available, field service operations can run smoothly – all while minimising unnecessary costs and reducing stress on managers.
From our experience in the industry, these are three best practices that businesses managing their field service operations can put in place.
1. Use smart tools to automate scheduling and dispatching
A challenge we consistently see clients face is making sure that they’re sending the technician best-placed to handle the job – every single time. Taking into account things like the technician’s skillset, where they’re based, if they’re available, and whether they have the right compliance checks, this process gets complicated quickly. A complicated manual process leads to mistakes, delays, low first-time-fix rates, and frustrated customers.
By automating this process with smarter scheduling tools, businesses can automatically match technicians to jobs as requests come in. It takes the guesswork and tedious paperwork checks out of scheduling. These tools can also help with efficiency, as real-time tracking and optimised van routes support technicians to make the most of their work day.
2. Give technicians mobile access to crucial information
If first-time-fix rates are abysmally low, it could be because technicians don’t have all the right information on hand for their first visit. When a customer’s oven is down and the technician arrives, there is the expectation that it can be fixed right away. However, when technicians are missing information or have been left with incomplete job details, it often means repeat visits are necessary, driving up costs and customer frustration.
When technicians have on-the-go access to job details, equipment service history, manuals, and any other relevant information, they’re far more likely to be able to complete a fix on the first visit. At the end of the day, mobile tools mean increased productivity, happier customers, and far higher first-time-fix rates. Tools like the Mendrhub Field Team App offer field teams access to:
- Equipment service history and job details
- Existing troubleshooting guides, asset manuals and specs
- Tools for on-site audits like photo capture and in-app invoicing
- Notes and picture evidence captured by clients
3. Prioritise customer communication
There’s nothing that customers value more these days than transparency and open communication throughout the job process. Even if more than one visit is required, or there’s a slight delay, as long as customers are being updated regularly, these issues alone won’t damage the relationship between service provider and customer. One way to keep customers constantly in the loop is to provide real-time updates on things like technician arrival times, job progress, digital quotes and when the job is completed. This is a simple step, but it can make all the difference in improving the customer experience and building trust.
To Wrap Up
To really succeed in field service management, there needs to be a switch to automation and mobile information access. By putting the right information in technicians’ hands, ensuring the right person is assigned to the right job, and prioritising customer communication, businesses can improve first-time-fix rates and productivity, all while cutting costs and building stronger customer relationships.
Wish there was a tool that could handle all of this? The mendrhub Field Team App does all this and more, with automated scheduling, mobile access, and real-time updates. Get in touch with our team to discuss it further.