Scheduling is supposed to save time, but can also be tedious and time-consuming. Luckily, you can use software to make scheduling a breeze — especially if you coordinate a crew of techs. When it comes to scheduling software for service technicians, you have options.
Service scheduling software will:
- Simplify your scheduling process.
- Enable clear communication between your teams.
- Boost your field crew’s productivity.
This article explains how using scheduling software ensures that your technicians are always on top of things.
Let’s jump right in!
What is service scheduling?
Service scheduling involves finding the best way to assign your field service technicians to jobs. This is a crucial part of your business operations — especially as you secure more jobs and new customers.
When running a field service business, your success largely depends on getting your field technicians to the right job at the right time.
It’s important to efficiently assign your technicians to each new work order to balance their workload and prevent bottlenecks. This means that you need to assign your field service technicians jobs in a way that maximizes productivity and job completion.
There are a few important factors that every successful scheduling strategy needs:
- Always be aware of what your technicians are working on and where.
- Keep a clear line of communication between your technicians and office staff.
- Have a way to adjust schedules quickly.
- Include a process for scheduling recurring jobs.
The best scheduling software for service technicians gives you the tools you need to ensure that all these factors are taken into account when scheduling your technicians.
Let’s take a closer look at why you should use field service scheduling software.
The 4 reasons why you need scheduling software for service technicians
According to Deloitte, scheduling with optimization is one of the key characteristics for the future of field services. This can be done with job scheduling software.
The right field service management software streamlines your service scheduling so that your technicians can work more efficiently.
There are several ways that scheduling software for service technicians improves your overall business operations.
To give you an idea, here are the top 4 reasons you should use field service software to optimize your scheduling.
1. Always know who is doing what and where
One of the main perks of service scheduling software is the transparency it brings to your team.
Job scheduling lets you know what every crew is working on and where. Beyond this, scheduling software for service technicians keeps your field crew and office teams connected so that it’s seamless for your office team to communicate important schedule changes such as:
- Change in weather conditions.
- Last-minute customer requests.
- Cancelations.
To paint the picture, let’s look at the value of scheduling software for service technicians and office teams. For this example, let’s consider how Method:Field Services maximizes scheduling and operational efficiency.
Method:Field Services gives a comprehensive view of each crew member’s schedule, as well as all the customer details you need. This way, you can dispatch jobs with confidence.
Method’s order tracking also allows you to get live updates from your crew.
2. Get real-time updates on order tracking
Your crew is always on the go, so a mobile device is a lifeline for any field service technician. However, your technicians must also be equipped with a mobile field service app that simplifies communication between the field and office.
But the line of communication doesn’t end there—your customer has to stay in the loop as well!
A mobile app allows your office team to gather important details to communicate to your customers, such as:
- How a job is progressing.
- If your crew is on break.
- If they went for a hardware store run.
With the right scheduling software for service technicians, your crew can record job progress and update work orders on the go for maximum productivity.
3. Eliminate downtime and delays
Speaking of communication, let’s talk about what happens when your team is unable to communicate in a timely manner.
Have you ever been in a situation where you need to dispatch a new job or update a current one, but you’re unable to track down your field crew to give them the updated information? This can lead to several less than ideal outcomes:
- By the time you get a hold of your technician, they’re too far to make it to the job in time.
- A last-minute schedule change results in a long period of waiting around for your technician.
- Your crew member gets the updated request from the customer after they’ve started the job.
The result can be anything from substantial delays to canceled job requests, which have a negative impact on your business.
A lot of scheduling software for service technicians offer calendar views and drag and drop scheduling to make it simple for dispatchers to adjust schedules on the fly.
On top of this, the automated routing capabilities of many scheduling solutions take the effort out of dispatching and ensure schedules are as efficient as possible.
This way, if you need to make adjustments, you’re in an optimal position to update the right crew members at the right time.
4. Streamline one time and recurring job scheduling
Oftentimes dispatchers schedule one job at a time. This isn’t the best way of doing things as it results in more time spent manually completing a task that can easily be automated.
With job service scheduling software, you can increase efficiency by scheduling jobs in bulk. You can also automatically schedule recurring jobs so that your best customers are never lost in the shuffle.
What’s more is that with recurring scheduling, you can keep the same crew on recurring work in an effort to build relationships with your customers and keep service consistent.
How to choose the right field service management software for your business
Now that you know the advantages that a field service management software solution brings, there’s nothing left to do but choose the one that works best for your business.
When choosing scheduling software for service technicians, make sure that you look for these key features:
- Every detail counts: Choose software that allows you to keep track of as many job details as necessary. This includes location, special instructions, and photos.
- Seamless workflows: Turn your estimates to work orders in just a few clicks to get them to your technicians faster. When the job is done, convert that work order into an invoice with minimal effort.
- Shared calendar: Find out which field technicians are available with an at-a-glance calendar view. It’s a bonus if your field management software integrates with a calendar you already use, such as Google Calendar or Outlook.
- Work order tracking: To quickly communicate changes, you need to keep up with your work orders. With a field service management software solution, work order tracking is easy.
Together, these features bring your scheduling to a new level that boosts your productivity and allows you to deliver the best service possible.
The value of scheduling software for service technicians
To recap, job service scheduling software lets you:
- Track your crew’s progress while they’re out in the field.
- Keep communication flowing between your teams.
- Address problems as soon as they arise, preventing delays.
The right job scheduling tool will allow you to do more than simply schedule your jobs. Field management software is the solution to getting the job done and keeping your customers happy.
See how Method:Field Services simplifies your scheduling process.
Image credit: Fran via Pixabay