5 ways to improve efficiency with field service management

What is field service management?

Many organisations need to manage teams that include service technicians and field workers that operate together and complete complex tasks. Projects include a lot of information that needs to be logged, monitored, and stored and have a big risk for error if completed manually. Field service management is the art of effectively managing workforce both in offices and on the field that is often supported by a field service management software.

A sophisticated field service management software assists and automatises much of the process of getting a project, a service or a maintenance job done from start to finish. An online software also gives field workers mobile access to see and log important information and therefore makes communication between service technicians and field workers easier.

How to have a more effective field service management process?

The first step to improve your field service management is to go digital and use a software to manage projects and services on the field. Digitalising and automatising parts of the process reduces risks for errors and saves time for all involved parts. But having a software in place doesn’t automatically guarantee success – You must utilise it efficiently to get the best results.

Track important KPIs to measure efficiency

Important KPIs that are worth tracking can vary between organisations, and it’s important to identify variables that measure the efficiency of your processes. However, in most field service work two of the KPIs worth tracking are first time fix rate and mean time to repair.

First time fix rate suggests what percentage of service or maintenance jobs are resolved on the first site visit. This KPI can be improved by assigning the right person to do the job and giving them sufficient information and tools to fix the problem on the first visit. If improved, it indicates for a better customer satisfaction and lowered costs.

Mean time to repair measures how long a maintenance job or a service takes from when the issue arises to when it is completely resolved. This measures the efficiency of the whole process and if improved, you will most likely save resources.

Automatise tasks to minimise manual work

To manually type in information for a work order such as customer information, task description, time and assigned service worker takes time and is prone to human error. All this information flow can be automatised by integrating the inflow of service requests with your field service management system. Not only can parts of the distribution of work orders be automatised, but also reports and summaries can be created automatically and make it easy to analyse how profitable service jobs are for your business.

Veidekke, a company in the construction industry, uses Lime Work Order that is integrated to their Lime CRM to minimise administrative work and to optimise information flow.

Real-time information flow for a better customer experience

Real-time information is very helpful for all involved parts of a field service job, like the service technician, the field worker and especially the end customer. An increasing number of customers want to see modern technology with features such as real-time updates, the technician’s location, two-way communication possibilities and more. Many customers are also willing to pay a premium for these services that improve their customer experience. In addition to a better customer experience, real-time information is also helpful for field service workers and service technicians because they can share information efficiently through an online platform instead of making calls back and forth about updates and sudden changes.

Improved tools for time-efficient management

Managers have historically had a hard time leading field service and monitoring the quality of service inside the team. With a responsive software and improved scheduling and management tools managers don’t have to put as much time and energy on the process. Managers need to think of ways to streamline the field service process by cutting as many obstacles as possible for office and field workers. A field service management system can help efficiency by making job and resource allocation faster and make it easy to follow for all employees.

Resource management to lower costs

Great resource management can make significant cuts in costs if assets like machinery and vehicles are used to their full potential. Increased downtime and inefficient use of assets will show as a negative effect on profit margins and the whole value chain. By tracking assets and optimising usage in a field service system you can make predicting decisions and develop operations towards a more cost-efficient service process.

Conclusions

Simple solutions to challenges in field service management can have an immediate effect on your profitability, quality, and satisfactory levels of customers. The first step is to go digital and to invest in a field service management to automatise tasks, reduce errors and gain leverage.