Field Service Management Best Practices

With the field service industry set to grow by 16.9% between 2019 to 2026, competition will become fiercer than ever. Businesses will need to do all they can to stay ahead of the curve. 

However, typical field service management organisations have several moving parts by nature.  From job scheduling and dispatching to invoicing and beyond, managing field service companies can be extremely complex, leaving vital details to fall through the cracks.  

Luckily, thanks to technological advancements in recent years, managing your field service operations can be as simple as clicking a button. In this article, we’ll share some field service management best practices that will help keep your organisation running smoothly. Plus, we’ll share how field service management software enables you to improve your working methods without burdening your back-office team with more admin.

The Top 3 Field Service Management Best Practices

Here are the top three field service management practices that will ensure your business stands out against the competition:

1. Scheduling and Dispatching Technicians Efficiently

Data from Verizon Connect suggests that scheduling and dispatching difficulties present one of today’s main challenges for field service organisations. How do you effectively manage the schedule when your workflow depends on several technicians being in various locations at once?

The solution lies with field service management technology.

Instead of relying on error-prone spreadsheets and antiquated legacy systems, you can make the most of a workforce management platform such as BigChange to schedule your field-based workers at the touch of a button. 

The intelligent scheduling assistant highlights workers for a planned job based on location, skillset, vehicle type and job constraints to ensure that you have the right resource in the right place — every time. Since all information updates in real-time, your technicians can instantly see their assignments, meaning they’re able to respond to any job without any issues throughout the ever-changing workday. 

2. Performing Predictive and Preventative Maintenance

Did you know that unplanned maintenance costs an eye-watering three to nine times more than planned preventative maintenance? To make matters worse, 81% of businesses experience downtime at least once each year due to defective equipment and assets. 

Consequently, to ensure your organisation can run like clockwork year-round, you should prioritise predictive and preventative maintenance. Fortunately, with a modern field service management (FSM) system in place, scheduling maintenance needn’t be a logistical nightmare. 

In fact, FSM technology streamlines the entire process and improves health and safety measures simultaneously. For example, you can make it mandatory for your technicians to complete a safety walkaround check of their vehicles and submit the results via their mobile devices before they can begin travelling to a job.

Then, using the information your technicians provide, your fleet manager can see all outstanding defects and even reconcile some issues directly from the app. As a result, they’ll be able to see what problems commonly occur and work to mitigate them without needing to spend hours keeping manual records.

3. Arming Your Field-Based Workforce with the Right Tools

According to 80% of technicians, mobile technology is critical to enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness at helping customers. But, despite technicians being on the road or attending client sites for most of their days, many field service organisations don’t provide mobile technology as a standard.

Businesses that don’t consider their customer experience run the risk of denting their bottom line. At worst, field service businesses could make themselves obsolete as people look to their competitors for a better service. 

When you equip your field-based team with a mobile app that connects directly to your back office’s central platform, you’ll be able to connect your entire workflow seamlessly. As such, your technicians will have all the knowledge they need about each assignment so they can deliver exceptional service each time. 

Plus, once the work is complete, your technicians can fill out all paperwork directly from their mobile devices and instantly share it with your admin team, meaning you can process each job in less time and get paid the same day. 

Technology is the Future of Field Services

Research from Microsoft shows that 44% of businesses can run a more efficient field service operation by using technology to eliminate silos and other common hurdles caused by outdated manual administration methods. 

Additionally, customers expect a straightforward, convenient experience that you will struggle to provide when using traditional field service management methods. Therefore, to survive and thrive in today’s modern world, field service companies must keep up-to-date with the latest technology, so they don’t fall behind. 

With BigChange’s field service management software, you can manage your entire business on one easy-to-use platform, eliminating arduous paperwork and significantly lowering the margin for error. Subsequently, your team will have more time to focus on activities that contribute directly to business growth. 

Run Your Business Efficiently with BigChange’s Field Service Management Technology

Save valuable time and stay connected to every aspect of your business with BigChange. 

Our secure, cloud-based software helps you track and control every job, from quotation to payment, on a single platform. Everything you need to know will be at your fingertips, making it easy to plan, manage, schedule and track your field-based workforce and transport operations.

Plus, you’ll be able to make the most of our dedicated, expert support.

Find out how BigChange can help your business, book a free consultation today. Get more helpful guides and tips delivered to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter below. You can keep up to date with BigChange on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.